Connections

Connections

Josh pounded his Ford's steering wheel again, as if hitting it enough times just might cause it to start. This time the horn stuck, blaring so loud Josh thought his eardrums were going to burst. He searched two minutes to find the fuse panel and disconnected the horn along with the fuses for the headlights, the windshield wipers, and who knows what else. Slumping back into his seat, Josh sighed and waited for his ears to quit ringing. This was no way to begin a Friday.

He luckily wasn't going to be late for work, but he dreaded walking there. Most of the neighborhoods between his townhouse and the ad agency were so dingy and run down Josh felt repulsed by them even while driving. He couldn't imagine why Baker & Nash wanted to rent their offices in this awful area of town, but he assumed it was to save money on overhead--a lot of money on overhead. For today though, he was glad it was close. Putting on his suit jacket and straightening his tie in his car mirror, he mentally prepared himself for the fastest walk of his life.

As the sun began to rise over the city landscape, the sidewalks fortunately appeared deserted. It looked as though he was going to be able to make it without running into another person. About seven blocks from the office however, he cringed as an old woman's voice called out to him.

She was a tiny woman, with white fuzzy hair that reminded Josh of a clown. It was a just little too fuzzy for the size of her head. She smiled at him, her crow's feet and other wrinkles showing she'd smiled more in life than frowned. To Josh however, there was something sinister about her. Maybe it was only because he was afraid of clowns as a kid. Maybe it was because of the neighborhood.

"I'm so sorry to bother you, but do you happen to have a stamp? I really need to mail this letter, and I've used my last one on my electric bill this morning. I'll gladly pay you if you have one."

Josh took a step back. He had two entire books of stamps in his wallet--his brother-in-law Michael even worked at a post office. Glancing left and right, he wondered if this was some sort of ploy just to get him to pull out his wallet. He saw no one, but he doubted there was any way such an old woman lived alone. There was probably someone around the corner waiting.

"Look lady--I'm really sorry, but I'm already late for work." Josh began to walk away as fast as he could.

*********************************************************************

Rose sighed. It was a long way to the post office, but she'd make it there. At least the weather was nice this summer. Taking her time to walk up the steps of her house old but well-maintained home, she took a moment to water the ferns she'd carefully tended for several years. It annoyed her that she hadn't been able to do much with them lately, but her doctor had been telling her to take it easy.

She grabbed her purse and letter and began her long journey to the corner of 4th and Austin St. The sunrise was beautiful, especially as it reflected into the taller but distant downtown buildings. Rose found it amazing that bank buildings needed to be so big now. Maybe it was just a status symbol, or maybe it just took more people to do the same things. Either way, just looking at that beautiful sunrise made Rose really miss her husband. Then it occurred to her he was probably watching it with her in heaven, and her smile returned.

"Hello...Jim," Rose said as she read the man's name tag.

"Hi, there. What can I do for you?" Jim was just surprised to have someone who didn't shove letters at him or immediately demand their postage, much less say his name.

"I just need one stamp for this letter, and can you put it in the stack for me...you know, it's silly--I just realized I left a stack of bills sitting back home in the mailbox," Rose laughed.

"It's okay. I'm sure someone has already dropped by...that'll be 41 cents. Thank you." Jim smiled and gave Rose her receipt. She waved at him as she exited. She almost reminded him of his own grandma.

*********************************************************************

It'd been a rough morning for Jim. Three people had called in sick with the stomach flu, leaving him and Michael the only people at the branch working. They found the best system was taking turns--one sorting everything in the back and the other watching the front. Fridays were always busy however, and there wasn't going to be an opportunity for a break until after the usual lunch time At least some people were being nice today. He took a deep breath and asked for the next person in the rapidly forming line.

"Hey! Call the police! Some guy is taking that woman's purse!" a woman in the back of the line yelled as she looked out the glass door.

"I'll be right back, Mike!" Jim yelled in Michael's general direction.

"Huh? Where are you going?!" Michael yelled back, but Jim was already out the door.

Rose was obviously shaken and standing by the iron fence of the library across the street from the post office. She began to cry when Jim ran over to her.

"Are you okay?"

