Waiting for Daybreak (4 page)
“Truck, tools—the usual. I’m Sam Jackson. He didn’t tell you I was coming?”
Paige looked him straight in the eyes. He appeared perfectly sane, no shifty glances like he was lying. Still, he had to be. “Just one minute, please.”
She closed the door in Sam Jackson’s face, taking care to lock it behind her. She walked into the living room and looked at her father. “Daddy, there’s a man named Sam Jackson here. What are you selling to him?”
“Paige, you can’t do everything for us. I’ve got to make sacrifices, too. Anything to make certain your mother gets the help she needs.”
When they opened the door, Sam Jackson was already circling her father’s truck. They walked out to the driveway to join him. “You got some real nice stuff here.” He opened a tool box and removed a set of prized wrenches. “Really nice stuff.”
Paige stood with her father for the next half hour, watching Sam Jackson look through every compartment, touch every tool. “I’ll be in touch.”
“You have my cell number, right?” her father asked.
“Yep, got it right here.” The man patted a piece of paper in his T-shirt pocket and climbed into his filthy white truck.
“How can you consider selling to him, Dad? Look at his truck.”
Her father’s truck was always pristine as a matter of pride. Just the thought of it belonging to this man, whose own truck was covered in dirt, windshield dotted with grime, caused her stomach to ache.
“Honey, I’m sixty-seven. Most men my age are already retired.
Besides, I’m not really planning to sell right away, I’m just covering my bases. If things get worse than we expect, I want to know exactly what I have and what I don’t have to work with. Knowing what my stuff ’ll bring gives me an idea exactly how much of a fallback I have.”
“Promise you won’t sell.”
“I promise I won’t if I don’t have to.”
She stared into the sky.
God, help us get through this. Help me
get a raise, so my father doesn’t have to sell his things.
Paige came into work the next day a woman determined. She would go over Rufus’s head straight to the charity board of directors if that’s what it took, but she was going to get that raise. It had been part of the deal when they hired her. She’d kept up her end of the bargain; it was time for them to live up to theirs.
Without even putting her things away, she headed straight for the administrator’s office. The hall was coated with fine sawdust from the construction, and she left footprints in her wake. Rufus’s door was open when she reached it, and inside he was shaking hands with a beautiful woman in an expensive red pantsuit. She wore three-inch heels, and her blond hair was perfectly shaped to reveal the diamond earrings that sparkled at her ears.
“Oh, sorry, didn’t realize you had company.”
Rufus’s face was as grim as Paige had ever seen it. The woman barely looked at Paige. Just said her farewells and clicked her way down the hall through the mess.
“The good news just keeps on coming,” Rufus said when the woman was out of sight.
“What now?” They began making their way back through the dusty halls to the pharmacy.
“They found mold in a back wall yesterday. We’re open the rest of the week, then they’re shutting us down for two weeks to deal with it.” The monotone in Rufus’s voice reminded Paige of a robot reciting words whose meaning it couldn’t understand or begin to feel.
“Shutting us down?”
“Without pay.”
“Rufus, I need my raise and I need the money for those two weeks. As much as I hate to go over your head, I have to. I’m going to call the Weber Foundation and take this to the board of directors.”
“Call all you’d like. That was Susan Weber who just left. She came to deliver the news personally.”
Paige unlocked the pharmacy door and sank into the chair behind the desk. “Why would they do that?”
“Because they choose to.” Rufus looked around as if to confirm that no one else was watching. “Word is, they want to sell this building and use the money to fund one of their new pet projects that the country music stars are all excited about. If I were you, I’d get my résumé together.”
“That doesn’t make any sense. Why would they go to the expense to renovate it, then?”
“The answer is obvious. A higher asking price.” Rufus reached inside his coat pocket and pulled out a folded section of newspaper.“ I’ve already ripped out the part that applies to me, I thought I’d leave the rest with you.”
Paige flipped open the fold to see
Want Ads
at the top. The same numbness that she’d heard in Rufus’s voice seeped into her limbs. “Thanks, Rufus.”
“You’re welcome.” He walked away, his shoulders even more stooped than usual.
