Old Jack Long story. By Charles Roberts

 

Old Jack looked at his reflection in the shop window.  How much longer can I go on, he thought, I’m seventy years old and have lived on the streets for the last forty years, how much longer before they find me dead in the gutter?  He looked at his lined, weather beaten face, the once bright, alert, eyes now dull, tired and half closed in the cold wind which blew down the street from the north.  The deep worry lines carved across his forehead, the black woollen cap pulled down to hide his receding hair line and keep his head warm.  The wind plucking at the upturned collar of the old army greatcoat, which someone had given him years before, almost hiding his bearded chin, the once bright and polished brass buttons now green with grime and dirt?

He turned his back on the wind and looked down the length of the street, at the light from the street lamps shimmering on the wet road surface as the wind blew across the surface of the water filled potholes plucking at the liquid as though trying to take it with it.  He shivered as he started to walk, his back pack protecting his back from the cold wind, his black woollen gloved left hand clutching a small string handled suitcase he’d found in a skip, a rolled up, polythene covered sleeping bag tucked under his right arm, his red woollen gloved right hand in his coat pocket.  He strode out with the strengthening wind pushing him forward, when suddenly the street was plunged into darkness.

The street lamps, shop lights all extinguished.  Wind must have brought the power lines down, he thought as he continued on his way; looking up he could see grey clouds scudding across the black night sky, the stars flickering as they disappeared and reappeared.  Then he felt something soft and slippy under his left boot, damn dog shit, he thought, why people can’t pick the stuff up beats me. He moved to the pavement edge to scrape whatever it was off his boot when he felt himself sinking into the ground, what the! he thought.  He tried to move his feet, to lift them out of the black mass which surrounded them, but the more he struggled the quicker he sank into the pavement.  Looking down towards where his feet should have been he saw only blackness, but a much deeper blackness than the sky above him.  He stopped struggling, but his downward movement continued.

Old Jack knew there wasn’t any point in shouting out for help because his words would just be carried away on the wind.  The wind, he thought, it’s stopped.  He looked around and saw that he was now chest deep in the ground, but he couldn’t feel any pressure on any part of his body or legs.

“I’m in a lift,” he said out loud, “some sort of lift that’s taking me down.  I don’t want to go down,” he shouted, “I want to stay up here!  Take me back!” but he kept on with his downward motion.

He saw the multi layers of tar-mac, then the old road cobbles, the sewage and water pipes, electric and telephone cables set into the soil.  Snail shells and bits of old crockery from years before, the fragments of bones from long dead animals, he glanced down and could see a dim light coming from between his feet.  A light which was brightening all the time, he looked up but could see only blackness.  Is this death, he thought, am I dying? or am I dead?  Is this how it ends?  Will they come along in the morning and find my dead body in the gutter?  He looked down again and the light was brighter, much brighter, so bright in fact that he had to close his eyes because it pained them.

Then he found that he was standing on a street; looking round he saw that it was the same street he had just left, the one above him, but this one was all lit up with the street lamps and shop lights.  The road was dry and there wasn’t any wind.  This can’t be the same street, he thought, but looking round he saw the same shop signs, the bus stop and post box, the same advertising hoardings.  He went to a shop front and looked in the window, jumped back and spun around to see if anyone was behind him; and looking up and down the street he saw no one, then he looked back in the window, at the face which looked back at him.  He dropped the suitcase and ran a hand over his clean shaven face, then pulled his old woollen hat off and ran his fingers through his full head of hair.  The face was that of himself as a young man, a young man in his thirties, the buttons of his greatcoat gleamed in the light coming from the shop window.

I’m thirty years old, he thought, how has this happened and why?  He looked himself up and down, dropping his sleeping bag he spread his arms out and spun round in a full circle.

“I’m young again.” He said stopping and looked at himself in the window again.  Then he noticed that the road wasn’t tar-mac but stone cobbles even though the shops were advertising the same products, the road was old cobbles.  He turned and started to walk down the street, as he neared a shop selling children’s toys he noticed a small sign in the shop door window.

‘Help wanted.  No experience necessary, Apply within.’  Jack stopped and read the sign about five or six times.  May be I’ve been brought down here to get this job, he thought, don’t be daft Jack there’s plenty of people looking for jobs, but it could be that it is my chance to start again and get things right this time.  He ran back up the street and retrieved his case and sleeping bag and went to the toy shop door way.  Then he put his case down, unrolled his sleeping bag, climbed into it and curled up in the shop doorway.  His mind made up that he would apply for the job as soon as the shop opened.

