Paige drove to her parents’ home but didn’t pull into the driveway. How could she think of going into her mother’s house, knowing that she’d just lost the means to help her fight against cancer? The next payment would come due next week, and while they might make that one, those following would be almost impossible. She needed to keep moving; she needed to talk to someone.
Of course, the pat answer would be to pray and tell it all to God. That solution rang hollow. She’d been reading and claiming His Word, and He still allowed this to happen. No, this time she needed someone who could actually tell her what to do, give her some direction. Give her the strength she needed to break this news to her parents.
Rachelle was the obvious answer, but she didn’t want to do this over the phone. It was now that she realized she didn’t have a single friend here. Not one. Except . . .
Ora.
That crotchety lady had become the dearest person in her life right now, and it took a crisis like this to make her realize it. She remembered Ora saying something about living on the corner across from the junior high. Maybe she would just drive by and see if anything looked like it might belong to Ora. She was definitely not in any shape to start ringing odd doorbells.
When she got back to the city of Shoal Creek, she took care to take side roads and avoid downtown. The last thing she wanted to do was have Clarissa see her crawling back into town.
The ancient brick building of the junior high came into view up ahead. The old place looked like it needed a bulldozer; not a single part of it appeared worth saving. Paige understood how it felt.
What would Ora say about Paige showing up on her doorstep crying about some problem like this? She’d probably have some obscure verse that wouldn’t make sense at first but would ring true after Paige spent a little time thinking about it. And Paige longed for anything to ring true for her right now.
She looked at the corner of Lafayette and Granger. On the left stood a small brick house, aluminum awning, and a front porch with wooden posts that had seen their better days. The other corner held a little yellow house covered in vinyl siding, flowers in the window box. Which one would Ora most likely live in? Paige had no idea what kind of car Ora drove, so looking in the driveway didn’t help.
She slowed to almost a stop, trying to decide which, if either, house she should try, when she saw Ora come around the corner of the brick house, dressed in dirty jeans, spade in hand. Paige whipped her car into the driveway, thankful that she’d seen her.
Ora looked up from beneath the brim of a pink visor covered in Hawaiian flowers and waved. She wore bright orange gardening gloves with a big Tennessee T on them. She set her spade on the steps to the front porch and walked over to Paige’s car. “Morning there, young ’un. Where you been?” She put her hands on her hips and sized Paige up. “You’re looking like you just found boll weevils in your last forty acres.”
“I don’t know who else to talk to.”
“Hmm. Well, it’s not over flattering to be the last choice, but since I’m the only choice I guess that makes me first, too. Come inside, let’s get a cold drink and talk about what’s bothering you.”
“Thanks.”
Ora stopped at the doormat to wipe the dirt off her clogs, then removed them before entering the house.
The wood floors were slightly uneven and creaked with every step, but they were waxed to a perfect shine. The wallpaper had probably been in style thirty years ago, but something about the place felt homey and comfortable. Inside the kitchen, green linoleum flooring contrasted with faded yellow countertops.
Ora went to the refrigerator and removed a giant pitcher. She put ice in two glasses and poured tea into both, handing one to Paige.
“Now sit down at the table here and let’s start from the beginning. What’s going on?”
“I got . . . fired today.”
“Fired?” Just the sound of the word made Paige flinch. It felt sharp and hard, like broken glass. “So that’s where you were. I went in there just a bit ago with a prescription from my doctor’s visit. I asked for you, and the redhead acted kind of funny and said you weren’t there today. I thought maybe you were just playing hooky or something. What happened?”
“So many things, I hardly know where to start.”
“Try the beginning.”
When had it all started? The first day at work really. “From the beginning, Clarissa has made it clear she didn’t want me there, I’ve never really understood why.”
“Did you ever ask her?”
“Not in so many words.”
“Kids.” Ora shook her head. “No wonder there are so many problems. No one ever talks to each other anymore. So today she just up and fired you?”
“She didn’t. It was her grandfather who hired me in the first place and he’s the one who fired me. He drove all the way from Nashville this morning just to tell me to leave.”
“Did he say why?”
“Clarissa’s been using some questionable practices at the pharmacy, some mistakes have been made, a lady filed a lawsuit.”
“You make any of the mistakes?”
“No.”
“I may be a little dense here, but I’m still not getting how that gets you fired.”
“She’s blaming it all on me. She told her grandfather everything that happened in Shoal Creek was my mistake, not hers.”
“Can’t you prove who filled the prescriptions?”
“You can look at whose computer initials are on them. Apparently, she’s learned how to change the code though, because one of the prescriptions mysteriously changed initials. It was for a date when I wasn’t even at work. When the lady first came in to report the mistake, Clarissa’s initials were in the computer, I think even Dawn saw that. There was another that was misfilled, but I think I filled it correctly, then for some reason she changed it to make me look bad.”
“Why didn’t you tell Mr. Richardson what you just told me?”
“I tried to, but he doesn’t believe me over his own granddaughter.”
“Maybe you should have Dawn call him. If she did see that first one, he’d have to take her word. Right?”
“I found a file Clarissa’s been keeping on me. It details all sorts of stuff about me—from patient complaints to one of her mistakes that I covered up for her.”
“You covered up one of her mistakes?”
“Well . . . yeah. It was when I first started working there. The lady hadn’t taken any of the pills yet, so no harm was done. ”
“Why would you have done something wrong to cover for her? Girl, you been learning anything from those verses you been carrying around?”