"I--I think so. Some man with a gun just took off with my purse. He ran down the hill so I lost where he was heading. I don't keep a lot of cash, but all my check cards and my house keys were in there. Do you mind if I use your phone?"

"No problem," Jim replied,"Oh, and do you have anyone you can stay with until you get your locks changed? If anything in your purse has your address on it, he may try to go there. Take someone with you if you go back."

"I had never thought about that...yes, I have my nephew and his wife. I think they won't mind me for a couple of days. I just can't believe this just happened!"

*********************************************************************

Ashley stretched just before the phone rang again, "Hello. Eagle Ridge Bank and Trust. This is Ashley, how may I help you?"

"Hi Ashley, this is Rose Wallace. My purse has just been stolen with all of my bank information inside it, and I need to speak to Greg or one of the other managers--whatever you have to do."

"Okay, Mrs. Wallace. I don't think Greg's here right now, but I'll try to find him. I'll be right back...just hang on the line."

Ashley peeked over the gray sea of cubicles until she spotted Roger. He was talking with some guy she didn't recognize, and she hated to interrupt. He appeared to be the only manager within range though.

"Hey, Roger?"

"Uh, yeah." Roger finally turned his head towards his name.

"I've got Mrs. Wallace on the line. She's just been robbed and needs to talk to a manager to put a hold on all of her personal and business accounts until she can get here in person."

"Send it over to me. Excuse me, Josh I absolutely have to take this--this is Frank Wallace's widow. She owns nearly half of our stock now."

"No problem. I think was almost robbed myself on the way to work this morning by some crazy woman. She had--"

"If you can wait a moment, I'll get you our media director's number...he's a younger guy--Mrs. Wallace's youngest nephew, in fact. He usually likes new ideas and will be willing to hear you out."

"Okay. Thanks." Josh tried to hide his excitement over the possibility of getting this account. Eagle Ridge was the third largest financial company in the city, though it seemed to have purposely limited its own growth in recent years.

The bank's founder, Frank Wallace, had basically stayed out of the public eye though he was rumored to be the richest man in town. Since his death, ownership in the bank had mainly been split between his wife and various other relatives. Operations seemed to have continued as normal. Josh hoped however the family would be ready for a change in advertising, specifically his proposed campaign of "Eagle Ridge--The Bank of Small Town Values."

Roger continued his phone conversation, "That should take care of everything Mrs. Wallace--call us if you need anything. I'm just glad that you're okay...okay then, bye."

"Out of curiosity, does this robbery thing happen a lot?" Josh asked as soon as Roger hung up.

"Not as much as you'd think with a city this size...," Roger didn't want to go down that road and silently hoped no one approached him again with a similar call, "Anyway, here's Greg's number. I've got to go, Josh. I've got another meeting scheduled at 11 that I have to get ready for...it was good talking with you."

"You, too." Josh nodded as he shook Roger's hand.

*********************************************************************

The idea of an early lunch sounded good. Josh's next appointment was at two, with a local dry cleaners. Not as glamorous as his morning appointment, but he took them as they came. He was just thankful he went to college with Roger--it was so nice to be well-networked in these situations. All it takes is one person to make or break a deal of that magnitude.

Stopping by a nearby sandwich shop, Josh stepped up to the counter and ordered a grilled ham and cheese along with a large Diet Coke. The woman at the register looked like she was barely in her 20s--and apparently unable to do basic math.

"You owe me another quarter and nickel," Josh said bluntly, staring at the dollar and eighteen cents in his hand.

The woman looked at him and then redid the order on the calculator portion of the register. It came up the same amount from before--he had said a large drink and not a medium, right? She removed 30 cents from the register and handed it to Josh. While he was busy studying his sandwich, she slipped her hand into her jeans pocket and threw three dimes into the register. Maybe the guy was just having a bad day.

*********************************************************************

After several months of working at the shop, Jenny had finally gotten used to rude people. Sometimes she felt sorry for them because of their ignorance that other people had feelings. Other days she was just happy that she wasn't going to be working there much longer.

The owner called her over to the back office to let her know she had a phone call.

"Hello."

"Hi Honey, I was calling to let you know that you'll need to cook for four tonight. My aunt Rose needs to stay with us for a few days. I'm going to meet her at the bank and then we'll swing by her house on the way home."