Jack was rudely awakened by a boot prodding him in the small of his back.

“Hey!” he called starting to rollover.

“Excuse me,” a weak voice said, “but I want to open my shop and you’re in the way.”

Jack jumped up and promptly fell over as he was still in his sleeping bag.

“Are you all right,” the voice asked

“Yes,” Jack said struggling out of his bag.

“What did you think you were doing sleeping here?”

“I saw the sign on the door and I wanted to apply for the job.”

“Well,” the voice said, “you could have stayed at home and come down here later.”

Jack managed to extract himself from his sleeping bag and looked up at the owner of the voice.  It was a small man, Jack estimated him to be in his sixties.  Wisps of white hair stuck out from his round head, unkempt, long white eyebrows almost hid the bright blue eyes, a white and grey moustache grew under the small nose and covered most of the mouth with a white neatly trimmed beard hanging from the chin.  Jack rolled his sleeping bag up and stepped aside so that the man could open his shop.

“You’d better come in,” he said stepping through the now open door.  Jack didn’t know how it opened because he’d not seen the man use a key of any sort, he’d simply stepped up to the door and it had opened in front of him.  As Jack bent down to retrieve his case he noticed that not one of the shops had security shutters on the doorways or windows, this is a totally different world to mine, he thought as he walked into the toy shop carrying his case and sleeping bag.

Part two

“So, you want to apply for the job, do you?” the little man asked.

“I do, yes.  But I’m afraid that I haven’t any experience in the toy or retail business.”

“That’s not a problem.  I stated that experience wasn’t necessary and I meant it.  Now I’ll need to take all your particulars down if you’re going to work for me.”

“Particulars?”

“Yes!  You know, name, age, address, etc.”

“Well, the name is Jack, er…...”

“Jack!  Jack what?”

“This may seem rather stupid, but I’ve forgotten it.”  Well, when you don’t use something for forty years then you forget, he thought.

“All right.  How old are you, Jack?”

“I’m erm seve…., thirty-one,” he said looking at his reflection in the glass counter top and still not quite believing what he saw.

“And your address?”

“I’m afraid that I don’t have one.”

“Ah!  So, you come from out of town?”

“Well, yes I suppose I do.”

“Do you have anywhere to stay?”

“Erm, not really, no.”

“Well, you can use the apartment upstairs.  I’ll show you in a minute.”

“What exactly is the work?  And what do I call you?”

“Sorry!  How rude of me.  I am Harrold.  Your job will be to sell the toys and repair any that are brought in broken.  You do know how to repair a broken doll don’t you?”

“I’m afraid that I don’t.”

“I’ll show you.”

“Don’t you have any other applicants for the job to see?”

“Goodness me, no.  That notice has been there for weeks and you are the first and only one to apply for the job, so it’s yours for as long as you want it.”

“Thank you.”

“Now if you’d care to follow me, I’ll show you round the workshop and then take up to the apartment.”

“Shouldn’t you lock the door if we’re leaving the shop?”

“Goodness, whatever for?”

“Well in case anyone comes in tries to steal someth……”

“Steals!  Steals.  No one would do that sort of thing round here.  My goodness.  I don’t know where you come from Jack, but we are all honest in this town, that is why the door is never locked at night.  I know that I can go to my home and no one will take anything from the shop.”

“Never lock the shop?”

“Never!”

“You mean that I could have just walked in and slept on the floor?”

“Why yes.  Would you have done?”

“No!  No, I don’t think that I would have.  Do all the shopkeepers leave their doors unlocked?”

“Why should they lock them?”

“So, the police come round at night to make sure that no one is being robbed?”

“We only have one policeman in this town Jack and he only works during the day.  Never at night.”

“Wow!”

“You seem shocked by that.”

“Where I come from the police walk round in twos, and they patrol twenty-four hours of the day and night.”

“That must be a very strange place Jack, very strange indeed.”

“Yes!  It is.”

“Now then, here are all the tools you will need to repair the toys.  There are the woodworking tools by that bench, for repairing all the little trains, dolls houses and animals.  This area I keep for repairing the dolls, we get quite a few of those I can tell you.  You may find that when you walk into the shop in the morning some broken hearted child will have been in and left a doll on the counter for you to repair.”

“They just walk in and leave their dolls on the counter?”

