This is the second instalment of Clouds Behind the Moon by Olivia Hides - catch up on previous chapters here: one
Be yourself, I thought as I opened the glass door to the shop. The jingle of a bell sounded, alerting Sam to my presence.
Sam’s Stupendous Store was located on Silvermill Street and sat along a cramped shopping strip. Butterfly Café, Everything Electronics, Clear Mountain Island Tourist Information, Alexis’s Salon, CM Supermarket and the local vet clinic where June worked all crowded the small street.
Sam had a small physique, with an impressively full head of hair for a man over sixty. Grey stubble framed his square jawline. He leaned heavily on his wooden cane, his fingers gripping tight as he shuffled out from behind the front counter.
‘Val, you are right on time. Welcome to the Stupendous Store!’
‘Thank you, Sam, for this opportunity.’
‘Nonsense, Val! It’s the least I can do for your grandma. Now, is Val short for Valarie?’
‘Valentine actually.’
‘Beautiful name! I’m a Samuel myself. Would you prefer Val on your name tag?’
‘Sure. Everyone calls me Val.’
‘Wonderful,’ Sam said. He flashed a full set of pearly pointed teeth in a smile. ‘Let’s get you started then.’
The morning passed without a customer. Sam had given me a dark brown vest and a lanyard with my name tag dangling from the end, followed by a tour of the square shop. It was divided into four categories; women’s, men’s, children’s and homewares. The shelves were bursting with stock: it looked like Sam was preparing for the apocalypse.
We’d spent a while going over how to use the cash register, which was the first thing you saw when you walked through the front door. This allowed Sam to keep a careful eye on who entered and exited, in case anyone had ‘sticky fingers’. Sam seemed proud to show me the register’s overly complicated process – I didn’t want to tell him that I’d managed to catch on to the old tech in the first few minutes.
Just before lunchtime, a young man around my age opened the shop door. He was the typical tall, dark and handsome type. In the tradie uniform, he was what my grandmother would have called ‘a man’s man’. The bell attached to the glass door rang out and Sam came from the back room to greet him.
‘Bruce. Come in, come in. I want you to meet Val, my new employee. Val, this is my pride and joy, Bruce,’ Sam announced, ushering the two of us closer together. ‘Val’s joined our little community.’
Bruce smiled and I immediately didn’t like him.
‘Nice to meet you Val,’ Bruce said, extending a hand. His touch was warm and slightly clammy, but it was his crushing grip that made me flinch.
‘You too.’
‘What’s a girl like you doing in a small town like this?’ Bruce asked, leaning against the front counter. I couldn’t help but cringe. So, it’s going to be like that.
‘My grandmother died,’ I said, as bluntly as I could. Bruce straightened.
‘You must be Nancy’s grandkid.’ Bruce’s attention fixated on his father. He ran a hand through his thick hair. ‘Dad, we doing lunch or what?’
‘Oh yes, yes. Let me just grab my bag from the back. Val are you going to be okay in the store on your own?’
I looked around at the empty shop and nodded.
‘Nice meeting you, Sal,’ Bruce called out over this shoulder, opening the front door with such vigour that the bell hammered violently against the glass.
‘You too, dickhead,’ I muttered.
As the door shut behind the duo, a hot wind caught in the doorway, picking up dust and dead fronds from the baby palm trees that lined the street, wedging them between the door and its frame. Before I could move from behind the counter to pick them up, a woman dressed in a singlet and shorts swung the door open.
‘These bloody palms are so annoying. I get them in our shop all the time.’ She picked up the leaves in the doorway and folded them in half. ‘You got a bin? If I chuck ‘em back out there, they’ll just end up right back in here when the wind picks up again.’
‘Yeah, I’ll take them from you.’ I grabbed the palm fronds from her, noticing how sharp the dead leaves were in my hands. ‘Where abouts do you work?’ I asked.
‘Tourist Information. You’re new. I’m Eleanor.’
‘Val,’ I said, throwing the leaves in the bin by the cash register. They sprung up from their fold, unable to be contained by the plastic can. ‘Welcome to Sam’s Stupendous Store.’
‘Ha. You’re a natural. Bet Sam’s glad to have the help. He’s a great guy. A real treasure to our little community,’ Eleanor said. The way she smiled made me think she was genuinely fond of the old man. She leant against the counter and, with ease, grabbed a handful of toffee sweets from a tiny ceramic bowl Sam had hidden behind the register.
‘Yeah, he seems like a nice guy. He was a friend of my grandmother, Nancy.’
Eleanor stopped smiling and nodded solemnly.
‘Yes, yes. Nancy is deeply missed.’
I didn’t know what to say, so I just nodded as well. I looked out the front windows. The wind was still moving at a rapid speed; I jumped slightly as a rogue palm frond flew past the window before getting caught around a pedestrian sign. I turned back to Eleanor, who appeared to be assessing me with a serious expression; a drastic change to her light-hearted introduction mere seconds before. Her eyes were so dilated they looked black.
‘Everything okay?’ I asked. Eleanor twitched and beamed aggressively at me.
‘Just peachy.’
~~~
‘You’re being dramatic.’
June and I were having lunch together. We had bought two fresh sandwiches from the Butterfly Café next door to the Vet. I was glad that the fast food bigwigs hadn’t gotten their grubby hands on this island yet, though it was probably only a matter of time. We were sitting under an umbrella outside the café, though the warm wind was causing the pole to bang against the metal table. I had finished my sandwich and was picking apart a dead flower in my hands, one petal at a time. I should stay here. I should stay here, not.
‘No, no. June I’m not … for once. You should have seen her. It was weird. She like flipped a switch or something. Her personality was one way and then it was another.’
‘Can you keep your voice down please?’ June replied.
‘Why?’ I looked up from my little flower pile.
‘Because,’ June said through clenched, smiling teeth, ‘this is a small community, with only one shopping strip.’
I looked to our left and saw an elderly couple eyeing the two of us off. Guilt trickled over me and I cringed.
‘Well. Whoops,’ I said. June had a giggle.
‘Maybe she was just being friendly, and you’re being paranoid?’
‘Maybe.’
‘You don’t sound convinced.’
I sighed, knowing I definitely sounded paranoid.
‘Maybe I just didn’t realise how nervous I was for my first day.’
The sun had shifted slightly in the sky, hitting my right shoulder. I still wasn’t used to wearing sunscreen every day and knew immediately that my shoulder was getting burnt. I shifted in my seat a bit more to reach the shade.
‘Look,’ June continued, wiping her lips with a napkin, ‘I think we’re still getting used to this town. It’s normal to feel out of place at first. It’s a lot to take in, I know.’
‘Yeah, you’re right,’ I said.
‘As always,’ June replied and started laughing. ‘Oh, by the way, Sam and two of the other council members… oh shit, what are their names again? Cyrus and Bea! Yeah, they came into my office just before lunch. We’ve been invited to a coronation for new town members.’
‘Jesus,’ I muttered under my breath, but June didn’t hear me.
‘It’s supposed to be some sort of community initiation,’ June said.
‘Community’s a word thrown around a lot here, huh?’
‘Don’t be mean, Valentine.’ But June smiled anyway.
‘If you’re going, then I guess I’m going,’ I sighed.
‘That’s the spirit. Mark it in your calendar. It’s next week, the 14th. They specifically hold it the day before the new moon.’
‘Sure, cause that’s not weird at all.’
Clouds Behind the Moon is written by Olivia Hides and will be published serially throughout the year.