Turning the Page

by Olivia Gaines

  Does she have a breast fixation?

  “You know that’s kind of pervy, right?” she asked him.

  Ethan nearly jumped three feet in the air. He had completely zoned out while he tried to understand the psychology of why a woman would intentionally draw attention to her breasts. “I’m sorry. That is a very unique tee shirt; the one you had on earlier was as well,” he said in his defense.

  “Gee, thanks,” Janie told him as she turned to greet an older lady with strawberry blonde hair. The woman looked like a reject from Woodstock. She wore a tie-dyed shirt over a blue cotton broom skirt with a pair of sandals that appeared to be made out of rags.

  “I have cookies!” the lady said as she sat the tray on the counter. The instant she pulled back the cover, it was as if a cup of sugar was dropped at a picnic. Children began to materialize from everywhere like ants after having their sandy dirt pile bed disturbed. There were mini-vans unloading kids. There were station wagons, BMWs, Fords, Mercedes, and everything else imaginable, including bicycles that were left overturned by the door at ten minutes before six. A kid dressed like Sméagol slid in the door sideways, dragging his right foot. He reached up high on the counter, grabbed a cookie that he called ‘my precious’ and headed towards the rear of the store.

  “Come have a look,” Janie told him.

  Ethan’s eyes were wide when he saw a tabletop replica of Middle Earth in the corner of the room. Kids dressed like characters from Tolkien’s tale began to reenact scenes. In the opposite corner, an older gentleman who looked like a bum began to read from the second book in the Tolkien series. He looked a great deal like a homeless Gandalf, but Janie stopped him from reading.

  She asked him, “What is in the pipe, Gandalf?”

  The old man hummed a familiar tune, trying to ignore her. She did not let it pass and told him “If I have told you once, I have told you twice, no smoking in here! You got it?”

  “Aww, Janie. You can be such a stuffed shirt,” the man told her.

  “Stuffed shirt or not, I cannot have these kids leaving here smelling like cigarette smoke or whatever else you like puffing in that pipe,” she said firmly.

  The man was genuinely offended. “I mean really, Janie, if you keep treating me like this, I may have to stop coming around here to read to the kids,” he said.

  Janie walked over and hugged him. “I’m sorry, Daddy, but when your business revolves around other people’s children, everything has be aboveboard.”

  “I know, Sweetie,” he told her. He went back to his story. “Where was I...oh yes,” he said and began to read again.

  Ethan’s face held no expression. Janie’s, on the other hand, displayed a plethora of emotions. “At least this time the pipe has tobacco in it only,” she said with some relief.

  “Are you saying your father openly smokes ...other stuff?”

  “Yes. He started growing it when he thought he had cancer,” Janie told him.

  “It’s good to know that he has recovered and is in remission,” he responded.

  Janie stopped in the middle of the floor. “Remission? That man ain’t never had no cancer. He just thought he did...”

  “Whaaaa?” Ethan said, his mouth slightly open.

  Her hands were perched on her hips. “Yes, my sister brought home some non-organic mushrooms and canned tomato sauce to make pizzas. When he went the next morning, he had sinkers and not floaters so he thought she had infected him with ‘the cancer’,” Janie said.

  “Whaaaa?” Ethan said again. His brow crinkled in an attempt to understand what she meant.

  “Oh, that’s nothing. If I only had the time to tell you the one about him drinking a Coke...” she said. Her attention was drawn to the counter. The strawberry- haired woman was sitting there counting money.

  “Mom, please count the money in the back room,” she pleaded.

  “That’s your Mom?”

  “Yes, we run a tight ship. That’s my sister Meg,” she said as she pointed to the girl behind the counter. “She and my brother Jem are the only paid employees other than me.”

  The doorbell jingled and in sauntered a short man in work coveralls. His hair, which was cut into a mullet, was greasy, his teeth were yellow, and his eyes went straight to Janie’s shirt.

  “I sure like that new shirt, Ms. Janie. Is that the one for this quarter?” he asked.

