LITMIR.BIZ

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a beautiful bouquet of red roses awaiting her. Next to them was a note, “Forgive me for acting like a child. Remember I’ll never stop loving you. I have to go to yet another job interview.”

      She sat down at the table and took the top from the tureen. Under it was a delicious omelet with crisp bacon by its side. As she nibbled on the food, her mind darted about. She knew Glen was nervous and ashamed because he hadn’t found a job yet. Perhaps all the frustration had built up, causing him to explode last night. Yes, that had to be it. Everything else had been going so well. Glen had just snapped under the pressure.

      She mulled it over for the next few days and decided she had to help him. It was tough coming to a small town like this where strangers were tolerated, but not welcomed. Where people hired those they knew from childhood, not those they’d never seen before a few months ago.

      Brenda sat pondering the problem. Suddenly she knew what she had to do. Her sister Suzy was managing Billy Gunn Motors, the car dealership their father owned. Sales would be a perfect job for Glen. She could call her dad direct. She knew he would do whatever she wanted, but that would put Suzy’s nose out of joint. No, she had to go through her sister. Their parents were on vacation, so this would be the perfect time.

      Brenda dressed quickly. She had a lot of physical exams to do. This was going to be another late day. Luckily, though, she didn’t have an appointment until eleven, but after that they stretched into the evening. Anyway, she had time to go down to the dealership first.

      It wasn’t going to be easy for her. She hated asking anybody, even her own family, for help. She knew most people found it unpleasant because it made them look weak, but that wasn’t it for her. Brenda just didn’t want to impose. She figured people had their own agendas and didn’t have time to help her.

      “Hi, Sis,” she said entering the huge showroom.

      “What are you doing here?” Suzy asked, raising her eyebrows.

      “Well, that’s just it. It’s just that, well…”

      Suzy put her finger on her cheek. “Brenda, stop hemhawin’ and spit it out.”

      Brenda swallowed, “It’s Glen.”

      Suzy motioned her into the cubicle she used for an office.

      Brenda sighed. Suzy always got right to the point, and even though Brenda knew it was impossible for Suzy to understand why other people couldn’t, it still irritated her.

      “Do you think you could, uh, give Glen a job here at the dealership?”

      “I don’t know. I don’t do the hiring—Dad does.”

      “Just forget I asked,” Brenda said apologetically.

      “Will you let me finish? I was going to say, I’d talk to Daddy and put in a good word for Glen,” Suzy continued. “I swear, you’re just like mama. She always feels guilty as sin just for asking somebody to pass the salt.”

      “Thanks for making it easy for me to ask,” Brenda said, giving her sister an affectionate pat on the hand. “I’m hoping if he gets a job, he’ll feel better about himself and he’ll stop saying we should move.”

      Suzy shook her finger in Brenda’s face as if she were a four-year-old child. “Don’t you let him talk you into selling that house! It’s paid for and every gal needs a little security, just in case life doesn’t deal her a winning hand.”

      With those pearls of wisdom, Suzy jumped up from her desk. “Well, time to get back to keeping up my million sales a year image,” she rolled her eyes. “Come on,” she laughed, motioning to Brenda.

      Brenda joined Suzy and they did their traditional hip bumping routine. Both women giggled like teenagers.

      A week later her dad returned and a few days after that he called to offer Glen a job. Glen reluctantly accepted. Brenda thought now that Glen finally was working, even though it was for her father, and was making some money of his own, his depression would lift. However, it didn’t. Over the next few weeks, his mood swings actually became worse. He was staying out late too many nights and began pestering her again to sell the house she had taken such pains to fix up and move to the country.

      Finally, to make him feel better, she offered to call Jane to show them some places. That Saturday, the three of them headed out. Jane was driving; Brenda sat in the passenger seat and Glen was in the back of the car looking at photos and descriptions of the house they were going to see. When they had been driving over an hour, Jane sighed. “According to these directions,” she glanced at her notebook, “we’re getting close. Keep your eyes peeled for a gravel road going back to the west. It’s road 370. Maybe it’s this one coming up.”

      “That’s it,” Glen called out. “I can see the sign. Turn right there,” he pointed up ahead.

      After the turn, they headed down a gravel road.

      “Now it’s on your right, approximately one mile.”

      Jane darted a glance at Brenda. “Are you sure you want to live this far out? You’ll have quite a commute and your nearest neighbors are miles away.”

      Brenda was silent.

      “Jane, don’t start trouble,” Glen broke in. “I grew up in the country. I can’t stand the city. Besides, Brenda keeps coming home with more pets and they need to be out where they can run around.”

      “What did she bring home now?” Jane laughed.

      “Another homeless dog. This one’s a female Doberman pinscher. Brenda claims she brought this one for me.”

      “I did. Her name is Frances and she was born on Glen’s birthday. And when she gets a little older, we can raise puppies.”

      Suddenly Glen called out, “There it is! It looks just like the picture!” Huge trees and a drive dotted with daffodils and flowering forsythias lead to a large, two-story Normandy style home.

      “God, you have to have good eyes to see past all these trees,” Brenda said.

      Jane, an adroit sales associate, acted as if she already knew their decision. “If you buy this, what are you going to do with your house?”

      “Brenda wants to rent it out in case she hates country living, but I want her to sell it and commit to our new secluded life.”

      “Well, if you decide to sell—” Jane said.

      Glen cut her off, “I know,” he said. “Let you make the commission.”

      “Well, somebody’s got to make it. It might as well be me.” Jane parked the car.

      They got out and walked to the front door. Jane put her key in the lock box and they all went inside.

      Gesturing expansively, Jane began to point out the house’s features. Brenda thought she knew the place awfully well for someone who had seemed not to know how to get there. She shrugged. Of course, it was Jane’s job to know all about a property before she showed it, even if she didn’t have the chance to see it in person first.

      “I like these patio doors going across the front of the house,” Glen said excitedly.

      Brenda’s mood lifted. “I love this. Look at the size of this living room. It would really show off my collections and take in that clean wood smell.”

      Jane nodded, “That’s because nobody’s been smoking in it yet. Glen, don’t you smoke?”

      “I’ve been trying to quit. Brenda, I promise, if we move out here I’m gonna give it up.”

      “You ought to. There are twelve acres of wood behind this place,” she said.

      “Well, what do you think?” Jane asked as they walked into a huge bathroom with a dressing room area.

      “I have to say I like it,” Brenda said. “This is a real step up from our bathroom where you can hardly turn around and this tub here is

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