["It was the best of times, it was the worst of times"]

The sun beat on the storefronts harshly, and August played chicken with the
entire town and won ever y time, never swerving until well into September
when the heat finally broke. Every passing car left a glaring fragment of
sun burned into your retinas. You could avoid the worst of it if you stayed
on the shaded side of the street, though then you felt the reflection of
every passing car, the momentary heatwave and dazzling light.


John stopped in front of a building with paper over the windows, even the
inset doorway, yielding no hint as to what its contents were or would become
to the passing world. Taylor followed quietly, even standing in that
shadowed doorway felt like stealing a moment in a place one had no right to
be.

John just stepped inside without a second glance, and pulled Taylor after
before the cool air inside could escape into the heat of day.

It was dark, especially after the blinding August afternoon. No light was
on, leaving just the light coming through the brown paper covering the
windows like a thin veneer of mud.

Taylor breathed a sigh of relief in the cool air.

Their eyes slowly adjusted and came to focus on half-assembled racks, and
smelled the familiar smell of fabric not yet washed, the starches and sizing
leaving a slightly acrid flavor to the air, just like Taylor's grandma's
sewing room. 

The clutter was different, though, this the busy piles of commerce, chromed
clothing racks and sensible shelving stacked this way and that, and bags of
hardware scattered about among the piles.

"Hey, Taylor! John! Come on in. I didn't hear you come in!"

Emily bounded up some stairs and into view, carrying a light on the end of
an extension cord.

"Still no electricity downstairs?"

"No, but I think we've almost figured it out. All the fuses were burned out
by something they did when they tore down the back half of the shop. Maria's
sent me out to the store twice for another fuse.

Lights came on above them and Maria poked her head up from the stairwell.

"Hey, guys! I think I finally got it!"

Her curly hair was covered in cobwebs, what wasn't covered by her blue
bandana,  and every part of her from hair down to her coveralls was covered
in gypsum dust, but she was grinning.

"I never thought I'd be learning how to be an electrician, but here I am. I
just thought I was going to run a cash register."

"It's coming along nicely!" John was eyeing every part of the room,
obviously trying to take in everything that had changed. "They really didn't
leave you with anything, did they?"

"Nah, but that's okay. The pharmacy was horrible. Dingy and dark. The whole
place needed a do-over."

Taylor fiddled with a knob sticking out of some shelving units. There was a
crash. Taylor stepped back quickly, hiding in the ever-present hoodie and
watched the tips of the beat-up high tops intently.

"It's okay, Taylor. We haven't figured out how to get that one to stay
together yet. Emily's not even sure we have all the parts."

Taylor looked up from the shoes for a moment and then resumed fiddling with
the shelves.

"Anything I can help you with? Fetch for you?" John was doing what he did
best, not actually doing anyone's work for them, but always looking for ways
to be able to work better.

"Nah, that's okay. Emily just got back from the hardware store again."

Another crash from where Taylor stood and Taylor hid in the hoodie again. "I
almost had it! I got the first few!"

The shelves that had been lying in a heap a few moments before were
half-assembled.

"How'd you do that?" Emily was watching carefully.

Taylor shrugged.

"When do you think you'll be open?"

"We have a break on the rent until September 15th. I hope we make some money
before that." Maria cheerfully started arranging something on the counter.

"Taylor, you did it!" Emily squealed. "We've been trying to get that shelf
together for a week."

Taylor shrugged and hid in the hoodie again.

----

The store started coming together. Taylor started coming over earlier and
earlier, finding new reasons to leave the house on an errand and hiding out
in the doorway until Emily or Maria showed up with a key, and every day
coming home covered in gypsum dust and grime, always amazed that a place
that they cleaned up so thoroughly could have that much dirt every time. 

Emily unpacked bookbinding equipment and boxes of paper, and boxes of
journals that she'd bound all summmer at home, arranging them on shelves and
tables just so, then changing her mind and re-arranging it again and again.

Maria arranged skeins of yarn and bolts of fabric on shelves, then would
find a box of things she'd missed or a hole she'd not managed to fill and
re-arranged again. 

Taylor fidgeted with whatever pieces of hardware were left about. Today, it
was a pile of heavy copper wire and some nuts and bolts. Taylor twisted them
into shapes, and wrapped the wire around parts.

Emily looked up from the latest re-arrangement and Taylor held up what
looked like a man walking a dog, made out of wire.  She grinned and kept
working.

----

A few days after September started, they finally got the store open. Emily
started to re-arrange one more time, then stopped herself and put what she'd
started back. The cash register had a stack of crisp bills.