In the Unlikely Event... by Saxon Bennett

Author:Saxon Bennett [Bennett, Saxon]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fiction, General, Lesbian
ISBN: 9781594932977
Google: Dl32ygAACAAJ
Amazon: 1594932972
Publisher: Bella Books
Published: 2012-06-26T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Thirteen—Wrapping Alaska

The following week, with the full intent of getting fired, Chase started her gift-wrapping job. Mrs. Pauline Meadowbrook-Parks was her supervisor. Her name sent Chase into thoughts of parks and grassy meadows and Jane Austen and her novel Mansfield Park. This off-task tangent compromised Chase’s attention to detail during the gift-wrapping demonstration. According to Mrs. Meadowbrook-Parks, gift wrapping was an art form and a calling. Mrs. Meadowbrook-Parks was a maternal-looking woman in her fifties with steel-gray hair and washed-out blue eyes. She made Chase think of a character in Mother Goose—the kindly grandmother who might live in a shoe or exhibit a talent for baked goods, which in fact she was, having five grandchildren and being the primary gift wrapper in the family.

“Someone has to do it what with all the baby showers, birthdays and holidays. It’s a necessity that at least one family member has the skill,” she told Chase.

Chase had gone off on another tangent of Mother Goose tales. She preferred Wind in the Willows, she decided, to the bizarre Grimm Brothers. Chase figured being fired by a kindly grandmother wouldn’t be traumatic but would serve her goal. She gave it one day, two days tops, and Mrs. Meadowbrook-Parks would put her plump arm around Chase’s shoulders and say, “Honey, don’t feel bad. We can’t all be gift wrappers.”

Mrs. Meadowbrook-Parks’s voice broke into Chase’s daydream. “It’s all about geometry. An isosceles triangle here, a ninety-degree angle there and everything done up tight and straight.” She demonstrated by wrapping a blender in white and silver paper covered with wedding bells. “Okay, now I want you to try.”

She pushed an electric wok over to Chase. The wok made Chase think of origami, and she mimicked Mrs. Meadowbrook-Parks’s movements and the box came out looking decent. This was not her intention. Mrs. Meadowbrook-Parks studied the box. Chase waited. Certainly, having so little experience wrapping, combined with not being interested, should make one a poor gift wrapper. Unfortunately, it didn’t.

“This is quite good. Now, we stick a bow on it and some ribbon and voila we have a finished product,” Mrs. Meadowbrook-Parks said, nodding her approval.

Okay, Chase thought, there was more to it than geometry, but this part looked fun. “So we can use all this stuff to spruce up the packages?”

“Oh, yes. This is the artistic part of the process, and frankly, my dear, this is where a gift wrapper is born not made. Either you have it or you don’t.” Mrs. Meadowbrook-Parks waggled a finger.

Well, there you have it, Chase decided. She could make good lines, but the decoration would bring her down.

Mrs. Meadowbrook-Parks’s cell phone rang with the tune “Here Comes the Bride.” She glanced down at the screen. “Oh, my, I wonder who this could be? You’ll have to excuse me a moment.”

Chase sat listening to a series of “Oh my, I see, oh my, yes, this is dreadful, oh, my, I see, and well yes, and several of courses.”

Mrs. Meadowbrook-Parks agreed to something and then clicked off.

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