by Rhonda Bowen
“That being said, what do you propose that we do about the current situation?”
“I am glad you asked, sir,” Jules said. “Before I came here this morning I had a chance to speak with the chief nursing executive about the matter. She informed me that steps have been taken to care for the hospital’s most critical patients despite the strike, and I was able to gain assurance from her that patient safety will not be heavily compromised.”
Dr. Conrad nodded but continued looking at Jules, expecting more.
“I know we want to get this issue resolved as quickly as possible, so I arranged a private meeting between the chief nursing executive, the head of the nurses’ union, the head of Emergency, and the hospital chief of staff. We’re hoping you can be a part of this meeting as well, Dr. Conrad, so that this can be settled outside of the papers.”
Before anyone could cut in or Jules could lose her composure, she continued outlining the plan in place for dealing with the strike. Even when she had to field questions and concerns from the board members, she still managed to hold her own.
Inwardly she gave a sigh of relief. Maybe things would work out after all.
“I must say, Ms. Jackson, I am very impressed with the level of effort you put into this recovery strategy,” Dr. Conrad said.
Jules nodded, and tried not to smile despite the pride welling up inside her.
“However, you are a bit … inexperienced in dealing with this type of thing, and the board feels that maybe we need an outside party to navigate this issue.”
Jules blinked several times, not sure she understood exactly what he was saying.
“We have decided to hire an external public relations agency to deal with this matter.”
Jules cleared her throat nervously. “With all due respect, Dr. Conrad, the plan I laid out was very thorough. You yourself said it sounds like the right direction to go. We can do this without—”
“I’m sorry, Ms. Jackson, I think I was unclear. We have already brought in an external team to handle the issue. They will be here momentarily to begin work.”
Jules looked at Dr. Conrad dumbly, unable to find the words to speak. It seemed like not even her best efforts had been enough.
“It’s not that we don’t agree with your strategy, but we would feel more confident having a team of experts handling the issue. You can hand over your plan to them when they get here. I am sure that the execution will be just as you anticipated.”
Jules sighed. The way things had been going, she shouldn’t have expected anything less.
“How long will Ms. Chang and I be working with this team?” Jules asked, trying to keep the defeated feeling she felt from spilling over into her voice.
There was an odd silence, and Jules couldn’t help but notice the look exchanged between the Dr. Conrad and Thomas Donnelly, the VP of operations. A feeling of panic began to spread through her stomach as Donnelly cleared his throat nervously.
“Ms. Jackson, in light of the fact that your department is currently under investigation, we will be asking that you take a leave of absence.”
“What?” Jules croaked. She heard Michelle gasp behind her.
“Just for three weeks until this issue has been sorted out. We are asking that you turn everything over to the agency and have your desk cleared out by the end of business today.”
Jules’s mouth fell open.
Clean out her desk? That didn’t sound like a leave of absence. That sounded like she was being fired! This was ridiculous! Penny’s indiscretions weren’t her fault. Why did she have to take the blame? Besides, there was no way she could just turn everything over to an agency. How would they run the department without her? Without Michelle?
But as she looked around at the faces at the table, she knew that the president’s proposal was not up for discussion. It had been decided long before she had even entered the room.
The one thing she had feared the most was happening at the worst time ever. She was losing her job. The career she had worked so hard for had come crashing down on her in just one day. And it wasn’t even her fault.
Chapter 18
It was the ringing of the phone that woke Jules up on Tuesday.
Even though it was already midday, she couldn’t seem to motivate herself to get out of bed.
She pulled her pillow over her head and willed the answering machine to pick it up. Eventually it did, but a minute later the phone started ringing again.
The third time it happened Jules realized that whoever it was knew she was at home.
She groaned and rolled across the bed until she was near enough to reach the phone.
“Hello?”
“Jules, what’s going on?”
It was Davis.
“I’ve been trying to reach you since yesterday, and I’ve been getting nothing but voice mail. I called your office this morning, but they said you’re no longer there. What’s that about?”
Jules sighed and sat up in bed, wincing at the bright sunlight that was streaming through the window. She tried to think of a way to explain what had happened at work to her brother without it seeming as bad as it was. But for some reason she couldn’t muster up the energy to do it.
“I got fired yesterday.”
“What?”
“Well, not really,” Jules corrected groggily. “I was forced to take a leave of absence.”
“For how long?” Davis asked, alarmed.
“Three weeks, maybe more.”
“What?” Davis asked, clearly confused. “Why?”
Jules calmly explained everything that had happened at work, from Penny’s passing off her duties to Jules, to the article on the front page, to the accusations of fraud against her department, to Penny’s being fired. When she was done Davis was speechless.
“So they’re investigating you for fraud?”
“I don’t know,” Jules grumbled. “They won’t say anything specific. They haven’t asked for access to any of my private accounting information, so I think I might be in the clear on that part of things.”
“I can’t believe you didn’t tell me about all of this before,” Davis murmured. “It’s really bad, isn’t it.”
“Yup. I’m pretty much toast,” Jules said nonchalantly. “Stick a fork in me, baby brother; I’m done.”
