Same Old Truths Read Online Free PDF

he had to run. The chicken had come home to roast.”

4
    The Stage is Set
     
    After her whirlwind of a morning, Kay looked forward to settling into her desk chair and catching up on some paperwork. Filling out death certificate forms was just the type of mindless busy work she needed to pass the time before she had to call Dave.
    Unfortunately, it wasn’t the distraction Kay had hoped for. She began to obsess over her tendency to become flustered and breathless whenever she spoke to Dave on the phone. She couldn’t understand why it never happened when they were together, face-to-face. The annoyance always present in his voice made her speed up and talk like Alvin the chipmunk, so as to get out whatever she had to say. He had a way of making her feel she was always taking up his valuable time.
    No wonder he acts like he runs the show. I’ve made him the director.
    Kay decided that shit was going to stop today.
    If he wants me to cooperate with this crazy child support-slashing scheme, he’s going to have to meet me on an equal footing.
    Kay pulled Emily McNab’s death certificate form from the file folder. Except for the official “Cause of Death” and the doctor’s signature, the form was complete. This left two other certificates to fill out and get signed. Normally, she would have asked Leo, their errand-and-whatever-else-needs-doing guy, to deliver the forms to the doctors’ offices; she wanted to take care of the task herself so she’d have a break before the long evening ahead.
    The Department of Vital Records’ new computer program for processing death certificates was still several months away from being user ready, so she had to rely on an old IBM Selectric. But she didn’t mind because the machine had a correcting function that erased mistakes with a quick stroke of a key. And it never crashed the way her computer so often did.
    She had just inserted a blank certificate into the typewriter when the telephone rang, followed by the buzz of the intercom. “Kay, Line 1 for you,” Ruth said.
    Kay got up from the small, portable table where the twenty year old machine was stationed, walked over to her desk and jerked up the receiver of the phone. “Is it anything you can take care of? I hate to ask, but I’m running against the clock to get a couple of death certificates out,” Kay said. She immediately felt guilty for snapping at the busy receptionist.
    “It sounds like a personal call, Kay. I believe the caller said his name is Dave.”
    At the sound of his name, her insides began to vibrate. Her breath came faster and that familiar fluster swooshed up and around her just like the dust devil swirling past her window at that very moment. Under different circumstances she might have smiled at the coincidence, but instead, she swallowed hard and tried to respond. Nothing came out.
    “Kay? Are you there?” Ruth asked.
    Kay cleared her throat. “Would you please take his number, Ruth, and tell him I’ll call him back?” She knew she was in no condition to have the “equal footing” conversation she had promised herself just a few moments earlier.
    “Sure,” Ruth answered, a little confused about what was going on at the other end of the intercom.
    Even though she was mad at herself for almost falling apart at the sound of his name, Kay had to pat herself on the back for having the presence of mind to delay talking to him until she could get a hold of herself. That old, familiar apprehension was creeping in. Why in the heck he was calling her?
    Uh oh. A re those the bomb bay doors I hear opening again?
    Her composure began to return when she remembered his promise to call with child support details.
    Just then Ruth walked into her office holding the little pink phone message form on which she had written Dave’s telephone number. Hand-delivering messages was something Ruth didn’t make a practice of doing, but Kay’s strange behavior begged a little investigation.
    “Are you ok?” Ruth asked,