Free Shutter by Rhonda Laurel Page A

consider hiring someone to help her out. The only trouble was that she liked working alone. After two near misses in corporate America, she’d dedicated herself to finding a way to be in her own element, out of the stifling feel of the four fabric-covered cubicle walls she swore sent out anti-individuality rays. She talked to her grandmother, who took out a second mortgage on her home, and the rest was history.
    “Nana! Have you gone mad?” she’d asked her dear grandmother when she’d brought her a check for fifty thousand dollars.
    “Heavens no. I have at least ten more years before you’ll have to become executor of my affairs.” Her grandmother chuckled.
    “I can’t let you do this.” Lucy sniffed. “I can’t let you gamble your future on my dream.”
    “I have faith in you, Lucia. I’ve had faith in you since you showed me your first sketch from art class in kindergarten. You have something, sweetie, and even if you doubt yourself, that talent will still be with you. Your mother and father blessed you with their talent. You grew up and made it your own. Follow your dreams. Even if your dreams tell you to fly to the sun. Do it! Go! And if you get too close and the sun burns your wings, you can fall back to earth knowing you tried your best.”
    “I don’t want you to be homeless.” Lucy put her head on her grandmother’s shoulder.
    Nana laughed at her. “And I don’t want you to be unhappy. People spend too much time looking forward to the day when they will be happy. Happiness is today. It is not a collection of tomorrows waiting to be.”
    The first time Lucy turned the key and opened the door of her new shop, the separation of the door from the frame made her feel queasy. Then the door chime sounded and began to play its own unique tune and she felt like she’d found her own little wonderland. The store was bare and there was much work to be done. She had spent three years of her life renovating that store. She’d met some of her closest friends there.
    Felix walked through her door one day and her life changed forever. She lived in color, but he was color. He was a muse in his argyle sweater vest and light pink dress shirt.
    And now she was going to be an employer. She just wanted someone trustworthy to do the bookkeeping while she worked on her pieces. Someone who wouldn’t bore her to death with their mundane problems or rob her blind. She needed someone who knew artists were temperamental and quirky and that their lives went more according to whims than calendars.
    She nervously put the Help Wanted sign in the window that she’d picked up from the hardware store down the street. That sign signaled she was inviting someone to come in and share her dream and that she was willing to accept help when she needed it.
     
    * * *
     
     
    As Antonio and Felix neared the store, both couldn’t help notice that it was packed with people. Lucy was at the register ringing up a sale and looked frazzled. So frazzled, in fact, she had two scarves wrapped around her neck.
    “Looks like we got here just in time,” Felix mused.
    Felix charged in and immediately began helping a customer.
    Antonio went behind the counter and took the chair she was so awkwardly trying to wrap out of her hands. He informed the customer he would load it in the car. Lucy smiled and nodded, giving him a silent thank-you, and went on to the next person in line.
     
     
     
    By seven o’clock, Lucy was finally able to turn the Closed sign over in the window. She let out a big sigh and looked around the store. Surprisingly, things were relatively in their place and nothing was broken. Her two guardian angels were sitting in the antique chairs she’d acquired last week, looking exhausted.
    “I don’t know how to thank you guys.” She beamed.
    “Wine,” Felix cried.
    “Food,” Antonio bellowed.
    Lucy whipped out the menu from a Chinese restaurant down the street and phoned in an order for a ton of food. Then she went into the