My absence the day before did not go unnoticed. Garlic Breath and Pathetic Dog Owner’s heads poked up over their cubicle walls like meerkats popping out of their burrows as soon as I staggered out of the elevator. I’d planned to be safely in my cube before they arrived for the day. The radiation fatigue planned for me to sleep until 11:00.
“Rough night?” Garlic Breath jeered.
Pathetic Dog Owner stood up and gawked. “Look at the way she’s walking. Is she still high?”
I edged into my cubicle and plugged in my laptop as if I couldn’t hear them. Still, each word cut like talon strikes. I ached for my computer to boot-up quickly so I could lose myself in numbers and charts.
I should have stayed home. Rosaria told me to rest.
“She’s really gone and done it now,” Garlic Breath scoffed from behind the wall. “Letitia can’t let this one go. I don’t care how great that PowerPoint on pomegranates was.” A quiver of conceit spread through my aching muscles. I had spent hours doing research and getting the pomegranate report perfect. “I’m going over Letitia’s head this time.” In the few minutes it took for the mainframe to finish syncing with my laptop, I rested my heavy head on the palm of my hand. The walk from the car had been exhausting.
Some time later, I jerked awake from my second catnap in an hour. It took me a moment to register what had woken me; the background buzz of workplace conversation had gone silent. I looked over the top of my cubicle wall and recognized a distinctive orange ponytail bobbing toward Letitia’s office above the cubicle walls. Vanessa looked like a parrot in a turquoise sweater dress with a wide yellow belt that accentuated her generous curves. Letitia came out of her office to meet Vanessa. Her sleek black suit looked drab next to Vanessa’s splendor. Letitia pointed in my direction and yelped, “She’s taking a nap!”
Vanessa walked into Letitia’s office and calmly sat down in the white leather chair in front of Letitia’s sleek glass desk. Once Letitia joined her behind the closed door, Vanessa leaned back and started talking. After a few sentences, Letitia’s body stiffened. She swung around and glared at me through the glass wall. The rest of the office ducked behind their cubicle walls. Vanessa wrinkled her nose and said something that made Letitia spin around to face her again. Letitia’s eyes widened and her scarlet nails went to her lips as Vanessa pushed a piece of paper across the desk.
At this point, I scooted back to my desk before Letitia turned around and caught me in her gaze again. I sat there trying not to hyperventilate until Vanessa poked her head in and said, “Do you have a minute?” Her face was flushed. There was anger just under the surface of her voice.
“Sure,” I replied. I looked over Vanessa’s shoulder and saw the entire department watching. Letitia stood on the other side of the glass office wall glowering at me, her thin red lips pinched into a bitter rose.
“Good,” Vanessa said. “Grab your computer and purse.”
I gathered my things and followed Vanessa to the elevator. I wondered if I would ever be back. Vanessa stepped in behind me and punched the button for the fifth floor. When the doors closed, she slapped me on the back of the head with the thick manila folder in her hand. “What is wrong with you? Why didn’t you tell HR that Letitia has been taking credit for your work?”
I knocked the folder out of her hand and stepped back until I bumped against the wall of the elevator. “She’s my boss.”
“For years we’ve been putting up with that bully,” Vanessa mumbled to herself. “Frank thinks she’s so smart… Smart, my ass… and she accuses this one of… she’s a user. That’s what she is.”
The doors opened to the hushed Human Resources department. Vanessa quickly bent to pick up the manila folder, then literally pulled me down the hall to her office. My feet were like cannonballs, heavy and wobbly on the plush carpeting. I really wasn’t up to so much excitement. I leaned against the doorjamb while Vanessa unlocked her office. As soon as she got it open, I thudded into the high backed chair just inside the door.
Vanessa dropped the file folder on her desk and woke up her computer. She spoke to me over her shoulder. “I’m going to ask you this again, Ms. Lara Blaine. Why didn’t you report Letitia?”
“For what?”
“For stealing your work,” Vanessa snapped.
“What? She didn’t steal it. She shares her bonuses with me.”
“You earn your year end bonuses. They aren’t gifts.”
“I know that.” My voice sounded slurred in my ears. I leaned my head against the back of the chair and closed my eyes. Part of me was worried that I was going to get fired, but mostly, I was too tired to care. “What I meant was that when I do a particularly good job on something, she gets a bonus. Then a couple of days later, she writes me a check for half.”
When Vanessa didn’t respond, I opened my eyes again and sat up. She was blinking so fast her false eyelashes were coming loose. “Excuse me?” she squawked.
“Am I in trouble?”
“How could you let Letitia take advantage of you like that?” Vanessa took out a yellow legal pad and started making notes. “By writing a check, do you mean she had AP cut you a check?”
“No, she writes me a personal check or gives me cash.”