Paige started her usual morning tasks, amazed that her body could still function when her mind could not. Closed for two weeks. Without pay. How was she supposed to help with her parents’ twenty-thousand-dollar debt without a paycheck coming in at all?
As for the résumé, she knew exactly what would happen in a job hunt. She’d experienced it through dozens of job interviews before coming to the clinic. As soon as potential employers punched her name into Google, any chance of a job disintegrated. The story never vanished. There was no easy alternative for her.
“Can I come back there? I need to do some work up in the ceiling.” Lee, the old contractor she’d met last week, stood smiling at the counter.
Paige opened the door for him. “You’re starting to make a habit of this.”
“Yeah. This is the nicest place to be in the whole building, far as I’m concerned.”
Customers streamed through the newly opened doors, and the first three came straight to the pharmacy. Paige started to work at the typewriter, grateful to be too busy to think.
“Hello there. You haven’t changed your mind about marrying me, have you?” Joe dropped his container on the counter and waited. No last name, no nothing. Just Joe. Every few weeks he came in to get his asthma inhaler, and to propose to Paige. In truth, he was the closest thing to a friend she had in Nashville.
She smiled at him but kept typing. “Not this time, Joe, but you’re looking mighty dapper today. Is that a new shirt?”
He rubbed his wrinkled hand across the blue plaid flannel and grinned. “Yep. Got it last week, but didn’t put it on until today. Wanted it to look good for you.”
“That’s a nice color on you.” She finished typing and put the label on a bottle.
“That’s what the lady at the mission said. Said it makes my gray hair look brighter.”
“It sure does.” She walked over and picked up his container. “Why don’t you have a seat? It’ll be a little bit.”
Joe winked and walked toward the waiting area.
Paige turned her attention to the seat beside him. “Mr. Tims, yours is ready.”
Paige opened the drawer and looked at the stack of plastic cards. She reached for the one on the top, but drew back her hand. She needed every penny she earned right now; she couldn’t afford to be helping people who had made bad life choices. Still, as she watched the skeletal man in threadbare pants and dirty coat push from his chair and pad toward her, she picked up the card and dropped it into his bag.
Probably no more than fifty, a life hard-lived left him looking old and defeated. “ ’Bout time.” He stretched out his hands, gnarled from arthritis and years on the street.
“Be sure to take that with some food or milk, okay?”
“Not much of that on the streets these days.” He turned and shuffled across the lobby.
Paige got busy working on the next order in line.
“Thanks! Thanks a lot!” Everyone in the lobby turned toward the sound. Mr. Tims stood at the front entrance, waving the card in the air.
Paige smiled and waved. She could feel every eye in the place locked on her. So much for being discreet.
Lee took a step down the wooden ladder and nodded toward the door. “What was that all about, if you don’t mind my asking?”
“I put a Kroger gift card in his bag. Not much, but enough to get him something to eat.”
“Really?” He took another step down. “You do that for all your patients?”
“Can’t afford to.” In fact, she couldn’t afford the one she’d just given out.
“So, how do you choose then?”
“I don’t know. Sometimes it just feels—right. In this particular case, his medication works better if it’s taken with food. And, you can tell by looking at him he hasn’t had much to eat lately.”
“Like I said, you’re good with patients. You think any more about my offer?”
“What offer was that?”
“Working with my granddaughter, of course.”
“I’m sure I’d love to work with your granddaughter, but don’t you think she’d prefer to hire her own help?”
“Maybe so, but I own the place. I can hire whoever I like.” Lee smiled smugly, climbed back up the ladder, and stuck his head above the acoustic tiles.
Paige knew that Lee was just talking; she knew better than to hope, but it was the only particle of anything remotely resembling hope that she’d seen in several days now. She pressed a label onto the container in front of her. “Joe, got you ready.”
Joe shuffled to the counter. “Thank you, pretty lady.” He leaned forward and whispered. “Got Mr. Richardson himself working back there with you, huh? You must feel pretty important.”
“No. His name is Lee. He just works for Richardson.”
“Name’s Lee, all right. Mr. Lee Richardson. That’s the big man himself.”
