Excerpt of a Work in Progress

She refused to cry. When her friend picked up the phone, she stated matter-of-factly. "I lost my job, Jean."

"Oh no. What happened, Meri?"

Planting her feet on the seat of the chair, she hugged her legs protectively as tears threatened, prickling the back of her eyelids.

"Between classes, I went to the supermarket to put those flyers on the parked cars. I only had about 35 minutes before my next class, but since the parking lot was close, I figured it would be quick."

"The market on South Grant Street, right?"

At this point, Meri was sniffling, "Yes. I was working on the second row. I had just finished slipping a flyer for the dog grooming business onto the windshield of a Mazda when I was confronted by a belligerent woman who demanded that I remove the flyer from the car. It wasn't even hers. When I pointed that out, she started arguing with me."

"I'm afraid to ask..."

"I slapped a flyer on her children of the corn, hand-print infested mini-van. She went ballistic. The police might have gotten involved. My boss found out, and that was it. Fired."

A small noise on the other end of the line made Meri sniff again. "Are you laughing?"

"You slapped a flyer on her mini-van as she was yelling at you?"

Meri bit the inside of her mouth to keep from laughing. "The flyer she was yelling about wasn't even on her car. So, I fixed that for her. Then the argument made more sense!"