The Fair-Weather Friend

Chapter One

Carol

Faith Richards was Detroit’s favorite. A mainstay at the station for five years, she was also a native of a nearby suburb, and that made her all the more endearing.

Faith had left Michigan for college in a neighboring state, worked her way through small television markets ranging from Peoria to Cincinnati, and finally returned triumphantly.

The tagline became a staple every time Faith ended her weathercasts.

(“And that’s a look at our weather. I’m your fair-weather friend, Faith, now back to you, Tom and Veronica…

”) The “Fair-Weather Friend” slogan was so popular it was plastered, along with Faith’s smiling face, on buses and billboards all across the metro.

In Carol’s eyes, Faith was both beautiful and knowledgeable.

Like many, Carol was especially enamored with Faith’s famous “earring forecast.” Faith had a collection of earrings in all colors and hues and in the shapes of clouds, lightning bolts, suns, and stars.

Faith would tell viewers that they could always look at her earrings and know something about the weather.

It was like a game of I spy for Carol, and she would poke her husband, Jim, in the side as they sat in their two easy chairs each night, so close they could hold hands if they wanted to, although they rarely did anymore.

“Honey, she’s got light blue earrings on, it’s going to be a clear sky tomorrow!” Carol would say with a giggle, or “Uh-oh, she’s wearing the big lightning bolts tonight!”

Jim would usually mumble something in return.

It wasn’t that he disliked Faith. Quite the contrary; Jim enjoyed watching her forecasts so he would know whether to bring a raincoat to work.

But he was not a member of the Fair-Weather Friends Fan Club as Carol was.

Those viewers got access via a password to a special spot on the station’s website where they could watch the videos Faith would record each weekday teaching them about weather—different cloud formations or how a tornado starts, for example.

Faith would also talk about vacations she was going on, what she did on her days off, or new earrings she was adding to the collection, and give makeup or styling tips.

Occasionally she would even offer behind-the-scenes peeks at the station.

Carol relished the videos. They were so popular that local stores reported a surge in sales for earrings Faith showed off.

Carol had a pair of cloud earrings that she had asked Jim to get her for Christmas, and she sometimes saw other women around town with ones Faith had worn on TV.

The “blizzard” pair, made out of something resembling fancy cotton balls covered in glitter, were especially popular, as was the “heavy rain” pair of cascading crystals.

Carol would always say “Fair-Weather Friends Fan Club?” to the women sporting these earrings, and they would smile hugely and nod, bonded by their mutual respect for Channel 9’s meteorologist. It made Carol feel a sense of community, something she felt was lacking in their quiet suburb, where most people just kept to themselves, driving to the closest Target, Costco, or Home Depot for their errands or walking their dogs but barely acknowledging the presence of a passerby. You’d be lucky if you got a nod.

This particular Friday Carol had even more reason to feel connected to Faith.

Carol and Jim’s niece, Olivia, had just started interning at Channel 9.

Olivia wanted to work in television news one day and was majoring in journalism at Wayne State University.

Olivia had landed this coveted internship that would have her shadowing various people in the newsroom.

Although unpaid, it was still something Olivia told her aunt and uncle was highly competitive.

Carol and Jim had whooped with joy and taken Olivia out to dinner to celebrate when they found out she was in.

This was the end of Olivia’s first week as an intern, and although Carol had pressed her for a few details after nights one and two, she couldn’t wait to chat over the weekend and get all of the juicy tidbits: What were Tom and Veronica really like?

Was the sports guy, Roger, as tall as he looked on TV?

How did Faith get her hair so silky and shiny?

What did Faith eat for dinner? She had to be a size 6 or less.

Carol could hardly remember being less than a 12 in her own life.

She was a solid 16 now but chalked it up to getting older and the fact that her back hurt too much for strenuous exercise.

Plus, she and Jim enjoyed comfort food and weren’t about to go on some fad diet, and they had been married so long Carol didn’t feel the need to impress anyone with her looks.

