Kat dug through her belongings and settled them into place in her new cubicle. Crammed into a corner at the back of the building, this spot was arguably worse than her prior location, which was saying something. She sighed, sat down in the chair, and looked up. One of the fluorescent lights overhead was out. Great. Casting her gaze on the computer monitor, she craned her neck to see the screen. This chair obviously wasn’t the one she’d had before. Getting up out of the chair, she crouched down and examined it more closely. It looked threadbare, stained, and tired. Not to mention uncomfortable. One of the wheels appeared to be gummed up with something disgusting. Maybe actual gum. Gross. Stealing someone’s rolling office chair was a new low.
Kat looked at the map again to find out where Chris was located. What had happened with the dreadful proposal in her absence? According to the chart, Chris still had a real office with a door. But now he was located closer to the front of the building, near the entrance. She folded up the map, put it in the pocket of her skirt, and exited her dark little corner.
Chris was seated at his desk with one arm thrown over the back of the chair. When Kat appeared in the doorway, he held up a finger at her. “I’m sure you know how busy I am,” he shouted at his phone. The disembodied voice on the other end squawked, “What? I can’t hear you. Are you on your speaker phone again? Pick up the phone, you fu…” The next words were cut off as Chris grabbed the handset. “Sorry Rob, I have to go. Like I told you, I’m super busy. Someone important is standing in my doorway right now.” He glanced up at Kat. “I really need to take this meeting. We’ll connect later.” He hung up the phone and waved at Kat. “Come in! I’m glad you stopped by.”
“I can see that. I’m back from vacation and was just checking on the proposal. Jill was supposed to put my edits into the draft.”
Chris shook his head. “Well, you know, I’m not sure. Can you check with her? I’m really busy.”
“Could you tell me what the new deadline is? I know there was an extension. How long is it?”
“You’ll need to talk to Mark about that. I need that proposal done, so you should get moving. Right now, I need to call Rob back. He’s an important contact.”
“I get the impression he had more to say to you.”
“He’s my buddy. You should see his house. It’s gotta be worth a mint. Pool, tennis court, orchards. It’s incredible!”
Chris reached for the phone as Kat turned to leave. Mark’s office was the only one that was still in the same place, so at least she knew where it was. But she couldn’t face talking to him yet. She pulled the map out of her pocket and looked for Maria’s new cubicle home. She appeared to be located in the middle of the maze, nowhere near Mark’s office, which was odd, since she was his secretary.
“Hey Maria, I’m back.”
Maria jumped up, stretched out her arms and gave Kat a big hug. “We missed you, girlfriend. Welcome back to the weirdness.”
“It’s weirder than it was. I’m trying to adjust to the new arrangement. Somebody stole my chair, too.”
“I hate to break it to you, but Mark forgot about you when he made the map. He gave me the printout to make copies for everyone, and I pointed out you weren’t anywhere on it. I penciled you in.”
“I thought that looked like your handwriting. You’re a good friend. It’s nice to be remembered.”
“See what happens when you go on vacation?”
“I have to go talk to Mark about the proposal. It will be interesting to see if he recognizes me.”
Kat walked to Mark’s office and found him in his typical posture. He was looking down, surveying his manicure, with his Teva surfer sandals up on the desk facing the doorway.
“Hi, Mark. I’m back.”
“Oh yeah. How was Tree Creek?”
“Alpine Grove. It was fine. I’m here to ask about the proposal. You got an extension, but I’d like to know when the specific due date is. Chris doesn’t seem to know.”
“You need to ask Tammy. I put her on it.”
“I thought Jill was putting in my changes, but I haven’t seen her yet.”