  Janie was nicer to the man than Ethan thought she should have been, especially considering the way he was ogling her. The discomfort made Ethan feel protective and he stepped between her and the man.

  This was not received pleasantly by Jimmy Earl. “Who ‘dis man, Janie?”

  Janie seemed very happy to share the news with her mother, Meg, and Jimmy Earl. “This is Ethan, my new business partner.”

  Chapter 5. Plotting away ...

  Jimmy Earl sat in the rear of the store with a comic book in his hand. He had eased his way from the merriment of the group to take note of the interactions between his Janie and the new man. From this vantage point, he had a clear view of the register and all the happy chatter and hand shaking taking place...with some dude. Some dude that would be working with his Janie. A black man that he immediately disliked, mainly because of the way Janie looked at him. She eyed him like he was some savior or something. If she needs money for her business, I can give it to her. I can work some extra side jobs or something...

  “Jimmy Earl, what are you doing back in this corner?” Alice Cimoc asked him.

  The man jumped as if someone had thrown firecrackers at his feet. He mumbled over his words while trying to steer clear of Janie’s mom.

  “I was just leaving, Ms. Alice. I don’t want to get in the way of your celebrating and all,” Jimmy Earl mumbled.

  “Well, you have yourself a good evening,” Alice told the odd little fellow as he slipped around the shelving and out the door.

  Something about him made Alice very uncomfortable. This was also one of the reasons she was excited about Janie having a new partner, which would greatly cut down on the riff raff hanging around the store and around her daughter. Although Alice was proud of her daughter and the independence she displayed, she truly wanted her to get married. She noticed a spark between Ethan and Janie, but wasn’t sure of what to make of it. Janie said they had only met earlier that day. Ethan seemed like a likable enough fellow to go into business with, but Alice wasn’t sure it would be so easy to call him son-in-law. Listen at me getting ahead of myself again.

  After Ethan left the shop, her parents hung back to help clean up. The clean-up times were instances her mother took advantage of by doling out her no-nonsense advice. A parataxis, one-sided conversation that really required no response from Janie, just a layering of clauses and phrases behind each other which would creep from her mother’s disapproving lips.

  “Janie. Sweetheart,” Alice said. This made Janie cringe. Those two words. Two words that were followed by a string of layered phrases.

  “You do know, don’t you....that the eggs you were born with are the same number of eggs you will have all your life. Each year as you get older, so do those eggs. You cannot make a fresh omelet or bake a cake with old eggs. That cake will not rise and that omelet is going to taste funky,” Alice informed her daughter.

  Janie tried to remain respectful, “So Mom, are you implying that I find some rooster to fertilize my eggs?”

  “Yes, Janie. Sweetheart. But it has to be a nice rooster that is going to build you a nice hen house to nurture those young chicks,” Alice said with a smile. Janie wanted to fall out on the floor and pass out, especially when she turned around to find Ethan standing behind her.

  “I thought you had left,” she said softly.

  “No, I forgot to set a time for you to come by my store and check out my shop tomorrow,” he said with a twinkle in his eye. “I mean, I wouldn’t want you to show up and catch me with all my eggs in one basket.”

  Janie’s perfect peach skin began to warm from the base of her tee shirt to th
e roots of her hair, leaving bright red glowing circles on her cheeks.

  “How does eleven sound, Ethan?” she asked flatly. Her breathing was unsteady as she watched the enjoyment of her discomfort radiate all over his face.

  “That sounds like a good time. I’m an early riser, but I’m not up too bright or early with some of the roosters,” he grinned at her.

  She didn’t know what came over her, but she picked up the nearest comic book from the shelf, rolled it up, and swatted him on the arm with it. Ethan was surprised at how playful she was with him.

  “Janie, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to ruffle your feathers,” he said while laughing. Alice placed her hand over her mouth to shield her smile when Janie swatted him again.

  Ethan started to back up, which made Janie move forward, “Now Janie, we don’t want to start off our business relationship on a bad note, running about like chickens with our heads cut off!”