Joe couldn’t possibly know what Lee Richardson looked like, and Lee Richardson couldn’t possibly be some guy in flannel and boots. Richardson Construction trucks were all around the city. The man who owned the company undoubtedly spent his days in designer suits in a big corner office. Not climbing ladders. “And how would you know that?”
“Worked for him, once. Long time ago.” The crinkles around his eyes turned down. “Nice man. Fair.” His head nodded slowly as if lost in memory. “Well, I’ll see you soon.” He winked and disappeared out the door.
“Okay, all done.” Lee folded the ladder and tucked his arm between two rungs. He walked over to Paige. He picked up the newspaper, folded on the counter with a big red circle around the ad for a pharmacist at Centennial Hospital.
“I didn’t think you wanted another job.”
“We’re about to shut down for two weeks without pay, and finances are beyond tight for me right now. Centennial has a full-time position with a rather generous signing bonus. I could use that money.”
“How much did you spend on that homeless man’s gift card?”
Paige shrugged. “More than I probably should have, but he’s desperate, too. Maybe that’s why I wanted to help him.”
“What if I offer a twenty-percent pay raise over what you’re making now and a signing bonus. What was the hospital offering?”
“Three thousand dollars. Half on hiring, the other half after three months.”
“Okay, I’ll offer five. Same deal. Half on hiring, half after three months.”
This was a dream job, with better pay, at a critical time. It all seemed too good to be true. What was the catch? Paige knew the answer.
Lee Richardson did not have all the facts.
Paige knew she could open her mouth right now, and in less than a moment’s time, the job offer would be withdrawn. “Has your granddaughter been looking for someone else to hire?”
“No, she’s working a lot of long hours, trying to do it all herself.” He smiled then, a smile of true pride. “Comes about that trait honest enough. And she’s doing well. I just think she needs a little more of what you’re so good at. Someone that takes the time to see her patients as real people, not just someone to help keep the bills paid. Know what I mean?”
“Maybe she won’t agree.”
“Maybe not at first, but it won’t take her long to come around. I started my own company over forty years ago, and gut instinct has never proved me wrong. Bringing you into that store is just what it needs. How soon can you start?”
If Lee Richardson’s gut didn’t tell him to ask some more questions, there was no reason Paige should volunteer anything, especially given the unfairness of the situation. She didn’t want to leave the clinic, but if the ship was sinking she needed off. And Shoal Creek would be only minutes from her parents’ house. The signing bonus alone would make up a big chunk of what her mom needed, and her mom came first right now. After all, hadn’t she just been praying for an opportunity like this? “How’s Monday?”
“Great. Here’s the address. I’ll meet you out front and take you in and introduce you to Clarissa.” He handed her a piece of paper with the address written on it. “I’ll see you Monday morning.”
Paige could barely wait for him to walk out of the pharmacy before picking up the phone. “Dad, don’t you dare sell your things. You’re not going to believe what’s just happened.”
Paige sat with her mother on their garden bench for one last time before they said good-bye.
Her mother leaned her head over onto Paige’s shoulder. “What’s the pharmacy like? In Shoal Creek, I mean?”
“I haven’t seen it yet, but I gather it’s a little independent set right on the square inside the renovated old movie theater.”
“Oh, I’ve heard about that. Some construction company from Nashville bought up most of the square—restoring it into something beautiful, I hear.”
“That’s right. You know, it’s pretty close to my dream come true. A quaint pharmacy in a small town, where I know my customers by name.”
“ ‘Delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart.’ That’s from Psalms—somewhere. I wish I could remember references better. Anyway, point is, we trusted God through all this and He has provided.”
“I wish I had your faith, Mom. And your memory for Bible verses.” Paige smiled, realizing how true it was. God had provided yet another job just when she needed it. She could count on Him to make everything else work out, too. Right?
Her father called from the back door. “Okay, Doris, we’re ready to go.”
Paige helped her mother to her feet, and the two of them made their way toward the car. “Make sure to walk Dusty twice a day. He’ll pretend he’s too old and crippled to go, but once you let him know you’re not falling for it, he’ll go a pretty good distance. Let him roam around the backyard, too.”
