A Snap from the Music Box

My boots slipped through the alley into the cool hush of the antique shop's rear room. Hidden low beneath a heavy steamer trunk sat an open, velvet-lined wooden music box with its tiny steel comb exposed. I stayed frozen in the dark corner while a customer's footsteps creaked past the doorway and faded down the hall. Utter quiet returned... and then, a sudden, deliberate reach. With the edge of my cloth thumb, I caught the longest, deepest steel prong, pulling it upward until it strained taut—and let go. PING-shiver! A pure, piercing note rang out like a tiny bell, vibrating through the dark velvet and scattering a wisp of dust into the shadows. Hehe... a solitary, singing fang waking up the wood.