"Is she alright?"

"Yeah, she's fine. It's kind of a long story, and I don't want to bother you with this while you're at work...sorry, I've got someone on the other line...I'll see you tonight, love you!"

"Love you too,Greg."

*********************************************************************

Greg switched over to his other line, "Hi, this is Greg Wallace..."

"Hi Greg, this is Josh Norton. Roger at the downtown branch gave me your number. I'm with Baker & Nash Advertising. I was hoping to set up an appointment with you to discuss a campaign I have for Eagle Ridge--how does later today sound?"

"Well I've had an issue come up today that I need to handle, but I do want to meet with you. How does 8 A.M. tomorrow sound? Can you meet me at the branch on Wilson? If things go well, I'll have you meet my aunt and get her opinion on it as well."

"Sounds great,Greg. I'll see you then." Josh looked into his briefcase and realized he'd left the documents he needed for the dry cleaners back at his house. He immediately bolted from the table--leaving a mess that Jenny would later have to clean up.

Josh ran as fast as he could, knowing it would be much easier just to shower and change clothes once he got home instead of trying to take his time. Sweating and tired, he made it back to his house in record time.

He didn't even notice the scattered contents of a purse that littered the sidewalk.

Fumbling with his keys, Josh suddenly felt something metal and cold against his back.

"Don't turn around...give me your car keys."

A wave of fear hit Josh, "It-it-it doesn't work. I had to walk to work this morning."

"Don't lie to me! Give me the keys, and stay right where you're at...don't move."

Moments later he heard the engine of his car rumble to life, about the same time his cell phone rang--causing him to spasm like he'd been shot.

"Ha-Hello?"

"Hey Josh! It's Michael. Just wanted to call and let you know I finally fixed your car this morning. I had to leave the post office for a couple of hours because of a robbery that happened this morning--pretty sad thing, but it least it worked out great for you, right? Josh, are you there?"

"Mike, why does everything always happen to me?" Josh finally replied. He bent down to get his spare front door key from under a rock near his driveway.

"Hey mister!" the shrill voice of the little girl caused Josh to drop his phone in the mud, "would you like to buy some girl scout cookies? They're only $3.50."

Josh told the little girl she shouldn't be going door-to-door in such a crime-ridden city and to get off his property. He was late for an appointment.

*********************************************************************

That night at dinner, Jenny and Greg's daughter impressed her great-aunt Rose with the $350 she made in one week from selling cookies, despite some guy who was mean to her.

"It's so good to know that there are generous people out there--this morning I couldn't even get a man to let me buy a stamp from him. I was even going to pay him extra for it if he'd just stopped," Rose said.

"Oh,I've got one better--this guy came into the sandwich shop and tried to cheat the place out of thirty cents!" Jenny replied.

"Whoa, you people have weird days," Greg finally added, "by the way, I've got to meet with a potential advertising agent for the bank in the morning--everyone okay with having him over for dinner tomorrow night?"

It was a dinner Josh would never forget...

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Author's Note: Connections was one of the first short stories I ever wrote on Writing.com, and I think it will always be one of my favorites. A little over two years after I wrote this story, I started my first novel based on a series of sci-fi short stories I wrote around the same time. If you enjoy my writing style, feel free to check out the free previews I have in this folder:

ID: 1551577   (Rated: 13+) Title: The Hannaria Series  Description: Houses preview chapters and bonus materials for my sci-fi series books. By: Patricia Gilliam

The Hannaria Series Book 1: Out of the Gray is now available for Amazon Kindle and Apple IPhone for $3.99 at the following link:
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0027VSQD8?tag=couspurofhapp-20&camp=14573&creativ...

Paperback ($16.99)and Adobe .pdf eBook ($4.99) copies are available at this link:
http://www.lulu.com/content/paperback-book/the-hannaria-series-out-of-the-gray/6...

The Hannaria Series Book 2: Legacy will be available in book format November 2009. You can catch a sneak peek at the rough draft chapters at http://hannaria.gather.com

You can find an entire profile of my other writing at my author's blog:
http://happycougar.wordpress.com

I also have a website with free writing tips and resources:
http://writerlibrary.blogspot.com