I had only a week to gather up the cash before the end of the month, or I could guarantee that the three of us would be homeless for real. I was hoping for Elise's modeling money to save the day, but she came at four in the morning and was greeted by two very light sleepers. One was ready to start another round of bickering while the other just waited to prevent it.

Elise was carrying a big box of the Orion SkyQuest Classic Telescope. It looked expensive. It looked like the April rent. I was too frazzled for tact.

"You have to return it!"

"I couldn't do that," said Elise. "This is the last model and the company won't make another one like this again. Besides, it's already a little broken."

"Are you serious?" Karmen said. "How broken?"

"The telescope's fine," Elise reassured us, "but the glass is scratched."

"It's defective!" I cried. "They have to take it back!"

Elise looked vaguely ashamed. "Well, it kind of happened when I dropped it myself."

"Now what?" whispered Karmen desperately.

"She's still our only hope, be nice," I hissed. "Neither of us can come up with fast money like Elise."

"Oh, kill me," said Karmen. "You're asking the girl who went out and blew off $2,000 over a nerdy hobby."

I shrugged lamely and turned to Elise again. I cleared my throat.

"Elise, uh, you wouldn't happen to have any money left, would you?"

"Sure." She took the purse out and a shower of coins hit the floor, along with a few make-up kits and paperbacks. She looked down for a quick count. "On second thought, I'm broke."

"Well, how about that," Karmen said sarcastically.

"Oh wow, Eliska!" I moaned. "We've got kind of an emergency. Our rent is due on Wednesday next week, and we're short more than $1,000."

"I remember I already gave my share of the rent?"

"Uh...the thing is...you know...Karmen was fired from her last job...so..." I said.

"Don't ask her! I would rather eat my shoes," Karmen said.

"Karmen, even if you ate all the shoes in your closet, it wouldn't pay off our rent," I scolded her.

"No need to argue." Elise just shrugged apologetically. "I'm as broke as you guys now."

"I know," I said, shoulders slumped. "What are we going to do?"

Sleep would not come, so I lay awake. Only a miracle could bring us that much cash.

But nothing in the world prepared me for the shock the next morning. Before I got down to open the deli, I told Karmen if my mom called, she should tell her she'd got the wrong number. There was no way I could fake a good mood today.

When I arrived at the restaurant, I found myself in the middle of the wreckage. Broken pieces of the ancient brick and shattered glasses spread on the ground. Inside, the tables and chairs were overturned and scattered in brokenness.

My jaw dropped. Our deli was vandalized! Someone or rather a lot of someones had come at night and did all this. Did I remember to lock the doors? I was too caught up in all the drama between Karmen and Elise last night that I must have forgotten.

"Celie is going to kill me," I whimpered.

I had to sit down as I felt like breathing into a paper bag. As the first rays glinted off the shards of broken glass that lay at the front doors, I watched the Jogging Grandma went out for her morning jog, but the nearsighted old lady still hadn't noticed that anything was out of place. She just muttered about poor street-cleaning. Her cool sneakers that looked brighter than my future crunched over the broken debris.

I went to the kitchen and looked forlornly at everything that was the center of my passion. Luckily, nothing had been broken. It seemed the criminals didn't know what to do with the kitchen stuff or that they had no time. Then the phone rang. I almost jumped out my skin but managed to answer it.

"So, Miss. Kononovich, how's my restaurant?" came Celie's voice.

"Kind of slow this morning," I said, trying to control my voice from the shock. A better answer would have been, "What restaurant?" Or "Can I pay your rent next year?"

"Slow? How slow?"

How could I tell this poor, sick, old woman that she was out of business?

"Don't worry," I said and gave a high-pitch laugh. "Last night it was really hectic."

Understatement.

"You're a good girl, Miss. Kononovich," said Celie. That was the first civil word she'd ever said to me, and for the first time, I hadn't deserved it. I hunger up feeling even lower than before.

Clarice came into the deli half an hour later, and I could hear her gasp perfectly from the front doors.