“Why yes.  They usually leave a small note with them, but what needs to be done is usually obvious, an arm or leg needs fitting back on, or sometimes a head. But the children leave a note asking you to be careful with whoever they call their dolly.  In these drawers are all the different sizes of rubber band for the different sizes of dolls, arms in the top drawer, legs in the next one and heads in the bottom one.  We don’t get many heads which need putting back on that’s why they are in the bottom drawer.  In the cupboard there is the stuffing for the Teddies and other cuddly toys, the different threads and needles are in a box on the top shelf.  I realise that I’m giving you a lot of information Jack and you may not be able to remember where everything is at first, but you’ll soon get used to it.”

“But we’ll be working together, won’t we?”

“For a time, Jack.  The reason I wanted help in here is so that I could think about retiring.  Do the police really walk round in pairs where you come from?”

“What?”

“The police.  Do they really walk round in pairs?”

“Oh yes.  And there are some places that they won’t go.”

“Goodness me!”

“And most of the shops have metal shutters on the windows and doors.”

“My, my.  I don’t think that I would like to live in a place like that.  I’m not surprised that you left and came here.  How long did it take you to get here?”

“What time should I open the shop?”

“About nine is fine.  Now I suppose that you’d like to see the apartment?”

“Please.  Then I can get down to some work.”

“We can indeed.  But first things first Jack, we’ll have a nice cup of tea, that is if you drink tea?”

“Sounds good to me.” 

Harrold showed Jack the apartment and then they came down to the workshop where Harrold put a light under the kettle.  Whilst Harrold was making the tea Jack wandered into the shop for a look around, he found a small doll which had been left on the counter, together with a neatly written note.

‘Please Uncle Harrold, can you possibly mend Penelope for me her left arm fell off during the night, as we slept together.  Also, she has a broken finger, would you please mend that.  Thank you, Raquel.’

Jack picked the doll, and her detached arm, up off the counter and carried it through to the workshop where Harrold was just pouring the tea.

“We have a customer,” Jack said as he entered the room.

“That looks like Raquel’s Penelope to me.”

“How did you know?”

“They are fairly regular customers.  Raquel sleeps with Penelope tucked under her arm and when she rolls over, poor Penelope gets squashed and something usually breaks.  You’ll soon get to know the toys which regularly come in here, and their owners of course.  Children wouldn’t be children if they didn’t occasionally break their toys, and we wouldn’t have a job to do.”

“What’s the first thing to do?”

“Firstly, you have to undress the doll, that is if it’s a case of a detached arm or leg.  Then you take this tool,” he picked up a hooked rod of metal fitted into a wooden handle, “if it’s just a case of the elastic coming undone then you hook the elastic with the hook, pull it out and hook it back onto the top of the arm.  If it needs a new elastic then just fit one the correct size.”

“From the drawers there?”

“Correct.  Would you like to try?”

“You’ll make sure that I do things right?”

“Of course.”

Jack removed all the dolls clothing and saw that the elastic had broken, so the first thing he needed to do was to find the correct length of elastic, then, using the hook he pushed the elastic through the arm hole and hooked it onto the hook fitted to the inside of the back of the doll.  Then he pulled the elastic and hooked it onto the little hook on the shoulder of the doll and put the arm back into its socket.  The finger had to be glued back on so it was a longer job.

“Well done, Jack,” Harrold said, “you seem to have an affinity for the work.  Now all you have to do is dress the doll again.”

The whole process took Jack about an hour, then he set Penelope aside so that the glue could set.

 

Part three

“In this room,” Harrold said pointing to a closed door, “are all the toys which need time to repair; or children have brought in for me to try to sell and they need cleaning.  I work on those when there’s not much else to do, which isn’t very often.”

“Would you like me to start going through those?”

“If you wouldn’t mind.  There are also some very large jobs in there.  Dolls houses which are in need of attention.”

“That’s where I’ll start then.”  Jack opened the door and went in, after he’d been in the room for a few minutes he emerged holding a large dolls house which he placed on the bench.

“You seem to have chosen the largest job in there.  That house needs a thorough cleaning and then repairing.  I’ve been putting that job off for some time.”

“Why?  Who does it belong to?”

“It belonged to an old lady.  She had had it since she was a child and when she passed her family brought it in and asked if I could repair it and find it a good home.”

Jack looked at the dolls’ house for some time, turning it round, opening the back to see all the rooms, tilting it so that he could see how the roof had been fitted.  Harrold stood at the far side of the workshop watching him and drinking his tea.  Eventually Jack stopped, went to the board where all the tools were and plucked a screwdriver from its fastening, he then went back to the dolls’ house, and with great care, he started to unscrew the screws which held the roof to the house.  He found that the roof was in four pieces and they all needed a good cleaning.  Harrold approached the work bench and placed a bottle and a box of cotton buds down next to the house.

