It was routine for me to drag my feet into work, preparing for another tedious day of standing behind a glass case, dusting occasionally, and selling clouded jewelry to the unsuspecting eccentrics who happened to buy “Fine Jewelry” at a department store. I was a sales supervisor, only working the job to pay off some medical bills.

It was a Tuesday when I met Sonny. I remember making funny faces at myself in the glass, waiting for something to rescue me from my boredom when I noticed Veronica, the district manager, speed-walking toward me. Veronica wasn’t much older than me, twenty-four at the most, but she had an anorexic frame that hunched slightly, giving her a delicate look for someone so young. She attempted to conceal her ashen skin tone with a thick coat of make-up including two swooshes of fuchsia blush that pointed from cheek to chin in a severe way.

She began to rant, pointing her finger at one thing, nodding at another. I tried to hold my breath as she spoke. Her scent, a mixture of smoke and patchouli disturbed my stomach. My eyes followed her hand closely as I pretended to listen, saying “Okay,” dutifully whenever her voice broke. As usual, she came, made a list of things for me to do, and addressed me as “the sales person needs to…” ten or more times, then turned on her designer heel. She walked away quickly making a tap, tap, tap on the linoleum.

I was just about to make a mad dash for my morning latte when Veronica turned around sharply and added, “Oh, and you’ll also have some training to do today. I hired additional help. She’ll be in between two and four.” I smiled sheepishly and then looked down as though I were studying the Must Do List she left for me until she was safely out of sight.

It was only around one thirty when the new “she” Veronica had warned me about turned the corner and approached the case. I knew it was her immediately. She was a short, round woman with an outrageous amount of jewelry; it seemed to be weighing her down.

“I’m Sonny. Here to train,” she declared.

“Maria. Nice to meet you.”

I guided Sonny around the case to the entrance. “Come on through here,” I opened the door to the office. I showed her where to put her coat and began to go over the general rules. I asked her why she came here to work. Little did I know, once you get Sonny talking, she doest stop.

“I’m retired. Just looking for an excuse to get away from the house every now and then.”

“Are you married?” I asked, looking down at a platinum and diamond ring.

“Never!” She said quickly, “Never again.”

I couldn’t help but to laugh. “I’ll never get married either.” I thought about my ex-fiancé. The sole reason I was working this job, the bastard.

“You probably will get married!” She laughed. “You know, my ex-husband was a military man. I would make dinner everyday at the exact same time so that it was ready for him when he got home. He would wake me up at o’dark thirty to poach him and egg and fix some toast. No companionship, no conversation, and no tenderness. He acted like it was my job to serve him.”

“Was it always like that?” I asked, ignoring the man circling the cheap watches.

“Kind of,” she looked over at the man too, but continued to talk, “he was different when we were just dating. Once we married, the first thing he wanted was a child. Second, he wanted me to keep the house perfect and then to look a certain way for him. If I gained an ounce of weight, he’d start in on me.”

I felt my lip curl in disgust. He sounded just like Tony. When we first started to date, he was fine, great even. Then slowly he began to change and it was only a month after moving in with him that I ended up in the hospital with two broken ribs. “So why did you stay?” I asked.

“I thought that was what I wanted. Maybe I thought it was as good as it gets. You know sometimes you have to do what it takes to survive. His income was stable and the importance of marriage seemed as important as food for survival back then. That is, for women like me with no education.”

“Can I help you sir?” I asked the man at the watches.

“I just want to know how much that one is,” he pointed to a watch with a blue face.

“Two-hundred dollars,” I said, calculating. That was only two extra dollars commission on my paycheck.

“Thank you,” he walked away and Sonny laughed.

“What’s funny?”

“Watch him walk, doesn’t it look like he has a stick up his butt?”

“There are a lot of people who shop here with that walk. I think it’s epidemic.”

“You’re not kidding. It has taken me a long time to get used to rich people. I guess I’m one of them now, but when I first married my husband we were always just getting by,” she sighed, “that didn’t bother me so much though. I was used to working hard for things, so when I got a family of my own, I figured working hard was just part of the equation. It wasn’t until we had both of my girls that I realized you don’t have to get hit to be in an abusive relationship.”

