Read The Job for Free Online

me for a minute?” I ask and pull the vibrating phone
out of my pocket. “Hello?”
    “Jessica, it’s Mom. How are you doing?”
    “I’m
doing great, Mom,” I answer with my usual false cheer. “How are you?”
    “Listen,
are you busy right now? There’s something that I need to talk to you about.”
    “What’s
that?” I ask.
    “This
isn’t really something I want to tell you on the phone,” she says. “Is there
any way you could come see me after you’re off work today?”
    “I’m
pretty busy with everything. What’s going on?” I ask.
    “I
really think it would be best if we talked in person, dear,” she says and I’m
starting to get a little nervous.
    “Is
it Dad?” I ask. “I’ve been telling him that he needs to listen to the doctor
and start exercising more, but he won’t listen to me about it.”
    “It’s
not your father, sweetheart,” she says and now I’m really worried. Mom only
drops the word “sweetheart” when something really bad has happened.
    “What’s
going on?” I ask again.
    “Why
don’t you come up here for dinner?” she asks. “I’d say we’d come see you, but
your sister’s got the car right now, and I don’t think she’ll be back with it
until later tonight.”
    “Mom,
she has her own car,” I tell her. “She just wants to use yours because she
knows you’ll fill the tank.”
    “Dear,
it’s really important.”
    “Just
tell me what’s going on,” I start. “I have a lot going on right now, and I
don’t know if I can conceivably—”
    “I
just got back from the doctor, sweetheart,” she says. “I have chondrosarcoma.”
    “I
don’t know what the first part means, but sarcoma is a kind of—”
    “Cancer,”
she says. “Yes, dear.”
    I
stop walking. I’m shaking and I can’t breathe.
    “What
did the doctor say?” I ask. “Is it treatable?”
    “It’s
a treatable cancer,” she says, “but I’ve had it for a while. About
eighty-percent of patients live five years or longer with it, but they’ve got
to do some more tests to see exactly how advanced it is and how far it’s
spread.”
    “I’m
on my way,” I tell her and hang up the phone. “Eric, I’m sorry, but—”
    “Whatever
it is,” he says, “it sounds like you need to go. Just go. We can do this
another time.”
    “Thank
you,” I tell him and I start running.

 
    Chapter Four
    Blowing
off Steam
    Eric

 
    “I
hope she’s going to be okay,” Linda, the cashier from Lady Bits, says. “Did she
tell you what was going on?”
    “No,”
I tell her. “Whatever it was, though, it sounded pretty bad.”
    “I
bet it’s something to do with her father,” Linda says. “He had a heart attack a
couple of years ago, and from what Jessica says, he hasn’t really been taking
care of himself.”
    “I
don’t think it was him,” I answer. “She asked about that, but it didn’t seem
like that’s what was going on.”
    “What
do you think we should do?” she asks.
    “I
don’t know,” I tell her. “Me and the guys can keep working whether she’s in the
store or not, but I don’t know how her absence affects the rest of you.”
    “I
think we should close up,” Linda says. “Nobody’s coming in anyway, and I don’t
think I can really focus on what I’m doing right now.”
    “Who
runs the shop when she’s not here?” I ask.
    “That’s
a really good question,” Linda says. “The only time she ever leaves during
business hours are for the occasional lunch, and then it’s only for like
fifteen minutes and while she’s gone, we all just kind of take care of our own
stuff.”
    “Maybe
you should stay open until you hear from her,” I say. “I wouldn’t want you and
your coworkers to get in any trouble.”
    Linda’s
been giving me the juicy eye since I came in to place a bid and, from the way
she’s looking at me now and the way her fingers are running through the ends of
her dark hair, I’d say she has something specific planned for her