“You might need these,” he said, smiling.

“Thank you,” Jack said as he removed a bed from one of the upper rooms.

Jack spent the rest of the day working on the house, taking all the furniture out and cleaning the roof with the surgical spirit and cotton buds, which Harrold had given him.  He was just about to start cleaning one of the downstairs rooms when Harrold told him that it was time to stop work.

“Why don’t you come home with me for your evening meal?” Harrold asked, “after all you have been too busy working on that dolls’ house to go out and buy any food.”

“Are you sure?” Jack asked, realising just how hungry he was feeling.

“Of course!  My lady wife will be pleased to meet the person who will ease my burden, so-to-speak.  She has been pestering me to find some help for some time now.”

“But I’m in no fit state to……”

“Rubbish!  You are fine.  She can’t expect someone who has worked hard all day to be clean and tidy.  Come along, wash your hands and we’ll go.”

It was quite late when Jack got back to the shop, so he went straight to bed; this is the first time for a very long time that I’ve slept in a proper bed, he thought as he climbed between the crisp, clean sheets, he was so unused to sleeping in a bed that it took him some time to fall asleep, but when he did, it was into a deep, dreamless sleep.  He woke to the sun streaming through the window, it took him some time to realise where he was and what had happened the previous day.  Once that had sunk in, he leapt out of bed and almost ran into the bathroom to take a shower.  Jack was drying himself off when he suddenly felt hungry, he know that there was a café about ten doors down the street, but he didn’t have any money, that was something Harrold and he hadn’t discussed the previous evening after they had eaten the wonderful meal Mary, Harrold’s wife, had produced.

Well, I can have a mug of tea, he thought as he dressed, then I can bring the subject up with Harrold when he arrives.  I wonder if he’d be good enough to give me an advance so that I can get some clothes, I can’t keep wearing these old things all the time.

Harrold arrived in the shop about nine o’clock, just as Jack was drinking his second mug of tea.

“Would you like a drink?” Jack called down.

“That’s kind of you.  And a very good morning to you.” He replied climbing the stairs to the apartment.  You ate like a starving man last evening,” Harrold said entering the small kitchen.”

“I’m sorry.  I do hope I didn’t make a fool of myself.”

“On the contrary.  Mary was so taken with you that she sent you some breakfast,” he said putting a paper bag down on the kitchen counter.”

“Can I ask you something Harrold?”

“Ask away my friend.”

“Well, the thing is, and I don’t know how to put it…...”

“You don’t like the work and wish to leave.” He said disappointedly.

“No!  I love the work, really.  It’s just that I’d…. erm Well how much will you be paying me?”

“Oh dear!  We didn’t get round to talking about your wages, did we?  You seemed to settle straight into work yesterday, and last evening it was as if we’d both known you for years.”

“I wouldn’t have asked, but there’s no food in the apartment and these are all the clothes I have so would like……...”

“Of course, Jack.  Look, you eat your breakfast and we’ll talk about it.  I can’t have you going hungry, Mary would never forgive me.  There is a café just up the street you know.”

“Yes, I know, but……  This is embarrassing.”

“What is?”

“This is…...  I…...I don’t have any money Harrold.”

“What!  None at all?” a shocked Harrold exclaimed.

“Not a penny.” Jack ashamedly replied.

“Oh, my goodness!” Harrold exclaimed, “we can’t have that can we?” he said reaching for the wallet in his back pocket.  He held the wallet open, then removed three notes with a large ten on them.  “You take this for now,” he said, “and I’ll have a think about your wages before this evening and let you know.” 

They finished their tea and went down to the workshop; on entering, the first thing Jack saw was the dolls’ house.  It had been put back together, the only difference between it now and when Jack had brought it from the store room was that the roof was clean.  Harrold and Jack looked at each other.

“Did you do that?” Harrold asked.

“No!  I went straight to bed when I got back here last night.”

“Oh!  I wonder who has done that.”

