Waiting for Daybreak (6 page)

He smiled and turned. “Sure. Really surprised you good, didn’t I?”

“You can say that again.” She looked toward the door of the pharmacy. “I’m working as hard as I can here.”

“I know you are, that’s why I brought in some help. It’ll give you the time to do some of the things you need to get done to get the business going. You can learn from her, she can learn from you. It’ll be a win-win situation.”

“Who’s paying her salary?”

He looked surprised by the question. “Well, the store of course.”

“I can’t afford another salary right now.”

“You can’t afford to
not
have another salary right now. Sometimes in business you have to invest a little extra up front for the big payoffs in the long run.”

“But how am I supposed to make this place profitable if you keep adding unexpected expenses?”

He smiled. “I told you all along, customer service has to be king. This will pay off big in the long run.”

But time was something Clarissa didn’t have much of. She wasn’t worried about dividends over time. She was worried about here and now. And here and now she didn’t have the money for this new girl.

“So, it doesn’t matter whether or not I think we can afford her?”

“I was running my own business long before your father was even born, much less you. These kinds of things you’ll just have to trust my judgment on. You’ll see. It won’t be long until you’re thanking me for hiring her.”

“Somehow, I doubt that very much.”

“You can handle this, you can handle this.” Paige whispered the words over and over, yet each time she said them she became more and more convinced they weren’t true.

A frazzled-looking young mother entered the store, holding a toddler by one hand, a crying baby on the opposite hip. With every step the woman took, Paige fought the increasing urge to duck behind the shelves. What was she supposed to do? Clarissa had been gone almost ten minutes now, and Paige had no idea about the setup of this pharmacy, and not even a clue how to work the computer system.

She forced herself to make the walk to the patient counter. “May I help you?”

The mother put the baby up on her shoulder. “There, there, stop your crying now. Andrew, hand the nice lady the piece of paper, okay sweetie?”

The little boy reached into the pocket of his jeans and pulled out a crumpled prescription. He handed it to Paige with a serious expression on his face. “My brother needs some medicine.”

“Your brother?” Paige looked at the baby on the mother’s shoulder, wearing pink and ruffles.

The mother nodded toward the door. “His older brother. He’s waiting out in the car, so if you don’t mind hurrying, I’d appreciate it.”

“I . . . well, I’ll get this as fast as I can.” Paige walked back up to the dispensing area and looked at the crumpled prescription blank. Amoxicillin 250 mg capsules shouldn’t be hard to find. She walked down the first aisle and began to read labels. Everything appeared to be in alphabetical order by generic name; of course she could do this. When she saw the white plastic bottle with the words
amoxicillin 250
on the label, she almost cried with relief. She could count these out, put them in a vial, and hope that Clarissa showed up in time to work the computer.

She poured the capsules on the tray and started counting. Five, ten, fifteen . . .

The pharmacy door squeaked open. A rumpled girl walked behind the counter, red hair frizzed and untamed, pale face splattered with freckles. Someone looking for drugs?

Paige summoned up her most authoritative voice. “I’m sorry, no one is allowed up here. You need to wait below.” She looked toward the front door, willing Clarissa to appear. The door remained shut tight.

“Last time I checked, I worked here. Unless you know something I don’t?”

“Work here?” This waif in the low-cut jeans and wrinkled shirt couldn’t be more than twenty.

“I’m the tech.”

Paige suddenly felt foolish. “Oh, sorry, I’m Paige. I’m the new pharmacist. I just started today.” Paige extended a hand, which the girl eyed suspiciously.

“Yeah, I just saw Clarissa out front. She told me all about it.”

She reached out and gave Paige’s hand a brief shake. “Name’s Dawn.”

Did Paige imagine the undertone of hostility in Dawn’s voice?

The same undertone she’d imagined from Clarissa?
Stop being
paranoid.

Dawn dropped her oversized purse into a bottom drawer. “I’ll go check the refill line.” Had the room just grown colder?

“Uh, wait. Do you know how to work the computer? There’s this new prescription here, the kid is waiting in the car, and I don’t know how to do it.”

Dawn went to the terminal without another word. In no time, the label printed. Paige put it on the vial she’d already filled with the medicine and hand-initialed the label. Dawn rang up the purchase at the back register. “Okay, now I’m going to listen to the refill line.” She walked to the back counter and didn’t say another word.

