right. Not a word to your brother. Now tell me all about your job.”
“There’s not a lot to tell. I answer the phone, schedule appointments, check in patients, that sort of thing.”
“It sounds very…busy,” her mother said brightly.
“It’s busy, all right, but repetitive. If you don’t hear from me again you can assume I’ve died of boredom…or else run off with a veterinary pharmaceutical salesman. Don’t laugh. That’s what the last receptionist did and I’m beginning to understand why. It was a lucky break for me, though, since Doc Allison was desperate and I was the only applicant.”
“I see. Well, your father always says you have to start somewhere.”
“He also says things like ‘A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.’”
“True.” She paused a few seconds. “Olivia?”
“Yes?”
“Now that we have the forced good cheer out of the way, how are you really?”
Olivia sighed. “You’re good, you know, very, very good…even over long distances.”
“I know. I’ve had considerable practice. Let’s hear it.”
“Off the record?”
“Of course.”
“I’m miserable, that’s how I am. First I couldn’t find a job, then when I finally found one—waiting tables at the local diner—they made me wear this hideous uniform with a pink ruffled apron—you know how I feel about pink—and I ended up pouring a pot of hot coffee on some guy’s head and getting fired my very first day.”
“Why on earth did you pour coffee on the man?”
“Because he grabbed my butt, that’s why, and then all the other men at the table started hooting and laughing and I saw red. Before I knew it, I was standing there holding an empty pot. Actually it was only half-full to start with, and it wasn’t all that hot, either.”
“And those meanies fired you, anyway? Imagine that.”
“Very funny.”
“Olivia, sweetheart, I could have told you that you’re not cut out to be a waitress.”
“I wasn’t looking at it as a career move. Besides, when you don’t know what you are cut out for, one job looks as good as another.”
“Mmm. That must explain how someone who’s never been, shall we say, overly fond of animals finds herself working for a veterinarian.”
“I don’t dislike animals,” she protested. “Not completely anyway. Only the shedding, smelling, drooling stuff. I give to the SPCA and I wouldn’t be caught dead in real fur. Heck, I was even a vegetarian once. Remember the summer I turned fifteen?”
“Vividly. Did you tell them all that to get the job?”
“More or less.” Silence. “All right, I lied through my teeth and said I adored animals and that I have extensive office experience working for my dear departed veterinarian uncle whose records were destroyed in a fire.”
“Olivia, when are you going to learn…?”
“Soon. Word of honor. Right now I have to focus on surviving the next six and a half weeks.”
“Is this job really going smoothly or was that bravado, as well?”
“Half and half. Yesterday was pretty rough. I accidentally left this Doberman with an infected tear duct parked in the waiting room for more than an hour. Of course, I didn’t know it was infected, much less that it was so serious he had to be rushed to a veterinary ophthalmologist.”
“I gather your late uncle didn’t treat too many infected tear ducts,” her mother remarked in a dry tone.
“That’s not helpful, Mom. Do you want to hear this or not?”
“Of course.”
“Well, the good news is old Bozo isn’t going to lose his eye after all. That’s the dog’s name. Bozo.”
“I see. And the bad news?”
“Doc Allison was furious and made me promise to actually look at the patients at check-in and alert her to any glaring abnormalities. And she put me on notice that another incident will force her to let me go.”
“Oh, she did, did she?”
Olivia smiled, not surprised her mother was personally offended by the warning. It was perfectly fine for her to question her daughter’s ability, but even a hint of outside criticism elicited her maternal ire.
“A bit overbearing, isn’t she? This is your first week on the job, after all.”
“True, but at the time she was still pretty upset over the hedgehog.” She decided not to mention the mix-up with the fish tank, since in all fairness no one had bothered to tell her that the coral was living, not plastic, and had some sort of super sensitivity to sudden changes in its environment.
“Hedgehog?” her mother repeated warily, as if the word itself were dangerous.
“Yes. I sat on him. Not intentionally. He was the one curled up in my chair, after all. And I didn’t come down with my full weight…not once I felt those damned spikes. The little rodent totally lost it just the same. For all the noise and running around you would think it was my spikes that had punched holes in his favorite slacks…not to mention a pair of those silk panties I like so much—the ones I have to order from that little shop in Paris.”
“Olivia, this is so comical it’s tragic. I’m worried about you.”
“Don’t be. That was yesterday,” she reminded her, trying to sound reassuring as she absently swiveled her chair so she was gazing out the window, her back to the entrance. “So far today I haven’t slipped up once.”
“It isn’t even noon.”
Olivia sank back in her chair. “Don’t remind me.”
“You’re groaning because you know I’m right. I insist you stop this nonsense before you or one of those poor animals really gets hurt, and come home.”
“No.”
“Honey, I’m certain your brother will understand and—”
“No. Not a chance.”
Her mother huffed impatiently. “Really, Olivia. Why can’t you be reasonable just this once?”
“Because I’m not a wuss, that’s why, and because I don’t go back on my word, and,” she continued, her voice rising to match her irritation, “because I’d rather walk the plank—naked—than give that sneaky devil the satisfaction of seeing me shave my head in public.”
A snicker from behind was Olivia’s first clue someone had walked in without
