Free Home Improvement (A Pajaro Bay Short Story) by Barbara Cool Lee

Home Improvement
    (A Pajaro Bay Short Story)
     
    Barbara Cool Lee
     
    First .Mobi (Kindle) Edition Published by Pajaro Bay Publishing at Amazon.com
    © Copyright 2013 Barbara Cool Lee
    ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
     
    ISBN 9781939527219
     
    No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.
     
    This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
     
    For more information contact [email protected]
     
    ~*~
     
    Tuesday, March 12, 4:30 p.m.
    Bluebird Cottage, Pajaro Bay
     
    Widow.
    The word echoed all around her in the empty little cottage.
    Kim Bishop took off the black wool blazer she'd worn for the funeral and carefully laid it over one of the kitchen chairs. Bryce's toolbox sat on the floor in the corner, still open where he'd last left it.
    Kim went over and picked up his hammer.
    She was a 27-year-old widow with a broken-down house, a big insurance settlement, and everything she needed to live a wonderful life.
    Except the man who had been her best friend, her confidant, her one true love.
    Kim threw the hammer at the wall. It bounced off the plaster, leaving a beautifully symmetrical hole behind.
    The tears came then.
    She went over and picked up the hammer. As hard as she could, she hammered at the wall, again and again, until the plaster came raining down and covered the floor, covered her black dress, covered her hair and her tear-stained face.
    When she was finished and the wall was nothing but a hole framed by rotting boards, she stepped back and surveyed what she'd done.
    All around her drifted clouds of plaster dust. She sneezed.
    The sneeze and the tears combined to make her hiccup.
    What had Bryce always said? Hold your breath through a hiccup and it'll stop.
    She tried that—hard to do while sobbing. But she held her breath until she felt the hiccup rise up in her throat. She swallowed hard.
    Sure enough, no more hiccup. Bryce had been right about so many things.
    She looked around the tiny cottage.
    But he was wrong about this.
     
    ~*~
     
    Saturday morning, October 26th
    The Surfing Puggle, Pajaro Bay
     
    Kim was drowning in pink. Fuchsia mohair vests. Mauve fisherman's sweaters with faux-fur collars. Blush-colored pajamas with matching bathrobes. She continued to pull more clothes out of the delivery boxes, fold them, and place them on the store shelves.
    "Rain boots?" she finally said in exasperation when she found a layer of tiny shoes at the bottom of the box. "You've gotta be kidding me."
    Jasmine looked up at her from her position behind the counter and laughed. "You'd be surprised."
    Her friend Jazz matched her name. Round and bubbly, with ever-changing hair (Clairol Malaysian Cherry this week), rose tattoos winding up from each wrist, and a wild wardrobe to match, Jazz seemed to dance through life with a perpetual grin.
    Kim knew her own ash-brown hair, conservative clothes, and minimal makeup helped her blend into the shadow of her flamboyant friend, but she was fine with that. Kim had never been the most eye-catching person in any room, especially one filled with Jazz's overwhelming presence.
    Kim looked down at the box and picked up one of the tiny pairs of shoes. "Ladybug boots, Jazz? I mean, really. This is too much."
    Jazz just laughed at her again. "Oh, Arrow," she called in a sing-song voice. "Booties!"
    A brown miniature poodle in a puppy cut came running from the back. "Boots!" Jazz repeated, and Arrow rolled over obediently and presented her paws. In a minute, the dog was strutting around the store in the tiny red rubber boots with ladybugs printed all over them.
    "Walk the runway, Arrow!"
    The pup pranced down the main aisle of the shop, lifting her paws in a happy dance