by Ally Nelson
*****
Dana walked back into her house feeling like she achieved something that day. Dana heard her father coughing in the other room and she quickly made her way to him.
“Are you ok?” Dana asked and patted him on the back. Ryan raised his hand to her then, signaling that he’d be fine in a few moments.
“Of course, never better.” Dana could tell that he was putting on this brave charade for her, but she didn’t buy it. Just by looking at her father, she could tell that his condition was getting worse.
“Did the doctor call you today?” Ryan shook his head and Dana frowned. One part of her thought that the doctors were taking too long to give her father a diagnosis, and another part of her felt that her father was lying to her. Either way it goes, she was angry by the lack of information. “Tsk… this is why I hate going to the doctor.” Dana muttered and stood up about to go to the kitchen and get some leftovers from last night.
“Well, like them or not, they’re a necessary evil”. Just like Dana, Ryan dreaded going to the doctor and if he had it his way he’d only go when he had one leg in the casket, which was more than likely the reason why he was in his current predicament. “So… did you get called in for an interview?” Ryan noticed that his daughter was dressed pretty professional, he knew that someone would come around and call Dana. She had the qualifications, now all she needed was the experience. Dana shook her head at that one and smiled.
“Don’t laugh at me dad,” Dana said and Ryan raised his eyebrow with interest.
“Can’t make any promises, kiddo. If it’s funny, I will laugh.” Dana rolled her eyes but the smile didn’t leave her face.
“Well…. I had a dream last night that I got a job at Connors and Associates, so I went up there to check it out” Dana noticed that Ryan had a hard time not cracking a smile at that.
“You’re psychic now, Dana? What’s the winning lotto numbers? We could use the extra money.” Dana sighed heavily at that and playfully punched her father in the arm.
“Dad I’m serious. I feel good about this one.” Dana said and Ryan couldn’t contain himself as laughter filled his room.
“Alright, alright. Listen, if you feel this strongly about this, then I believe you. You’re going to get a call back sweetheart,” Ryan kissed his daughter on the cheek and started walking away.
“Going to watch some TV? I heard some men saying that some game is about to come on.” Ryan shook his head.
“No, I’m getting tired. I’m going to the bathroom and then I’m going to call it an early night.”
“Are you going to at least eat something? Your plate is still in there from last night.” The fact that Ryan was starting to lose his appetite scared Dana. If something happened to her father, she did not know what she was going to do. Ryan paused for a brief moment and furrowed his brow.
“I didn’t realize that you cooked last night. I made a quick sandwich and went back to sleep.” Dana could tell that he was lying then. There was no way that he could have missed his plate. Ryan was getting older without a doubt, but his eyesight was still up and running well. Dana knew that her father knew that she was worried, she wanted to call him out on his lying, but she didn’t want to make him feel any worse.
“What about today, dad? Are you going to eat the food or not?” Dana asked and Ryan looked her straight in the eye.
“I’ll eat later gosh mom,” Ryan said sarcastically. She wasn’t going to win with this man. Dana frowned without another word and Ryan went into the bathroom. Sighing, Dana made her way to her bedroom to check to see if anyone emailed her. She frowned when the only emails she had was spam and a notification about a bill that she had due soon.
“Great,” Dana said and started taking off her clothes. She’d been out all day and she was quite tired. First she went to Connors and Associates to kind of get a feel of the place because Dana felt that her dream meant something, and then she hung out with some friends at the mall. “I’ll get a job soon, just keep trying.” It was hard to keep telling herself that considering that every day that passed felt like weeks to her. Dana looked in the mirror at herself once she had taken off every article of clothes. She wasn’t the most gorgeous woman in the world, but she thought she was alright. She kept her shoulder length hair straight and always had styles that reflected what she was wearing. She was slim, but she wasn’t athletic. Her skin was tanned considering that she walked around New York almost every day. Her dark brown eyes were nothing special, but she thought that she looked professional when she needed to.
