Free Big Stone Gap by Adriana Trigiani Page A

Insko.”
    “I don’t care. That ain’t no excuse.”
    “I’m surprised at you, Fleeta. I thought you could see potential.”
    “Honey, there’s potential, and then there’s bullshit dreaming. I think you got a case of the bullshit dreams, if you know what I mean.”
    Fleeta grazes the big feather duster over the vitamins, barely tickling them.
    “What I meant to say was that we could transform Pearl into a great employee if she was trained by a master.”
    “I told you I don’t want to work no more.” Fleeta lights up a cigarette and thinks for a moment. “But if you’re gonna throw away all I done built up here, I’d better rethink my position. All right, I’ll work part-time for ye.” I am so thrilled, I hug Fleeta, who stiffens like a telephone pole. I’ve never hugged her before; we’re both surprised.
    “Three days a week and fifty cents more an hour.”
    “You got a deal.”
    “What? I’m no tail twister?” Fleeta says with a smile.
    “You ain’t no Haystacks Calhoun.”
    “No, I guess I ain’t. But given the right circumstances, I might be able to take him.” Fleeta chuckles to herself.
    Pearl shows up for work the next day in her best outfit: a smock top and eyelet-trimmed bell-bottoms. Her hair is in a low ponytail. She looks neat, but that doesn’t stop Fleeta from eyeing her up and down. Pearl’s work life at Mutual begins with a shipment box haul. Fleeta and I have a system. Fleeta unloads and prices items, I break down the boxes and bring them to the Dumpster behind the store. Fleeta does product placement and displays because that feeds her creative side. She gives Pearl a dirty look when Pearl artfully places shampoo bottles in a shadow-box display. I decide it’s a good idea to separate the two of them during this training period; Fleeta is an old cat with well-defined territories and the claws to protect them. Pearl joins me, already full of suggestions on how to make the box haul a more expeditious process. This kid is smart, and it’s not bugging me.
    “I want to thank you for the job. It’s really gonna help me and my mama out.”
    “I’m happy to have you. And don’t worry about old Fleeta. She’s mean on the outside but marshmallow on the inside.”
    “Not like Tayloe and them girls up to school. They’s mean to the bone.”
    “Ignore them.”
    “I try, but it ain’t easy to hide when you’re the fattest girl in school.”
    “You’re not the fattest girl in school.”
    “I’m pretty sure I am.”
    “No, you’re the girl with the best after-school job.” This makes Pearl laugh as we throw empty boxes into the Dumpster. “Besides, those type of girls talk about everybody. Even each other.”
    “You know what they’re saying about you?”
    “Me? Why would they talk about me?”
    “They say you’re a bastard, that Fred Mulligan wasn’t your father.”
    “People say that?”
    Pearl nods that they do. How naÏve of me. I thought that no one talked about me in that way. I never spread stories, so I figured none were spread about me. But in a small town a good story bears repeating, even mine.
    “Well, Pearl. They’re right.”
    “They are?”
    “Yep. I guess my mama came over from Italy pregnant and Fred Mulligan married her because back in those days you had to get married if you were having a baby. Only thing, my mama didn’t tell me herself; she left it in a letter. I got it after she died.”
    “Aren’t you mad about it?”
    I guess I look off for a long time, because Pearl asks me again. I don’t know how to answer her, because it’s not like me to ever get angry about anything.
    “If I was you, I’d be mad.”
    “You would?”
    “Your mama shouldn’t never have lied to you about your papa.”
    “Well, she did, and there’s nothing to be done about it now.”
    Then Pearl asks me the question that would forever change my life.
    “You gonna find your real father?”
    “My real one?” I ask quietly. The word
real
sounds so