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level that was at least fifty years old, maybe more. The best part of the

house? It had been left in all its seventies glory from the yellow and brown

floral wallpaper on the walls to the bright red shag rug that actually climbed

from the floor up the walls in the living room. The kitchen boasted brown

appliances and the globe light fixtures were so old they looked like they’d

been beamed down from outer space in a cool, retro sort of way.

“Wow,” Arabella said after walking around, June’s plant in her hands. “I

guess I can see why you were okay with my place. This is…this is actually

kind of cool. Like, it’s a real time capsule. No one has touched this place in

a million years.”

“Well, probably a good forty.”

“I’m not sure where I should stick this. The living room has nice

windows. Although, it’s a cactus, and they do well pretty much anywhere.”

“Really?”

“I did say pretty much. Don’t lock it in a closet and never let it see the

light of day again.”

“I wouldn’t dream of doing that. Poor thing.”

“Do the closets have shag rugs in them too?”

June grinned and winked. “You betcha’ they do.”

“Holy crap. I love it.”

“I know. When I saw it, I wanted to buy it, and I had this dream of

making everything all nice and modern, but then I really started thinking

about it and I thought, why would I do that? It’s so neat the way it is. I went

out and bought draperies and antique furniture to match and then I started in

on the things that really matter. I wanted to live like I work, not just because

I thought people would check, but because it matters to me. I got a brand-

new furnace, new windows, put in an all new energy efficient hot water

heater. The washer and dryer are high efficiency. I’m going to order retro

appliances just so I can finally get back on the right track with the energy

consumption. I love the whole aura the old ones give off, but they’re just