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Thursday, I dressed in a blue pantsuit that I hoped transformed me into both an impressive adoptive mother and a believable gentlemen’s club manager. I refused to let Norma Rae upstage my attire at the clinic again. Neither did I want the Barely There regulars to mistake me for my college-girl alter ego during my first evening as manager trainee.
The pantsuit would have to do anyway, since it qualified as my only remotely professional outfit.
After lunch, Norma Rae and I made the drive over to Options. Taking in her business skirt and blazer, I was struck again by her stunning beauty. Except for the half-smoked cigarette dangling from her lips, she could be the face of dressing for success.
Norma Rae parked where we had a good view of the clinic’s waiting area through the glass storefront. I bent my head closer to the windshield, praying I didn’t spot anyone waiting in the lobby. Someone else’s presence would seriously hinder my ability to snoop through Patrick’s exam room.
“Do you see anybody?” I asked.
Norma Rae took one long drag from her cigarette to finish it off, then stubbed the butt out in her overflowing car ashtray. “Hey,” she said, elbowing me. “Take a look at this.”
I peered out the windshield, trying to spot what had captured her attention.
“Not out there, ya moron, here.”
Norma Rae held her purse open across the console. Inside rested a plastic container full of something that looked like mud, but could really be anything semi-liquid and brown.
My stomach turned over, and I pressed myself as far as I could against the door. “What the hell is that?”
She answered so quickly and confidently I presumed she’d rehearsed her response as she would an Academy Awards acceptance speech. “Mostly chocolate-cake batter, but some popcorn kernels and other debris I done sweeped off my kitchen floor.”
I scrunched up my nose. “Why are you carrying contaminated cake batter in your purse, for God’s sake?”
Even though I’d never been to Norma Rae’s house, it had to be a disaster. Anything scraped off her kitchen floor had likely been growing there for months. I couldn’t even begin to imagine why she would toss the detritus into a dessert recipe rather than into the garbage like a normal human being, let alone why she would then carry the disgusting results around in her handbag and brag about it.
She scowled. “Boy, you even dumber than I thought. It be for the good doc. I gotta do somethin’ in his toilet, don’t I?”
The pieces clicked together in my head. The cake batter represented Norma Rae’s supposed bowel movement that she planned to use to lure Patrick into the bathroom. I studied the concoction anew, feeling a flicker of admiration for Norma Rae’s foresight and creativity. If Patrick refused to leave me alone in his examination room, it wouldn’t be for lack of believable toilet contents.
A flash of movement outside caught my eye. I turned my attention back to the clinic, hoping I hadn’t missed someone entering. I spotted a girl walking toward the nail salon farther down, but she was the only person outside. The Options waiting room remained empty.
I scanned the area again. “Do you see anybody?”
“If ya’d move your brick wall of a head, I be able to look,” Norma Rae said.
I leaned back in the passenger seat, my heart thumping against my ribs. I pulled my cell phone out of my purse and checked the time. “It’s a little after one, so Patrick is either in the exam room with a patient, or he’s alone.”
She rolled her eyes. “No shit. I knew that before I even got up this mornin’.”
“I’m just saying, I haven’t seen anybody enter or leave, so his last appointment could be running long, but he doesn’t appear to have a one o’clock appointment unless they’re late or he ushered them in early,” I said in one nervous breath.
Norma Rae snapped her purse shut and opened her door. “Only one way to find out.”
I scrambled for my own door handle.
Norma Rae and I had previously agreed to race toward the hallway before Patrick had time to intercept us in the lobby. If we could accost him in his exam room, we figured he would be more likely to let us settle there.
Norma Rae gripped the handle to the clinic entrance. We raised our eyebrows at each other, pushed our way inside, and speed walked to the first exam room. With any luck, Patrick would already be there.
Sure enough, his door opened a crack and his head popped out just as we reached the hallway. His eyes widened when we skittered to a stop in front of him.
He squeezed into the hall, closing the door behind him. “Ladies, how nice to see you again.”
“Afternoon, doc,” Norma Rae said. She sidled right up to him and shoved the exam room door back open without so much as asking permission.
Patrick rocked back on his heels, his mouth dropping open. From the way his eyes flashed, I gathered he didn’t appreciate her assertiveness. But instead of protesting, he followed her. I trailed after them, shutting the door behind me.
