Page 53 of Deal With The Devil

This is how it usually goes. Aunt Minnie dresses the window, and I help her with a smile. Today, though, that smile is missing. Or rather, it is pasted on and phony, only brought up when I am directly challenged on why it is not there.

Minnie snaps her fingers, trying to lure me out of my daydream once again. "Talia? I swear, this window display would’ve been done an hour ago if your head wasn’t so firmly in the clouds."

"Sorry." I shake my head. "I’m not sure why I am so distracted today."

Minnie arches a brow and holds a beautiful three-dimensional star up by its long string, shaking it gently. "It wouldn’t have anything to do with what I told you the other night, would it?"

My cheeks flush. Her news, which she told me the other night, that she owes some bad people a lot of money, has not been far from my mind since she uttered it to me. But that isn’t really the whole reason.

I push that reason down in my mind, forcing a smile onto my lips. "It’s nothing. I promise. Just… Something Olive told me. Nothing to do with the store."

It isn’t technically a lie. More like a fib. An omission of the truth. After all, Olivia did tell me to get the test, which now lies in my purse behind the register.

Aunt Minnie looks down, frowning in concentration as her fingers fly over a piece of paper. About a year ago, Aunt Minnie picked up origami as a hobby of sorts. Since then, she has gone from flooding the bungalow that we live in with paper cranes to these more elaborate three-dimensional stars that take her fifteen minutes to build.

I drift off again as she works, my mind pulled into my actual worry.What if I am pregnant?

The only way to find out is to take the test, obviously. But in order to do that, I need Minnie to leave me alone in the store for an hour, just to be sure that I can have loud, messy emotions without her finding out.

I gulp. Aunt Minnie straightens and pulls a paper hat on her head, lifting a funny, bright green paper mustache to the top of her lips. She strikes a pose, raising her eyebrows in question. "What do you think? I’m thinking that I'll hang a few hats like this one from the ceiling, and then I'll have a dish of these mustaches handy, making our display window a cool place for people to take selfies.”

I blink and nod slowly. "Wow. I did not think you would be so forward about something involving modern technology. That’s really progressive of you."

Grinning, Aunt Minnie wiggles her eyebrows. "This old dog still has new tricks up her sleeve."

I narrow my eyes on her face, trying to parse out the two idioms that she mashed together to produce that sentence. Of her many quirks, that’s one of her most confusing ones. It’s definitely a verbal tic, because when it was pointed out to Aunt Minnie, she claimed to not realize that she even did it.

"I think it’s a great idea," I add. "Definitely forward-thinking."

Aunt Minnie pauses, still holding the hat and mustache in place. "You think so? I’m just trying to keep the young people engaged. Would you take a picture of me?"

This time, my smile is more genuine. "Of course." I pull my cell phone out and snap a couple of pictures, though my cell phone doesn’t capture images very well. I figure that’s fine, since I don’t think that Aunt Minnie cares so much about my skill as a photographer anyway.

Minnie gets wobbly on the way down when she finally descends the ladder. I step in and put my hands under her elbows, helping her down the last couple of steps.

Aunt Minnie turns around and hugs me, burying her face in my hair. She's the same height as me, but frail and wiry, her gray hair tickling my nose as she presses her face against my shoulder.

"Thanks, kiddo."

She holds me close for several seconds. I take a deep breath, inhaling her scent of violet perfume and menthol cough drops. The scent is comforting, sinking into my bones. It occurs to me that I haven’t hugged anyone in a while, and I feel like I should hug Aunt Minnie whenever I get the chance. I never know what life is going to throw my way. If I have learned anything, it’s that my time with my loved ones is a precious commodity.

When Minnie pulls back, gently pushing against my shoulders, I let go. I am quick to wipe away the moistness that pools in the corners of my eyes.

Feeling silly, I clear my throat and look Minnie in the eye.

"I love you," I say. "I don’t know if I told you that recently or not."

Aunt Minnie gives me a beautiful smile. "I love you, too, kiddo. I feel like maybe I don’t say it enough. But your coming into my life was the best thing that ever happened to me."

She turns on her heel, heading away from me. I am left blotting the corners of my eyes; my voice has been stolen by Aunt Minnie dropping that bomb on me.

In a world that seems hard and unfeeling, I have at least one person in my corner. It is always really nice to be reminded of that.

"Talia!" Minnie calls. She is rooting around in the back hallway. I close the front door and change the sign to sayback in a minute. Then I head into the back, finding Minnie in her small space.

Minnie’s space looks like an absolute disaster, a closet straight out of an interior designer’s nightmare. There are art supplies and books and odd scraps of paper with Aunt Minnie’s handwriting scrawled on them, all mixed together. Aunt Minnie is pulling on her coat, which she liberated very recently from under a pile of googly eyes. She looks up at me, pulling a beret over her head, and smiling again.

"I’m off to volunteer at Hope House," she announces. "All the kids say that they miss seeing you every day."

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