Fitting in

Chapter 34

A wind chime jingled as Winnie pushed open the door to her shop. The two of them had woken up early that morning to bathe, eat breakfast, and pack up wind chimes to be sold today. They had to shovel the driveway, and Brett doubted any customers would be coming in today, but didn’t feel like breaking the news to her grandmother.

“Lay the pieces out on that rack please.” Winnie said pointing to a rack displaying metal chimes. The woman disappeared into a back room while Brett placed the pieces out for customers to see, and was surprised when she heard the chimes jingle signaling the arrival of a new customer.

A round woman dressed in a fur coat, smiled widely at Brett, and asked if she knew where Winnie had gone. Brett stared at the woman, supersized someone had weathered the snow to come buy a wind chime.

“She’s in the back. I’ll go get her.”

Brett called her grandmother who was working on an order in the back, and Winnie came out and embraced the woman as if they were old friends.

“I can’t believe you drove through the snow to get this.” Winnie said handing the woman a white box. The lady opened it up happily and lifted a wind chimes made to look like icicles in the air. She smiled widely, and clapped her hands.

“I would fly across the world to get these. They remind me so much of my days as a child, the drive was worth it.” She said putting the chimes back into the box. The two women embraced again, and Brett was shocked to see another customer come in behind her. People from all over Connecticut were coming in to buy Winnie’s chimes, and Brett wondered what the secret was. At closing time, Brett was exhausted from standing at the cash register, and Winnie was covered in paint and bits of carved wood.

“Why do people like your wind chimes so much?” Brett asked when the two of them were driving comfortably in Winnie’s white convertible. The top was up of course because it had started snowing again.

“The wind chimes are redolent of a time in every one’s past. A good day at the beach, playing the xylophone in music class, they’re a nostalgic piece of art that tends to calm people down. Or at least that’s what I believe.” She said parking the car in front of a small restaurant. Brett followed Winnie inside musing over her theory about wind chimes, and watched as the elderly woman embraced another one of the small town’s citizens. She seemed to be very popular around here, and Brett smiled glad to know her grandmother was doing fine.

“Introduce me to your friend behind you Winnie!” the woman who had hugged Winnie said; she was motioning Brett to come give her a hug, and Brett obliged awkwardly.

‘This is Brett, she’s my grand--” Winnie stopped and looked up at Brett. The old woman hadn’t introduced Brett to anyone in town today yet, and Brett suddenly understood why. She wanted to know if it was okay to refer to Brett as her granddaughter yet.

Brett smiled and reached out her hand, “I’m her granddaughter.” The woman shook Brett’s hand, and her eyes widened. She stared at Brett as if she’d seen a ghost, and looked from Winnie to Brett.

“I didn’t know Gray had a daughter.” She said staring at Brett.

“Neither did I until a couple days ago.” Winnie said patting the woman’s shoulder gently. Brett glanced at her grandma and the woman, and decided she’d wait in the car until the two of them were done talking.

When Winnie finally came back to the car five minutes later, she was holding to cups of something steaming, and had a thermos tucked under her elbow.  Brett turned around to look at her.

“My dad’s name was Gray?” She asked quietly.

“Grayson actually, but Gray seemed to fit him more.” She said starting the car.