This first week of business, Jesus gets to the Garden early every day, like 10am (shop opens at noon). Each morning feels holy with both newness and memory.
They love the yellow of the door. The color they coaxed Mags into (“It’s so bright JeJe, are you sure we don’t want, like, a nice loamy clay? Or black! Black never fails”). Jesus knew it had to be yellow, the color of confidence and strength. The color of “wow…these jeans looks really good on me!” And on opening day, who was taking selfies in front of the yellow door? Mags. In a really cute pair of Gloria Vanderbilt 70s jeans, no less.
Jesus loves the brass skeleton key that unlocks the yellow door, the sound it makes as it clicks into its tender mechanics, fitting just right, shifting and releasing something beyond their sight.
They love the long, dramatic creak as it folds open, the jingle of bells that exclaim “you’re here!”
They love the windows, its own paneled garden of glittering purple petals and green vines.
They stand at the threshold, admiring the rainbow light across the walls, cast by the stained glass windows mixing with the dappled light of the large oak that graces the front sidewalk.
Jo found those windows. Jo spends at least 10 hours a week antique wandering, like it’s his job. (Perhaps it is). And he found these perfect windows one day at Edentown Treasures. The seller said they came from an old catholic church.
When Jo installed them, the whole space fell silent (Jesus, Mags, Mary, the shop itself). The dappled shadows of leaves and branches mixing with glittering colors of purples, pinks, blues and greens across the walls…it felt like a prayer, the sweetest omen.
Mags made a perfume to capture the feeling…she titled it Immaculate. A mixture of sandalwood, oakmoss, and bergamot (one of Jesus’s favs). When she arrives, she sprays it at the door, honoring the beauty it casts and murmuring gratitude for any person who decides to cross the threshold of the shop that day.
Then Jesus snags the bottle and sprays their wrists, catching whiffs of threshold, yellow and dappled light all morning.
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