“Well, you won’t. She wasn’t up to the job.” Mark leaned forward and thumped his sandals on the floor as he pointed his fingernail clippers at Kat. “I came back from my run and she asked me all these questions. She was asking about the numbers in the proposal. Then she wanted verification for the figures. What’s with that? We have to provide verification? That’s ridiculous. We’re an established, respected company here. We shouldn’t need to justify our sales to write a proposal! She needed me to hold her hand and help her on everything. I’m the CEO. I can’t be doing that type of thing. I’ve got stuff to do. Decisions to make. So I let her go. She was completely worthless. And I didn’t like how she was dressed. She didn’t look professional enough to work here.”
Kat stood in stunned silence. Jill had been with the company for years. In addition to being friendly and fun to work with, she was the best editor Kat had ever met. “You fired her? If you didn’t have the information, couldn’t you have found someone else to answer her questions? Delegate?”
Mark stood up and leaned over his desk. “Are you questioning my decision? I’m telling you, she was a moron!”
“She was an extremely good editor.”
Mark sat down and waved his hand at her. “What are you wearing? I can’t believe you’d come to work looking like that!”
Kat looked down at her blouse. “What I always wear. A skirt and a shirt. It’s pretty standard attire.”
“Where is your desk? You aren’t near the front are you?”
“Actually no. I’m in the corner in the back of the building.”
“Good!”
Kat attempted to return to the point. “So about the deadline? Could you tell me where we are with the proposal?”
“I had Tammy put in your changes and I sent it in. If they don’t like it, too bad. We’re better than that.”
Kat shrugged her shoulders. “I hope you’re right. If we don’t get that work, the company has got a big problem.” She started to turn to leave his office.
Mark “You’re such a downer. You need to go home and change your clothes. Don’t you have something sexier you can wear?”
“I don’t think dressing sexy is generally a job requirement for writers.”
“Why do we have so many writers anyway?”
Kat narrowed her eyes. “It takes quite a few of us to explain how to use the products. Write proposals. Produce documentation. User guides. Manuals. Remember those? And all those times you called me to nag me over the weekend about emergencies? Remember all that?”
“Writers don’t sell stuff and make me money. They’re overhead. I took a one-day business course last week. Times are rough. Businesses need to cut overhead to survive. So I’m thinking of making some changes around here. We need to reduce the documentation. No one reads it, anyway. It’s not worth it.”
Kat glared at Mark. “So what you’re saying is that what I’ve been doing for more than a year is useless?”
“Yeah. I know I don’t read that crap. Why would anybody else?”
Kat’s body tensed and she dug her nails into her palms in an effort to manage her rising anger. She wanted to hit something. Preferably Mark.
Pressing her lips together, she said in a determined, level voice, “For the record, many of our customers have complimented us on our documentation, including the pieces I’ve written. Reviewers have said our easy-to-read user guides are one of the best things about our products.”
Pausing to try to calm her fury, she glared at Mark’s narrowed eyes. Why was she wasting her life here? “Since you seem to think what I do is useless, I don’t think I need to be here anymore.”
Mark raised his eyebrows and began to wave his clippers at her again. Kat interrupted him before he could say anything. “I quit. Feel free to give the ancient gum-filled chair in my dark hole of an office to someone else. Give my last check to Maria. She’ll get it
to me.”
Kat spun around and left his office without another word. She stopped by her cubicle and slammed her personal belongings back into the beat-up banker’s box. Picking up the box, she left the building for the last time.
At her apartment, the red light on Kat’s answering machine was flashing frantically. Given the speed of the office grapevine, she figured Maria would have called by now. Kat pressed the button and her friend’s voice burst forth from the machine.
“Kat! Where are you? What happened? There’s a rumor going around you slapped Mark. I hope you did. Call me!”
Kat smiled. She had wanted to slap him. Too bad. Another missed opportunity. The next message was from Cindy Ross.
“Kat, this is Cindy. I don’t understand how you leash up the dogs. I’m confused. Call me back.”
Uh-oh. What had Cindy done? Whatever she did, it was undoubtedly too late now. Cindy knew Kat was at work. Maybe she had left a message there, too. Oh well. She definitely wasn’t getting that message.