I took in the room, all my senses on high alert. A desk occupied one corner, complete with computer and phone. Behind the desk sat a two-drawer file cabinet identical to the two located in the reception area.
My heart skipped a beat. If Keisha was right about where he kept her file, Carly’s file could very likely be inside the upper drawer too.
Norma Rae settled herself behind the desk, resting her purse in her lap. Patrick’s face darkened, but rather than asking her to move he stood next to the file cabinet.
“I presume you received my email about the bad check,” he said to Norma Rae, as if he couldn’t wait any longer to bring up the money. “As long as I’m still awaiting your initial payment, I’m afraid we must put your adoption on hold.”
Seeing no other seats except the one Norma Rae had claimed, I considered sitting on the flexible patient table taking up the center of the room but decided I’d rather not risk getting trapped in the complicated device. The table bent in several places and had two metal footrests screwed into the end. A machine with a monitor and odd-looking keyboard sat next to the table. Another black machine in the shape of a box lay on the floor. A paddle attached to a wire snaked out the top, and a control panel was built into one side. I assumed one of these was the ultrasound, and the other was the imaging machine Carly had mentioned in her journal.
I glanced around the rest of the office. A bare counter with an embedded sink spanned one side of the room. Encouraged by the lack of wires, I lifted myself onto the counter and leaned against the cabinets stretched behind me.
“The payment is why we be here,” Norma Rae said to Patrick. “We thought we’d best be bringin’ the check in person. Don’t want it gettin’ lost in the mail.”
Patrick rubbed his hands together, his eyes developing a new sparkle. “Excellent, excellent.”
“Honeybuns,” Norma Rae called out to me. “Give the good doc my mama’s hard-earned money.”
I bristled at the honeybuns, but reached into my purse and pulled out Jan’s check, which I’d stapled behind the remittance slip cut off the bottom of the invoice Norma Rae had printed in John’s office.
“We wanna tell ya how sorry we be for the mix-up,” Norma Rae said. “I been switchin’ banks, and somehow my finances got all screwed up. Them idiots still workin’ out the details, so I ask my mama in New York if she would write me the check just this once. She couldn’t wait to mail it when I done told her it be for the down payment on her grandbaby.”
Patrick stepped forward to take the check from me. He set it on his desk as far from Norma Rae as he could, as if he didn’t trust her not to snatch it back. “I understand. These things happen.”
“They ain’t s’posed to happen. That be what’s got me so hoppin’ mad.” She shook a fist in the air. “First them crooks practically keepin’ my money for free, then they ain’t even capable of findin’ it when I be needin’ to make a payment. You know they give me ’bout point-oh-one percent to be losin’ my money? You know how many pennies that be amountin’ to in a year? ’Bout five cents. I might as well be stuffin’ cash under the mattress, ’cept my honey don’t like the sound those bills make when we be lovin’ on each other.”
Norma Rae’s showmanship impressed me. Watching her, I could easily believe she had practiced this speech for weeks.
Patrick cleared his throat. “Yes, our country’s financial situa—”
“And where’s my bailout money goin’?” Norma Rae interrupted, smacking her palms on the desk. “Them greedy banks get free money from the government—this be tax money I be payin’ them—and in turn handin’ me five cents a year. It’s an insult. Might as well just slap me across the face whenever I be makin’ a deposit.”
Patrick looked at his watch. “Well, I appreciate you ladi—”
Norma Rae jumped up, hopping from foot to foot. “Doc, I gotta use the john.”
He pointed to the door. “The bathroom is right across the hall.”
She rushed out of the room, grabbing her crotch as if her bladder might explode at any moment. The door slammed shut behind her.
Thankfully, Patrick resumed control of his office chair, his seated position hampering a hasty departure. If he made any move to exit the room, I planned to shout about colic and diaper rash to warn Norma Rae to abort her search of the storage area.
I forced my lips up when he looked in my direction. A shadow passed across his face, but he quickly masked his true feelings under a close-lipped smile.
“If you’d like, you can take a seat in the waiting room until your partner is ready to leave,” he suggested after an awkward minute passed. “I’m sure you’d be much more comfortable there.”
“Oh.” I patted the cabinet edge digging into my back. “I’m quite comfortable here.”
“Well, it’s a bit unorthodox for adoptive parents to—”
Norma Rae threw the door open. “Your toilet ain’t flushin’.”
Patrick nodded, but made no move to stand. “I appreciate the information. I’ll take care of it before the next patient arrives.”
