Tangled Webs

            by Mary Pinto

 

It was Wednesday afternoon and the store was silent.  A dowdy woman in a mustard colored sweater stood by the entrance, browsing through a shelf of cotton yarn.  She muttered to herself occasionally, but did not asked for help.  That was the way Lily liked customers: self-sufficient and quiet.  Lily preferred sitting at the desk and reading online gossip sites rather than interacting with the people who came through the door.

            The store was small and brightly lit.  Shelves filled the walls, each one holding yarn of every imaginable color and variety, from fuzzy angora to bulky tweed.  There was a section for needles and a separate space for books and patterns.    

“Is Sam here yet?” Charlotte asked, sticking her head out from the storeroom.  Her sensible hair and clothes gave off a comforting, middle-aged vibe to the customers.  Lily’s attire, on the other hand, always seemed to be mildly inappropriate.  Ripped jeans and loud prints were fine for a high school, but were a little out of place in a yarn store.

            “No.  I guess she’s running late.  Maybe she crashed her bike again,” Lily said, her eyes glued to the computer screen.  She took a large bite out of a chocolate croissant.

            “Oh, well.”  Charlotte ducked back into the storeroom.  As the boss, it was her right to hide in the back whenever she wanted.  With four kids under ten and a business to run, sometimes she needed a little time to herself.  Lily didn’t mind; it gave her more freedom.

            The woman in the mustard sweater approached the desk, clutching two skeins.  Lily wiped the sneer that seemed to be her neutral expression off her face.  It wouldn’t do her any good to scare the customers.  Her talents lay less in social interactions and more in organizing the store.  She had a flair for making even the most disastrous display look beautiful.  Lily rang up the items and handed the woman a small paper bag emblazoned with the store’s logo. 

            “Have a nice day,” Lily said.  She peered at the clock.  Two and a half hours until closing.  She swallowed the last bite of croissant just as Sam ran into the store.

            “Hey, Lily.  Sorry I’m late,” Sam said, taking a seat next to Lily behind the desk.  She peeled off her sopping raincoat and shoved it in a drawer.  The coat was yellow with a ladybug pattern, unusual for a nineteen-year old to wear.  Customers often mistook Sam and Lily for sisters.  They had the same dark blond hair and pointy features, but Sam had much more of a “rainbows and sunshine” mentality.

            “Cookie?” Sam pulled a small, white bag out of her pocket.  “They’re shortbread.  From Dan.”            

“Thanks,” Lily broke off a piece of a star-shaped cookie, “Once again, I’ve gotta point out how great it is that you’re dating the manager of a bakery.  I could get used to free baked goods.”

“Looks like a slow day,” Sam remarked, glancing at the empty store. 

“Yeah.  But at least you’re here to entertain me now.  So, how’s life?” Lily asked.

“Not bad.  My classes are good.  Oh, and my family, Dan, and I went to the beach this weekend.  It was so much fun,” Sam gushed.

Lily’s eyebrow went up.  “Are your parents really not weirded out by your thirty-five year old boyfriend?”

“No.  They like him,” Sam suddenly leaped up and clapped her hands, “Let’s do some restocking!”  Lily smiled, wondering how it was possible that Sam was the older one.  They chose a shelf that was clearly in need of help and began pulling the balls of yarn out and organizing them on a table in the center of the store.  Lily tried to discreetly rearrange the color combinations Sam was putting together.  As an employee of only two months, Sam had yet to fully understand the intricacies of organizing.          

           

The store was slow again the next day.  Lily came in right after school, and as soon as she put her backpack down, Charlotte practically ran into the storeroom with nothing more than a “Howareyou?  I’lljustbeinthebackforabit.”  Sam came in a few moments later with mere seconds to spare until three.  She had traded her ladybug raincoat for duckling rain boots.

“What’s up, Lily?” she asked.  Her long hair was pulled up into a tight bun that she kept smoothing down with her hands. 

“Nothing much.  I’m pretty boring.  What’s up with you?”  Lily said, trying to scrape a trail of chocolate off the leg of her jeans.  Someone must have spilled chocolate on the chair in the morning.

“Not much either.  Except that yesterday, my friend mentioned something about seeing Dan and I kissing outside a coffee shop.  But we totally weren’t.” Sam said, her forehead creased, “Do you thing he’s cheating on me?”

“Of course not, Sam.  It was probably just two strangers.  If your friend thought the girl was you, she must have thought some random guy was Dan.”  Lily patted Sam’s leg.  It seemed to reassure her a little.

