Nadirah had just returned from a crime scene and entered the laboratory barely a few minutes before Joni did.
“Hiya, boss!” Joni said a little loud for Nadirah’s tastes, but with an enthusiasm she appreciated.
“Hey,” Nadirah simply said.
Joni grinned and said, “Just reporting for work. What do you need me to do?”
“Well, you gonna behave, troublemaker?”
“Of course.”
“Then I need you to be quiet, keep your hands off of things when I’m out in the field, and stick to your job only.”
“Okay. I can do that.”
“And if I don’t speak to you first or you don’t absolutely need to speak to me, then I don’t expect to even know you’re in the room. Got it?”
“Got it.”
Nadirah strode over to her desk, gathered some files and papers, and handed them over to Joni. “Get to work inputting this stuff.”
And work Joni did, much more quietly, efficiently, and accurately than Nadirah had expected.
After a week, the boss lady came in to ask how things were going.
“Okay,” Nadirah said, glancing up from a microscope.
“Oh, good. Because I can always swap her with someone else if you two would like a break from each other,” the boss added with a smile.
Nadirah hesitated, almost touched by the pleading look in Joni’s eyes when she quickly glanced at her and then back at her boss. Now was her opportunity to get rid of Joni. She wanted that, didn’t she? Wouldn’t it be for the better anyway? It would be as simple as a flick of a switch. But she couldn’t do it, and finally, she said, “Nah, we’ll just keep things the way they are for now.”
The boss left, and Joni gave Nadirah a big smile. Nadirah couldn’t help but smile back, though it was a small smile.
“Come on, Troublemaker,” Nadirah said later on at lunchtime.
“Where to, and why do you call me Troublemaker?” Joni asked, quick to follow Nadirah out of the lab after she locked the door.
“I think there’ll always be a hint of the devil in you, don’t you think? It’s just who you are. And we’re going to my office.”
“You have an office?”
Nadirah simply smiled with amusement, keeping her eyes straight ahead of her as they walked down a long corridor. A moment later, Nadirah unlocked a door with a sign on it that read: Nadirah S. Haddad, Chief of Forensic Sciences
“What’s the S stand for?” Joni asked.
“It stands for shut up and mind your own business,” Nadirah said with a wink, holding the door open for her to enter the office. “Sit down, troublemaker.”
The office was small and cluttered. Nadirah went around to sit behind her desk while Joni took a seat in front of it. A mini refrigerator was behind the desk, and Nadirah turned to take a sandwich, salad, and a can of soda from it. In silence, Joni sat and watched her unwrap the sandwich, pick up one-half of it, and bite into it. After a minute, she swallowed and took a sip of her soda.
“Why no lunch today?” she asked Joni.
“I forgot to make something up last night. You would think that since I stopped going to the cafeteria on account of how costly it is, I would remember by now to make something, but I was off to a late start this morning and just didn’t get a chance. Could I please have some water?”
“Want a soda instead?”
“Sure.”
“I don’t have Sprite, but I have Coke and strawberry soda.”
“Wow, you remembered I like Sprite,” Joni said, pleased. “But I actually do like strawberry even better.”
Nadirah handed her a can of strawberry soda.
“Thanks.”
She nodded and pushed the other half of her sandwich toward Joni.
“Oh, no thanks. I don’t want to steal your lunch.”
“You’re not stealing it if someone offers it to you, Joni.”
Joni eyed the sandwich hesitantly. Come to think of it, she was kind of hungry, and so she accepted the other half of the tuna sandwich gratefully.
Nadirah sat back in her burgundy leather chair and watched Joni eat the sandwich eagerly. Then she turned around again and broke off a couple of bananas from a bundle that sat atop the refrigerator and gave one to Joni.
“You were pretty hungry,” Nadirah said when she finished.
“Yeah, I guess I was.” Joni looked at the various credentials that were framed and hanging on the walls. “So, this is what you’ve been doing all these years?”
“Yup,” Nadirah said, taking a swig from her soda. “This and playing the guitar in the band.”
“You played in a band?”
Nadirah nodded. “Yeah, on weekends, but the older I get, the less I do it.”
“Why did you ask Kim about paramedic work?”
Nadirah looked at Joni, confused.