“That’s enough of that,” Dana said shaking her head. Her appearance had nothing to do with why she wasn’t getting a call back. If something had to be blamed, it’ll have to be her lack of work experience. “It’s not really my fault,” Dana muttered as she put on an oversized t-shirt that she preferred to sleep in. Dana felt if things had worked out the way that she had planned, she would have at least had a full two years of professional work experience. However, life did the absolute opposite of what she wanted.
It was still early out, but Dana decided to follow her dad’s lead and call it an early night. She wanted to start again early tomorrow, so she needed all of the rest that she could get.
Chapter Three
“Good morning, Mr. Connors.” Joy said happily when Matthew Connors, one of the owners of Connors and Associates walked through the door. It was early and Matthew honestly didn’t want to be there that day.
“Good morning, Joy. What’s my schedule today?” Matthew said as he walked passed Joy. Joy knew the drill, she’d follow him to his office and relay everything that he had to get accomplished for the day. Joy did this for him every morning, so it wasn’t like she wasn’t used to him.
“Mr. Connors, you have a meeting with Curt Downing today at nine,” Matthew frowned at that. He personally couldn’t stand Curt. The man was arrogant and a stereotypical old man with a chip on his shoulder. The older man constantly went on and on about how the younger attorneys didn’t take pride in their work. Matthew knew that Curt was jealous of him and Austin, but at the end of the day, they had to do something right to be in the position that they were in.
“Ugh… is there a way to cancel that one?” Matthew asked and he already knew the answer to that one even before he asked the question.
“Mr. Connors, you’ve postponed this meeting twice already. It’ll be unwise to cancel the meeting again.” Matthew nodded his head. Yup, the same thing that I thought you were going to say, Matthew thought to himself.
“I know, Joy. Mr. Downing is just… difficult to work with sometimes.” Matthew chose his words lightly. Joy gave Matthew a sad smile.
“I know Mr. Connors, but please bear with it today. It’s only for an hour.” Matthew’s frown deepened. An hour was still too long.
“What else?” Matthew said sitting down in his oversized chair. New York City could be seen directly behind him.
“You’re free for an hour after the meeting with Mr. Downing. At eleven you have another meeting with your brother. You have a couple of consultations to do after one, you’d be free again for the rest of the day after three.” Another busy day for Matthew, but it wasn’t like he was complaining. He loved what he does, but some days he loved it just a tad bit less.
“Thanks Joy. Hold all of my calls today and call me Matt for Christ sakes.” Joy smiled and nodded her head and took her leave. Once she had left Matthew’s office, he sighed. “I really hate this open door policy,” Matthew muttered to himself. Austin thought it’ll be a good idea to have an open door policy and Matthew was all for it at first. Now since they were the top law firm in New York, the work had started to overflow. He’d much rather close his office door and lie on his couch until nine, but he had paperwork to look through.
Matthew scratched his neatly trimmed goatee as he skimmed through the documents that was scattered around on his desk.
“This work is going to age me fast,” Matthew said shaking his head as he read the bad han
dwriting from prisoners who were requesting his services. Matthew had started noticing some gray hair around his temples. At thirty-two years old, he felt that he was much too young for that. Austin had laughed at him once he told him. Austin was the oldest and the man claims that he didn’t have a single gray hair in his head. Matthew thought that was a lie, especially since Austin has been practicing longer than Matthew, but Matthew wasn’t going to call Austin out on it.
“Finally,” Matthew said as he saw the human resources paperwork that he’d been waiting for. The company had very few openings; however, Matthew and Austin felt like they needed to have a Legal Assistant to help out with some of their workload. In order to conserve money, even though their company was doing well, the two brothers decided to share the assistant. Much of the work that Matthew needed done, he did it himself or had Joy do it. He wanted to take some of the stress off of Joy and Austin had an assistant who recently quit because her husband got a new job in a different state. Austin couldn’t keep up with his work so since Matthew was looking for an assistant, Austin thought it’ll be better to share the assistant with him.