“You’re right.  I’m being crazy.  Would you mind if I went over to say hi to him for a sec?” Sam asked.  She made puppy-dog eyes.

“No, go ahead.  I think I can handle the rush,” Lily said, referring to the two people browsing.

“Do you want anything?” Sam asked, “A cookie or something?”

“No, I’m good.”

“Did you just have a lemon bar?” Sam said, sniffing.  She moved her nose uncomfortably close to Lily’s shirt.

“Um…no.  Maybe someone who was working earlier had one.”

“Well, you kinda smell like one.  No offense.”  Sam grabbed her jacket and quickly walked out of the store.  Lily reached down and pulled a corner of her t-shirt to her nose.  No lemon.

 

Lily was late the next day.  There had been a rush of customers in the morning, but things had slowed down once she arrived.  She and Nina, an outgoing woman with a loud infectious laugh, could more than handle the slow trickle of people.  Even though Nina was in her forties, Lily found she could talk to her freely and openly.  Nina only worked only because she was bored by a life of just leisure.  Her husband made enough money to support their very comfortable lifestyle on his own, but she enjoyed the store and the other employees.  With her blond hair and youthful appearance, Nina was occasionally asked if she was related to Sam and Lily.  

“I wonder where that Sam is,” Nina said, showing Lily the best photos on badplasticsurgery.com.  “She’s probably over at the bakery with that boyfriend of hers.”

“Did you know he’s thirty-five?” Lily asked, leaning toward Nina conspiratorially.  A long strand of hair fell over her face. 

            Nina gasped, “Really?  Wow.  I didn’t think he was that much older than her.”  She frowned.  “That doesn’t seem okay.”

            “I know, right?  And her parents are fine with it!”  Lily said, wiping a patch of white powder off the small of Nina’s back. “You’ve got something on your shirt.”

            “I wonder what that could be,” Nina said, turning her neck to see it.

“Anyway, I was so surprised to hear that he’s so old.  Do you think he’s the reason she came back from college?  Sam told me that she just didn’t like her school, but she was there for less than a month.  I bet he’s the reason.  Of maybe she just couldn’t hack it.”  Lily guessed.  As she predicted, Nina was immediately swept into the gossip frenzy.

            “College is hard.  She was probably just homesick.  But it could be Dan too.  He’s so nice.  I can’t believe he can date someone 16 years younger than him.  It’s always the old guy taking advantage of the young girl.”

            “Hi.  Can you help me find this kind of yarn?”  A woman at the desk handed Nina a pattern.  Nina stood up and left Lily alone at the desk.  She came back from the storeroom carrying a half-filled bag of purple cotton. 

            “Hey Lily, can you search for this yarn on the computer?” Nina asked, looking troubled.

            “We should have twelve balls left.” Lily announced, scrolling through the inventory list.  Nina emptied the yarn on the desk and counted them.

            “Seven.  There were fourteen balls in the bag a couple days ago.  I sold two, so there should be twelve.”  Nina apologized to the customer, explaining that they didn’t have the ten balls she needed for a sweater.          

            “Oh well, another disappearance in crazy yarn world.” Nina said, glumly plopping back into the chair. 

            “Wow, Sam is really late.  Even for her.” Lily said, taking a break from critiquing celebrities’ clothes online to look at the clock.  “We close in ten minutes.”

            “That girl,” Nina said.  Her phone rang loudly.  “I’ve gotta take this.  It’s my husband.”  She stepped away from the desk to confirm that she was meeting a friend for dinner and didn’t need a ride home.  Lily noticed a bag of cookies on the desk and helped herself to one.  They were undoubtedly sent by Dan for Sam, but if Sam wasn’t here…

            Nina slipped her cell back into her purse and started to tidy up the desk.  Lily flipped the sign to read “Closed.” 

            “All set?” Nina asked, turning the lights in the back off.  They both gathered their bags and jackets and stepped outside. 

Lily waved goodbye to Nina and began walking down the street toward her house.  Nina paused in front of the store until Lily was no longer visible.  She pulled a tube of lipstick out of her bag and leisurely spread it across her lips and started in the opposite direction from Lily.  She saw Dan standing in front of the dark bakery. 

            “How’d it go?” she asked.

            “Without a hitch.  No one will suspect a thing.  Oh, and here’s the leftover.  I thought you might want it.” Dan pulled a ball of purple yarn out of his pocket.  “I didn’t need very much.  Now, how ‘bout that dinner I promised you?”  Smiling, he reached out to hold her hand.