There was no more talk of wages or money, Harrold started work on a doll which someone had brought in while Jack started on the dolls’ house once more.  Taking the roof off and clearing it of furniture before he could start cleaning rooms, one at a time, painstakingly cleaning the walls, ceilings and floors, then cleaning the furniture, repairing it where necessary, making small legs for the chairs and replacing headboards where they were missing.  Each room took Jack about a day.  The days were all spent in the same way.  The two men would work until Harrold called a halt.  They would then walk to Harrold’s home where they would have a hearty meal and talk into the night, then Jack would walk back to his apartment where he slept a deep dreamless sleep.  In the morning Jack would shower and make a pot of tea ready for Harrold’s arrival.  Harrold brought Jack’s breakfast which Mary had carefully prepared, they would then go down to the workshop where Jack would find that the dolls’ house had been put back together again.  So, the day would start with Jack taking the roof off before he could start any cleaning work.  The whole job took him about four weeks, but on the final day, when Jack had cleaned the last room; he leaned back in his chair and stretched his arms above his head and looked at his handy work.  Taking in every single detail, all the wallpaper, and every item of furniture from the smallest kitchen stool to the largest wardrobe in the master bedroom.  Every single roof tile, all now clean and bright.

“Time to go Jack,” Harrold called coming through from the shop where he’d been attending to a customer, “have you finished it?”

“I have, yes.”

“So, you’ll be putting it all back together?”

“I think that I’ll leave that until the morning,” he said standing and smiling at Harrold.

With that they walked out of the shop and up the street to Harrold’s house.  In the morning Harrold and Jack walked into the workshop to find that the dolls’ house had been put back together.  All the furniture in its correct room, the roof screwed firmly down and the back shut.

“It looks as good as new Jack.  You have made a very good job of that house.  You’re a natural when it comes to repairing toys.  I had a word with Mary after you left last evening.”

“Oh yes.”

“Yes.  We’ve decided that it is time I stopped working.”

“What!  You’re going to close the shop?”

“No, my friend.  The shop and business I am going to hand over to you.”

“What?”

 

Part four

“I am giving you the business.  You owe me nothing Jack.  Your work speaks for itself.  Although you haven’t met many of the regular customers, I have been watching you carefully and have made the decision.  I am sure that you will not let me down.  And besides, you know where I live and if you should ever need help with anything, I will be only too happy to come down here and lend a hand.

The following morning Jack walked through the shop and out into the street, he turned and looked at the shop front, at the dusty toys on the dusty display stands; he shook his head and went back in.  Jack spent the rest of the day stripping the window display and cleaning everything he took out, then he started to put things back into the shop window, but he left a gap in the very centre, this he filled with the dolls’ house he’d just finished cleaning and repairing.  When he’d finished, he went outside and looked at his handiwork, that’s better, he thought, everything clean and tidy.  He went into the shop and put the closed sign up.  That night he slept a deep and dreamless sleep.

Jack woke to a noise; he could see that it was daylight so he showered and went down to the shop.  There he found one of the counters full of toys which needed mending or cleaning, they each had a small note attached, ‘please can you mend my broken dolly,’ or, ‘please can you clean my dolls’ house.’  Jack smiled to himself as he carefully carried a broken doll through into the workshop, it just needed a foot gluing back on so it didn’t take Jack that long.  As he was turning to leave the workshop, he noticed the dolls’ house he’d put in the window the previous day.  He carried it back and placed it in the window once more.  He worked his way through the dolls and dolls’ houses which had been left in the shop, and he couldn’t stop smiling.  He was just fitting the roof to a dolls’ house he had repaired when he heard a sound coming from the shop.  Jack walked through to the shop to see an elderly lady standing looking into the shop window.

“Can I help you?” he asked.

“I was just looking at the dolls’ house in the window.  It’s beautiful.”

“Thank you,” he said, just to reply.

“Did you make it?”

“No!  Harrold, the previous shop owner, told me that it belonged to an old lady and when she passed away her family brought it in here for him to repair and clean it before finding it a good home.”

“Ah!  I see.”

“I’ve just finished cleaning and repairing it.  I thought that it would make a good centre piece for the window.”

“It does.  It was that which caught my eye.  Is it for sale?”

“I hadn’t thought.  I would have to ask Harrold about the cost, because I’m new to this business.”

“When would you know the price?”

“I can go see him this evening and ask, so I would know in the morning.”

“In the morning.  I’ll be back some time tomorrow, I’m afraid that I can’t put a time on it.”

“That’s fine Mrs…...” he looked at her waiting for an answer.

“Till the morrow.” She said opening the door. Stopping she asked, “what is your name by the way?”

“Jack.”

“Jack!  Jack what?”

“Just Jack, Mrs……”

“All right Just Jack until tomorrow,” she said closing the door behind her.

