Monday Morning Bobbie was up early and decided to go down to the restaurant for breakfast. After the “poison bag incident”, she spent Sunday talking to Ambrose and Trixie. She went down her back stairs and walked through the back door to the kitchen and headed to the “staff only” area. A big board showed the schedule, who was working and who was absent. Bobbie tried to set it up digitally but this seemed the best way to keep track of people. Everybody was accounted for. She moved into the kitchen. Mark was on a stool near the worktable looking at his tablet. Rose was doing dishes with headphones on. She was practising the periodic table with a downloaded audio file.

“Hi Guys, thank you all so much for your help pulling things together on Saturday night.”

“It was really great Bobbie, we should have more events by the pool, like that, as long as the weather is nice.”

Bobbie thanked them again and went through to the dining room and helped herself to the coffee and continental breakfast. She Joined George at a table.

“So you I hear you had a bit of excitement on Saturday.”

“Yes, I’m pretty sure it was just a forgotten rock climber’s bag that had a bit of chalk on the outside but all’s well that ends well. I hope we didn’t scare you off, I see this is your last week with us.”

George laughed. “Not at all, my apartment renovations are complete. I’m excited but I’m going to miss Mark’s breakfasts.”

“Lorne said your place looks great.”

“Sam saw it and said I should have an apartment warming party. I’m almost all moved in so I’ll let you know when I have my party. She says you can come if you bring cabbage rolls.”

Bobbie laughed. “Deal!”

George got up from his seat. “Well I have to get to work. My daughter and I are on speaking terms now and she seems to have an interest in the business. She loves your idea to make naturally fire resistant work clothes out of wool. Bonne journée.”

“That is great news George. Bonne journée to you too.” Bobbie couldn’t hep but notice that the happy George was a lot nicer to talk to than the worried, depressed George.

Bobbie’s phone pinged and it was Rose, she wanted to meet for lunch. Bobbie texted back that she would make something and they could eat up on her deck.

Bobbie left the restaurant and went over to the reception building. She saw Joe. “So we survived all the excitement.”

“Yup, we’re back to normal. We have a few new guests so that’s good. Umm, I have something to show you. I don’t know who made it but…” He started playing a little GIF on his phone. It was a clip of when Bobbie said. “The show must go on,” to reporters, but it was dubbed with fully orchestrated audio from the band Queen, singing the phrase. It repeated 3 times, speeding up each time until the last one sounded frantic. Her eyes were cartoon and popping in and out.

Bobbie blinked a couple times. “This is kind of funny; don’t you think?”

The clip went viral and people were divided on whether they thought it was cute and funny or it was mean and cringey.

Bobbie shook her head and went up to her office and booted up her computer. She had all the expenses for the gala and wanted to get it into her accounting software, like Trixie showed her. Bobbie resented it a little because it was all sorted out on her spreadsheet down to the penny. She spent half an hour searching the internet for how to import spreadsheets into her accounting software. She found a solution and she vowed to write a little batch file later because Rose was coming for lunch.

She went to her kitchen and cut up some cold cooked chicken and washed salad greens. She mixed together a curry flavoured dressing and poured some on the chicken, letting it soak in a little as she chopped some fresh pears and some mint and tossed it with the greens. She tossed it around, then divided it on two rimmed pasta bowls. She filled a small carafe with the remaining dressing and got two small bowls out, filling one with coconut and one with cashews. Everything went onto a tray and she took it out to her roof deck. She put the salads in the little fridge and set her table for two and made sure she had some water chilling. She heard Rose come in so she went to greet her.

“Wow, Fosse is getting so big!”

“I know. I think he’s going to be a big fuzzy boy when he’s full grown.”

They played with Fosse for a while and went out on the deck and Bobbie served the salad. “So what’s on your mind dear?”

“Well, I’ve been thinking about what you said. About being a nurse or maybe a doctor and I was wondering if you could tell me more about that.”

“I’ll try. I know that there is a program at community college for nurse technician and if you graduate from that, you can be a care giver and work in a hospital or elder care home and stuff like that. After a few years on the job you can take some tests and become a registered nurse, I think. There is also 4 year university program to become a registered nurse upon graduation. To make things more complicated, the community college first year is the same as the university first year for nursing so you could start at the community college, graduate and work in your field over the summer and then move to the university in your second year. To be a doctor you have to get a bachelor of science degree first and that takes 4 years. Many of the credits you take for nursing are science courses.”

“Can I take first year university bachelor of science courses at community college?”

“You’d have to check but I think so.”

“Oh wow, why would anyone go to university if they could get the same classes at community college. It’s so much cheaper?”

“That’s true. I think some people may say the community college isn’t as good but as long as they take the credits at university, who cares?”

“I think I’ll apply to community college and take the first year of a science degree. Then If I want to be a nurse I’ll figure it out and if I want to be a doctor I’m right on track. I’d have to go for 3 more years to be a doctor, right?”

“That’s right. That time will go very fast. You should apply for a government student loan too. That’s different from a bank loan. You would be eligible for extra money because you have no parents. You should apply to university though. You might get a good scholarship. You have a nice high average from high school and since you are an orphan and woman of colour you may have university payed for.”

“I spent a lot of time in the school library, before I was in trouble, to stay away from my foster home as long as I could. There’s not much to do in the library except read and study. So my grades were good.”

“You made the best of a bad situation. Many people don’t do that. It’s not easy.”

“You hiring me didn’t hurt. I met Mark and he helped me get my head straight. And you helped me get my teeth straight.”

They both laughed.

“How’s Aunt Jane these days anyway?”

“She’s pretty good she’s got her garden and found an old sewing machine so she’s sewing again. She helps me take in my clothes when they get too big. She told me she always wanted me to be a nurse but a doctor is better.”

“Maybe she could make things and sell them at the market.”

“She makes garden aprons using old blue jeans. They are really cool, I’ll bring you one.”

“That would be great, I’d like to visit her sometime. I’ll get my friend Barb to look into scholarships for you, she’s a high school teacher and is used to advising college aged kids.”

“OK Bobbie, I’m glad I talked to you, thanks for lunch. I’ve got teacups to wash.”

Bobbie said goodbye and brought everything in from the deck, scraped the plates and loaded them in the dish washer. She went into her office and wrote the batch file and tested it a few times and decided it was good. She updated her expenses, saved and turned off her computer. She decided to text Trixie and see if she wanted to Skype. Trixie was busy but said she was going to try and come home for weekend soon.

Bobbie was a little bored so she put on her swimsuit and headed out to see if anyone was in the pool. It was empty. Good, she thought and she grabbed her towel and cover up and went down dropped her stuff on a lounger and dove cleanly into the deep end swam a few laps. After 20 or so she stopped and stood in the water for a moment. Rick Dawson was sitting in a lounger watching her. “I don’t suppose you can swim with cast on can you?”

Rick shook his head no. He was lost in thought thinking about the little pills he had in the nightstand next to his bed in his motel room.