Providence by Lisa Colozza Cocca Read Free Book Online Page A

I licked the last crumb off my finger, I decided money talk could wait until closing.
    “You have this great big picture window in the front of the store. Why don’t you have a display in it?” I asked.
    “Because you didn’t put one there yet,” she laughed. “You’re the artist here.”
    No one in my whole life had ever called me an artist before. I got right to work. I washed that window inside and out. There must have been three years of dust and dirt built up. I laid out a red, white, and blue quilt and placed a picnic basket and some red dishes on top of it. I cleaned up an old blue bike and put red, white, and blue ribbons streaming from it. I finished the window off with a few patriotic-looking outfits, and I hung some matching curtains in the background. When I was done, Rosie stepped out onto the sidewalk to get the customer’s view of my handiwork.
    “Why, it looks just like a storefront from a movie,” Rosie said. “The customers will be lined up out the door.” She seemed so pleased that I hated to raise the subject of money. But I just had to. It was closing time, and I didn’t know what I’d do once my money ran out.
    “Rosie, you’ve been so kind to me, to us, that I hate to say anything,” I began. “But this little girl goes through a lot of food and diapers, so I was hoping I’d get paid today.”
    “Where’s my head?” Rosie laughed. “Thank you for reminding me.” She hurried over to the register, which of course was empty. “Oh dear, I’m afraid I don’t have any cash in the drawer. I know what to do. You have that window looking so pretty on the inside. How about we decorate the outside, too?”
    I was failing to see how that was going to solve my money problem.
    “I have flags and streamers at home. Why don’t you come over tomorrow for dinner? You can help me get those things out of the attic and I can pay you. I always keep cash on hand at home,” Rosie said as she wrote down her address and drew me a little map. “I go to church in the morning, and you’re welcome to join me there, too.”
    I stared at that paper, wondering if Rosie really intended to pay me for my work. “Thank you for your invitation to dinner,” I finally said. “Georgia and I will be pleased to join you.”
    After closing up, Rosie stood on the walk admiring the window again. “Well, if you aren’t the luckiest thing to happen to me in a long while, I don’t know what is. I didn’t know I was hiring a window artist when you walked in my store.”
    I’m sure my cheeks turned as red as Baby Girl’s hair. My folks weren’t prone to lavishing kind words on me. As Daddy always said, “Put praise in my pocket. Compliments won’t buy me a new pair of shoes.” He surely lived by that. I don’t remember him ever praising me, Mama, or anyone else.
    “Which way are you headed today?” Rosie asked. “The library is closed by this time on a Saturday.”
    Shook by the change in schedule, I didn’t answer at first. It was too dangerous to try to sneak into that porch in the daylight. “I need to run up to the market for diapers,” I said. “Then I’m off to the Super Suds. After that I’ll probably stretch out with a good book.” I bit my lip and silently vowed to curb my rambling tongue.
    Rosie laughed. “You and your books,” she said. “I’ll see you both tomorrow.”
    As I watched Rosie walk down Main Street, it was her words that came to mind, not Daddy’s. “Some folks are never strangers; they’re friends right away.”
    Rosie had put her faith in me. Now, it was my turn to put my faith in her.

CHAPTER 8
    I woke up to the familiar
plop, plop, plop
. It had become a part of our morning routine, just like packing up all of our belongings. Our bags got a little fuller each day, because Rosie kept slipping new baby things in them. I was afraid the heavier our bags got, the lighter my pay would be.
    I wasn’t sure where we were going to go that morning. The night before, I had