“This person looks good on paper,” Matthew said and got up to turn on his Keurig so that he could make himself some coffee. “Dana Prescott,” Matthew mumbled. She didn’t have a lot of experience, but she did have a Juris Doctor and passed the State Bar exam. She has completed an internship that was quite similar to the job. Matthew knew that one had to start somewhere and he wasn’t going to let a possibly good candidate get away just because she didn’t have much work experience. Matthew picked up his office phone and gave his brother a call.
“Good morning. I see you barely got in this morning.” Matthew could hear the smile in Austin’s voice and Matthew couldn’t help but to smile at that. It was true, Matthew had been a little late that morning. In all honesty he wanted to call off. Matthew was mentally and physically exhausted.
“Shut up, I’m here.” Matthew said and laughed.
“So what’s up?” Austin asked and Matthew could hear the leather of Austin’s chair squeaking as he moved around.
“HR sent me a couple of resumes and one of them caught my eye.”
“Alright, let’s hear it.”
“Dana Prescott. She doesn’t have a lot of work experience, but she does have a Juris Doctor. She’s done an internship at another law firm for something similar. Her resume was put together quite nicely and she went to Columbia University.” Austin wasn’t exactly impressed with what Matthew told him, but he wasn’t the type to judge someone before meeting them.
“Alright, let’s give her a shot.” Austin said. An investor took a chance with them and look where they were now. Austin would give this Dana Prescott a chance to prove herself to them.
“Cool, I’ll have Joy give her a call.” After going over the details of the interview and what the both of them were looking for in a candidate, the two brothers disconnected the call. Matthew typed up a quick email to Joy and made his way toward the conference room for his nine o’clock meeting.
*****
“I’m alright, Dana” Ryan said as Dana brought some soup into his room. He was unable to move all day, when Dana tried to help him out of the bed, Ryan moaned and groaned like he was deeply in pain.
“No you’re not dad!” Dana shouted angrily. “I’ve never seen you this bad before. I’m calling a doctor here and I don’t want to hear nothing about it.” Before Ryan had enough time to refuse Dana, she was out of the room. Ryan would have called after her, but he was too weak to speak anymore and he could barely move. After Dana told the doctor of her father’s symptom, Dr. Weiss personally said that she’d come over that afternoon to have a look at him. Dana got off of the phone feeling quite pleased with herself, but she also felt afraid. She was afraid that something bad was going to happen and that she’d be left all alone. Dana jumped slightly when her phone started ringing.
“Hello?” Dana said as she answered the phone for a number that she didn’t recognize.
“Hello, is Dana Prescott available please?” Dana’s heart started pounding hard then. She knew that this call had to be about a job that she had applied to. She quickly erased her worries out of her mind and focused hard to sound professional.
“Hello, this is Dana. How can I help you?”
“Good afternoon Dana, this is Joy Wilkins and I’m calling in regards to your application you put in for Connors and Associates.” Oh my God, Dana thought to herself as the temperature started to rise in the room. She had a feeling if she waited patiently that Connors and Associates would give her a call back.
“Hello Ms. Wilkins, thank you so much for your call.”
“Oh it’s not a problem at all Dana. I was calling because we’d like to schedule an interview with you for the Legal Assistant position.” Dana grinned from ear to ear at that.
“Of course, let me grab a pen and piece of paper. Please give me one moment,” Dana put her phone on mute and ran to her room. She was so excited that she finally gotten a call back and an interview. She had to make this count. “I’m ready,” Dana said and began writing down the date and time for her interview. Once they were done, Dana thanked the woman again for calling her, and hung up the phone. Without a second thought, Dana made her way towards her father’s room.
“Dad…” Dana said momentarily forgetting that her father was quite ill at the moment. Dana’s face converted to a frown when she noticed that her dad was fast asleep. She really wanted to share the news with him, but she wasn’t going to disturb his sleep. “I’ll tell him when he wakes up,” Dana said to herself and made her way towards the living room. It’s been a while since she watched TV, so she thought this was the best time to catch up on a lot of shows that she missed. This would be a great way to pass the time as she waited for Dr. Weiss to arrive.