The next message played. “Hi, Kat, it’s Joel. I had to untangle Cindy from the dogs. Could you call me when you get a chance? Thanks.”
Kat sighed. Part of her lamented the loss of her job. The other part missed Murphee and the dogs. Not to mention Joel. Looking around her lonely apartment, she decided to pack up and go back to Alpine Grove. It was only two hours away and driving might distract her from her newly unemployed status.
She called Cindy back and left a message that she would be there to do the afternoon walk. Then she called Maria at work.
Maria picked up and asked about Kat’s whereabouts again. “Some people are saying you kicked Mark in the nuts. Did you?”
“No I didn’t do that or slap him, either. Sorry. But I did quit.”
“I was hoping he’d been kicked. The idea of him bent over clutching the family jewels just made my day.”
“Well, I wanted to, if that makes you feel better. I think I do know why he rearranged the office though.”
“Why? No one can figure it out.”
“When I was driving back to my apartment, I thought about what he said to me before I quit. First, he told me I wasn’t pretty enough to work there and I needed to go home and change my outfit. Then he asked where my cubicle was. I told him it was in the back and he said that was good. I think he’s arranged people so the people he thinks are pretty are in the front of the office and the people he thinks are ugly are in the back.”
Maria didn’t say anything for a moment, apparently digesting this information. “I’m looking at the map. I don’t think you’re right. I’m in the middle, and I’m fabulous. And you were at the back because he forgot you. I’m sorry, but you’re not ugly. Mark may be stupid, but he isn’t blind.”
“Well, you told me he forgot I existed at all, so that doesn’t count. Look at the rest of the people. Think about it. Rebecca could be a runway model. She’s right up front. And Chris, the former actor, is pretty, too. He has the first office on the left. Oliver has a weight problem; he’s in the back.”
“Hmm. I don’t know about that. But I’m going out for the walk with the ladies at lunch. I’ll see what they think. Maybe we can plot a revolution. I feel a rebellion coming on!”
“Good luck with the insurrection. I’m going back to Alpine Grove. Cindy is having some problem with the dogs, and I hate being here without Murph, anyway. I miss her. My apartment is too quiet and depressing. I don’t have a job now, so there’s no reason to stay.”
After Kat hung up the phone, she began packing. She slowly placed her things into her suitcase. What if she moved permanently to Chez Stinky? The idea was not as far-fetched as it had been a few weeks ago. She had to leave her apartment eventually and now she had no job, as well. The real question was what could she do in Alpine Grove to make money? There didn’t seem to be much call for tech writers. She needed to do something or she’d starve. Unemployment had some unpleasant implications. Plus, she might go stir crazy in such a tiny town. Being on vacation was one thing, but living there permanently was another. Maybe she could find some other type of job. That was another dreary thought. Being a writer had been her dream for as long as she could remember. She didn’t want to do something else.
Kat shook her head, wishing she could cast out all the confusing thoughts clattering through her mind. Maybe walking through the trees and feeling the calmness of the forest would help her think more clearly so she could figure out what to do with the rest of her life.
Chapter 7
Ideas
During the two-hour drive, Kat slowly relaxed. It was a relief to be leaving her job and the city behind again. By the time she got to Chez Stinky, she was even happy to see the pot holes in the driveway and the huge ugly gray tarp on the roof.
Linus and Lori came shooting out from behind the house. Kat jumped out of the Toyota and crouched down to greet them. She hugged Linus around the neck, digging her fingers into his great fluffy mane. “I missed you guys!” Lori wagged so hard her whole body moved back and forth. Kat stroked the smooth fur on the dog’s head and rubbed her soft tulip ears.
“Okay, let’s all go for a walk. I heard the last one didn’t go too well.” Kat went around to the back and found Tessa bouncing up and down in the basement. Chelsey emerged from under her table and wagged happily when she saw Kat. After hooking up Linus and Tessa, the group went out to the forest trail.
