The store had been there as long as Sandra could remember, in one form or another. She had never visited during its more recent incarnation, largely because it was a tourist targeted t-shirt shop. But in previous lives, hers and the storefront, she and it had a relationship.
When she was in elementary school and would walk past each afternoon, it was Mrs. Capo’s Stationery Shop. Sandra and friends would stop there for candy, often taking time to read all the funny seasonal cards.
For a while it had been an artist’s studio/gallery. She meet the painter through other friends when she returned after college to live and work in the hometown. He was from Maine, drawn to most things nautical, and found inspiration in St. Augustine and a market for a few pieces he reproduced as prints. She remembered being sad when he returned to the northeast and the gallery closed.
With all the windows covered and the door stripped of signs, it was easy for Sandra to see the stationary shop’s entrance as it had been when she was a little girl. Then she noticed the horseshoe over the door and remembered a hundred times walking under it and looking up. To a 10 year old, it seemed magical, and when asked about it Mrs. Capo would only say it was from a famous horse that never lost a race and saved many lives.
She wondered if the next owners would leave it in place or remove it for painting and then maybe not return it.