Annie's Answer (2 page)

“I buttered
some nice hot bread for you,” he said. “You can eat it on the way to work.
Don’t want you working until all hours without anything for supper.”

“Thanks,
Gramps,” she said taking the small plastic bag, although her stomach was doing
summersaults over the upcoming interview.

What would it
be like working for the Sawyer family? Did she have a shot at the job, or would
she make a fool of herself by applying?

Annie said a
prayer for courage and hurried off to the law offices of Sawyer and Sawyer,
hoping the interview wouldn’t be as intimidating as she expected.

“You can leave
now, Bonnie,” Nathan said, strolling out to the receptionist’s desk. “There’s
no reason for both of us to wait for the applicant.”

“I appreciate
that,” Mr. Sawyer. I have a few errands to do before supper.”

Nathan smiled
as his assistant retrieved her oversized black handbag from a desk drawer and
hurried out of the office. Although Bonnie was old enough to be his mother, she
firmly refused to call him by his first name. His father had hired her when she
finished a secretarial course in her early twenties, and she was nothing if not
proper and professional.

Would he be
able to hire someone that competent to keep his great aunt company? He had his
doubts.

Before he
could return to his carpeted, wood-paneled office to clear a few things from
his desk, the door his clients used opened.

“Oh,” the
young woman said, sounding surprised to see him. “I was expecting to see Mrs.
Johnson.”

“She left for
the day,” Nathan said. “I take it you’re here for the interview. Please, come
into my office.”

He led her to
the wing chairs placed conversationally around a low teak table, his preferred
spot for talking to clients. The big desk tended to intimidate, and he always
tried to put people at ease. The woman looked familiar, although he couldn’t
immediately place her.

He managed to
find Bonnie’s note on his cluttered desk and found her name: Annie Williams. Of
course, she went to the same church he did, although he didn’t really know her.

“Have a seat,
Annie. Can I get you something to drink? I have bottled water or a soft drink,”
he said, hoping to put her at ease.

She looked
intimidated and adorable, short and petite with big blue eyes and an elfin
face. His first impression was that his great aunt would eat her for breakfast.

“Thank you,
no,” she said more confidently than he’d expected. “I have to apologize for
coming in my uniform. I work the evening shift at Yum Yum Pancakes. It leaves me
with plenty of time for a day job too.”

“I’m sure it
does,” he said absentmindedly as he tried to see her potential. He’d rather
tame lions than spend all day, every day, with his great aunt. Would this
fragile looking woman be up to it?

“Please sit
down,” he said since she was looking at the high-backed chair as though it
would swallow her up.

“Thank you.”

When she was
seated, her feet just touched the floor. How had he overlooked such an
attractive woman at church? Maybe because his mother insisted the family sit in
the third pew from the front on the left, not the best placed to see the rest
of the congregation. She was all about family position, and the Sawyers had
occupied that row since he was in Sunday school.

“Let me tell
you a little about the job,” he said.  ‘My great aunt has lived in alone
in Iowa since her husband passed away. Since they never had children, it’s
fallen to my father to look after her—never easy since she’s always
insisted on staying in their farmhouse. The bottom line is, her house was badly
damaged by a tornado, and she ended up in the hospital with bruises and a
broken ankle.”

“Oh, that must
be so hard when she’s alone,” Annie said sympathetically.

“She’s not
alone anymore,” Nathan said. “My father flew to Iowa in a chartered plane and
brought her to our house. Then he and my mother left for the summer.”

“I see,” she
said thoughtfully.

Odd as it
seemed, he believed she did.

“I’m snowed
under running the practice while my father is gone. I need someone to keep my
great aunt company during the week. I don’t know exactly what it will involve.
I have a nurse checking on her from time to time, but she needs companionship
as much as medical care.”

“She must hate
being away from the home she’s known so long,” Annie said.

