Page 12 of Forget About Me

CHAPTER FOUR

“Reelin’ in the Years” - Steely Dan

Lucy’s Catch You on the Flipside Mixtape, Song #10

LUCY

When the door to the lab flies open and Deanna stomps in, I almost drop the slide I’m preparing. We call it a lab, but it’s really more of a closet. Stuffed to the gills with a sink, a fridge, stacks of random supplies and a counter crammed with equipment, there’s barely room for one person.

She closes the door and leans against it with a groan.

“Need to share?” I can’t quite tell if I pipetted enough of the sample onto the slide, so I hold it up to the weak fluorescent light to find the edges. I’ll know once I position it, but that’s such a pain in the behind with our finicky old microscope.

“Yeah, if you don’t mind.” She doesn’t wait for my permission. “The garage just called. It’s gonna cost at least two hundred dollars to fix my car, and that’sifthey can find secondhand parts. I don’t have that kind of cash lying around. I just asked Dr. Morrissey for a raise, and she was all, ‘I’m so sorry Deanna, our budget is stretched thin, blah, blah, blah. We could maybe give you a bonus at the end of the year, la, la, la. I’ve been here ten years, I can do everything they can do except perform surgery, and I haven’t gotten a raise since I don’t know when.”

I’ve seen what I need to on this slide. Eggs galore. This puppy is chock full of worms: roundworms, hookworms and whipworms.

“That sucks.” My comment applies to both Deanna and the puppy. “There is a bright side.”

“Yeah, what’s that?”

I point to the slide. “You could be facing deworming meds and a series of disgusting poops.”

She rolls her eyes.

“Sorry. What are you going to do?”

“Well, I have to have a car. The bus takes forever from Medford.” She scrubs a hand over her face. “I’m gonna have to beg my cousin Barry to give me a loan and some shifts at his bar to cover it.”

“I wish I could help. If I had a car, I’d lend it to you.”

She rests her forearms on the counter, dropping her head. “The thing that kills me is that I know Morrissey isn’t shitting me. With all the animals they treat for nothing and the people that never pay their bills, the budgetisstretched thin. At least I don’t have student loans to pay off like she does.” Pushing away from the counter, she reaches for the door handle. “You’re lucky you still live with your parents.”

“Yeah, in my nunlike existence.”

“Hey, you don’t have to have a place of your own to have a little fun. With the money you save on rent you can afford it.” She punches me lightly on the arm. “Anytime you want to go out dancing and buy me drinks, you let me know.”

I spray disinfectant on the counter and wipe it down. “Last time we went dancing at your cousin’s bar, you were the one fending them off with a stick. I was stuck with your other cousin, Gary, who would not take no for an answer.”

“Yeah, he’s a douche. But I have some other cousins you might be interested in. Larry’s not so bad looking. And he’s a manager at Friendly’s.”

“Do they all rhyme?”

“Yeah. My aunt had a thing about it. Or just pick some guy up. We could find you somebody to get your rocks off pretty damn quick.”

When I first dropped out of school and went back to work, I went out with Deanna a lot. Did a lot of partying, had a lot of meaningless sex. But it didn’t help. It made things worse.

A hand clap from Deanna interrupts my thoughts. “Speaking of sex, I gotta get out there and prep our afternoon spays. Thanks for letting me vent. Last time I went into an exam room angry, a dog took a chunk out of my ass. Not that my ass can’t stand to lose a few chunks.”

I laugh. “You and me both. Anyway, I hope it works out.”

“It will. It always does.”

I wish I agreed with her. Sometimes I even wish I could Pollyanna my way through life like I did as a teen. But that girl had no idea what life could serve up.

After I ease open the front door, wincing at how its squeak echoes in the crack-of-dawn quiet of the house, I tiptoe to the stairs.

“Lucy?”

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