“So let me get this straight. Your job description is researcher, correct?”
“Senior Researcher,” I replied. “But Letitia can’t put a presentation together to save her life. She was always analyzing my numbers wrong. I do excellent research but she kept screwing up the facts in her presentations. After a while, I started just preparing the presentation slides for her. Then, a couple of years ago, she asked me to make everyone else’s stuff work with mine.”
“Isn’t that her job as the head of the department?”
I rolled my eyes. I was too tired to spell it out for Vanessa in politically correct terms. “Yeah, but she sucks at her job.” I leaned forward and reached for the folder on Vanessa’s desk. “Is Letitia in trouble?”
“Not yet,” Vanessa replied. She moved the folder away from me. “But if I give her enough rope I’m pretty sure she’ll hang herself.”
“What do you mean?”
“You see, yesterday afternoon, I was talking to her boss, Frank. He came down about something totally unrelated to you guys up on the eighth floor, but he mentioned in passing that he was worried about Letitia.”
“Really?”
“He was telling me how Letitia totally blanked in this big meeting yesterday. I wasn’t really paying that close of attention. That Frank, he’s a real talker. Until he said something about pomegranates.” I startled to attention as Vanessa popped open a can of Diet Coke from her mini fridge. “Then, Greg Blankenshipp emailed me his daily rant about you coming in yesterday. Were you feeling really sick or something?”
“Long day at the hospital.”
“That’s fine. You have tons of sick time.” She took a sip of soda. “Where was I? Oh yeah, I remembered that you were putting together a presentation on pomegranates when we talked the other day. So, I asked him more about that meeting and he said that Letitia didn’t seem to know anything about the stuff she was giving a presentation on. He said she kept texting someone.” Vanessa took a gulp from the can. “Did you get any texts from Letitia yesterday?”
“Yeah, like ten, but there’s no reception in the hospital.”
“That’s what I thought. She was texting you for the answers and you weren’t here.”
“So what were you arguing about in her office?”
“She thought I came by to talk about you missing so many hours lately. I wanted to know why she didn’t know anything about pomegranates.”
“No wonder she looked so mad.”
Vanessa held her pen poised over her notepad. “Can we back-up here a sec? You and the other people up there research stuff and write reports, then Letitia puts them together and presents them to the Executive Committee, right?”
“That’s what she’s supposed to do,” I replied. “What actually happens is this—everyone does their thing, then sends their reports to me, and I aggregate them into a PowerPoint with cheat sheet notes at the bottom of Letitia’s screen. That’s why she couldn’t answer Frank Mariano’s questions. She had to do the PowerPoint herself this week. She always forgets to add the notes section.”
“And for that, she pays you part of her bonuses?
“Yup.”
“How much are we talking about here?”
I rubbed my forehead with my palm. “I think she wrote me a check for $15,000 last quarter.”
“Wow, no wonder she hasn’t promoted you. I have to talk to my boss about this! And I’m going to ask accounting to get me a reckoning of all her bonuses, then talk to Frank again.”
I had a feeling I should have said something more, but my brain hurt. I could hear Vanessa furiously typing, but I didn’t have the energy to open my eyes to look at what she was doing. The back of the chair was soft and inviting. I closed my eyes and let my arms grow heavy on my lap.
The next thing I knew, Vanessa was shaking me awake. “Lara! Lara, are you okay?” It took me a moment to register where I was. I sat up and rubbed my eyes.
“I’m fine. Fine,” I said. “I’m just really tired.”
“Are you sure?” Vanessa bit her lip and looked genuinely concerned. “I’m sorry. You aren’t in any shape to talk right now. I’m so mad at Letitia, I forgot how sick you are. We can talk about Letitia tomorrow.” Vanessa helped me stand up. “Why don’t I take you home so you can get some rest?”
I was so tired, I allowed Vanessa to lead me out of the office. By the time Vanessa leaned me up against the side of her pick-up truck, I could barely put one foot in front of the other. I looked up at the building and tried to make out where the eighth floor was. I wonder if Letitia is watching us right now. She must be so pissed at me.
Vanessa helped me climb into the truck and ran around to the driver’s seat. “So, where do you live?”
“What about my car?” I whispered.
“Deal with that tomorrow. Let’s just get you home. I’ll cook you some dinner.”
I curled up in the corner of the soft leather seat and mumbled, “I don’t have any food. I get take out.”
“Do I need to take the highway?”
“Go east. Get off at exit 12.”
Vanessa roared onto the highway and drove thirteen miles over the speed limit. She tapped me on the arm and asked, “Did you want to stop for some take out?”
“When you get off at my exit, turn left at the bottom of the ramp. Go to Lucky Lee’s in the Kroger Plaza. They know my order.”