"Oh my god!" she cried. I was sitting on the counter, which was the only place in the deli that was free from the debris.

"I know," I said dejectedly. "Will you drive me to the nearest cliff where I can jump?"

Clarice stepped over the overturned chair and came towards me. Then she did the most heart-warming thing. She hugged me. Her arms wrapped around my waist and her head rested against my chest. Her blonde hair smelled of some divine perfume that lifted my spirit, but just a little.

"Azra, tell me what happened?"

I told her everything from start to finish.

"At least nobody got hurt," she said and rubbed my back.

"I guess," I mumbled. "But how could I tell Celie this? She's in the hospital. Her deli ruined, and now we have to walk out on her because there's nothing else we can do."

"Sure there is!" Clarice vehemently. "After we report to the police, we can clean this up, no biggie."

I looked at her in disbelief. "There are times when being an optimist is just plain naive. Look at this place! I wouldn't even know where to start!"

Clarice pouted, looking hurt. I wanted to apologize to her, but Ms. McHugh entered. She had been absent for a while because of her poor health, but now she looked a lot better. The former waitress looked around the place and frowned.

"Oh my, is this the same place I worked in?" she said.

~*~

After we reported the vandalism to the police and everything, we sat around the table amidst the mess, having a meeting with Ms. McHugh, Clarice, and my two best friends. The deli was closed for now.

"I bet it's the work of that witch, Monica," Ms. McHugh said, pointing her thumb across the street. "She's the only one who hates Celie as much as Celie hates her."

"We don't know that for sure," Karmen said. "Let's the police work it out. But the insurance company can look into this."

"I don't remember Celie ever got any insurance," Ms. McHugh said.

"Oh well, that's it, looks like we might go home, Azra," Karmen said.

"No! I don't want to go home!" I groaned and dropped my head in my hands.

"Is that serious?" Clarice asked.

"Well, on top of the misfortune today, we're also short of money to pay the rent," Elise explained. "We're most likely to be homeless soon."

"If only you didn't buy that ridiculously expensive telescope," Karmen said.

"And that is my fault you didn't care to keep your job?" Elise shot back.

"Okay girls, this is not the time to fight," I said. "We need to think of something."

"Well yes, but first we need to clear this place," Ms. McHugh said and got up. "No sense keeping these around anymore."

Then with one grunt, she wrenched the entire line of broken booths from their moorings and out of the way.

"Whoa, Ms. McHugh, you're the female Hercules!" Karmen said.

"I've been hitting the gym a lot lately," she said. "The doctor said it's good for my health."

I stared. There! It was that easy! Where the booths had been, lay bare floor, nice and clean. All it took was a little brute strength. I looked at Ms.McHugh and smiled. A lot of brute strength.

Clarice stayed with us to help put things back in order. Just then Karmen's voice came from inside our landlady's apartment behind the deli.

"Hey, everyone, you'd better come in here."

I couldn't stand the suspense. "Just break it to me, Karmen! Will her insurance company cover it?"

"You have to see it to believe it!"

Elise and I joined Karmen in Celie's living room. Clarice and Karmen were standing by a two-drawer filing cabinet that stood amidst the overstuffed Victorian furniture. The grin on my best friend's face was a pure delight. She showed us a file folder three inches thick. On the top was scrawled Insurance.

"She's covered?" I barely whispered.

Karmen shrugged. "Not enough of a magic wand to wave the whole thing anew, but that still helps a lot. The rest we'll have to remodel it."

"We can make use of these cool Victorian goodies," Clarice added, tipping her slender finger on her chin thoughtfully.

"Azra, we got to leave it to you."

"Me?" I said.

"Who else?" Elise shrugged. "None of us know anything about architecture and design."

Clarice looked at me, sort of surprised. And then she smiled. That was it for me. The smile. The second heart-warming thing she did since the whole ordeal started, and just like that all that happened a few hours earlier felt like a hundred fifty thousand years ago.