Faith had been on the six PM news that Friday wearing bright yellow sun earrings, so Carol already knew the forecast, but she was still ready to settle in and watch the late news top to tail to end her day. Jim was dozing off in his chair next to her.

Carol had a glass of cranberry juice and a bowl of microwave popcorn on the TV tray, the way she liked to end most evenings.

They were in the den, Carol’s favorite room.

She considered it the epitome of cozy. Thick carpet went wall to wall, and a heavy wood hutch handed down from Jim’s mother sat in the corner filled with knickknacks that appealed to Carol.

She favored porcelain statuettes of angels and baby animals as well as souvenirs from trips, her favorite being a rubber Mickey Mouse figurine waving his gloved white hand.

There was also a collection of scented candles on the hutch that had been on discount from the Kohl’s department store where Carol worked.

She would often light one at night. Right now, Spiced Apple Pie was burning and the whole room smelled like a synthetic version of her grandma’s famous pies.

The rest of the den had a fireplace for winter, a ceiling fan for summer, a wood coffee table in the shape of a giant fish that Jim had made years ago in his basement workshop, and framed prints of generic impressionist art on the walls.

They had been on discount when one of those big department stores was closing.

On the hutch were also a few framed photos of their nieces and nephews.

Olivia’s picture was pulled several inches closer to the front than the others, a nod to Carol’s feelings.

But if relatives other than Olivia ever came by, which they rarely did, Carol would slide the pictures to all be even before they arrived.

The space felt safe, like their own little corner of the universe, and it was from here that Carol and Jim watched so many things unfold across the world on the large TV they had splurged on.

Carol and Jim had never had kids of their own.

It just hadn’t been in the cards. They had tried casually for years, never following an ovulation plan or anything, just seeing if the universe handed them a baby, and when it didn’t happen they turned their attention to work, nieces and nephews, and the freedom of a childless life.

Although Carol would never say this to the others, Olivia had always been her favorite.

So smart and capable, with a wickedly mischievous side that Carol admired.

Carol and Olivia grew closer as Olivia got older, especially when Olivia’s mother, Evelyn, Carol’s sister, took off for Europe after her divorce, saying she needed a deep and long soul search. She had been gone for over a year.

In contrast, Carol and Jim felt they got most of the travel they desired by watching reality shows.

The Amazing Race always had exotic locales, and wherever The Bachelor and The Bachelorette were filmed.

Why spend money to see places like Barcelona or Rio de Janeiro when television did such a good job of taking you there? That was their motto.

Carol’s favorite type of show was true crime, such as 48 Hours. If her life had gone another way she might have wanted to be a detective; it seemed so exciting. Instead, she read mysteries voraciously and tuned in to 20/20.

She also watched the news every night, usually both the early and late shows, but sometimes she wondered why she did.

Often, local news just made her feel sad, and if it weren’t for the fact that she liked to be informed, and felt close to the TV anchors because they were in her den every night, she wouldn’t be compelled to take in the nightly dose of bad news.

As the Friday eleven o’clock newscast started and the typical dose of crime stories unfolded one after the other, Carol shook her head and clucked her tongue.

The depressing stories all included reporters delivering grim-faced reports in front of crime-tape.

What a mess America was, she thought, and promised herself never to drive in certain neighborhoods lest she become the next victim of a carjacking, reckless-driving accident, or even shooting.

After the anchors made it through what seemed to be the nightly police blotter of stories, the next story was the blathering of the mayor about some new program he was unveiling to help lower-income families.

Carol wasn’t even fully understanding what it was about.

It didn’t matter; it didn’t affect her anyway.

She was in the suburbs. Even if they had lived in the city, they likely wouldn’t qualify for any such program.

While she and Jim weren’t rich by any means, they were firmly entrenched in what she considered the lower edge of the middle class, a simple ranch home in a working-class suburb, never a worry about paying for groceries but always a calculation when it came to eating out or taking a vacation anywhere farther than a drive or longer than a few nights.