Chapter Four
“How are you doing, Mr. Prescott?” Dr. Weiss said as she looked over Ryan’s frail body. She didn’t have that same familiar smile on her face that she normally had when Dana or Ryan came in for a checkup. This absolutely scared Dana. Ryan groaned and opened his eyes which appeared to be a great ordeal to do.
“It’s… it’s hard to move sometimes and… painful… to speak.” Dana bit her lip as she held back her tears. She couldn’t understand how her father could have gotten this bad in a matter of hours. Whatever was wrong with her father, it was starting to kill him quicker.
“Dr. Weiss, please… please tell me that everything’s alright.” Dana begged. Dr. Weiss took Ryan’s temperature before answering the young woman in distress.
“I’m not entirely sure, but I believe your father has some type of virus that affects his bones. This could be why he’s weak.” Dr. Weiss said.
“A virus? What kind of virus?” Dana asked in shock and Dr. Weiss shook her head.
“I’m sorry, I said too much. I can’t go into too much detail until I know for sure.” Dr. Weiss took a syringe out of her bag and drew some blood from the now fast asleep Ryan. “I don’t want to tell you that your father has a virus unless I’m absolutely sure.”
“But you’re a doctor! If that’s your initial thought, then it must be true.” Dr. Weiss placed the blood sample in a container and packed up her belongings.
“Ms. Prescott, I’ll contact you both in a few days. I should have the results back then.”
“But we’ve been waiting a couple of days already for the same results! Whatever’s wrong with my father I need to know now so that I can help him get better.” Dana said and Dr. Weiss looked at her with a sad smile.
“I’m sorry, Ms. Prescott but until I know exactly what’s wrong with him, I cannot prescribe him something.” Dana frowned. There had to be something that she could give her father for the time being to get his bones strong again. Dana kept her mouth closed because she knew no matter how many times Dana asked Dr. Weiss for more information, she knew that she wouldn’t receive any.
“Alright, thank you.” Dana honestly had nothing else t
o say to the doctor. Dana was angry and upset and if Dr. Weiss wasn’t trying to do anything for her father today, then the best thing for her to do is to leave. Dana walked Dr. Weiss to the door and she didn’t respond to anything that the other woman was saying, Dana just wanted her to leave.
“Goodbye, Ms. Prescott. I’ll get in touch with you in a few days.”
“Right, goodbye.” Dana closed the door and sighed. There was nothing else she could do. She wanted to tell Ryan the good news, but it’ll have to wait. Dana honestly didn’t want to leave him here by himself, but she needed to if she had any chance of securing employment. Dana bit her already bruised lipped and went to the kitchen to cook a lonely meal.
*****
“Dad, I’ll be back.” Dana said looking in on Ryan. He was awake, but he was still confined to his bed. It hurt to look at him like this, especially when he needed help doing some of the most basic of tasks. Dana had to feed him last night and that morning, and she also had to help him in the bathroom. If things kept on going like this, she’d have to try and find a way to hire a nurse when Dana had to go out.
“Good luck, sweetheart,” Ryan said weakly and Dana nodded her head. She had the interview with Connors and Associates today, and she was really hoping that she’d get this job. She didn’t need to be some hotshot lawyer, all she needed was a job to keep them going. Dana looked into the mirror one last time to make sure she looked interview ready. She wore nude color lipstick with light blush and mascara. Her gray color suit was neatly pressed, her white blouse left a lot to the imagination. She looked good, good enough to work at Connors and Associates. Dana brushed back a stray hair from her face and stepped into her gray pumps.
“It’s now or never,” Dana said to herself and took her father’s car keys off of the table. It wasn’t like he could drive the car at the moment, so she decided to help herself to some free transportation that morning. Dana said a silent prayer and made her way out of the house.