Free Crazy Sweet Love: Contemporary Romance Novella, Clean Interracial Romantic Comedy (Flower Shop Romance Book 3) by Marisa Logan Page B
Authors: Marisa Logan
knew what it was like to have divorced parents, and I guess some part of me felt like I owed it to my childhood self to make sure TJ had the best experience I could offer him.
I walked over to them with my hands in my pockets, looking around to make sure none of my coworkers overheard me. It wasn't like what I was planning was against the rules, really, but it would certainly be frowned upon. “Hey, guys.” They both turned and looked at me. “Want to see something no one else gets to see?”
“Yeah!” TJ said. He bounced on his toes a bit.
“Something secret?” Tom asked.
“More like...something we've been keeping tucked away.” I winked at them. “Come on. Special treat, once in a lifetime opportunity.”
I led them across the lobby to a set of stairs with a chain strung across the front. A sign hanging from the chain read “Employees Only—No Entry!” I unhooked the chain, let TJ and Tom head up the stairs, then hooked the chain back up behind us.
“Why is this off limits?” TJ asked. He stalked up the stairs like we were on a ghost hunt. “Is it condemned or something?”
“No,” I said. “Nothing dangerous. Just some stuff that needs some maintenance and repair work. We've been keeping it for storage for years, because the museum can't afford to get it fixed.”
The stairs curved as they climbed higher into the building. I stopped us at one of the windows on the east side and pointed outside. “See that clock tower? Notice anything funny about it?”
TJ climbed up on the broad window ledge to peer out the window. He cupped his hands on either side of his eyes and pressed up close against the glass. “The hands aren't moving,” he said.
“The hands are painted on,” I said. He turned to me with a confused frown. I smiled and pushed my glasses back up my nose with one finger. “A little bit of history most people don't know. This building wasn't always a museum. It used to be city hall.”
We started up the stairs again. TJ looked up at me with rapt attention. Even his dad hung on my every word. “This building was built back in the 1800s,” I said, slipping into my “lecture voice” without realizing it. Being a history major had always meant I was really immersed in this sort of thing, and I loved the chance to show off my knowledge. “It was originally the Jordonville City Hall. That was when there were three small towns in this area, Jordonville, Sanderson, and Brandenburg. They voted in 1896 to merge all three towns into one.”
“Why would they do that?” TJ asked, his face scrunched up in thought.
We stopped before a pair of old oak doors at the top of the stairs. “To save money. Merging the towns made sense with all the growth in the area, and it meant they could all share one post office, one police station, that sort of thing. And they decided to build a new city hall, since they were going to need more space to run the bigger town. This building was shut down for about forty years, before it was reopened and renovated as an art museum. There were expansions over the years, new wings added on, giving us more room. Then there was a fire in 1967, forcing the art museum to shut down. It stayed that way until 1980, until funding was raised to repair the damage and reopen the building. But by then, the art museum had been at a new location for years, so this building was changed into the Brandenburg Railroad Museum.”
I opened both of the oak doors at once, swinging them inward to reveal a wide, high-ceilinged room flanked by floor-to-ceiling windows on the east side. Boxes, old furniture, and various oddities filled the room, many of them covered in white cloths. “When the building was shut down, from 1896 to 1942, it suffered some damage from weather. The worst damage was when strong winds hit the clock tower and blew the clock face right out. There was a big gaping hole there when the building was renovated into the art museum.”
I led TJ and his dad through the
I walked over to them with my hands in my pockets, looking around to make sure none of my coworkers overheard me. It wasn't like what I was planning was against the rules, really, but it would certainly be frowned upon. “Hey, guys.” They both turned and looked at me. “Want to see something no one else gets to see?”
“Yeah!” TJ said. He bounced on his toes a bit.
“Something secret?” Tom asked.
“More like...something we've been keeping tucked away.” I winked at them. “Come on. Special treat, once in a lifetime opportunity.”
I led them across the lobby to a set of stairs with a chain strung across the front. A sign hanging from the chain read “Employees Only—No Entry!” I unhooked the chain, let TJ and Tom head up the stairs, then hooked the chain back up behind us.
“Why is this off limits?” TJ asked. He stalked up the stairs like we were on a ghost hunt. “Is it condemned or something?”
“No,” I said. “Nothing dangerous. Just some stuff that needs some maintenance and repair work. We've been keeping it for storage for years, because the museum can't afford to get it fixed.”
The stairs curved as they climbed higher into the building. I stopped us at one of the windows on the east side and pointed outside. “See that clock tower? Notice anything funny about it?”
TJ climbed up on the broad window ledge to peer out the window. He cupped his hands on either side of his eyes and pressed up close against the glass. “The hands aren't moving,” he said.
“The hands are painted on,” I said. He turned to me with a confused frown. I smiled and pushed my glasses back up my nose with one finger. “A little bit of history most people don't know. This building wasn't always a museum. It used to be city hall.”
We started up the stairs again. TJ looked up at me with rapt attention. Even his dad hung on my every word. “This building was built back in the 1800s,” I said, slipping into my “lecture voice” without realizing it. Being a history major had always meant I was really immersed in this sort of thing, and I loved the chance to show off my knowledge. “It was originally the Jordonville City Hall. That was when there were three small towns in this area, Jordonville, Sanderson, and Brandenburg. They voted in 1896 to merge all three towns into one.”
“Why would they do that?” TJ asked, his face scrunched up in thought.
We stopped before a pair of old oak doors at the top of the stairs. “To save money. Merging the towns made sense with all the growth in the area, and it meant they could all share one post office, one police station, that sort of thing. And they decided to build a new city hall, since they were going to need more space to run the bigger town. This building was shut down for about forty years, before it was reopened and renovated as an art museum. There were expansions over the years, new wings added on, giving us more room. Then there was a fire in 1967, forcing the art museum to shut down. It stayed that way until 1980, until funding was raised to repair the damage and reopen the building. But by then, the art museum had been at a new location for years, so this building was changed into the Brandenburg Railroad Museum.”
I opened both of the oak doors at once, swinging them inward to reveal a wide, high-ceilinged room flanked by floor-to-ceiling windows on the east side. Boxes, old furniture, and various oddities filled the room, many of them covered in white cloths. “When the building was shut down, from 1896 to 1942, it suffered some damage from weather. The worst damage was when strong winds hit the clock tower and blew the clock face right out. There was a big gaping hole there when the building was renovated into the art museum.”
I led TJ and his dad through the
Similar Books
The Live-Forever Machine
Kenneth Oppel
Thoreau in Love
John Schuyler Bishop
3 Loosey Goosey
Rae Davies
The Testimonium
Lewis Ben Smith
What Happens At Christmas...
T A Williams
Consumed
Matt Shaw
Devour
Andrea Heltsley
Organo-Topia
Scott Michael Decker
The Strangler
William Landay
Shroud of Shadow
Gael Baudino