“What about ‘love others as yourself ’? I was going out of my way to help Clarissa. Doesn’t that count for anything?”
“Maybe you need to ‘trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding,’ hmm? I don’t see anything in there about helping God out by lying.”
“I . . .” Paige rested her forehead on her right palm. “I wasn’t trying to help God out by lying, I was just . . . just . . .”
Ora reached over and patted her arm. “You’re not the only one who’s failed when the pressure was on. Everyone’s done it—I’ve done it more times than I care to remember. But what you’ve got to do now is look back over all this and see where you do carry some blame, lay it all out there. Face up to the truth and determine that you’re going to trust Him no matter what comes.”
Paige stood up. “I don’t think I can do that anymore.” She walked out the door and to her car, started the engine, and drove toward home.
There was more truth than she cared to admit in her statement to Ora. She couldn’t trust anymore. She’d prayed and trusted, and claimed verses and trusted, and God had let her down. Over and over again. Daybreak never came.
It was midafternoon before Paige worked up the nerve to call her parents. There was no easy way to do this; might as well get it over with.
“Your mother’s not here, she’s down the hall having a meeting.”
“A meeting?”
“You know how she is. There’s a woman a couple of doors down—not nearly as sick as your mother if you ask me—and she’s always carrying on about how terrible things are. Leave it to Doris to start spending time with her, trying to cheer her up, talking about hope. Soon enough, word gets out on the hallway that she’s some sort of positive-thinking guru or something. Now she’s got three other women she meets with every night—every night that they’re able, anyway. Some sort of Bible study going on.”
“How can she do it, Dad? She’s so sick, her world seems to be falling apart, and she’s still out there trying to help other people as if her own problems don’t even matter.”
“Got me.”
“I’m actually glad she’s not there right now, because I have something to tell you.”
“Secret, huh?”
“Dad . . .” Sobs choked back any further words. Her entire body convulsed with the pain of having to tell her father this news. What would happen now? She knew they counted on her monthly rent checks to help them get by, and where would she get that money now? It wasn’t like there were tons of openings in the rural area of Shoal Creek.
“Paige, what’s going on?”
“I . . . got fired today.”
“Oh, Paige.” His voice was firm, calm. Understanding. He’d always been. “What happened?”
She started from day one and told him everything about the mistakes, and the list, and the setups. Somehow, she couldn’t bring herself to tell him that she’d lied to cover for Clarissa, and it really didn’t matter at this point, anyway. “Dad, I’m so sorry. I know I’ve let you down again. Don’t worry though, I’ll get a job fast.” Of course, they both knew better. It had been almost impossible to find a job after the Atlanta debacle. Add the Shoal Creek mess, and she would be lucky to ever work in pharmacy again. And the hospital payments weren’t just going to vanish.
“Of course you will. We’ll just have to trust that something will come up soon.”
Trust. It was something that Paige didn’t know how to do anymore.
Paige looked at the clock. It was just after five p.m. An hour before closing time. She wondered what Clarissa had told Dawn about the firing. She pictured Clarissa going happily along her way today, smiling, laughing with her friends on the phone. She’d finally won. But why? It still made absolutely no sense.
Clarissa didn’t even need this job. She had probably never worried about not being able to make a car payment, much less keeping her parents out of bankruptcy.
For all her talk about hard work, she’d been given everything by her grandfather. Minute after minute, Paige thought about the situation. And the more she thought about Clarissa’s life of privilege, the angrier she grew. There was no way she could just walk away and let the spoiled brat win without a fight. Paige jumped into her car and drove back to Shoal Creek. She would wait for Dawn, talk to her, see if she would be willing to back her up. Then she’d confront Clarissa directly before going over her head to her grandfather.
She pulled into the lot with fifteen minutes to spare. Dawn’s old brown Skylark sat in the far corner, and Paige pulled into the spot beside it. Clarissa’s car was far enough away that she would be able to have this conversation out of the earshot of Clarissa, whose presence would likely intimidate Dawn.
The day was close to eighty degrees and the humidity soared even higher. Less than two minutes after turning off her engine, the air became thick to breathe and she could feel the beads of sweat forming on her forehead. She turned on the ignition and let the air-conditioner run until the car once again reached a comfortable temperature, then turned it off. Within a minute she needed to turn it on again to repeat the process. By the time she had repeated it six more times, Dawn finally came walking out into the parking lot. She looked tired and worn down. Paige opened her car door and stood up when Dawn drew near.
Dawn stopped. “Paige. What are you doing here?”
“I came to ask you for help.”
“I don’t know what I can do.”
“Clarissa told her grandfather that I am the one who misfilled Ms. Feldhouse’s prescription. Clarissa has changed the computer printout so it looks like that is what happened, but you know better. You were there the day the prescription came in, right? You saw it, you had to. Will you tell Lee Richardson the truth?”
Dawn looked in the direction of the sidewalk, as if to make certain Clarissa hadn’t yet followed. “Why would he believe me over Clarissa?”
“If both of us tell him, maybe he will listen. Dawn, I need this job. If I could go somewhere else, believe me I would, but at this point, this place is my only hope. I need you to help me.”
“I need this job, too. I would be easy to replace if Clarissa got mad at me. Do you have any idea how many people are out of work in this county right now?”
“How can you even consider not helping me? What’s to stop her from lying about you next?” Dawn froze for a split second, and Paige knew without turning that Clarissa had entered the parking lot.
“Paige, I like you. I’d like to help you, but there’s nothing I can do.” She got into her car and drove off.