off his fedora.
‘We don’t even know what it is,’ Flora said.
‘We’re the Morning Pie Crew. We’ll probably always be your first customers of the day,’ Lena chimed in, heaving her large purse onto its own chair. ‘We’ve been trying to come up with a cleverer name, but nothing has stuck. Sometimes Henry joins us, but he had to work today.’
I had no idea who Henry was, but I just nodded and smiled.
‘We need our daily pie fix,’ Flora said, eyeing the case.
‘I always tell people they should start their days with some cleansing breaths and a piece of pie,’ Mr Barnes chimed in.
‘And a little gossip,’ Lena added.
‘What can I get for you?’ I asked.
After some hemming and hawing, I served up two mocha creams, one blueberry, and three coffees.
‘You should probably make that four coffees, sweetheart,’ Mr Barnes said to me.
‘Why’s that?’
‘You have to join us, of course,’ Lena said, patting the chair next to her, ‘Grab yourself a piece of pie too. I recommend the blueberry.’
This seemed like an offer I couldn’t refuse, and I filled a coffee cup and heaped a plate with one of the larger pieces of blueberry pie. I felt a little weird sitting down for a break already, but I was the boss so who was going to stop me?
‘Lena and I live in apartments over our shops, and Mr Barnes lives in a house at the edge of town,’ Flora said.
‘So about three blocks away,’ Mr Barnes said with a chuckle.
I learned that Lena owned the hardware store, and Mr Barnes owned the yoga studio on the other side of town. According to him, I could use a little meditation in my life.
‘Come in for a free class,’ he offered.
My mouth said, ‘Of course,’ but my mind said, ‘heck no.’
I took a bite of my pie and sighed with pleasure as the flavors hit my tongue. The sweet crumbly topping mixed with the slightly tart juice of the blueberries created the perfect combination. I was still savoring when Lena launched in with the questioning.
‘Why haven’t we seen you around here before? Erma talks about you but hasn’t told us why you don’t keep in touch. Was there some sort of falling out? Why haven’t you tried to reach her before?’ she asked.
‘Lena,’ Flora gently swatted her arm. ‘Don’t be rude.’
‘I am not being rude, I am just trying to get to know the girl,’ Lena said defensively. ‘Fine,’ she said, responding to Flora’s very scary stern librarian face. ‘What do you do for a living?’
‘Are you a baker like your aunt, dear?’ Flora asked.
‘Not exactly,’ I said, ‘I work for a handyman company back home. My baking is usually limited to take and bake cookies.’
All of their eyes widened a little, and they plastered nervous smiles on their faces.
‘I’m sure you’ll do great,’ Mr Barnes said after a slightly awkward pause.
Day 1 ― Wednesday
Word must have spread through town because I didn’t get to sit for too long. People started pouring through the door. I noticed they weren’t as concerned with ordering a piece of pie as they were with asking me questions. Where are you from? How long are you here? What did you do back home? Are you in a relationship? How long was your last relationship? Why do you think you aren’t in a relationship? What kind of experience do you have with making pies? What is your favorite pie? Will you be able to make pie just like Erma does? Where is Erma? When will she be back? It made the questioning by the Morning Pie Crew seem tame. I tried to deflect their questions by giving short answers or awkwardly changing the topic to the weather.
It didn’t take many people to fill the pie shop. They squished inside standing shoulder to shoulder and spilled outside onto the sidewalk. Somewhere in the blur of scooping pie and questions, I noticed the pie tins were getting empty. I glanced at the clock. It was only 1.30 p.m. I felt a trickle of sweat run down my back as I served the last piece of pie to a middle-aged man who wore a jersey with a picture of a cat holding a bat. He was asking me if I played softball and inviting me to join his team the Killer Kittens but all I could think was, how could this happen? What was I supposed to serve for the next four and a half hours? I thought a little guiltily about the pieces of pie I had stashed in the fridge. Not quite guilty enough to put them out though.
My hand shook a little as I wrote ‘Out of Pie’ on a piece of notebook paper and taped it to the front of the display case, cringing at the thought of people storming out in a fit of rage. Nobody stormed out. People just ordered coffee instead. Then they used the time when I was serving their coffee to ask me if I’d ever traveled out of the country, if my hair was naturally curly, and if I wanted children.
‘OK, all you nosy Nellies.’ Flora appeared in the middle of the crowd. Her quiet voice commanded attention. ‘Leave this poor girl alone. She’s got plenty to worry about without you all giving her the third degree.’
The crowd grumbled a little and began to shuffle out the door. I began to breathe a little easier once it was just me and Flora. She rolled her eyes at me.
‘Sorry, they mean well, but usually people just pass through town. We don’t have outsiders who come to stay like this,’ she said. ‘People have to come to stare. It’s like you’re the only clown at the carnival, and they expect you to do tricks for them.’ She shook her head. ‘If they start gathering again, you just holler for me, honey. You’re doing great here.’
I thanked her and she was gone. It was a relief to have quiet in the shop again.
I found a ‘Back in 10 minutes’ sign on a shelf by the front door. I hung it in front of the open sign and locked the door before running upstairs to check on Mitzy. She was curled up on my jacket. Hadn’t I left that hanging in the closet? I shooed her off it, and she moaned as she headed towards the door to be taken outside. I reluctantly found the plastic bags next to the dog leash. I detested the thought of picking up after her, but I was too much of a rule follower to risk defying the sheriff.
Once we were out on the patch of grass, I stood still, closed my eyes, and took a deep breath. I tried to pretend I hadn’t seen Flora from her perch in the window of her bookshop.
‘You can run a pie shop,’ I repeated in my head over and over until I almost believed it.
I held my breath while I picked up after Mitzy. How many times could a dog go in one day? I threw it away and jumped back a little when a cat appeared from behind the dumpster. It had long shiny silver fur and huge bright blue eyes. Mitzy began to hop around like a little jumping bean, barking like crazy.
‘Shh, Mitzy,’ I scolded. ‘Go on, cat.’ I tried to shoo it away so I could get Mitzy inside.
