Isabelle's Haberdashery

Well, hello there. I’m getting kind of used to seeing you around Curdle Creek from to time.

If we keep running into one another this way, folks will start to speak on it. It’s never good to give folks too much to talk about. This town is full of gossipers. Next thing you’ll know, they’ll be saying I’m telling you all the good hiding spots, helping you get ready for the Moving On. Like anybody here would do that.

Mother just asked about you the other day. She wants to know how you stumbled across the town what with there not being a main road and Curdle Creek not being on a map. There’s no bus stop, no airport, no railway. You can see how that makes you, well, suspicious.

Now, I’m not accusing you of nothing but if you are here from one of those reckless towns that have done away with the Moving On, I should warn you that folks here take talk like that quite seriously. There’s an ordinance against it and everything. I trust you’ve been keeping up with all the ordinances. Not knowing about them don’t make them any less the law.

Anyway, Mother and the rest of the Mothers don’t trust new comers. They’re old fashioned like that. Always remembering things like plagues and such that brought stragglers here not long after the founding. They didn’t stay around long. There was an emergency Moving On that year. Crops were bountiful for three years running after that. Still, the Mothers have always been a bit suspicious on account of new comers not bringing nothing but bad news.

But, you didn’t hear that from me.

By now, I reckon you’ve found yourself a good place to hide. If you don’t mind me asking, where is it? You know, for the sake of conversation. Actually, don’t tell me. If I need to find you, I’ll find you. Sometimes ain’t that the best part?

I hear you’ve taken to wandering around town. Folks seen you at Carter’s Everything Store. Not minding your business for you but don’t go running up a tab at Carter’s. They’re known to add items folks don’t remember ordering. Course, folks will pay the bill anyway. No sense getting on the Carter’s “bad customer” list. Not with the Moving On always round the corner. Like Mother always says, never run up a tab you won’t be around long enough to pay.

It’s not good to have favourites but I recommend you make your way to Isabelle’s Haberdashery and Such. It’s not far from Ruth’s Sweet Shoppe so you must have seen it. Isabelle is known for her handmade buttons. Some of them are from as far back as the 1800’s. She’s a bit of a collector—like her father was. Sometimes I think the only reason she does the Moving On at all is for the buttons and other things she collects. Earrings, left shoes, strands of hair, buttons. Anything a person might lose track of, Isabelle has a way of finding. Why, she’d dig up graves if folks wouldn’t complain about her doing it.

If you get a chance to, stop on by her shop. She’s bound to have something you’d like to get your hands on. She don’t deal much in cash but she’ll barter. A button for a button, a bag for a bag, an eye for an eye—that sort of thing. I’m sure she’d love to get her hands on you. I ?mean your—Well, something of yours is bound to interest her. She’ll strike a deal. May even throw in one of her Moving On surprise boxes.

Just a friendly bit of advice. If you do get your hands on one of those boxes, be careful where you open it. You never know what’s inside it or who it belonged to.