“Remember Kim? She was my neighbor and the one who drove me to North Star because I don’t drive.”
“Oh? Why don’t you drive?”
“I just don’t like to. So why’d you ask Kim those questions?”
Nadirah smiled. “You’re not going to let me out of anything you’re determined to ask, are you?”
Joni shook her head with a smile. “Not if I can help it.”
“Are you two still friends?”
“We lost touch for a while, but we do keep in touch every now and then, yes.”
“What, did you have a fight or something?”
“No. We just went our own ways over time, but like I said, we are in touch here and there. We never got to finish our discussion. You know, from when you told me who you were the other day.”
Nadirah sighed. “Maybe I shouldn’t have bothered telling you.”
“But you did. And I have some things I’d like to say.”
“Why?” Nadirah said sternly, mood darkening. “Why, Joni? What’s the point?”
“Just to get things off my chest.”
“Well, this isn’t the time or place, and you’re still leaving soon enough, so why bother?”
“I never forgot you, but believe it or not, I did grow up somewhat along the way.”
“So?”
“You’re not much taller than me,” Joni said, now gazing out the window.
What? Where the hell was this lovely head case going?
“But it didn’t matter,” she continued.
“Joni, I have no idea what you’re talking about, but I would appreciate it if you’d…”
“I was always attracted to tall women, but you were so damn good-looking that it just didn’t matter. But yeah, I’ll be leaving soon. And hopefully, it will be before it gets much colder. I also really need to get back home and figure out a way to get insurance because I really need to get to an ear specialist.”
“For what?”
“I was born with what’s called congenital atresia.”
“Isn’t that some kind of birth defect or something?”
Joni pulled her long ruby-red curls back and exposed her left ear. Clearly, it was deformed, though barely noticeable at the same time. “Before we’re born, our ear canals form, then they fuse shut, then they reopen for good. This one never reopened. Also, as you can see, the outer ear is deformed. The lobe is the only part that isn’t deformed. I had over a dozen plastic surgeries in Boston when I was between ten and twelve, where they tried their best to construct a frame. They didn’t do the greatest job, but hey, this was back in the seventies.”
“Doesn’t look too bad to me,” Nadirah said. “But what’s wrong with it now?”
“I don’t know. But something’s not right. That much I do know. For months now, I’ve been having pain I’ve never had before that’s sort of behind the ear. It’s getting to where I’m practically living my life in a bottle of pain relievers day after day, and if it gets much worse, it may very well interfere with my everyday life.”
“Well, hopefully, you’ll be able to check into it soon.”
“Yes, that would be nice. Have you lived in Connecticut all your life?”
Nadirah blinked, caught off guard. Normally, she found those who changed subjects so suddenly to be annoying. Yet Nadirah found that she liked Joni’s unpredictability for some strange reason. It was almost like unwrapping a surprise gift, never knowing what might lie beneath the pretty packaging. “No,” she answered.
“You know I’m going to ask next where else you’ve lived. So, you gonna tell me, Officer?”
Nadirah shrugged, then said, “I guess I can tell you if you must know. I was born in southern California and have lived in the Midwest as well as North Carolina. Been back here five years now after my second so-called close call with real love failed.”
“Hey, three times the charm. So, North Carolina was the last state, huh?”
Nadirah nodded. “Yeah, that’s where Amelia and I split up.”
“Hmm…” Joni said thoughtfully. “Guess North Carolina isn’t always for lovers like the saying goes.”
“North Carolina isn’t always for lovers,” Nadirah laughed to herself at home the following evening. Well, it certainly hadn’t been for her.
She replayed her earlier discussion with Joni in her mind. Maybe Joni’s bluntness wasn’t such a bad trait after all. Either way, she liked the girl’s sense of humor and her eagerness to learn new things, be it about people or other things. She supposed one needed a thirst for knowledge to begin with if they were going to learn as many languages as Joni had learned and was still learning.
She tried not to show an interest in Joni, but she couldn’t help but ask her some questions of her own about her language studies.
“Well, you can’t just learn a language, call it done, and walk away,” Joni had said. “Languages take regularity so as not to lose what you’ve learned.”
