Page 21 of Love and Pumpkins
“I’ll help you get ready,” I say. “I’m all set.” Clapping my hands to rid them of the cinnamon sugar from my donut, I smile at him.
I can’t wait to have this conversation.
Chapter Nine
Ihelp Hunter set up his tables, then I go back to my booth to pull my fanny pack out of my tote bag. The fanny pack has my change, my charge card reader, and a little notebook I use to jot down ideas I get from talking to customers.
A crack of lightning flashes as thunder rolls. The storm is upon us.
I groan and look around. The first drops of water hit the nylon tent roof.
I glance at Hunter, and his eyes are as wide as mine.
“Pull your tables towards the middle,” I tell him as I pull my collapsible wagon to the middle of my tent, pulling a table over it.
As the rain falls harder, three ladies rush under the protection of my tent. One of them is my mom’s best friend.
“Hi, Celeste,” I call.
“Oh, Phoebe,” she says. “It’s great to see you. Hope you don’t mind us hanging out here.”
“Of course not.”
She introduces me to her cousins, who are visiting from Iowa.
“I’ll be right back,” I say, as I hurry to help Hunter move his tables to the middle.
A large puddle forms in front of his booth. He points to it. “That’s not good.”
“No, it’s a lot of rain already. I hope it doesn’t last long.”
After his tables are safe and dry for the moment, I return to my booth, where Celeste is holding out a soap to her cousin Tawna.
“This is delightful,” Tawna says, passing the soap to Debbie.
“I’ll take two,” Debbie replies, handing me cash.
I give her the change. Then Tawna picks up three bars of the black-cherry scented soaps that are shaped like cupcakes. She hands me a credit card.
“I buy from Phoebe all the time,” Celeste tells her cousins. “She has a boutique downtown. I’ll have to take you there next time you visit.”
“Wow, that’s fantastic,” Debbie says. “Enterprising.”
I smile, not sure if her comment is a compliment or a putdown. I get those; some people think a woman shouldn’t own her own business, that she should just aspire to marry and have babies.
Celeste nods. “It’s amazing. There are several artisans with space in Phoebe’s shop. She gives them the opportunity to earn extra money. But Phoebe has all the risk and overhead of owning the store.”
Celeste gets me. I love Celeste. She even came to the paint party when the whole 4,000-square-foot space got a fresh coat of French-Vanilla-Cream-White. At least I think that’s what the name of it was.
Twenty minutes later, Celeste has given a history lesson on the town of Lichtenburg. I’ve barely listened. One, I know the history; I paid attention in class. And two, every minute that ticks by during this rainstorm means fewer people at the festival and fewer sales.
I feel my wallet shriveling up as each raindrop falls.
I try to appear engaged, but in my head, I’m thinking about ways to increase store traffic in the next three weeks and the possibility of creating an online store. Maybe I can have a sidewalk sale, a dance party, an open house with refreshments, or a bingo night. Anything to get people in the door and shopping.
The online store has been on the to-do list for ages; maybe now is the time.
The storm finally lets up, and Celeste and her cousins hurry off.
