The Game Changer by Jennifer Brown

Author:Jennifer Brown
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Hallmark Publishing
Published: 2019-08-29T17:34:09+00:00

Chapter 15

Mary Jean was back in the office the next day, and she looked horrible. She was pale and damp and her nose was red and raw. She winced every time she swallowed or yawned and kept patting her forehead with a tissue.

“Are you okay?” I asked as she suffered through the final draft of my hot dog roller story. “Maybe you should go home.”

She waved a tissue at me. “I’m fine. It’s just a little sore throat, and copy is due to printing by lunchtime. Can’t afford to get behind.”

“But you’re miserable. I think you may have the flu.”

“The news doesn’t get the flu.”

Fair point. The news doesn’t was a mantra among my colleagues in Chicago. The news doesn’t cry. The news doesn’t worry about blood. The news doesn’t get himself tossed from the President’s press conference for muttering unsavory nicknames loudly enough for the president to hear, Jimmy. I was definitely not one to criticize anyone for being single-minded in their pursuit of a good story.

“This will do,” she said at last. “I can tell you’re listening to yourself more. Email it. Have you seen Ernie?”

Yes, I had. Out in the parking lot, asleep in his car with a hoagie balanced on his stomach. “Nope. I think he’s out on a story.” You so owe me, Ernie.

“I don’t recall assigning him a story.” She scrunched her eyebrows together, then gave her head a slight shake. “I’m sure you’re right. Concentration is not my strength right now.” She opened her drawer, then wrestled unsuccessfully with the lid on a bottle of Tylenol.

“Looks to me like strength isn’t your strength today, either,” I said, taking the bottle from her and easily opening it. I shook two out onto her desk. “Really, you should go get rest. Nobody will even be here. I’ve got the bank grand opening to do today.”

She dry-swallowed the Tylenol.

“Good. And I hope you’ve given up on your ridiculous obsession with the Coach Farley case. I’ve heard from the chief that you keep popping up in all the wrong places. You’re not investigating, are you? I’ve told you, we’re not doing a story.”

You’ve also told me that the man died of natural causes, so…

“No, ma’am. No story here.” Not for the newspaper, anyway.

“Well, good. One of the most important things to learn about journalism is you don’t poke your nose where it doesn’t belong.”

I bit my lip—hard—to keep from responding that, actually, keeping your nose out of other people’s business is the total opposite of one of the most important tenets of journalism.

Mary Jean burst into a long, hard, croaky-sounding cough followed by a groan of despair. I heard a distinctly aerosol noise in the direction of Joyce’s cubicle—undoubtedly a fresh cloud of Lysol was hovering above her right now, and I only wished it was hovering above me, too.

“You should go home and rest. Maybe go to the doctor?” I said.

Mary Jean waved me off again. “I’ve got deadlines. And so do you.”

“Right. I’ll be off, then.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.