  That did it. Janie took off running after him and Ethan bolted for the front door. She stopped under the portico and stared at him as he scuttled off towards his car. Once inside the safety of his vehicle, he rolled by the doorway, grinning at her, “See you in the morning.”

  Instead of tooting his horn at her, he yelled out the window, “Bawk...bawk!”

  Janie threw the comic book at the back of his car. Her cheeks were still rosy when she went back inside and Meg immediately made a comment.

  “Janie, are you coming down with something? Your skin is all flushed and your arms are covered in goose pimples,” Meg stated.

  There was no real reason to answer her sister; she simply rubbed her skin, trying to press down the prickled flesh. Ethan Strom had just shown her a playful side of himself. I can see working with him.

  It was unlike Ethan to be so nervous. He arrived at the shop a bit earlier than usual to ensure the shelves were straightened and there was no dust about. Oddly enough, he wanted to impress Janie and come across as a solid business partner. In her shop, he noticed several things which were lacking in his own, mainly so many children and teens. Even when he booked a semi-famous Georgia best-selling children’s author, he still did not have the turnout she received on her Wednesday game night. The children dressing up as their favorite characters was cool. Once he counted the $5 per head for 25 kids that were present, if she did those numbers each week, the Comic Book pulled in roughly three grand a month, just in kids hanging out. A larger store would make a world of difference, especially if Middle Earth went from a tabletop to a floor map.

  A floor map projected onto the floor.

  A floor map with changeable landscapes.

  A floor map that could rotate each week as the battle moved through the lands of Middle Earth.

  He jotted down this idea in a new notebook. His mood was light as he began the Thursday brew of Guatemala Huehuetenango. As soon as the carafe was full, the doorbell chimed and instead of the Mayor’s assistant, the man himself walked into the door, a giant coffee mug in hand, a smile on his face, and questions on the top of his mind.

  “Ethan, my boy, I hope you have taken into consideration our conversation from yesterday. I firmly believe that if you and Janie put your minds together that you can create something unique for this community,” he told him.

  “I think you are right, Mayor Galley,” Ethan told him as he emptied the whole pot of coffee, sans one cupful, into the man’s mug.

  “Good; I look forward to seeing what you two come up with,” the Mayor told him as he handed him a twenty for the coffee and waddled his way to the door.

  It was Thriller Thursday and thus far the month had shaped up well. Before he could get the second pot of coffee finished, four other people showed up to buy a cup and also overpaid. By the time 11 am rolled around, he was in a really great mood. It only got better when Janie arrived.

  In his head were all of these ideas. Possibilities for a new shop, a new vision; he was plotting away on paper, but when he looked up and saw her, everything in his mind changed. The ideas transformed even more after he had a conversation with the free spirit that was Janie Cimoc.

  Chapter 6. Creating a Dialogue...

  He knew Janie had entered Bartleby’s simply by the customers’ reactions. Based on the responses, he knew she was wearing another one of those goofy tee shirts that brought attention to her ladies. It immediately caught his eye because this one was actually funny.

  The tee was neon green with bold navy letters and read: Hot Boiled Peanuts. It had half an open peanut shell whose placement cradled her boobies with a three dimensional thermometer sticking up from her left boob with 98.6º emboldened on the scale. His hand covered his mouth to stifle his laughter when old Mrs. Murphy eyeballed the shirt with her one good eye and proceeded to clutch her pearls in offense.

  “Hey there, Pat’nuh!” she said as she walked over to him. To his shock, she didn’t shake his hand but embraced him full on with a giant hug that rendered feelings of squishiness that a body might have after receiving a kiss from a unicorn.

  The smile was genuine as he asked, “Would you like a cup of coffee?”

  “Nah, I don’t do caffeine; it makes me twitchy,” she told him.

  “Come on in my office,” he said to her. His fingers waved at the young lady who walked behind the counter to cover for him. “Janie, would you like some tea instead?”

  “Yes, that would be nice,” she told him. He nodded to the young lady behind the counter to bring Janie a cup.