Just then, Clarissa came stalking down the aisle, looking even less happy than she had when she’d followed her grandfather out. “So, did Dawn show you the setup?”

“Uh . . . no. She went to listen to refills.”

“Right. Okay, so come on, I’ll show you around.”

The tour was impressive. Behind the counter were the fast movers, while the rest of the shelves were arranged alphabetically by generic name. Liquids lined the back wall, and to the right the shelves held inhalers, ophthalmics, and everything else. Somebody knew what they were doing when they laid this space out.

“This place is really streamlined,” Paige said when they’d finished. “It’s got to be the most efficient pharmacy design I’ve ever seen.”

“I did the layout myself.” Clarissa almost smiled, but not quite.

“You’re kidding. Wow, you’ve got a gift.”

Clarissa looked at her, studied her face as if expecting something to suddenly appear. “Can I ask you a question?”

“Sure.”

“What would possess you to take a job in a place that you’ve never seen, with people that you’ve never even met?”

“Well I . . .” Paige pushed against the corners of her lips with all the strength she possessed, but she knew that nothing even resembling a smile was there. “The clinic was going to be closed for a while due to renovations. I needed the money. Your grandfather was very nice and offered this job. It’s closer to my parents’ than Nashville.”

“You intentionally moved closer to your parents?” Her sarcasm left no room for misinterpretation.

“I . . . yeah.” There was no reason to go into the rest of the story.

“Well, okay then. I guess that says a lot.”

Dawn came walking from the back counter while several labels spit from the printer. She pulled them off without saying a word.

Clarissa nodded at her. “How are the refills?”

“Thrilling as usual.” Dawn looked at Paige then back at Clarissa. “So . . . I’m just going to start filling these.”

Paige reached out her hand. “I’ll be happy to take some of those. It’ll be a good way for me to get my feet wet.”

“Sure.” Dawn tore off a couple of labels. “Knock yourself out.”

A moment later, Paige was walking down the third aisle, looking for metoprolol, when she heard the unmistakable sound of whispering coming from the next aisle over. A higher-pitched voice, obviously questioning, then the lower-pitched answer—Clarissa’s voice and full of anger. “Can’t believe he’d do something like this,” followed by other words she couldn’t make out, then, “What kind of person takes a job in a place she’s never even seen? Not someone I want to work with.”

chapter
ten

Her second day on the job, Paige returned from lunch determined to keep up the pretense of being perfectly happy in this unwelcoming place. Surely her co-workers would come to accept her presence here eventually.

Clarissa was standing at the counter, talking to a woman who had just approached with a prescription in her hand. “Mrs. Mag-nusen, this prescription is not from your regular doctor, is it?”

“Nah, I just went to the walk-in clinic so I could be seen right away. Why, something wrong?”

“Did you tell the doctor you saw today anything about your past medical history?”

“No. The nurse gave me that fill-in sheet with all those check-a-box questions.”

“Did you mark ‘yes’ beside kidney disease?”

“Um, well, now that you mention, I think I got so busy going down the list and marking no, I might have forgotten.”

“Let me call them for you. I think they’ll probably want to decrease the dose. Have a seat.”

Clarissa walked around behind the counter, dialed some numbers, and waited. “Yes, this is Clarissa at Richardson Apothecary. I’ve got Susie Magnusen here right now and she’s got a prescription for Cipro 750 every twelve hours. I wonder if Dr. Stone is aware that Mrs. Magnusen has kidney disease?” Clarissa rolled her eyes as she waited in silence. Paige guessed the nurse was trying to track down the doctor.

“Hello, Dr. Stone. Yes, according to her primary care physician Susie Magnusen’s creatinine clearance is down around twenty. Do you want to change her Cipro strength to 250? Yes. Yes. Thank you.” Clarissa marked out the 750 mg and changed it to 250 mg, then began counting out the pills.

Mrs. Magnusen came to the counter. “Everything okay?”

“Yes. Make sure you always mention your kidney issues to a doctor you’re seeing—especially when it’s outside your usual clinic. The good news is, he cut your dose, which will cost you less. So, how about that?” She rang up the purchase and handed Mrs. Magnusen her prescription.