“I’m not sure what
will happen, but for now I’m caught in the middle. My father wants his aunt to
be happy, but she’s my responsibility this summer. I’m afraid my mother isn’t
keen on living with her when she gets back from her European vacation, but
we’re not sure whether Aunt Mattie’s house can or should be rebuilt.” He hadn’t
intended telling this much about the situation, but he gave Annie Williams a
high score for sympathetic listening. “Let me ask you, do you have any
experience at all working with older people?”

“There’s
senior discount day at the pancake house,” she said with a faint laugh.
“Sometimes it takes longer to wait on a pair of older people than a family of
six.”

“I guess that
qualifies as experience,” he said a bit doubtfully.

“My
grandfather has lived with us for about ten years since he retired from the
ministry,” she added. “Of course, there’s nothing the least bit fragile about
him. He can run circles around people half his age.”

“Pastor
Williams is your grandfather?” Nathan asked, connecting her name with the
minister who had instructed him in the faith when he was young.

“Yes.”

“I remember
him. I like the minister we have now well enough, but Pastor Williams was the
one who really made an impact on my life.”

“That’s nice
to hear,” Annie said.

“I have to
warn you, there’s nothing fragile or docile about my Aunt Mattie. She’s about
as frail as a team of oxen. She can be cantankerous, willful, and just plain
hard to get along with. Being tied down with a broken ankle hasn’t improved her
disposition, and, of course, she spends most of her time fretting over her
house. Being with her all day will be a big challenge.”

“I’m sure I
can handle it,” Annie said.

He scrutinized
her, wondering if she could stand up to his great aunt, when another question
occurred to him.

“Bonnie just
took the ad to the paper this morning. How did you hear about the job before it
came out?”

She flushed,
the high color attractive on her finely honed  features.

“I sell ads
for the paper and saw it on the business manager’s desk,” she said in a worried
voice. “I hope you don’t mind. Your ad missed the deadline for this week’s
edition, so it won’t appear for another week.”

He took a deep
breath, feeling his options fade away. He could wait another week—and
possibly not find anyone. That meant seven long days of phone calls from his
aunt twenty times a day. It also put a damper on anything he might want to do
outside the office, not that he had a steady girlfriend right now. If his aunt
was alone all day, she would talk his ear off the minute he got home from work.

“You must
really want the job,” he said.

“I need the
money.”

At least she
was upfront about that.

“I’ll pay a
weekly rate.” He mentioned a sum that he hoped was generous, given how
difficult his aunt could be.

“That sounds
great,” Annie said, looking directly into his eyes for the first time.

He was a
little startled to notice how blue they were, an attractive contrast to the
rich brown of her hair.

“If you need
to run out during the day, that’s fine. Take whatever time you need as long as
my aunt is happy. In fact, she may want you to drive her places. You can use my
mother’s car.”

“Does this
mean I have the job?”

“I guess it
does,” he said, wishing he felt more confident in her ability to pacify Aunt
Mattie. “Can you start tomorrow?”

“No problem,”
she said, sounding more animated than she had since coming into his office.

“You’ll be on
your own with her. When I’m not in court, I’m too busy in my office to come
home and help you. It’s not going to be an easy job.” In all fairness, he had
to give her a chance to change her mind.

“I’m sure
we’ll get along fine. Thank you so much!” She stood to go, but he still felt a
twinge of guilt about leaving her alone with his aunt. It was like sending a
bunny to tame a lion.

“If you can
come to the house by seven tomorrow morning, I can introduce you and show you
some of the things she’ll expect of you. I have to be at the office early to
prepare for court, but you won’t need to start work before nine most days. Aunt
Mattie is an early riser, but she does well enough on her crutches to fix her
own breakfast. The address is….”

“I know the
house. I guess almost everyone in town does,” she said.

“The family’s
been living in the same place a long time.” It was an admission, not a boast.

Sometimes he
wanted to live alone in a cabin in the woods. He planned to get a place of his
own, but somehow he was always too busy—or too wary of hurting his
mother’s feelings. She insisted their house was so large, she hardly knew he
was there. It was true he had his own apartment in one wing of the Tudor house,
but he was thirty years old and needed space of his own. He was fortunate to be
a partner in his father’s law practice, and he loved the tempo of small town
life. Not to mention that it was far too lucrative to consider giving it up.
More and more lately, he wanted to strike off on his own, maybe do more pro
bono work for people who couldn’t afford Sawyer and Sawyer. And the thought of
starting a family of his own seemed more appealing now that he was out of his
twenties.

