Greg gave Jim a friendly kiss on the cheek and left. The guilt smothered Jim as the bell clanged against the door of his beloved vintage clothes shop. Warm Georgia air made its way into the store and pointed an invisible incriminating finger at Jim.
Jim occupied himself by organizing the colored jewelry and sorting the 50s dresses by color instead of size. He draped a red feather boa around the Gretta mannequin and a fur cape around Marilyn. He cleaned the glass cases and swept the spotless floor.
The bell clanged again; Jim’s heart sank. He was relieved it was his neighbor, Marian. She was more disheveled than usual. Her black hair was in frizzy knots, her clothes were wrinkled, and her brown eyes were rimmed with smudged makeup.
Jim looked at Marian. “Hi, darlin’. You okay?”
Marian gave Jim a weak smile. “I’m ok. I’m tired.”
He went up to Marian and started to neaten her hair. “Good Lord, Marian. Look at this mess.”
“I know. I was up all night. I had bad dreams until I took a Valium and a shot of Strega. Anyway, the hospital called and asked for me to cover the night shift tonight, and Lou is traveling again. Can you and Gisella take Chloe tonight? I was going to call, but thought that getting out would do me and Chloe some good.”
He glanced out the window to see little Chloe in the green Ford LTD staring into nowhere. Marian was looking at something behind Jim. She nodded to it and smiled.
“What are you looking at, hun?”
Marian refocused on Jim ignoring his question.
“Jim, are you able to help with Chloe tonight?”
Jim looked behind him to see the cash register and an empty chair.
He forced a smile. “Sure, I’d love to help.”
Marian hugged Jim and gave him a kiss on the cheek like the one Greg had just left on him. Jim smelled the remnants of last night’s wine and this morning’s cigarettes.
Jim looked at Marian.“You are going to wash before work, right?”
Marian put her hand in her left pocket and felt around.
She mumbled, “I knew I had it in here.”
Jim said, “What? What did you have?”
Marian stood still for a split second. It was a beat longer than what would be considered socially acceptable. He walked up to her and put his hands on her shoulders.
“Marian, what the hell is going on?”
Marian felt around in her patchwork suede bag. She walked to the register and dumped the contents out. It was like candy dropping from a pinata. Jim surveyed the mess of bobby pins, peppermints, cigarettes, matches, loose buttons, lipstick, and an empty pill bottle. Marian searched among the debris at the bottom of the bag. She pulled out two stray white pills and took them.
Jim said, “What was that? What is wrong with you hun?”
“Nothing, really…I’m sorry. I’m tired. Thank you for taking care of her. I promised to take her to Shoney’s today. I’ll bring her by in a few hours” She quickly turned and left.
Jim’s stomach was in a knot. He had to decide between asking Gisella to watch Chloe, so he could go out with Greg, or cancel with Greg. He was ashamed of accepting the dinner invitation, yet now he was dreading having to cancel. He didn’t want to have to justify to his sister why the hell he was going out with Greg again.
“Damn it to hell. What am I doing?” He mumbled.
He grabbed an assortment of scarves, dresses, and hats and put them in a bag. A dress-up night with Chloe and Scotch sounded like a good plan, but so did dinner with Greg.
Changing the Clouds 