“Is that why you and Mom got in an argument—wait, but if all that happened yesterday, you didn’t lose your job till after your argument with Mom,” Davis said, more to himself than to Jules.
Jules cringed. “I didn’t lose my job—it’s just …”
Who was she kidding? She knew there would probably be no job at the hospital for her to go back to at the end of the three weeks.
Jules sighed. “No, my argument with Momma wasn’t about that. How did you even know about that anyway?”
“I called her yesterday,” he said. “I was asking her something about Sunday dinner with you, and she said something about not having a daughter, so I figured you two had gone at it again.”
Jules rolled her eyes. So her mother had disowned her. Why was she not surprised? With the way Jules had spoken to her, Jules knew she probably deserved it.
“Yeah, we did. Did she tell you why?”
“No. She wouldn’t talk about it. That’s why I’m calling you,” Davis said. “This one sounded really serious. What happened?”
Jules replayed the argument to Davis, including all the gory details. Davis let out a low whistle.
“That was pretty cold, Jules,” he said. “How could you say that to her? You know how sensitive she is about Dad.”
“I know,” Jules whined, falling back into the pillows and pulling her sheet over her head. “I was just so angry about everything, and she just kept getting on my nerves.”
“She’s still our mother, Jules,” Davis said. “You know you were way over the line.”
“Yeah, I know,” Jules said. “She’ll probably never speak to me again.”
“Not unless you apologize, anyway
.”
“Maybe not even then,” Jules said.
She had had a lot of arguments with her mother. But maybe this was the one that had truly ruined their relationship forever. It was funny how you try to get far away from someone, but the moment you realize that you may never have them around again, they are all you can think about.
Davis sighed. “So what happened with you and Germaine anyway?”
“What are you, the Jackson family police?”
“You know I can just call him if you won’t tell me,” Davis said.
“You wouldn’t,” Jules said, with a hint of uncertainty.
“Yeah, you know I wouldn’t,” Davis conceded sheepishly. “So just tell me what it is.”
Jules bit her lip as she thought about just how much she should tell Davis.
They almost always told each other everything. The one time Davis had almost cheated on Keisha, he had told Jules, even before he had talked to Keisha about it. And when Jules had been planning to move out, Davis had been the one to look at apartments with her, even before she had summoned the courage to tell their mother. She knew whatever she said would be safe with him. But at the same time, this was big, and she had promised Germaine that she wouldn’t say anything.
“We just both had some stuff we couldn’t see past, that’s all,” Jules said vaguely.
She hated lying to her brother, and she hated Germaine for making her do it.
Davis was silent on the other end of the phone for a long time, and Jules began to wonder if he was still there.
“What are you not telling me, Jules?”
She had forgotten how well Davis knew her.
Jules sighed as she remembered her promise.
But Davis wouldn’t tell anyone.
Before she could stop herself, the whole story came flooding out. Everything from her first encounter with Germaine’s business partners at his office, to the day of Truuth’s photo shoot, to the incident two weeks before. It was such a relief to be able to talk to someone about everything that had been going on. It was like a weight being lifted off her shoulders.
“Jules, are you crazy?” Davis asked. Jules held the receiver a slight distance from her ear as his voice barrelled through to her across the line. “Why the hell are you covering for this guy? Do you want to get caught up in this mess too?”
“I’m not covering for anyone, Davis,” Jules said. “This is really none of my business. I’m not with him anymore, so I’m not linked to this in any way. In any case, he said it would soon be over.”
“And you believe him?” Davis asked.
Jules knew there was no explanation for it, but for some reason she did.
“Yes, I believe him.”
“What if something happens to you? What if one of those guys comes after you?”
“They won’t,” Jules said. “They think I’m nobody.”
“Maybe. But you’re a nobody who knows what they do.”
Jules had thought about that. But she had assured herself it would be okay. Besides, what was she supposed to do? Go to the police? No way. She didn’t trust them. Chances were they would run up on the store, and Germaine or someone else would get shot in the process. She didn’t want to risk that.
“He said it will be over soon,” Jules said.
“I can’t believe you, Jules,” Davis said. She could see him shaking his head in disappointment. “You’re smarter than this. But even if you’re not, I am,” he said. “I have a friend in the force. I’m gonna give him a call, and see if he can give me some advice on this.”
Jules sat up in bed suddenly, her heart beating faster.
“Davis, no. I told you this in confidence because you’re my brother and I knew I could trust you.”
“Jules, this ain’t no kid stuff,” Davis said. “You can’t expect me to sit on this. In fact, you knew I wouldn’t. That’s why you told me, because you’re too scared to do something yourself.”
“I promised him, Davis.”
“I can’t believe this,” Davis muttered. “You still have feelings for him, don’t you?”
Jules didn’t answer. She didn’t have to.
“Jules, this is insane.”
“He said it would all be over by the end of this week.”
“And what if something happens before then?” Davis asked. “What if one of those guys jumps you in the street? You’ve seen their faces; you’re a liability now.”
