“And you have no family here or in Boston?”
“I’m on my own, Mr. Dolan. I’m responsible for myself.”
“What brought you here, I mean, this place in particular?”
“It looked like a good place to start anew. I was tired of big-city commotion. I suppose I’m a little too old-fashioned for most of my contemporaries, but I want to have a solid beginning and be somewhere where people are more substantial. I know I can succeed here.”
He nodded, his eyes warming with his appreciation of me. “I like your determination and confidence, Lorelei. Unlike most of the young people your age I have met, you seem quite centered, but what do you know about plumbing supplies? I like all of my employees, even those who do nothing but drive trucks, to know something about what we do and have for our customers. Questions and complaints come rushing in here daily.”
“All I can tell you, Mr. Dolan, is that I am a quick learner, and I know that when I don’t know something, I should turn to someone who does and not try to fool anyone, especially a customer of yours.”
“Hmm . . . well, I’ll see about your getting the full tour and tutoring. In the meantime . . .”
He got up and went to his desk to pick up his phone and buzz Michele Levy. “Michele, I want you to try something for me. I want you to give Lorelei Patio all of the paperwork you have left to do today. That’s right. Just point it out on the computer and describe it quickly. Show her how to use the phone system. Then go take a break. Go to the lounge, and return in two hours. She’ll be right out.” He hung up and looked at me. “That okay with you, some pudding?”
“I hope there will be proof in it,” I replied.
He laughed.
I stood up. “Is that your daughter in the nurse’s uniform?”
“Julia, yes. She works ER at the hospital here. I couldn’t get her into the business. She told me she preferred human plumbing to steel and copper. Don’t know where she gets it. I get woozy at the sight of blood.”
“Most people do,” I said. “We have to appreciate those who don’t.”
He liked that; he liked it very much.
I thought that was something ironic that Daddy would have said with a smile hidden in his lips. I imagined I would spend the rest of my life thinking of things that he would have said. The longer I was away, the deeper was my understanding of what Ava meant when she told me I could never escape who and what we were.
Maybe she couldn’t, I thought, but I could.
I hoped.
I stepped out of the office. Michele Levy looked up at me with an even bigger smile of surprise than when I had first arrived with Michael Thomas.
“What did you do?” she asked in a near whisper, gazing at the inner office door.
“Told the truth,” I said.
She shook her head. That answer made no sense to her. “Bring that chair over,” she said, indicating a chair on the right, “and we’ll begin.”
I know she was pleasantly surprised at how quickly I picked up on the software they used. It wasn’t brain surgery. Actually, I held myself back a little, maybe a lot, because I was afraid she might be spooked by my intelligence and instinctive abilities.
While she was away, I completed all of the work she had set aside and answered five phone calls, two of which Mr. Dolan was waiting for. He asked me to get back to each of the other three and was on the final call when Michele returned. She looked over what I had done and then looked up at the clock.
“I don’t understand how you got all that inventory done this quickly and wrote those letters, too.”
“Computers aren’t such a mystery,” I said.
“I don’t mean the computer.” She seemed suspicious and even a little resentful, jealous.
No one likes to be easily replaced, I thought. I should be more humble, go slower. “Well, you left very good instructions,” I told her, which seemed to help.
Mr. Dolan suddenly opened his door and stepped into the outer office. “So?” he asked Michele. “Do I have her go to the business office and give them her social security number, or what?”
“She’s done it all, Mr. Dolan, and quite well.”
He nodded. “Why don’t you go home, then, Michele? Lorelei can finish the day here. Come back in the morning for a few hours to be sure she has a handle on it all,” he added, turning to me, “although I have no doubt she will.” Mr. Dolan winked at me and returned to his office.