Which got her thinking about her current plan and that tattered black derby hanging inside the store. When did that come in? It looked like something Emmett Kelly would have worn, a little bashed in, old but proud. If it fit it might be perfect.
And what was that term the mysterious man used?
“I know what an independent contractor is,” said Mr. Calhoun, leaning on the counter, looking as if she was trying to sell him a quilting club membership or spring-wound fire alarms.
“So you wouldn’t have to pay me like an employee. I could start out just making tips.”
He looked away from her and took more interest in how things were going in his coffee shop. All around them, McCaffee’s Sandwich and Coffee Shop was in full swing. The coffeemakers were pounding, grinding, and squirting out espressos, lattes, mochas, frappuccinos: his wife, Abby, and their two young employees—Megan with the coffee-stained apron and black curls, Myron with enough rings in his face to hang a shower curtain—were taking orders for coffee and sandwiches and hustling them out to the tables as if their jobs depended on it, which they probably did. “The way I see it, any money you take out of here is money I don’t get.”
“But I might bring in more customers and they might stay a little longer and buy more.”
Mr. Calhoun’s bald head was getting little sweat beads on it. “Look, people come in here to grab a bite and talk business, play some chess, work on their computers. They don’t want to stop what they’re doing and watch card tricks.” One look around the room told that story: the place was noisy with chatting customers, and almost every other table had someone tapping and clicking away on a computer. At one table in the center, two guys wearing their billed caps backward were playing a game of chess. “You used to be the Gypsy, right?”
“I bagged that idea. It didn’t have family appeal.”
“So”—he waved his finger at her new outfit—“what’s this, Charlie Chaplin?”
She’d claimed that tattered and dented derby hat from the thrift store, along with some baggy trousers, an oversize black suit coat, and cloddy shoes. A little makeup to stubble her face, sadden her eyes, and redden her nose completed the character. “Hobett.”
He made a face at her face. “Hobett?”
“A girl hobo.”
“A girl hobo with whiskers?”
She shrugged. “It’s funny. And what’s a hobo without whiskers?”
He granted her half a smile. “Cute.”
“And I do new tricks now.”
He looked around the room again, antsy and preoccupied. “Tell you what, I’ll give you a coffee and muffin, on me. It’s the best I can do for you.”
Sad news. She pouted a clownish pout, but then doffed her hat with a salutary flourish. “You’re a sweetie.”
“I’m telling you no, did you catch that?”
She nodded. “No. I mean, yes, you said no.”
He tapped on his wife as she hurried by. “Abby, give her a muffin and whatever coffee she wants. Hate to see someone go hungry.” Then he turned back to Eloise and aimed his finger at her. “But this is it, all right? You don’t come back, not with this, this hobo thing or any other thing. All right?”
“Yes, sir!”
“All right.”
When Abby came back behind the counter, she was sympathetic. “I think your outfit is really cute.”
“Thank you.”
“What would you like, honey?”
Eloise asked for a blueberry muffin and a sixteen-ounce double-shot decaf mocha. Abby prepared the order herself. Eloise told her, “Thank you so much,” and she really meant it.
“You’re very welcome. Go ahead and take a table.”
She was in a costume for no particular reason now, but this was an artsy kind of place with theater posters on the walls and a musicians/artists/yoga/herbal remedy/colon health bulletin board; looking weird was no big deal. A few folks looked her way, but were immediately satisfied—oh, a hobo. Okay.
She found a table in the center of the room and settled in for a consolatory meal that would end soon enough, but hey, she was going to enjoy it. Her first bite of the muffin was hot, moist, and flavorful; a blueberry burst inside her mouth, spilling its sweetness. The first sip of the mocha topped off the muffin so well she closed her eyes, held it in her mouth, and savored it before swallowing it. This was joy, just enough to close out the talkers and planners, the tapping computers, the chess players, the periodic moan of the front door, and her little dark cloud of disappointment.
When she opened her eyes, she noticed a little girl at the next table sitting in her daddy’s lap and looking at her—not staring, looking. She was four, maybe five, with golden curls in blue ribbons, a blue dress that matched, and big blue eyes. She was munching on a cookie, had crumbs on her cheeks, and must have found Eloise to be the most engaging thing she’d ever seen.
Eloise looked back, drawn to those eyes. The little girl was comfortable with that, so neither thought to look anywhere else. While all around them the talking and tapping, the sipping and chewing, the serving and paying rattled on in isolated clusters, she and the girl visited, getting to know each other without a word. You see me, don’t you, little girl? I’m really here, a somebody. I fit into your world and that’s okay with you.
Eloise smiled, head tilted, and gave the girl a little wave with her fingers.
The child pressed close against her daddy’s chest but never looked away, and she smiled a teeny bit.
Now her daddy was smiling at the exchange as he took a sip from his coffee. Mommy was smiling, too, watching her daughter.
A mommy, a daddy, and a safe and loved little girl. Eloise felt an ache and a warmth at the same time. She could have cried, but something in the little girl’s eyes drove the tears from hers: wonder.
Yes, that was it. Wonder. What Eloise—or Mandy?—used to feel when looking at a flower, cradling a dove chick in her hand, or sitting out on the tractor watching the wispy clouds at the very top of the sky.
Misdirection. Eloise fell into it, just had to do it. She took a long, slow bite from her muffin, drawing the little girl’s eyes to her comical face while her free hand found some quarters in her pocket—props left over from the Gypsy’s fateful day. A quick load and she was ready. She waved a little wave again, but this time a quarter appeared between her first two fingers. She stared in wide-eyed, clownlike astonishment.
“Oh-ohh,” said the mommy.
The little girl stared. Maybe she got it, maybe she didn’t.
Eloise closed her fingers, opened them again, and there was a second quarter between her second and third fingers.
“Where’d that come from?” the daddy asked the girl, and now she smiled as if to say, “Hey, what’s going on here?”
Eloise waved up a third quarter, then vanished all of them, rotating and showing her empty hand. Mommy and Daddy did some quiet little claps. The little girl just watched.
Eloise’s eyes followed an invisible quarter buzzing by. She snatched it from thin air, put it in her mouth, and drew it from her ear.
Clap clap. The girl smiled with one finger in her mouth.
For no more than a second, Eloise wondered if she should be doing this in Mr. Calhoun’s coffee shop when he told her no, but she bumped that thought. This wasn’t a show, this was making friends.
The little girl was watching, expecting.
Eloise set the quarter she’d taken from her ear on the table and flicked it with her finger, making it spin.
The girl craned to see, wide-eyed, watching, munching another bite of cookie.
Wonder. It was beautiful to see.
Make it quick, Eloise.
She shooed the quarter away with a little jerk of her finger and away it went, spinning around the table, circling the salt and pepper shakers.
Now Mommy and Daddy were starting to get wonder in their eyes.
She gestured “come here” with her finger and the quarter came back around and stopped a few inches shy of the table’s edge, still spinning.