Jenn McKinlay - Due Or Die

“Will do,” Nancy agreed. “Now shoo.”

Lindsey fastened her coat closed and headed out the door. She hadn’t known that the lemon wanted her job. Suddenly, Ms. Cole’s hostility made so much more sense. It must have been very hard to be passed over for a job she had probably expected as her due. As the wind blew in off the water and yanked at the ends of her coat, causing a wicked draft to slap up inside, Lindsey tried to picture Ms. Cole in charge.

Time clocks and docked pay, no sick time, and vacations denied, that’s what it would have been, Lindsey had no doubt. The committee had been right to choose someone else, but Lindsey knew that had to fester like a boil within the lemon’s heart.

She needed to call Carole Towles, her mentor, to see if there was a better way to handle Ms. Cole. Along with Milton, Carole was her favorite member of the library board. A former librarian herself, Carole had an understanding of how to motivate staff in a positive way. Although she was presently at her winter home in Arizona, Lindsey knew she could call her and see if she had any ideas for projects to give Ms. Cole that would make her feel important but not give her power over the other staff persons.

Lindsey had never been a supervisor before her position here in Briar Creek. In fact, when she had applied for the job, she was certain her lack of supervision would keep her out of the running. To her surprise, the hiring committee had felt otherwise.

What Lindsey had come to understand over the past nine months was that her staff needed to be invested in the library in order to give it their best. If they felt they had the right to make decisions that best served their patrons and felt empowered to do so, well, their service was exemplary. The only one not embracing the flexible policies was Ms. Cole. Not a big surprise.

Still, there must be a way to utilize Ms. Cole’s unique skill set for the good of the library. She just had to figure out what it was.

Feeling marginally better about the situation, Lindsey stepped on the rubber mat in front of the library that activated the automatic doors. As the doors slid open, she stepped inside to find her library in complete chaos.

BRIAR CREEK

PUBLIC LIBRARY

Lindsey felt her mouth slide open as Ms. Cole, brandishing a broom, ran past the open door. On her heels was Beth shouting, “Drop the broom! You’re scaring him, you big bully!”

Two pages, teenagers in charge of shelving the books, were racing after them, and Jessica Gallo, the library assistant working the adult reference desk, was looking on with an alarmed stare while Mrs. Holcomb, a patron, stood across from her with her eyes wide and her mouth slightly agape.

Lindsey heard the doors slide shut behind her. For a nanosecond, she considered turning around and going back out, but only for a nanosecond.

“Come here, you little flea-bitten pest,” Ms. Cole ordered, and Lindsey saw her broom come down hard on the floor.

“Stop it!” Beth snapped. She snatched the broom out of Ms. Cole’s hands and looked like she was considering hitting her with it.

The two teen workers skidded to a halt behind them, and Beth said, “I think he went that way.”

Lindsey watched as they hurried toward the children’s area, with Ms. Cole in hot pursuit.

“What’s happening?” Jessica asked as she came over to stand beside Lindsey.

“No idea.”

Several patrons who had been using the Internet had left their desks to check out the ruckus, and Lindsey saw Milton in his usual corner, trying to hurriedly extricate himself from an eagle pose without hurting himself.

She hurried into the children’s section to find Beth standing in front of her area with the broom held across her chest like a staff. Ms. Cole was facing her, looking like an ominous thundercloud in her shades-of-gray outfit.

“Back off,” Beth snapped. “Or I’ll let it bite you.”

“That’s it,” Ms. Cole snapped. “I’m calling animal control and having it put down.”

“You can’t!” Beth wailed. “He hasn’t done anything.”

“Watch me!” Ms. Cole retorted.

“Stop it!” Lindsey cried out.

Everyone turned to look at her and she realized she had spoken louder than she’d intended. It was the first time she could remember raising her voice in years.

“Would someone please explain to me what is going on?” she demanded.

Ms. Cole and Beth both started talking at once, and their voices escalated as they tried to out-shout each other in their effort to be heard. Milton had gotten out of his asana and moved to stand beside Lindsey. She was grateful for the support.

“Beth, Ms. Cole.” Lindsey tried to interrupt, but now that they were arguing, she was no match for their volume. “Ladies!”

Still, they both kept gesturing and yelling. Lindsey looked at Milton and shrugged.

“Silence!” he bellowed, and both women stammered to a halt.

“Thank you,” Lindsey said. She turned to the two teenage workers who were watching this entire scene with slack jaws and bug eyes. “Perry, Heather, do you think you could fill me in?”

Ms. Cole started to speak, but Lindsey held up her hand and said, “No.”

“Well, it started with the dog,” Perry said.

“Dog?” Lindsey asked.

“Puppy, really,” he said.

“We went to unload the book drop and we found a puppy,” Heather clarified. “We told Ms. Cole and she went to grab him and throw him outside.”

“But Ms. Stanley said not to because he would freeze or get hit by a car,” Perry continued the story. “Then when Ms. Cole went to catch him, he nipped her on the toe and ran.”

“Then she grabbed a broom and began to chase him,” Heather said. “But then Ms. Stanley tried to stop her.”

“And that’s when you showed up,” Perry finished.

“Are you all right, Ms. Cole?” Lindsey asked.

She gave an indignant sniff. “I’ll live. He’s probably got rabies, fleas and heartworm. You need to call the pound.”

“Perhaps, but I think we need to find him first. Does anyone know where he is?” Lindsey asked.

They all glanced around, completely baffled.

“All right, then, let’s find him and then we’ll figure out what to do,” she said. “What does he look like?”

“Cute,” Beth said.

“Mangy,” Ms. Cole said.

“I was thinking more of a color,” Lindsey said.

“Black,” they said together.

“And size?” she asked.

“Large rat,” Ms. Cole said.

“Small cat,” Beth said.

“All right,” Lindsey said. “Everyone fan out. Let’s see if we can find him.”

Everyone hit the floor except Ms. Cole, who had snatched her broom back from Beth and held it in front of her as if she expected to be attacked.

“He’s probably piddling somewhere,” she said.

Lindsey sighed and hunkered down on the floor. She looked through the short picture-book aisles and around the children’s tables. No sign of a dog.

She rose and walked over to the kids play area. There were several alphabet puzzles laid out on the short tables, and she hunched down to see beneath them, but still there was no sign of anything other than the stray letter A .

She glanced around the room. The lid to the treasure chest that Beth used to store puppets and dress-up clothes was open. Lindsey wondered if she were a scared puppy, where would she hide? The trunk seemed like a pretty good bet.

She crossed slowly to the trunk and said, “Here, puppy. Hey, fella, are you in there?”

She didn’t want to reach into the trunk and scare him and risk getting bit, so she sat beside it and used her calmest voice.

“It’s okay, no one is going to hurt you, I promise.”