Page 1 of Weatherman

CHAPTER 1

“I asked for onion rings,and they gave me fries. I had to call over the manager. If I wanted fries, I would have ordered fries. I wanted onion rings.”

The rotund woman gestured wildly as she sat in my salon chair with her head half wrapped in square foils. I had to step back to prevent another color brush from getting knocked to the floor.

Burna Jones kept talking while the other patrons listened, or at least pretended to. “I told him he needed to give me what I asked for, and you know what he said to me? He had the nerve to say that I ate the fries. Of course I ate the fries! I was hungry, but that’s not the point. I wanted onion rings, and he shoulda give ’em to me for free.”

I tried not to stare at the bulging collar of flesh around the woman’s neck as it flopped in tandem with her words. It was hard to ignore it.Just keep quiet, Opal,I told myself as I combed up another section of hair to spread jet-black color on her steel-gray strands. Tambre Bearclaw, the salon owner and my boss, had warned me that the best way to deal with Burna was to put her in the chair, use the darkest color on the palette, and keep quiet.

“Don’t try to suggest anything else or she’ll throw the biggest hissy fit you’ve ever seen,” Tambre had advised in a whisper when I first met the difficult woman. “No one wants to work with her and her nasty attitude, so we take turns. Think of it as a rite of passage or initiation.”

“I told that man I’d be giving his restaurant a one-star review and speaking my mind on the internet,” Burna continued. “And I did just that. Let’s see how his business handles it. I bet he’ll be callin’ me with an apology real soon.” She finished her narrative with an emphatic “mm-hmm” and crossed her arms below the drape ballooning around her hanging chin.

“That new woman workin’ at Randy’s is hard to understand sometimes,” another woman remarked from the depth of the shampoo sink.

“No excuse for givin’ someone fries when they ordered onion rings. These young people are just too damn lazy to work.”

I gritted my teeth. I had nightmares of when I worked fast food years ago as a young teenager. It got so busy and backed up sometimes that occasionally we messed up orders. Getting cursed at by customers over how many chicken nuggets came in a paper cup was one reason I left. Getting groped by the manager was another.

I exchanged glances with my friend and roommate, Kimmie. Both of us had moved to Bryson City, North Carolina, earlier this summer, just after graduating from cosmetology school in Red Wing, Minnesota. It was a big culture shock to go from a relatively flat area of the country to this mountainous region. The roads twisted like crazy, and there were times that I couldn’t understand the thick Southern accent some people had, but both of us needed a fresh start somewhere that no one knew us and our pasts. The instructor back in Red Wing had an older relative in this area who told her about the job openings in a local salon.

We were a long way from home, but this place was just as good as any other.

We had agreed to let the past be the past and not to talk about it. “New town, new people, new lives” had become our motto. I did my best to follow that line of thought, I really did, but sometimes at night, when I lay in my bed and listened to the sounds my baby girl made while sleeping, memories would roll through my brain like a movie scene, and I had to jam a pillow over my face to keep my tears from coming out.

I finished Burna’s color job and twisted the dial on the timer. “I’ll be back to check on you in a bit. Do you need anything? Water?”

“Get me a Diet Coke. I don’t want all those carbs in the regular ones. Makes you fat.”

Kimmie made a choking noise and covered it by examining her client’s nails closely.

Tambre was in the back room taking inventory and spotted me as I came in. Without breaking her stride, the older woman opened the fridge and pulled out a can of the preferred soda. She handed the cold drink to me with a conspiratorial wink. “You handle that battle-ax really well. Burna has been known to chew up and spit out store clerks for anything she doesn’t like. She makes the Karens-in-the-wild look tame.”

I took the can and plucked a paper-wrapped straw from a counter drawer we used for extra condiment packets, plasticware, and other bits. “I’ve dealt with worse.”

Tambre gave a quiet hum. “I think she likes you for now because you don’t try to correct her or change her mind. That’s how I deal with her, too, but she will eventually bite at you. Try not to take it personally. She’s been this way for years.”

I smiled at my boss. Burna Jones was easy compared to some of the other people I used to be around.

Molly appeared in the doorway. “Hand me one of them sodas, would’ja? It’s hotter than the devil’s front porch out there. Cutter’s already bitchin’ ’bout keepin’ his tomato plants watered. Lord, wish it would rain soon and shut him up. A good soakin’ shower and not these little teaser sprinkles.”

The perky woman turned to me with barely a break in her speech. “Tam is right about Burna. That bitch tried to get my friend Melissa Wall fired from her job over at the movie theater. Complained she didn’t get the extra butter on her popcorn that she paid for and made a big stink about it in the lobby. I can still remember the look on Hilda’s face. She was sooo embarrassed.”

“Hilda?” I asked. Only a month had passed since I moved here, and even though I’d met a lot of people, Hilda wasn’t a name I remembered.

“Burna’s granddaughter. Lost her parents on the Tail when she was little. Drunk driver, if I’m rememberin’ right.” Molly shook her head. “The Tail of the Dragon is hard enough to run when you’re sober. Why some dumbass decided he could take it after downing a six-pack or three is beyond me. Left that poor little girl to be raised by the bitterest woman ever known to God or man.”

I could relate somewhat to both women. My childhood hadn’t been rainbows and unicorns either. I had no clue who my dad was, and my mom only earned the title because she gave birth to me. If I thought about it, I could feel sorry for myself and become permanently angry about life, but I chose not to. I’d made other choices I regretted, but I’d also come to accept my mistakes and learn from them. I had my own little girl now, and I was determined to give her a better life than the one I started with.

The cold of the soda can bit into my fingers a little, and I smiled at my boss. “I’d better get this out to Burna, then, before she decides to get me fired too.”

Tambre gave me a pointed look and a wink. “No chance of that. You’ve got a great eye for color and a deft hand. Plus, you’re here on time and get the work done. Burna’s a regular customer, but I need good, reliable help just as much or more than I need her.”

I nodded but didn’t say anything back. Yes, I needed this job as much as Tambre needed me here, but I’d been burned too many times to completely trust anyone. In my experience, words meant nothing without actions behind them, and I’d had earfuls of promises that seldom panned out. There were only two people in the world who I knew had my back 100 percent. One lived in Minnesota with her new man. The other one?

I couldn’t think about him right now. If I did, I’d never make it through my workday.

I handed the drink to the dye-covered woman, who didn’t bother to say thank you. The timer ticked away on the rolling work tray. I glanced at the waiting area and saw no more walk-ins had come in. Kimmie was chatting with her client as she stroked a clear coat over the new set of acrylic nails she’d just finished. Bex and Deandra were busy on two other women, chatting and smiling as they discussed the last of summer break and the upcoming school year.

---