Damage Control - ARC by Mary Jeddore Blakney Page A

pointless meetings, and missing job
interviews."
    "But you were medically unable," she
objected. "Can't they make an exception for that?"
    "Only if my doctor fills out all the
paperwork based on a complete medical workup."
    "And I suppose your doctor won't do that
until you get health insurance."
    "What doctor?" said Brooks. "I don't even get
to have a doctor without health insurance."
    “Is that Venus?” she asked, pointing.
    “Guess again," he said, "Not Venus."
    “Then what planet is it, then? It’s a planet,
right, and not a star?”
    “It’s not a planet or a star,” he answered
soberly.
    “Oh, it’s—that’s a satellite, isn’t it?” Even
Guin looked chagrined now.
    “Yeah.”
    “Can you appeal?” she asked.
    “Appeal...the decision that I'm ineligible
for Medicaid?” he replied, trying to keep up with her zigzagging
train of thought.
    “Yeah."
    “Yes, but I have to prepare it first, and I
have to make sure it’s all right according to procedure and cites
all the right laws and such. Jade knows about that stuff, or at
least she’s really good at looking it up. I’m going to send her an
email tonight. She practically begged me to let her help, so I’m
going to let her.”
    “Awesome.” She sounded like she meant it. “So
maybe you can do the request tomorrow.”
    Brooks shook his head. “She’s in bed already,
for one thing.”
    “Oh, right,” Guin teased. “It’s after six
o’clock.”
    Brooks smirked. She was exaggerating, but not
that much. “And tomorrow she’s going to drive Mrs. McGillicuddy to
her doctor’s appointment—podiatrist or something—“
    “You’re kidding me,” Guin interrupted. “Her
name is really Mrs. McGillicuddy?”
    “No,” Brooks admitted, his lips threatening
to break into a sheepish smile, “but I can never remember her name.
Jade must have told me half a dozen times, but I always forget, so
now I just call her Mrs. McGillicuddy, or Mrs.
What’s-Her-Face.”
    “Ohh...” Guin breathed, screwing up her face
and looking nostalgic at the same time. As though anyone that young
could be nostalgic, but she was a natural actress. “Is it Griffin
something? Griffin-Wendell?”
    “I have no idea,” said her father. “It could
be.”
    “You don’t recognize it?”
    “I don’t remember her name,” he said. “I just
don’t remember it. I wouldn’t know it if I heard it, and maybe I
just did.”
    “Okay,” she conceded. “So she has to take the
old lady to the foot doctor tomorrow. And then what?”
    “Then she’s going to drop off a birthday
present for Wade at Becky’s house, and after that she can go home
and start working for the day. She’ll probably see my email when
she gets home from Becky’s, but when she can start—” Brooks cut
himself off suddenly and just gasped and then forgot to
breathe.
    “Oh my god!” Guin half-screamed. “That was a
big one. You said shooting stars, but I didn’t expect shooting
stars like that.”
    “Yeah,” Brooks exhaled sadly. “It was a big
one.”
    “If I was superstitious,” said Guin
energetically, “I’d say it was a sign.”
    “It was a sign,” said Brooks.
    “Okay, now you’re weirding me out,” she
objected. “Since when did you get so hocus-pocusy?”
    More streaks of white light, smaller ones,
sparkled in the black sky. Brooks said nothing, and just stared at
them. He wondered if it was a good sign or a bad one. It didn’t
feel good.
    “Ooh,” said Guin in a subdued voice, “those
aren’t meteors, are they?”
    Brooks shook his head.
    “Are those our bombs, or theirs?” Guin
asked.
    “Does it matter?”
    “I don’t know. Does it? If it’s us bombing
their ships, then maybe that means we’re winning.”
    “Well, first of all, they’re probably
missiles, or even debris from damaged ships that’s burning up in
the atmosphere. Second, even if we are winning this battle, it
doesn’t mean we’re winning the war. And third, sometimes it’s both.
One side