That evening Jack walked to Harrold’s house and asked him how much he should ask for the dolls’ house.

“Well, I would usually charge five an hour plus parts.  Now you worked on that house, on and off, for about a month.  Let’s say that it took you ten days working six hours a day to make that house what it is, so that would be three hundred plus whatever you had to use in parts.”

“Anything which was broken I repaired, so there weren’t any parts.  Three hundred seems an awful lot of money Harrold.”

“I know,” he looked round to see where Mary, his wife, was, “I only charged people two an hour but told my Mary that it was five.”

“That’s why we don’t have much,” Mary said from the door to the kitchen.  He’s too soft.  Don’t you become like Harrold, Jack.  Working all hours for nothing.”

“You can’t charge a child……”

“You were in business Harrold.  It shouldn’t make any difference what age the customers were, they should all be charged the same.  If he says five an hour Jack then you charge them five an hour.”

“But three hundred for a dolls’ house.  It does seem excessive.”

“If that’s how long it took you then you should charge that amount.”

Jack walked slowly back to the shop, he had to come up with a realistic price or lose a potential sale.  This was uncharted water for him, he’d never been in the retail industry before, come to that he’d never been in industry before.  As he was passing the shop window he glanced in and saw that the doll’s house was missing.  Now where’s that gone. He asked himself, has someone been in the shop and helped themselves?  He continued into the shop and walked through to the workshop, when he flicked the light on, he saw the doll’s house on the bench.  Who's moved it here, he thought. He went to bed leaving the house where it was.  The following morning, he put it back in the window, all the day long it grew admiring looks, it even brought some extra customers into the shop, but the lady didn’t show up.  Because he’d not placed a price ticket on the house, no one asked the cost of it, simply admired it.  That evening, when Jack put the closed sign on the door, the lady still hadn’t been.  Jack walked the short distance to Harrold and Mary’s home for his evening meal, then as he walked past the shop window, he noticed that the house wasn’t there; again, he went through to the workshop and saw it standing on the bench.  Jack made his mind up to ask Harrold when he went for his meal the following day.

The following morning Jack put the house back in the centre of the window along with a sign, ‘Not for sale.’  He’d given it a lot of thought and decided that he couldn’t sell that dolls house at that price and he daren’t ask any less just in case Mary walked past the shop and saw his price.  What he didn’t expect was that four people came into the shop, virtually one after the other, and asked Jack if he could make them one the same as, or very like it and when he told them that they would be expensive they didn’t bat an eye-lid, in fact one customer asked him if he wanted a deposit placing on it to confirm the order.  A very bemused Jack refused the deposit and told the customer it would take about a month before their dolls house would be ready for collection.

Jack found that his reputation for detailed, and beautiful work spread and with that the workload increased and he was finding it difficult to build the doll’s house’s, repair the broken toys and look after the shop, so he placed a notice, not only on the shop door, but also in the café just up the street.  He didn’t have long to wait before someone applied for the position.  She was about Jack’s age and very attractive, they seemed to click on the first meeting, but above all Elsie was good with the child customers.

Jack spent most of his time in the workshop leaving Elsie to run the shop, very soon the two were married and the business seemed to prosper.  It increased to such an extent that Elsie made Jack stop work at six o’clock and wouldn’t allow him to work on a Sunday.  What Jack enjoyed the most was the intricate detail, the turning of the tiny staircase spindles, the making of the dining room chairs, painting tiny pictures to hang on the walls.  To Jack, everything had to be as near perfect and true to life as he could possibly make it.  He would spend hours in the furniture shop just down the Street, studying the sideboards, wardrobes, dressing tables, beds, dining room furniture and kitchen layouts, so that his dolls houses were as close as possible to looking like the real thing.

One customer even brought a photograph of a house which he wanted Jack to build for his daughter.  It had a veranda round three sides with a balcony across the front of the house, and an ornate tower on the left front corner.  The veranda and balcony had turned spindles with carved pillars holding the balcony up.  Jack had told him that it would take longer than a month to make because of all the intricate detail, but the customer was happy with that because his daughter’s birthday wasn’t for another three months.

Every morning when Elsie and Jack came down stairs from the apartment, they would both go into the shop and carry all the broken and damaged toys, which children had left on a counter, through to the workshop, then Jack would carry the doll’s house from the workshop and place it back in the shop window.  Neither of them knew who was carrying it back into the workshop every night and they didn’t hear a thing either.