Ping’s ceramic store was gone. Crews had cut huge holes from the exterior walls of the building, framed them with aluminum and mounted sheets of glass over the entire front and sides of the establishment. Inside, all the walls had been removed and the old retail shelves were gone. Carpenters pounded away walling off the kitchen in the back from the customer area where new counters and lit display cases had already been installed. The space already looked more like a bakery than the retail ceramic-tile-and-fixtures business it had been.
Sam, wearing a blue Woody Woodpecker T-shirt, looked up from a counter and waved. “Hey, Mara. Ping is in the back. Just go through there.” He pointed toward a wide opening in the wall behind the counters.
Mara nodded at the inside of his forearm, to an ill