Nadirah spent the evening as she usually did with her cat, computer, and TV, and was about to turn in at midnight when an idea came to her. One she had to wonder why she hadn’t gotten sooner. She turned to her computer and Googled Joni’s name. And then she stumbled upon her blog. “I wonder what this could be,” she said to her cat.
The cat jumped onto her lap.
“Oh, you’re curious too, are ya?”
Nadirah clicked into Joni’s public blog, which appeared to be used as a journal. She then looked at the clock and said, “Well, I’ll just check it out for a few minutes, then hit the sack.”
But that was four hours ago. And when Nadirah finally did crawl into bed in the predawn hours, she had a much better sense of just what made Joni Gilstein tick.
Joni had been working for Nadirah for nearly three weeks, all the while the pain in her ear had grown steadily worse.
What she was about to do might earn her a bullet in the head from Nadirah’s gun, and she knew it, but until she could come up with a better solution, Joni was simply out of options for the time being.
Her heart started to pound in anticipation as she approached the laboratory.
Maybe she should reconsider.
No! She had to at least try. She just had to. This wasn’t something a free clinic or an emergency room could deal with in the way that most other things could be dealt with in places like that. This was more complicated. Joni was sure of it. She just didn’t know the details yet.
The laboratory door loomed even closer.
God, please don’t let me faint before I get there!
Taking a deep breath, Joni entered the lab to find Nadirah and Gifford standing around talking about something or another. They stopped talking and turned to look at her. They could tell right away that something was amiss.
“Hey,” Nadirah said.
“Hi there,” said Gifford. “What’s up?”
“Well,” Joni began, nerves clamoring up a storm.
“What’s wrong?” Nadirah asked, brows knotted with confusion more than concern as she studied Joni.
Joni stepped further into the room and leaned on the edge of a table for support. Once she steadied herself enough, she knew that all she could do was simply get it over with and hope for the best, even though she knew she’d have a much better chance of winning the lottery than getting any help from Nadirah.
“I don’t know what’s wrong,” Joni began. “But something’s definitely not right with my ear, which I told you about not long ago, and I’m getting really worried.”
“So, go to the ER,” Nadirah told her.
“Well, I’m going to be taking the day off today, but it’s not that simple. I wish it were as simple as just going to the ER, even if it meant I had to pay off a huge bill, but what’s going on with me is more complex. Call it intuition or whatever you want, but I’m sure it’s nothing quick and minor.”
“But how could I possibly help?” Nadirah asked.
“Is there any way you could take time off tomorrow morning?”
“Tomorrow morning?” Nadirah asked, still not understanding what in the world Joni was getting at. “What, do you need a ride somewhere or something?”
“Yes, to court. And it won’t be for prank phone calls this time around.”
Nadirah now looked surprised as well as confused, and Gifford let out a quick laugh.
“This ought to be good,” he said.
“Then why do you need to go to court?” Nadirah asked.
“Because I need insurance.”
Gifford laughed again, and Nadirah said, “Joni, you can’t just go to court and order up insurance.”
“I know. But if you’d be so kind as to marry me, I’ll be insured, I’ll get the problem taken care of, then I promise we’ll file for divorce as soon as it is,” Joni said.
Gifford burst out laughing so hard it nearly hurt Joni’s good ear, which had moderate to good hearing, and Nadirah’s eyes practically bulged right out of their sockets.
“Oh, my God!” she shrieked. “You really are crazy!”
“Thank you,” Joni said with a smile. “Tomorrow morning, then.”
“I knew you didn’t have a full deck of cards, but I didn’t realize you were completely insane!”
Gifford laughed on, clutching his stomach.
“About nine o’clock would be a good time,” Joni added.
“You are completely and utterly insane!”
Gifford laughing…
“Dress casually.”
“You’re totally mad! Thoroughly a hundred percent mad! Just one seriously split chick!”
“Y-you’re the one th-that said,” Gifford laughed, “th-that she needed to do something to get—to get—herself insured.” He laughed uncontrollably, and Joni thought her eardrum would burst.
“See you then,” Joni said, leaving the room and Gifford’s hearty laughter behind her along with a still stunned Nadirah who couldn’t seem to stop insisting she was crazy.
But maybe she was a touch crazy.
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