Emma’s Cottage: Chapter Four

The sun had yet to rise, but she was already setting up her cart and feeling ready to go. The baskets were full of veggies and strawberries and bouquets. She had eight loaves of sourdough that she had baked the day before, two trays of cinnamon rolls, twelve jars of pickles and six dozen eggs that she had gathered. She was feeling very good about the amount of things she had for sale, but decided to bring along a couple of the ducklings that had hatched earlier that spring, in case anyone wanted to purchase them. They were still so fluffy and cute and she hated to see them go, but her little hutch was only so big.

Before long, she was getting to the town center and setting up her little stand and uncovering all the baskets of goodies. To her right was the artist that she had bought her little stamp from, and she was delighted to see all they were selling. They had been very busy that week and had hundreds of prints to sell.

“Dear goodness, you have been busy this week! Did you sleep at all?” Emma asked excitedly as she watched them set up their little table. In exchange for the stamp, she had embroidered a little tablecloth with their name and logo on it. She always brimmed with pride when she saw them use it. A couple winters ago, she took a class on dying natural fabric with natural dye and had used her knowledge to dye the linen with flowers she had grown in her garden, and a little bit of cinnamon. It came out the perfect color and she had considered keeping it for herself and dying a second one for the trade, but decided against it.

“Not much!” the artist chuckled. Their name, she had found out last summer, was Addison. They kept their hair short and she had only ever seen them in dye stained overalls. Emma assumed that was all they owned. It was kind of their uniform. She had not looked at the forecast, but judging by what Addison was wearing, it was supposed to be very hot out today. They had their uniform of stained overalls, but rather than the full length that she had grown used to, these had been cut to mid thigh and they had sandals on.

“It looks like you have been rather busy this week as well!” they said nodding to the pile of breads.

“I actually made all of these yesterday.” she said, blushing at, what she took as, a compliment.

“Stop it, you did not. I am going to have to buy some from you today. Will you save me some eggs, too? I need to keep setting up, but I don’t want you to sell out before I get a chance. I would love six this week”

Emma nodded and set aside one of the small cartons of eggs and her prettiest loaf for Addison. They were so outgoing that it almost made her uncomfortable, but in a nice way. She knew she could always count on Addison to fill any holes in a conversation and she enjoyed having them around. She decided that she was going to invite them over to her house this week. That would be nice.

Before Addison had time to finish setting up their stand, the market goers started pouring in. It was tourist season, and while this was a small town, there was a man on the edge of town that rented out his home during the summer and there were always people staying at it. The coast was a twenty minute drive away, so it was a nice way to get both the small town experience, and also the coastal experience in one trip. It helped the town out a lot and she really enjoyed the way it brought life into the little village.

Unlike Addison, Emma had a really hard time talking to all of the people that came up to her stand, but saved all her social energy up for these interactions. She was already planning on spending the rest of the afternoon under the tree in her backyard, reading a new book that she would pick up on the way home, and end the night with hot tea and a bath. Yes, that sounds rather nice. She would stop by the bookstore and use the last of her social battery to tell Rebecca, the shop owner, about how much she loved the last book she bought and ask for another recommendation. Rebecca gave the best book recommendations and Emma felt like she was the only one in town that read more than she did herself.

She was snapped out of her thoughts by a group of young women giggling as they walked up to Addisons table. They ooed and awed over their work and Addison just glowed with pride. Maybe I will invite Rebecca over too and have a little group over. Yes, that sounds nice.