“Thank you so much, young lady.” Mrs. Magnusen walked out beaming.

Paige looked at Clarissa, amazed at what she’d just seen. “How did you know about the renal disease?”

“Last month her physician called about renal dosing of some of her other meds. I noted it in the computer.”

“Yeah, but you hadn’t even been back to the computer yet when I walked in, you were still at the counter.”

Clarissa shrugged. “I just remembered, that’s all.”

The same way that she’d remembered that Cipro’s dosage needed to be adjusted without the computer warning her. Paige realized that whatever else she might be, Clarissa was one smart pharmacist. Once they got past the bumpy start, she’d be a great person to learn from.

Paige said, “Well, now that you’ve gotten that all taken care of, why don’t you take a lunch? With Dawn here, I can handle it.” Even though Paige still felt very awkward in this new place, Dawn was a proficient tech in every aspect of the word. Maybe this gesture would help bridge the gulf.

Clarissa looked toward Dawn, then back at Paige. “I’ll do a quick sandwich out front.” She looked at Dawn. “I’ve got my cell. You know the drill.”

Paige watched Clarissa walk out and tried to make small talk with Dawn. “So, did you grow up around here?”

“Yeah.”

“Your family still here?”

“Yeah.”

Paige couldn’t force the girl to talk no matter how awkward it was, so thankfully there were several refills to keep her occupied. Paige kept telling herself it would just take a little time, that’s all. This time next week, they would all laugh that there had ever been a problem.

An older woman in a gardening hat and faded jeans entered the store, carrying a prescription bag. Paige walked down to meet her at the counter. “May I help you?”

The woman removed the plastic vial from the bag. “Hope so. I picked up the refill of my blood thinner a while ago, and the pills aren’t the same color they usually are.”

The strangest sense of detachment came over Paige. She saw herself lean forward, heard herself speak. “Really? Let me see.”

The woman handed her the bottle. This other Paige, the one who moved like a robot, performed tasks but felt nothing, looked at the label. Clarissa’s initials were printed in the corner. Inside the bottle rested pills that were supposed to be warfarin 2.5 mg but weren’t. Paige felt herself lift her head to look at the customer.

“See, they’re purple. Mine are usually green.”

Thankfully, this new Paige kept her composure, smiled calmly, spoke in a soothing voice. “Just one minute, Mrs. Harris, let me see what I can find out. Have you taken one of these?”

“No, I always take ’em at bedtime. Don’t know why I even looked at ’em, but I did.”

Paige could not look at Dawn when she came behind the counter, went to the shelves, and got the warfarin 2.5 mg bottle. She poured the green tablets onto the tray and counted a double portion for good measure. She put them in the bottle and fastened the safety lid in place. There, now everything was fixed as good as new.

She went back to the counter, a cheerful smile on her face. “Here you go, Mrs. Harris. I have your green pills ready for you. I gave you an extra month’s supply for free to make up for the inconvenience of having to come back in.”

“What happened? Did I get the wrong stuff?”

Paige put the bottle into the bag in the woman’s hand. “Nothing like that. Sometimes the manufacturers try a new color. In this case, they did, and found out all their patients were upset, so they switched it back. It should always be green from now on, but don’t ever hesitate to come back with questions like that.” This new Paige, the detached one, felt no remorse at all for the lie. It was simply something that had to be done—for everyone’s sake.

Mrs. Harris smiled. “Thank you, young lady. And thanks for the free month’s supply. Every little bit helps when you’re living off your retirement.” She walked out of the store, seemingly unfazed.

Dawn stared at her, mouth open. “Why did you tell her that? About the color change?”

Only now did any hint of the old Paige return. It started with the smallest twinge, nothing really. But as each second ticked past, it grew into an ache, then an all-out stabbing pain inside her.

“I . . . it . . . I’ll be right back.” Paige ran into the bathroom and locked the door behind her. She stared at the girl in the mirror, wondering who she was. Where had this person come from? This person who so coolly told lies, who hid truths from the people she worked with. Actually, it was obvious where this person had come from. She had been created. Created by the very system that had ruined her life, the system that she now felt no remorse about working outside of. She took a few deep breaths and walked back into the pharmacy, head held high.