“You better be takin’ care of it now, doc.”
Norma Rae approached Patrick behind the desk and grabbed hold of his forearm, pulling him upright. He looked too stunned to resist at first, but after she dragged him a few feet he stopped and wrenched his arm away.
“There’s no rush,” he said, his tone short. “I’m sure it’s a simple fix that will only take a minute. I’ll attend to it as soon as I finish up some things here.”
Norma Rae shook her head. “No, you gotta go fix it now. Ya don’t understand, doc. You ain’t wanna be leavin’ what I done in there sittin’ for too long.”
A new emotion flashed across Patrick’s face: terror.
I watched him wrestle between the desire to get us to leave as quickly as possible and the urgency of flushing whatever Norma Rae had done in the bathroom out of his clinic and into the sewer system.
Expunging Norma Rae’s biological waste won the battle. Patrick hurried out the door, Norma Rae yelling encouragement as she raced after him.
“Guess I done eat too much corn last night,” she bellowed, pausing in the doorway to wink at me before resuming pursuit. “I got me the most god-awful prunes from the store . . .”
In the silence of the empty room, I could hear the blood rushing through my head. I swung myself off the counter, nearly slipping onto the floor thanks to my sweaty palms. I wiped my hands on my pants, hooked my purse strap over one shoulder, and moved toward the file cabinet, my heart pounding harder with every step.
I felt lightheaded with relief when the top drawer opened. Apparently, even the confidentiality-conscious Patrick never thought his files might be stolen during office hours.
The three files hanging from their metal rack looked the same as the patient files in the reception area. I read the names: Bethany, Keisha, and Sofia.
I frowned. Where was Carly’s file? I checked the bottom of the drawer in case her folder had fallen off the metal frame. Not spotting anything, I shut the top drawer and opened the lower one.
Orange pill bottles filled one corner. None of the bottles sported labels. I bent over and peered at the contents through the translucent containers. They all held tiny white pills similar to what Keisha and Carly had been given. Other than the pills, the drawer was empty.
“So you be sayin’ that sugar-free chocolate my honeybuns been buyin’ me could be what’s causin’ my bowels to get all stirred up?” I heard Norma Rae holler.
My heart leapt into my throat. I slid the drawer shut and rushed back to the counter. I was just resettling my aching back against the pointed cabinet edge when Patrick strode into the room, Norma Rae snapping at his heels.
Patrick headed straight for his desk chair, collapsing into it without so much as a glance in my direction. His eyes stared blankly at nothing, and his skin had blanched to the point where he could pass for an Alaskan emerging from a winter without sunlight.
Norma Rae turned to me and said, “You’ll be happy to hear that the good doc done fixed my toilet problem.”
Patrick’s unfocused eyes widened, as if her words had triggered a horrible flashback.
Norma Rae lifted herself onto the reclining table, letting her legs dangle over the side. She rapped on the black box with her knuckles. “I gotta tell ya, doc, this contraption here be throwin’ off your feng shui.”
Her words snapped him out of his trance. He jerked to attention and regarded Norma Rae through narrowed eyes. “I’m not sure what you’re talking about.”
She knocked on the box again. “As an interior design consultant, lemme give ya a little free advice. This thing be ugly as sin. Ain’t nobody wanna be spreadin’ their legs with this layin’ underneath ’em.”
Patrick vaulted to his feet and rushed toward her. “Please don’t touch that. It’s a complicated medical device.”
She shrugged and pumped her legs before propelling herself off the table. “Just tryin’ to help ya out a little, doc. I’m tellin’ ya, that contraption ain’t doin’ nothin’ for your patients. Feels like the thing ’bout to start suckin’ my spirit away.”
Patrick planted himself next to the machine and folded his arms across his chest. “I think you ladies should be leaving now. I have a patient due at any moment.”
Norma Rae cocked her head. “Dontcha wanna hear which mama we chose?”
Patrick’s brow furrowed, but then his face relaxed. “Yes. I hadn’t realized you’d come to a decision yet.”
“We be interested in Brittany.”
Patrick nodded like a bobblehead. “Excellent, excellent. I’ll let Brittany know her baby has been matched with a family.” He looked between us. “Thank you for visiting today, ladies.”
“It be our pleasure,” Norma Rae said, flashing him a radiant smile as she headed for the door. “And I’ll tell my mama her money be in good hands now.”
