A Penny's Worth Read Online Free PDF

departing crowd thick in front of them, she
was standing mere inches away.
    One of the parents sidled up to Penny in
line and declared loudly, “Weren’t they just amazing? I am so proud of them.”
    She placed a fake smile on her face.
“Just unbelievable.”
    To her great surprise, another mother
strode up to the man behind her and hugged him. Mrs Simms’ son had leukemia
last fall and everyone had been talking about it. He had been quite sick for a
while, but to everyone’s enormous relief he was now experiencing a full
remission. Arlene Simms greeted this man like they were old friends.
    Arlene then grabbed her husband’s arm and
said in excitement, “Look Brad, it’s Dr Bruck. He came to see Craig. Thank you
so much, it will mean so much to him. How are things over at Wayside?” She
laughed loudly and lightly touched Dr Bruck’s arm. Arlene was as awestruck by
this guy as Penny was.
    The good doctor laughed too, a deep,
throaty, sexy laugh. It sounded better than she could have imagined. He looked
down at Arlene’s hand on his arm. “I’m happy that the surgery had gone so well
Mrs Simms. As much as we enjoyed spending time with your son, we would rather
not have to see him at the hospital.”
    “Yes that is the truth,” Arlene agreed
with a girlish, flirty laugh. “He’s back to being the all-round jock he’s
always been.”
    Let’s not get carried away Arlene, Penny
fumed as she watched Arlene bat her eyes shamelessly at this fabulous man. She
looked down at the floor and thought, Who am I kidding? I’d be doing the same
damn thing if I had the chance.
    The crowd thinned as Penny neared her
car. She had lost track of Dr Bruck. A light rain was falling and it created a
mist in the air. The fog was so dense she could barely see a foot in front of
her, but her resolve was as clear as ever. She thought back over the
conversation with her family yesterday. How weird: here she was declaring to
her family that she wanted to work in a hospital. Now after seeing Dr Bruck she
was drawn to that dream more than ever. Wayside Hospital may be a place to look
into. She jumped into her car, chuckling. Not in a million years would she ever
admit to Amber that Dr Bruck had been the draw.
    Two cars over, Mr Adams stood next to his
Ford Taurus. He looked distracted, rumpled, and sad. He appeared to be stuck in
a rut as well, and she could sense his desire to move on. In her core, she knew
he would never do it. As she watched Mr Adams yawn loudly, she knew that she no
longer had a choice.
    She decided she would call Wayside
Hospital tomorrow and try to set up an interview. If they didn’t want her, she
would look elsewhere. She waved at Mr Adams as he scratched his oily head and
pulled up his wrinkled, baggy trousers. She didn’t want anyone who remotely
resembled Mr Adams. She laughed and asked herself: Is that too much to ask?

Chapter 9
    Penny entered Krasdall’s coffee shop breathing heavily. She
ordered an omelet and began to assemble her resume.
    She couldn’t work at home because Bob and
Winston were distracting her. She needed this resume to be so slick, so heavy
with gold-plating that it could break somebody’s foot if they dropped it. This
portfolio would be her ticket to a better future, and a better life.
    After the first draft, the completed
resume read pretty much like this:
    Penny Marins completed four years of
college at Stony Brook University of New York and is a licensed registered
nurse. She accepted a job at Fernfair and has been there practically her whole
life.
    The flimsy resume looked pathetic, she
realized. Try as she might, she couldn’t wrack her brain for anything to fluff
it up. She didn’t like to think about it, but she just didn’t appear very
interesting or substantial on paper. She felt a nervous clench begin to form in
her stomach.
    Who the hell is going to hire me with
these credentials? she thought in dismay. What have I been doing for all these
years, sleepwalking? I should