“Do you have
any questions?” he asked.

“None that I
can think of,” she said, picking up her bulky shoulder bag to leave.

“In case you
do, I’ll give you my number,” he said, going to the desk for one of his
engraved business cards. “I’ll write my home phone and cell phone on the back.
Call the office number during the day if you have any emergencies.
Bonnie—Mrs. Johnson—can help you most of the time.”

“I’m sure your
aunt and I will get along fine,” she said, backing toward the door. “Does she
like to play games? Rummy or Canasta or anything like that?”

“I honestly
have no idea,” he admitted. “She knits. That’s about the only thing I’ve seen
her doing since she arrived. I know she isn’t a fan of television, and she
doesn’t like music written after the 1950’s. Other than that, you’re on your
own keeping her entertained.”

“I’m sure
we’ll find something she enjoys,” Annie said. “I’ll be there tomorrow morning
at seven.”

She backed out
of his office as though she were leaving royalty, which did nothing to reassure
him about her qualifications to take on his great aunt. He was afraid she was
too sweet and mild mannered to handle Mattie Sawyer, but he needed someone
right away.

When she was
gone, he stood and stared at the empty doorway, wondering how he could’ve
overlooked her at church. It was a large congregation, but she had a radiance
that would stand out in a crowd.

His conscience
still bothered him. He’d expected to hire someone closer to Aunt Mattie’s age,
maybe a retired nurse or a moonlighting health care worker. Sighing deeply, he
hoped for the best but wasn’t optimistic. He hadn’t overlooked the shadows
under Annie’s eyes, signs she was already overworked. If Annie Williams lasted
a week until his ad ran in the paper, he’d be surprised.

Punching in at
the pancake restaurant with three minutes to spare, Annie could hardly believe
Nathan Sawyer had hired her on the spot. If she was reading him right, he
didn’t have much confidence in her ability to keep his aunt happy, but that was
okay. She had enough determination to succeed at any job that would make it
possible to buy the flower shop. The salary he’d offered would certainly do
that and more, even allowing a little extra start-up money if she could keep
the job until Labor Day.

“You look like
you ran all the way here,” her co-worker Marie Donahue said as she pinned on
the little starched cap the waitresses were required to wear.

Looking at
herself in the narrow mirror in the small employees’ lounge, Annie saw the
bright flush on her face.

“I guess I’m
just excited,” she said.

“About coming
to work?” Marie asked in a droll voice.

“No, I just
got another job.”

“Don’t tell me
you’re leaving me to cope with our esteemed boss alone,” Marie said with mock
horror. She was a vivacious blonde two years younger than Annie and was taking
online courses from a university, hoping to get a real estate license some day.

“No, I’ll be
here through the summer,” Annie assured her, struggling to arrange the cap on
her mass of curls. She really did need her mother to trim her hair. “I just got
a day job working for Nathan Sawyer.”

“The Nathan
Sawyer? Are you going to work in his law office?” Marie tied the pink and white
striped apron around her slender waist.

“Nothing like
that. I’ll be a companion to his great aunt. She lost her house in a tornado in
Iowa and sprained her ankle.”

“You’ll be
working at his house!” Marie exclaimed. “I’ve always wanted to see the inside.
Do you think you can sneak me in some time, maybe when the aunt is sleeping?”

“I’ll see what
I can do,” Annie said a bit doubtfully. “The aunt sounds like she’ll be a
handful, but if I can stick it out until the end of August, I’ll be able to buy
Polk’s flower shop.”

“Let’s get to
work, girls,” Bob Hoekstra, the manager, said in no uncertain terms. “We have a
party of four at booth seven, and Kenny is putting two tables together for ten
customers from assisted living.”