Waiting for Daybreak (9 page)

Paige concealed a thumbs-up from the men’s view, and Clarissa actually smiled at her.

“This place is well done, no doubt about it,” Milton Parrish said. “Let’s just pull up a couple of chairs, sit back, and watch awhile. I always seem to learn the most that way.”

“Sounds good to me.”

Clarissa turned toward Paige and opened her eyes wide. Panic time.

Paige picked up a pen and wrote,
It’s going to be fine,
slid it across for Clarissa to see, then tossed it in the trash before working on the next prescription in line. And then the next. And the next.

After what seemed like hours, the men finally stood up and walked into the back room.

Paige grasped Clarissa’s wrist and squeezed. “The pharmacy’s been busy all day, the patients have all been happy, Mr. Parrish is impressed with your layout. Sounds like things are looking good for you.”

Clarissa looked at her. “I . . . hope so.”

The store’s front door opened. An obese young woman in too-small clothes entered the store, a sticky-faced baby on her hip. The woman never lifted her eyes above the bottom row of shelves.

“Oh, no. Look what’s coming. This is just what we need right now.” Clarissa looked at the door to the back room. “Get her out of here as fast as you can.”

Paige met the woman at the counter. She looked at the prescription and cooed at the baby. “You must be Jonas. Don’t worry, we’ll have you feeling better in no time. And it’ll taste good, too.” She nodded to the mother. “It’ll be just a few minutes. Please, take a seat.”

“Be right back.” Clarissa disappeared into the bathroom with a hairbrush in her hand.

Paige measured distilled water and poured it into the bottle of powder. When she shook it, a thick pink liquid took form. She attached the label and the
refrigerate and shake well
sticker and dropped it into a bag. She walked to the counter. “Okay, Jonas’s prescription is ready.”

Lee Richardson and Milton Parrish came back into the pharmacy. They took a seat at the back desk, looking over some sort of sketches.

The mother wearily approached the counter.

“Here’s a dropper. Fill it to this line.” Paige showed the woman the half-teaspoon mark. Keep it in the refrigerator, and be sure to give it a good shake before each dose. Okay?”

The woman nodded. “Thanks.”

Paige reached out to touch the baby’s soft cheek. “Good-bye, Jonas. I hope you feel better soon.”

The mother walked away, her steps heavy and slow. Still, she turned to give Paige a little wave before she walked out the door.

Clarissa came out of the bathroom relieved to see the woman and her baby leaving before her grandfather and Milton Parrish came from the back room. She walked up beside Paige and nodded toward the door, thankful to be able to let out a little steam. “People like that drive me crazy.”

“People like what?”

“You know. Charity cases. All the extra paper work makes our lives miserable, and for what? I’m at work, why isn’t she?”

“Maybe she does work. My grandmother was a sharecropper and she worked harder than most anyone. She was on welfare because she didn’t make enough to keep food on the table and her medical bills paid, but she was a great lady. The greatest I’ve ever known.” Paige looked again toward the door and blinked hard.

“Well said.” Milton Parrish’s voice came from directly behind them. “Every customer deserves respect, no matter their financial situation.”

Clarissa cringed. When had they come out of the back room? “Of course. I simply meant . . .” She looked toward her grandfather, her eyes wide.

“We’ve always valued hard work in our family. Haven’t we, Clarissa?” He smiled at her then turned toward Milton. “Sometimes that translates a little harshly when spoken aloud.”

“Yes, it does.” Milton Parrish turned and smiled at Paige. “You did a fine job. You’re the kind of pharmacist that makes me proud to be in the profession.”

“I told you she was good, didn’t I?” Clarissa’s grandfather smiled proudly at Paige.

What? Clarissa looked at her grandfather and pasted on the biggest smile he’d likely ever seen. “Granddad, you are so right. I just think she’s the greatest.”

“See, I told you it wouldn’t take long until you agreed with me.” He nodded toward Milton Parrish. “Shall we go get some dinner?”

“Sounds good.” He shook Paige’s hand. “A real pleasure to meet you, young lady. I can see that you measure up to the great things I’ve been hearing.” Then he turned to Clarissa and shook her hand. “You’ve put in a lot of hard work here, just make certain you don’t lose sight of the customers behind it all.”

