The Virtues of Oxygen by Susan Schoenberger

Author:Susan Schoenberger [Schoenberger, Susan]
Language: eng
Format: epub, azw3, mobi
Publisher: Lake Union Publishing
Published: 2014-07-22T04:00:00+00:00

Holly’s boss, Stan, was sitting in her office when she came in on Monday morning. Stan was middle-aged, a shrug of a man who wore a good toupee, though it wasn’t good enough to avoid looking like a toupee. Darla used to joke with Holly that she liked to run her fingers through Stan’s hair—even when he wasn’t around.

“The news is not good, Lois Lane,” Stan said as Holly stowed her purse under the desk and took her seat behind it. Stan had called her Lois Lane from the moment she had started working for him, and she called him Clark Kent, although the joke, as they both aged, was wearing thin.

“What’s wrong?” Holly asked. “Did we have a typo on the front page again? I told you we shouldn’t have laid off the copy editor.”

“It’s not that, Holly,” he said. “It’s the ad revenue. It’s gone down so much in the last few months. I’m not sure how long we can keep publishing. They’re talking about closing down some of the weeklies, if not the whole chain.”

Holly felt as if Stan were telling her that some mutual friend had died. Newspapers were never just a business. They were democracy’s lifeblood—even small operations like theirs that devoted a whole page every week to the school lunch menu.

“But what’s changed? We’re at every school board meeting, every pumpkin-carving contest, every high school football game. What more can we do?”

“That’s just it,” he said, gripping his knees. “The news we print is not the issue. It’s the economy—layoffs, housing prices. Businesses are scared to spend a dime even to bring in more business. And that includes the outlets, which have been keeping us going for years.”

Somewhere inside Holly the tiny flame of hope that she could find a way to pay the mortgage, her bills, maybe even save some money, went out. She felt dull and hollow. Then she looked through her office window at Darla, who was on the phone laughing and talking as she took notes. She couldn’t see Portia or Marveen, and Les was almost always out covering a game or school event, but she knew they would be devastated.

“I don’t have a timeframe,” Stan said. “The owners are meeting next week. Maybe they’ll only close one or two. Nothing’s been decided, so don’t say anything.”

“I won’t,” Holly said, even as she had already decided to tell them right away. They needed to know in case they had to make plans.

After Stan left, Holly found Darla, Marveen, and Portia, and learned that Les was out covering a mock disaster drill at the high school. She brought them all into her office.

“I’m not going to sugarcoat this,” she said. “The paper’s in trouble.”

The three of them looked at each other, their faces grim, then back at Holly, as if they had been expecting the news.

“I can’t say I’m all that surprised, since I do the books,” Marveen said, crossing her arms. “The revenue’s way, way down.”

“Stan didn’t want me

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