The next time I opened my eyes, I was shivering and alone inside Vanessa’s truck. I rubbed the fog off the window. We were parked in front of Lucky Lee’s. When did we get here? Vanessa was just getting on the highway a second ago. A soft rain tapped on the roof of the cab. I ran my hand across the door searching for the handle but my fingers felt like clubs. I was trapped.
A moment later, the passenger door burst open and Vanessa shoved a steaming bag of food between my feet. “Hi, Miss Lara,” Helen Lee said from behind Vanessa. “Your friend bought all sorts of food even though I told her you only eat Moo Goo Gai Pan, white rice and Pineapple Surprise.”
“I’ve got to eat, too,” retorted Vanessa as she took Helen’s bag and put it next to the first.
“Thanks, Helen. You okay?”
“I got a B plus on my spelling test.”
“Helen! Go back inside,” her mother scolded as she approached with yet another bag of food. “Can’t you see that Miss Lara isn’t feeling well?” Susan waited for the little girl to scamper back into the restaurant before turning to me with genuine concern in her dark eyes. “Are you all right? Who is that woman?”
My lips felt thick and sticky as I replied, “I’m fine, just really run down. I’ll be better tomorrow.”
“Okay then,” Susan said and handed me the last bag. “My mother-in-law put something special in here just for you. I didn’t put all this other food on your account. She paid.”
She closed the door gently but didn’t go back inside. I could see her reading Vanessa’s license plate number and repeating it over and over to herself as we pulled away.
Vanessa started chattering as soon as she pulled out of the parking lot. “What an adorable place that is. It’s so great to see immigrants trying to make a life here.”
“Susan grew up in New Jersey. Her husband is a lawyer. Turn right at the light.”
“Still, it’s a cute place. The little girl said you come in every day and get the same thing.”
“Turn left up here. I’m the last driveway on the right.”
I used what little energy I had to jump out of the truck and push the security code into the garage door opener. I didn’t want Vanessa to see the numbers over my shoulder. The garage looked lonely without Ruby. I wondered how I would get her back home.
Vanessa stormed past me as soon as I unlocked the inner door and whisked the bags of food into the kitchen. “Did you just move in?” I lay down on the couch and let her open and shut cabinets until she found plates and glasses.
She returned with fifteen take out containers arranged on a cookie sheet I didn’t remember ever using. “Oh baby, this place has bad break-up written all over it. When did he leave?”
I sat up and took the plate that Vanessa wagged in my face. “I’m not that hungry. My stomach has been upset lately.”
“You need to get some food in you. You need your strength.” Vanessa shook some rice and chicken onto my plate. “Eat that. You’ll feel better in no time.”
“If I eat, will you leave and let me sleep?”
“You eat all that food and I’ll leave alone.” We ate in silence for a few moments until Vanessa jumped up and ran back to the kitchen. “Shit, I almost forgot. The Chinese lady sent some tea.” Vanessa returned with a Solo cup full of hot tea. I held the cup to my chest and inhaled the aroma of ginger and cloves. It smelled like a hug.
Once Vanessa made a small dent in all the food she bought, she closed up the square paper containers and took them into the kitchen. She came back with another cup of the tea. She put a pillow on the arm of the couch and helped me lie down. “Comfortable? Do you want anything else to eat?”
“No, I ate more than I should have.” As much as I had been avoiding food, I did feel better after eating something. My body felt heavy but better.
Vanessa pushed my feet to one side and sat on the corner of the couch with her tea balanced on her belly. “Wow, this tea is amazing,” Vanessa said. Her voice sounded far away.
***
I thought I had died. Bird song twittered softly in the distance. Nightmares didn’t lurk at the edges of my consciousness. My body didn’t hurt. I wasn’t afraid.
This isn’t too bad. Kind of wish I could remember actually dying. But maybe that’s for the best. I lay still adjusting to oblivion when the loud beep of a truck backing up drowned out the bird song. Crap, I forgot to put the trash out before I died. My eyelids snapped open. Instead of oblivion, I was in my apartment. A musky smell permeated the room as I rolled over with a grunt. My keys sat in the center of the coffee table. I distinctly remembered hanging them on their hook when Vanessa and I came in the night before.
Dale! He’s found me. Panic rushed through me until I noticed the orange sticky note with a message scrawled in purple ink.
Couldn’t get in the garage.
Don’t go back to the 8th floor until you talk to me 1st.
Have a good appointment. –V
I hoisted myself off the couch and went to the picture window at the front of the townhouse. Ruby was parked in the driveway. Oh my gosh, I slept through Vanessa coming in and out of my apartment with my keys? I must have been comatose.
I walked into the kitchen to warm up a cup of Mrs. Lee’s delicious tea. That was so nice of her to move my car for me. Vanessa didn’t have to do that for me. But she did.