Spring Fever Read Online Free PDF Page A

padded envelope and ripped it open. Five distinctive red and green Quixie screwtop bottle caps tumbled out. Voncile swept them into the trash with one hand, and extracted a piece of paper from the envelope.
    “This,” she said, waving the slip of paper, “is what we’re after. We’ve asked Quixie lovers to mail in five bottle caps, along with their name and mailing address, for a chance to win one of those.” She gestured to a row of gleaming red Coleman coolers against the far wall. Each of the coolers was printed with the oval Quixie logo, the one with the Quixie Pixie, leaning against a Quixie bottle, smiling and winking impishly.
    Annajane counted two dozen coolers.
    “So,” Voncile said briskly, handing the slip to Annajane. “You’ll type the name and address into our database. Right?” She leaned over the computer, tapped a few keys, and brought up a blank spreadsheet. “Just type on each line, and hit tab when you come to the end of the address. You can do that, can’t you?”
    “Yes ma’am,” Annajane said.
    “Then,” Voncile said, “Come to my office and let me know when you’ve typed in all these addresses. I’ll print them out onto labels, and then you’ll put the labels on those envelopes.” She plucked an envelope from a box and showed it to Annajane. The Quixie logo was printed in the upper-left-hand corner of each one. “You’ll put one coupon for a free twelve-ounce bottle of Quixie in each envelope, seal up the envelope, and put it in that other bin. How does that sound?”
    “Fine,” was all Annajane could think of to say.
    “Good,” Voncile said, glancing at her watch. “I’ve got a meeting right now, but you just sit right down here and get started, and I’ll come back afterwards to see how you’re doing. All right?”
    “Yes ma’am,” Annajane said. She sat down at the computer, flexed her fingertips, and got started. It was slow going at first, ripping open the envelopes, sorting out the addresses, and then counting out the bottle caps. She was shocked to discover some envelopes didn’t actually contain five bottle caps. Others might contain three or four Quixie caps, but with a non-Quixie cap thrown in to fill out the mix. Annajane counted Coke caps, Pepsi caps, Dr Pepper caps, even a few Hires and Barq root beer bottle caps. These she indignantly threw in the trash, along with the sender’s entry blank. Who did these people think they were fooling?
    After an hour or so, she got a system going, opening twenty-five envelopes at a time, scanning the caps, and then typing the names into the computer. Every once in a while, she’d get up, walk around the room, and peek out the door, wondering what was taking Pokey so long. Hadn’t they agreed they would start their careers today?
    At noon, her stomach started to growl. Her shoulders ached, and she was getting a headache from staring at the flickering computer screen. She wished she’d thought to bring along a lunch. At one, she walked over to Voncile’s office, to inquire about taking a break. But the office was empty, and Mr. Bayless’s office door was closed, too.
    Finally, she remembered the break room, where she and Pokey had played restaurant as little girls, serving paper cups of Quixie from the fountain machine to the plant workers and being treated to packages of Tom’s salted peanuts or Cheetos from the vending machines.
    She was back at her computer, sipping from a cup of Quixie and nibbling a Mr. Goodbar when the door flew open.
    “Come on, you little brat,” a man’s deep voice called. “Mama sent me to take you to lunch.” He stepped into the room, and Annajane was so flustered by an in-the-flesh glimpse of Mason Bayless that she knocked over her drink.
    Speechless, she watched a bright red river of soda splashing onto the stack of contest entry blanks she’d just stacked beside the computer.
    “Oh no,” she cried, jumping up. She reached into the trash bin and grabbed a discarded envelope and