“Thanks for the reminder.” Clarissa smiled and shook his hand, pretending as she never had before.

Somewhere behind her, Paige wasn’t having to fake her smile. Well, she’d better enjoy it now, because never again would she be shown to be anything but inferior. Clarissa would make certain of that.

chapter
fourteen

Ora was waiting by the door when Paige arrived on Wednesday morning. Paige looked at her watch, then back at the older woman. “Am I late or are you early?”

“Neither.” Ora stood perfectly still, neither smiling nor frowning, just . . . watching.

Okay, then.
“Is that a new dress?”

The blank stare disappeared behind the glow of a satisfied smile. Ora looked down and rubbed the green cotton fabric between her thumb and fingers. “Yep. Got it yesterday. They brought in a new bale up at Jackson’s.”

“A new bale?” Paige unlocked the door and tried to think of a reply to that. She punched in the alarm code, let Ora in, then locked the door behind them.

“You know, at the dig store. They get in a new bale of clothes once a week or so. You can usually buy by the pound. Don’t cost too much.”

“Wow, I’d say you got a good deal on that dress then. It looks brand-new.”

“Once, I got a pair of pants, just casual mind you, to wear around the house. Got home and found twenty dollars in the pocket. Didn’t pay but two dollars for the things.”

“Wow.
That
was a good deal.” Paige started the coffee and the computer, and went about her morning routine. Several minutes later, she poured them each a cup of coffee and walked down to the waiting area, wondering if today’s brew would finally meet with Ora’s approval—something that had yet to occur. “Here you go.”

Ora eyed the cup suspiciously before taking a sip. She scrunched her lips together. “Blah.” More coffee-making tips were obviously on the way.

Paige took a sip from her own cup to see if she could guess what might be the subject of today’s critique. Nice and hot. Strong enough but not too strong. Tasted good to her—but then it always did. She looked at Ora and waited.

“What’s the story with that red-headed girl?”

The abrupt departure from the usual subject matter sent Paige’s thoughts scrambling.
Red-headed girl?
“You mean Dawn?”

“Don’t know of any other redheads around here.”

“Well, she’s a hard worker, quick and efficient with most anything, and she’s usually late for work. That’s about all I know for sure. Why do you ask?”

“She a real pharmacist, like you?”

Paige shook her head. “No. She’s a technician. She just helps with data entry, counting, and pouring. We check everything she does.”

“You reckon everyone sees it that way?”

“Of course they do.” The acid of the coffee suddenly began to burn Paige’s stomach. “Why would you ask that?”

“I realized yesterday afternoon I needed a refill of my blood pressure medicine. Came in, gave my bottle to the redhead. She filled it, gave it back.”

“I’m sure Clarissa looked it over first. You just didn’t notice.”

“Think so?” Ora took a long sip of her coffee and contorted her face. “Ick. This is even worse than usual.” She took another short sip as if to confirm, then looked toward Paige. “I’d say it’s kind of hard to look something over, when that
something
is in the pharmacy, and you’re sitting outside at the coffee shop talking on a cell phone, now wouldn’t you?”

Paige set her cup aside. “Clarissa was out in the coffee shop while Dawn was in here working?” How many pharmacy laws would that break? Two that Paige could think of, maybe a few more. “Not for long, surely. Just a quick trip.”

“Can’t say. I was here maybe ten minutes, and she was out there at a table when I went in and out there at a table when I came out.”

Paige fought to think through all the implications. An untrained twenty-year-old handing out prescriptions without a pharmacist’s double check? The store could lose its license. Clarissa could lose her license. And that wasn’t even considering the danger it put the patients in. When she asked the next question, she wasn’t certain that she wanted an answer. “Were there any other customers in the pharmacy?”

“Didn’t pay that much attention. There might have been one or two others.”

The coffee burned all the way up Paige’s esophagus now. Ora had to be wrong. Clarissa was smart to the point of brilliance; she would never do anything this idiotic. It was all a big misunderstanding, that’s all. It had to be.

A memory flashed through her mind of her first week at work. What was it Clarissa had said to Dawn before she left for lunch? Something to the effect of, “I’ve got my cell. You know the drill.”

If Dawn already “knew the drill,” that meant there had to be a precedent. Didn’t it? No, it couldn’t be. Maybe Ora just misunderstood.