  Janie followed him into a very neat but really masculine office that was filled with the scent of man. Ethan’s scent. She stared at the wall for a second, allowing her eyes to adjust. The smell of the room made her pupils dilate. It was so manly. It held earthy undertones from his soap with a faint scent of sweat. Her belly felt as if her eggs were also twitching and ready to be released for fertilization. Before her body could embarrass her even more, the young lady from the counter brought her in a cup of tea along with a small tray of deviled and pickled eggs.

  The twinkle in his eye was unmistakable when he offered her a snack. Janie didn’t bite as she kicked off her well-worn Birkenstocks to fold her knees into the chair under her body lotus style. Ethan had never seen a woman sit like that in public, let alone in a skirt. A skirt that he could see under. He shifted his position in his chair so that his view was now obstructed. Focus Ethan.

  “You are really different,” Ethan said as he watched her use a napkin to pick up one of the deviled eggs.

  “And you are a busted comedian. The eggs are funny, but Janie is hungry, so Janie is going to eat the food put before her,” she said as she stuffed an egg in her mouth.

  Ethan’s brow was furrowed as he looked at her with more than a mild curiosity. “Do you often refer to yourself in third person?”

  “Only when the voice of reason needs to speak on my behalf instead of me saying what is actually on my mind. I mean, for all you know, that whole egg thing with my mom could be a point of contention for me, yet you mock me, poking fun at my expense. I really should blast you, but you were considerate to bring food for our meeting. That I am thankful for and accept.” She ate another egg, washed it down with tea, and sucked her front teeth to make sure nothing was caught in between. To make certain no remnants hovered between the crevices, she gave a dental flash of her pearlies to Ethan, asking him to check her teeth to make sure the coast was clear.

  He nodded his head to let her know there were no stragglers hanging about in the cracks of her teeth. “I’m sorry; I meant no offense,” he said.

  “...And obviously I took none as I ate your smelly deviled eggs,” she said with raised brows.

  As he was about to change the subject to focus on business, a familiar voice could be heard in the bookstore. It was loud. It was brash. It was Kate. She was yelling at Marta, the young lady working the counter.

  “I know he is here; he is always here,” she yelled at the girl. “I will show myself to his office!”

  And she did. The door was open wh
en she bounded around the corner. Her eyes immediately rested on Janie. Eyes that were filled with fire, venom, and the full weighted anger of 135 pounds of pissed off black woman. Janie unfolded her legs as her feet slipped into her shoes. Janie was smirking at Ethan, shaking her head, and said, “Uhmmm....Janie is going to take her eggs and this tea and wait for you in the other room.”

  She grabbed the plate of eggs, scooting around Kate, careful to stay clear as she made her way out the door.

  “Did you dump me for Cinderella? Please tell me you didn’t do something so cliché as leave me for a white woman?” Kate asked with her hands on her hips.

  “I didn’t dump you. We just don’t want the same things, so I freed you up to find someone who wanted what you wanted,” he told her. “I’m not certain how that makes me the bad guy in this scenario. You issued an ultimatum, I responded.”

  Kate was angry. Her words were worse as she spat them at Ethan. “You’re the bad guy because your high yella ass is further polluting our race by mixing it up with some trailer park trollop. What’s so special about her? Can she suck the shine off a door knob?”

  The look of disgust on Ethan’s face made Kate back up. “Janie is the owner of the Comic Book. I am not dating her and you will apologize this instant for referring to her in such a degrading manner.”

  “I will do no such thing!” Kate said with defiance.

  “...And I have no desire to ever see your face again. Please leave right now and do not come back,” Ethan told her.

  Kate was stunned.

  She was angry.

  She was hurt.

  This inner rage helped fuel an even bigger bonfire when she and Ethan left his office to walk into the bookstore and find Janie with Hester. The two ladies stood in an embrace. What drew Ethan’s eyes to the women was his mother. She was hugging Janie with her eyes closed. That... is an intimate moment.