The estate sales people had missed it in the shed of the old country home. I retrieved it from behind a bunch of rusted garden tools. It looked like a crystal ball. Grease and grime came off onto my hands showing several layers of different covered paints beneath. Because of its weight, they'd wanted ten dollars for it. They taken two as no one could guess what it really was.
Luckily, I was able to get it home without Donna seeing it. We were drifting apart. Our once loving relationship unfurling with the pressing demands of our daily lives. I couldn't remember how long it'd been since Donna and I last made love. When I went into the house to check in, Donna was on the phone. She saw me come in, but didn't return my wave.
Retreating to my workbench in the garage, I began working carefully with paint remover and some old rags. The globe emerged as an opaque, white globe. I concluded it was made of stone. When the paint seal dissolved, I lifted the globe off the wooden base.
The globe's bottom surface was broken by a small hole that fit perfectly onto a small rounded-head peg that rose up from the bottom of the base's crater. Oddly, the peg was not a separate inserted part. It fused into the base.
The base edge was about two inches high. I'd removed just enough of the paint to see some etched carvings, when Donna called me to dinner. The topic of our dinner conversation was, as it always was lately, money. We talked of our needs, what was available and went over our options. Facing reality was not pleasant.
As we cleaned up, Donna noticed my rush in wanting to get back to my work and asked, "What you doing out there?"
"I found something at the estate sale that I'm cleaning up."
"How much was it?" was her next question, spoken in an admonishing tone. "It was only two bucks and I think you might like it."
"What is it?"
"I'm not quite sure. I think it could be some sort of decoration or a piece of art or maybe a knick-knack. I'll bring it in when I'm done and maybe the two of us can figure it out."
Back in the garage, I was extremely careful in wiping off the final layer of white paint on the base. By applying only light pressure with the rag, I left paint in the grooved carvings leaving them visible. Taking the base in both hands, I turned it slowly around.