Big Cherry Holler Read Online Free PDF Page B

and in between, you could count on the Tuckett twins and their cobblers. Now they find it hard to take what they consider “charity.” But it isn’t charity; as far as the folks in town are concerned, it’s payback time.
    Town is busier than usual. The first thing that happens when bad news comes out of the mines is that folks come into town to talk to the businesses where they have credit. Everyone from Zackie Wakin to Gilley’s Jewelers renegotiates their terms in a time of crisis. Barney Gilley often tells his customers that without coal, there would be no diamonds; and without the coal miners, he’d be out of business, so he’s happy to refinance.
    My boss, Pearl Grimes, is sweeping the front walk when I pull into the parking lot of the Mutual Pharmacy. Pearl is a very mature twenty-four years old; if you just met her, you’d swear she was older. She looks polished and slim in a simple taupe A-line skirt and white blouse. Her smock is pressed and tied at the sides in small bows. Fleeta and I also wear the smocks, which Pearl designed, white with an embroidered pine tree on front (a salute to John Fox, Jr.’s
The Trail of the Lonesome Pine
). Pearl has permed her brown hair into a curly ’do, and she uses lots of spray on it. She has grown into her face, once round and girlish, now more chiseled, and she has mastered the art of well-placed rouge, which gives her cheekbones. Her soft brown eyes still have a sadness, but there is also a determination now, which is very attractive.
    As Pearl has transformed, so has the Pharmacy. With Pearl’s cum laude degree in business administration from the University of Virginia at Wise, she has transformed Mulligan’s Mutual from a pharmacy that sold beauty aids to a full-service personal-needs department store. She began by talking to our customers and asking them how she could improve business. Then she goosed the staff (Fleeta permanent,and me part-time since Etta went to school) and set out to make the place more professional. We wear smocks (even though Fleeta rebels by keeping hers untied so it flaps like a vest on a construction worker). No more smoking behind the counter or eating lunch on packing boxes. No more Fleeta chugging back peanuts and Coke while sizing up a customer. No more putting the WE’LL BE RIGHT BACK sign on the door to hit a yard sale.
    Pearl considered every aspect of the business before she made her changes, including ambience. She removed the garish fluorescent tubes installed by Fred Mulligan (the original owner and the father who raised me). “Soft light and music draw business,” Pearl promised. And she was right. Some days we can’t get rid of the browsers. Pearl even thought to stock Estée Lauder cosmetics, which attracted new clients who used to have to drive all the way over to Kingsport for that sort of high-end specialty item.
    Pearl outdid herself with the window dressing this month. In her homage to autumn, she built a papier-mâché tree festooned with leaves spray-painted gold. A mannequin dressed like a farmer (he’ll be Santa Claus come Christmas) holds a rake next to the tree. It’s a simple concept, but Pearl put it over the top by burying a fan in a fake mound of dirt to blow the autumn leaves around. What a scene. It looks so real that Reverend Edmonds, in awe of the artistry, rear-ended Nellie Goodloe as he drove past one morning.
    “I got an idea,” Pearl says as she sweeps leaves into a dustpan.
    “Fleeta and I are not doing a floor show to attract more business.”
    “I’m not entirely sure that would attract business.”
    “Thanks.”
    “I have a better idea. Did you know that there used to be a soda fountain back in the storage room?
    “When I was little, Fred Mulligan closed it. Said it was too much work.”
    “The pipes are still in the wall. And they work. It wouldn’t take much to put in some appliances and reopen the kitchen. We couldserve breakfast and lunch. Keep the menu small at first. The only