“Davis, I said no,” Jules said quietly. “I gave my word.”
Davis sighed in frustration. “Jules, this is not up for discussion. If something happened to you, I could never live with myself, knowing that I could have stopped it. One of us is going to make that call. If you don’t, I will.”
Jules bit her lip, knowing that she had no choice. The best she could do was to talk to Davis’s friend herself. It was the only bit of control over this situation she had left.
“Give me your friend’s number,” Jules said quietly after a long moment. “I’ll call.”
Even though her heart was already beating faster at the thought, Jules knew that she would have to be the one to take care of this. She grabbed the notepad from her bedside table and scribbled down the number as Davis rattled it off to her.
“Promise me you’ll call him today, Jules.”
“I’ll call him.”
“Today, Jules,” Davis insisted. “I’m calling him first thing in the morning tomorrow, and if you haven’t told him by then, I will.”
“I promise I’ll call him today,” Jules said, though she didn’t see the value of it. From the looks of things, her promises didn’t seem to be worth that much anyway.
Chapter 19
“Remind me why I’m doing this again?” Jules asked, emptying another box of CDs and tapes on top of the huge pile that had already accumulated on the floor of Triad’s basement.
“Because you’re trying to get me to forget about that crazy stunt you pulled with Truuth’s launch a few weeks ago,” ‘Dre said as he opened another dusty box to reveal more CDs.
“Excuse me? That ‘stunt’ is what helped your artist sell over fifty thousand albums in the first three weeks,” Jules said. “You should be helping me clean out my basement.”
‘Dre smirked. “You don’t have one.”
“Technicality,” Jules shot back. She stuck out her tongue at ‘Dre and ended up sputtering disgustedly as dust particles fell on her mouth.
‘Dre laughed, and Jules swatted at him.
The truth was, Jules was glad ‘Dre had asked her to help him out. It was just what she needed to distract her from the pathetic mess that had become her life.
She hadn’t told anyone, other than Davis, about her leave of absence. Maxine had found out because of the memo that had gone out to the hospital about departmental changes, but Jules had sworn her friend to secrecy and so far Maxine hadn’t said anything to anyone. Jules knew her friends would be sympathetic, but she really didn’t feel like being pitied. So she spent most of the hours when she would have been at work, holed up in her apartment. When ‘Dre called, it took all that Jules had to act unenthused. It had only been a few days, but she was already going stir crazy being off work. She was glad for the opportunity to get away from her home, even if it meant cleaning out Triad’s filthy basement. But there was no way she would let ‘Dre know that.
“You know, you owe me big time for this,” Jules said, laughing. “Nobody else would help you do this, not even Tanya.”
“You know Tanya has asthma, Jules,” ‘Dre said. “If she came anywhere down here, we’d have to hook her up to a ventilator for a week.”
“Yeah, down here is pretty much a dust bin,” Jules said, looking around at Triad’s forgotten second basement.
It was initially supposed to be a storage space, but now it looked more like a garbage space that had become the permanent resting place for demo tapes and dead tracks. All the discarded music that Triad had accumulated in the last few years was scattered before them. I
t probably would have remained down there for another three years if ‘Dre hadn’t decided to turn the space into a much needed second studio. Jules had suggested that the artists who would be using the new studio be the ones to clean it out, but somehow she and ‘Dre had ended up stuck with the task.
“So are we tossing all of these or what?” Jules asked, looking around at the piles of music.
“I don’t know,” ‘Dre said. “There are a lot of memories in here.”
He riffled through the pile on the floor and pulled out a CD that looked so old, it was probably one of the first compact discs ever made.
“This was my first demo, from when I wanted to be a gospel singer,” ‘Dre said, as he held up the disc.
Jules laughed. “You’ve got to be kidding. You wanted to be a gospel singer?”
“Yeah,” ‘Dre said. “And I was good too.”
Jules grabbed the disc from his hand and slipped it into the CD player they had brought downstairs with them. “I have to hear this for myself.”
Only moments later, ‘Dre’s scratchy, wobbly voice wafted through the speakers, doing a poor rendition of an old Kirk Franklin song.
Jules burst out in laughter. “Oh, no, ‘Dre, please tell me you didn’t send this to actual record producers.”
“I did,” ‘Dre said, grinning. “I sent it to some execs at Integrity Records.”
“Ho-lee!” Jules exclaimed, covering her face in empathetic embarrassment. “What did they say?”
“Nothing,” ‘Dre said, trying not to laugh. “They didn’t even write me back.”
Jules tried to contain her laughter. “I can imagine. What made you think you could be a singer?”
“I don’t know?” ‘Dre said, smiling. “I knew I loved music. I thought that being a singer was the only way to go. I didn’t know anything about producing or artist development yet.”
He looked thoughtful as he remembered the early days. “It was actually Tanya who put me on to all of this.”
“Really?” Jules asked. She hadn’t known that.
“Oh, yeah,” ‘Dre said, throwing a couple cracked CDs into a half-full garbage bag. “She was the anchor that prevented the whole idea of Triad from drifting off to sea.”