I thought about Tony, how I knew he was abusive long before he ever hit me. “What made you realize it?”

“My girls. When they got old enough they began to ask me why I let daddy be so mean to me. I think sometimes time just needs to pass and irritation needs to build. You know, women are good at keeping things bottled up.

She began to try on the watches as she spoke. “It really happened one day when I was sick. I had called off work and spent the morning trying to rest. At four o’clock when I usually started dinner for him, I felt horrible and laid around watching TV instead. I was still there, resting and watching the news when he got home.

“’What’s for dinner?’ he said, eyeing the kitchen.

“’You’re going to have to make your own dinner. I don’t feel good,’ I said. What came out of his lips next? You want to guess?”

I shook my head.

“Well, he eyed me up and down and yelled, ‘Get your head out of your ass and fix me my dinner,’ and that was the moment.”

“What a bastard.”

“We’re friends now, but as a husband—you are right. Can you believe I was skinnier than you when I met him?”

I tried to imagine her younger, slimmer, her eyes not encased in wrinkles. I imagined me, if I had married Tony, and been unhappy for years and years. I was lucky he hit me. I got off easy.

Sonny left four hours later that day, knowing little more than she did when she arrived, about the job that is. We talked every shift like that. I learned how she struggled after the divorce, trying to raise two daughters on a factory worker salary. How she worked cleaning up apartments her dentist owned to pay for the caps on her teeth. She went on about her daughter’s love affairs and broken hearts, and how each daughter met her husband.

Sometimes Sonny talked so much that she would stay past her shift. She said I reminded her of herself when she was younger. She knew what it was like to be abused. I told her why I left Tony and moved here to get away from him. How he left me with a heap of debt and a fear of relationships. She watched my face closely as I told my story and hugged me tightly afterwards. I felt comfortable around her.

The day after my confession, Sonny didn’t show up for her shift. She didn’t show up again the next day and I hadn’t heard anything. I got worried. I called Veronica and asked her if she knew anything. “She quit,” was her response. Her voice was harsh.

“I figured that. Did you ever hear from her?” I asked, desperate for some explanation.

“No, not even the decency to call!”

I hung up the phone angrily and began to imagine my friend in some horrible accident, unable to call off.

I put the To Lunch sign up on the glass and bought a bagel which I took outside to eat on the front steps. It was there I thought I saw Sonny for the last time. I recognized her waddle-like walk and bright red, faux fur coat. I yelled to her but she continued to walk across the street and turning a corner quickly. Was she trying to avoid me? I thought maybe I had offended her asking all those questions about her husband.

When I walked back from lunch Veronica was waiting for me. As I reached the glass case, I noticed her looking more serious than usual. She was blocking the doorway into the back where I usually put my coat.

“What’s going on?”

“Look Maria, last Saturday’s inventory showed over three thousand dollars worth of merchandise missing. We have reason to believe that you may have something to do with it.”

“Are you kidding?” I asked, offended. “I’ve worked here for a year and I have never stolen anything in my life. My vacation is coming up, and I would never do…”

She cut me off with the wave of a hand. “We could conduct an investigation but that would involve the police. I think security is being more than generous by offering you an easier way out.” Her dark eyes showed no soul, no compassion. “Our informant just left.”

“Sonny?”

“Yeah, ’Sonny.’ She reported some suspicious behavior her first day and we conducted an unscheduled inventory the week before she started. Luckily for you, she never physically saw you steal anything.”

I felt a piping rush of hot blood surge through my body and to my head. I wanted to break the glass and cut both of them with it. I couldn’t believe it. How could they think I would steal? I took a breath to calm down the pounding in my head, the stress. Something Sonny said came back to me. Her words seemed to take over and a stoic calm washed over me. Smiling politely, I turned away proudly and walked off.

I decided a gas station job would be safer. I knew that I would have to be more careful moving the jewelry now. I had a few of my friends spread out and pawn the jewelry all over the state. Like I said before, the jewelry wasn’t the best quality, but hey, it paid off my medical bills and in the words of my friend, “sometimes you have to do what it takes to survive.”