Or maybe she didn’t.

Paige spent the morning watching the door. She stopped what she was doing the very second Clarissa, wearing a pale pink skirt and a whimsical ponytail, walked in. Dawn was in the back room unloading supplies, so there would be no one to overhear anything that was said. Now was the perfect time to talk. She waited only until Clarissa took her first step into the dispensing area. “I need to ask you about something.”

Clarissa put her purse in a drawer. “Yeah, like what?”

There was no way to phrase this question without it sounding like an accusation. Might as well be done with it. “You would never leave Dawn alone in the pharmacy, would you?”

“What would make you ask that?”

Paige did not want to go into all the details of the truth. No need to get Ora on Clarissa’s bad side. “I heard a rumor that maybe you do.”

“Yeah, well don’t listen to idle talk. I was probably in the bathroom or something.”

Paige nodded. “That’s what I figured. I knew you would understand how reckless it would be to leave her here without you— like while you went to the coffee shop or something.” She looked Clarissa directly in the eye, wanting her to understand that she did know the truth.

Clarissa took a step closer, putting her face only inches from Paige’s. “Listen, before you got here, I was the only pharmacist here. A nine- to twelve-hour day without a break is a bit much to expect of anyone, wouldn’t you say? Maybe I go out to the coffee shop sometimes, but what of it? Dawn calls my cell if something comes in she doesn’t understand. Otherwise—you’ve seen her work. She’s good.”

In spite of the fact that Clarissa loomed uncomfortably close, Paige suppressed the urge to take a step backward. She needed to stand her ground. “Clarissa, you can
not
leave her alone like that. You’re risking everything you have—your store, your license, other people’s lives—just to get a latté. Especially now that I’m here, there is absolutely no excuse for it. If you want something from the coffee shop, send Dawn after it.”

“I think you are forgetting who is the boss here and who is not.”

“Clarissa, I’m not trying to be your boss. I’m trying to keep you out of trouble.”

Clarissa folded her arms across herself and looked the other direction. Surely, she knew that Paige was right. This was not a gray area—it was deepest ebony. “I don’t have time for this. I’ve got work to do.” Clarissa went to the desk at the back of the pharmacy and began slinging papers from one pile to the other. “Get busy on the refills, that’s what you’re getting paid for.”

Paige went to the stack of labels that waited on the counter. Other than the occasional drawer slam, the only other sound for the next half hour was the faint rustle of the labels, the thunk of capsules in the counting tray, and the soft footfalls of customers in the front part of the store.

Dawn finally emerged from the back room. “I didn’t think I’d ever get that OTC order sorted out. What a pain.” Dawn looked from Paige to Clarissa. “Everybody okay up here?”

Paige poured tablets into a pharmacy vial, almost afraid to break the silence. She looked at Dawn and shrugged.

“Dawn, check the refill line,” Clarissa called from the back desk.

“I just listened an hour ago.”

“So listen again.”

Dawn rolled her eyes and walked toward the back, mumbling something under her breath.

A few hours and several cold stares later, Paige grew desperate to break through some of the hostility. She walked over to stand behind Clarissa, determined to make some small talk. “Have you heard anything from Milton Parrish?”

Clarissa turned to look over her shoulder. “Why? What are you hoping I’ve heard?”

“About the franchise. I was hoping you’ve heard that it’s starting to come together.”

Clarissa pivoted in her seat to face Paige more completely.

“Is that what you wanted to know, or are you really asking if he’s said more about what a great person you would be to run a pharmacy?”

Paige took a step back, shaking her head. “No. No, that’s not at all—”

Clarissa wheeled around and grabbed her purse from beneath the counter. “I’m going to take a lunch break now. I am still allowed to do that, right?” She stormed from the pharmacy without a backward glance.

chapter
fifteen

That night, Paige sat in the silent living room and stared at the same pale blue phone that had sat on the same oak table for the last twenty years. All she had to do was reach over and pick it up, punch the buttons, and work up the enthusiasm to convince her parents all was well. It shouldn’t be that hard. Why was it that her hand would not reach for the receiver?

The old grandfather clock clanged out the quarter hour. Then the half hour. Paige thought back to Atlanta, to the emergency meeting and the long conference table where her best friend, Rachelle, had come to sit beside her.