"I'm sorry," she said, "I don't shake hands. Don't think me impolite, please. I have arthritis." She set the Tupperware container on the nearest glass case and raised her hands, which were encased in kid-leather gloves. There was nothing freakish about them, but they were clearly misshapen, the left a little more than the right
There were women in town who thought that Polly was actually proud of her disease; why else, they reasoned, would she be so quick to show it off? The truth was the exact opposite. Though not a vain woman, she was concerned enough about her looks that the ugliness of her hands embarrassed her. She showed them as quickly as she could, and the same thought surfaced briefly-so briefly it almost always went unrecognized-in her mind each time she did: There. That's over. Now we can get on with whatever else there is
People usually registered some discomposure or embarrassment of their own when she showed them her hands. Gaunt did not. He grasped her upper arm in hands that felt extraordinarily strong and shook that instead. it might have struck her as an inappropriately intimate thing to have done on first acquaintance, but it did not
The gesture was friendly, brief, even rather amusing. All the same, she was glad it was quick. His hands had a dry, unpleasant feel even through the light fall coat she was wearing
"It must be difficult to run a sewing shop with that particular disability, Ms. Chalmers. How ever do you manage?"
It was a question very few people put to her, and, with the exception of Alan, she couldn't remember anyone's ever asking her in such a straightforward way
"I went right on sewing full-time as long as I could," she said
"Grinned and bore it, I suppose you'd say. Now I have half a dozen girls working for me part-time, and I stick mostly to designing
But I still have my good days." This was a lie, but she felt it did no harm, since she told it mostly for her own benefit
"Well, I'm delighted that you came over. I'll tell you the truthI've got a bad case of stage fright."
"Really? Why?" She was even less hasty about judging people than she was of judging places and events, and she was startled-even a little alarmed-at how rapidly and naturally she felt at home with this man she had met less than a minute ago
"I keep wondering what I'll do if no one comes in. No one at all, all day long."
"They'll come," she said. "They'll want a look at your stockno one seems to have any idea what a store called Needful Things sells-but even more important, they'll want a look at you. It's just that, in a little place like Castle Rock-",-no one wants to seem too eager," he finished for her. "I know-I've had experience of small towns. My rational mind assures me that what you've just said is the absolute truth, but there's another voice that just goes on saying, 'They won't come, Leland, oohhh, no, they won't come, they'll stay away in droves, you just wait and see.' "She laughed, remembering suddenly that she had felt exactly the same way when she opened You Sew and Sew
"But what's this?" he asked, touching the Tupperware container with one hand. And she noticed what Brian Rusk had already seen: the first and second fingers of that hand were exactly the same length
"It's a cake. And if I know this town half as well as I think I do, I can assure you it will be the only one you'll get today."
He smiled at her, clearly delighted. "Thank you! Thank you very much, Ms. Chalmers-I'm touched."
And she, who never asked anyone to use her first name on first or even short acquaintance (and who was suspicious of anyone realtors, insurance agents, car salesmen-who appropriated that privilege unasked), was bemused to hear herself saying, "If we're going to be neighbors, shouldn't you call me Polly?"
3
The cake was devil's food, as Leland Gaunt ascertained merely by lifting the lid and sniffing. He asked her to stay and have a slice with him. Polly demurred. Gaunt insisted
"You'll have someone to run your shop," he said, "and no one will dare set foot in mine for at least half an hour-that should satisfy the protocols. And I have a thousand questions about the town. "So she agreed. He disappeared through the curtained doorway at the back of the shop and she heard him climbing stairs-the upstairs area, she supposed, must be his living quarters, if only temporarily-to get plates and forks. While she waited for him to come back, Polly wandered around looking at things
A framed sign on the wall by the door through which she had entered said that the shop would be open from ten in the morning until five in the afternoon on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays, and Saturdays. It would be closed "except by appointment" on Tuesdays and Thursdays until late spring-or, Polly thought with an interior grin, until those wild and crazy tourists and vacationers arrived again, waving their fistfuls of dollars