As the other three dogs ran ahead, Kat and Chelsey strolled through the trees. The birds in the tree canopy above were whistling and trilling, having a complex conversation about the state of the arboreal universe. Swallows twittered and swooped through the branches. Kat stopped for a moment and closed her eyes, letting the sounds and fragrances of the forest wash over her as the tension left her body. Chelsey stood next to her, wagging her tail. She tilted her head back to look up at Kat, causing her ears to flop backward.
Kat gazed down at the dog. “It’s good to be back, little girl. I missed you and this place more than you can imagine. Definitely more than I thought I would. Now I need to find a way to stay here. First, I have to talk to Larry and Louise and find out exactly what I need to do to keep this place.” She reached down to pet the dog. “What do you think, Chelsey? Would that work for you?”
The typical worried expression Chelsey often had on her face had disappeared. She looked happy and hopped backwards a couple of times to demonstrate her enthusiasm.
Kat nodded. “Good girl. We’ll figure it out.”
After the walk, Kat called Joel. “What happened with Cindy?”
“She had a problem with Tessa’s leash arrangement. I definitely know what you mean by clotheslined now. You may need to find someone else to walk the dogs.”
“That’s okay. I’m back at the house again. I drove up this afternoon and walked the dogs. Cindy’s off the hook. I don’t suppose there’s another dog walker in Alpine Grove, is there?”
“No, Cindy is the only one. Having a monopoly works for her. I thought you had to work?”
“Not anymore. It’s a long and stupid story. Suffice it to say, you’re not the only one who is unemployed anymore. I’m joining you in embracing my inner slacker.”
Joel chuckled. “You’re making me feel better about my slacker-hood. I’m sorry about your job, though.”
“It’s okay. To be honest, for a long time my job was fine. Not great, but not horrible, either. Mostly I was afraid of losing it because then I wouldn’t be able to pay my rent. I do love writing, but by the time I got back up here, all I felt was a big sense of relief that I never have to go back to that office. Also, I think my boss may be losing his mind. He was always a little odd, but he went off the deep end when I asked him about a deadline. When he called my work useless, something in me snapped.”
“Useless? It sounds like you’re better off.”
Kat shrugged. “Maybe. Being unemployed does have some financial downsides, though. I need to figure out how to qualify to receive Abigail’s inheritance, so I can
stay here and afford to fix up the place. And of course, figure out what to do with the rest of my life.”
“I can relate to that problem. I’m still working on it.”
“I guess we need to figure out what we want to be when we grow up. So far I’ve learned I can write well and walk dogs even better than a professional dog walker. It’s a unique skill set.”
“People pay Cindy. Maybe this town needs another dog walker.”
“I don’t want to go into town for the same reason she doesn’t want to come out here. It’s too far to go back and forth every day. I bet I’m not the only one who has this problem. People go on trips and they can’t get anyone to take care of their dogs because they live too far out of town. What if people brought their dogs to me? Is there a dog boarding kennel around here?”
“Not that I know of. It would be easy to find out.”
A little tingle ran up the back of Kat’s neck as an idea started to take shape. “I’ve got to walk my dogs anyway, so I can walk other people’s dogs at the same time. I could still write, too. Maybe I could be a freelance magazine writer. They don’t care where you live or when you write. Even if I wrote in the middle of the night, they wouldn’t care.”
“Maybe. I think you need to work on the getting-money idea first. Where would you put the dogs you’re going to be boarding?”
“I could build a kennel. The building could be back in the clearing.” Kat’s mind began racing as she considered the possibilities. “The driveway for the kennel could go off to the left, away from the house, with a circular driveway. I could gate off this section of the driveway to the house, so people don’t end up on my doorstep. But the dogs would still be close enough for me to take care of them. I could take them out for walks, feed them, and then write articles in between. Maybe I could set up some fenced-in areas for doggie play yards too.” Kat paused in her stream-of-consciousness brainstorming. “The other night, I forgot to ask you about the roofer. What’s his name?”
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