Operation Mail-Order Bride by Elnora Field

wasn’t over, and I felt glad that that, at least, was working out. Although I had written her briefly about my breakup with Blair, I went into more detail now, expressing the annoyance I still felt with him.
    “You know what the worst thing about it is, Rose? I took all the risks. I know I did so of my own free will, but it still makes me mad. He didn’t give up anything to try this little experiment. I gave up a good job, moved fifteen hundred miles, bought a car I’d never have needed if I’d stayed where I was, and got a much less satisfying job that pays less.
    “Now, I’m too broke to leave town, but I’ve been working too hard to have a social life, so I’m still alone here. He, on the other hand, had a new old girlfriend waiting in the wings.”
    “Well …,” she sounded sympathetic, but relieved, “I can tell you’re angry, but I was afraid you’d be depressed, and you don’t sound down at all.”
    After Rose’s call, I was wondering whether or not I wanted to go to the effort of cooking an evening meal when a knock sounded on the cottage door.
    It was Larry and Debra Stone, a couple I was getting to know at church, bearing a large cardboard box.
    “You didn’t come to the service last night,” Debra explained as I invited them in from the bitter wind. “Then we ran into that Pat lady you brought to the Thanksgiving dinner and she told us you called in sick for the past two days.”
    “We wanted to make sure you were okay, and bring you some leftovers.” Larry held out the box.
    “How sweet of you!” I took it and peeked inside. It held a complete traditional holiday dinner on paper plates, wrapped in plastic. My mouth began to water. Larry and Debra exchanged a look when they heard my voice, which betrayed severe congestion.
    “You’ve been sick, all right,” Debra ventured. “Do you need anything?”
    I assured them that their visit and their gift of the meal was more than enough, and that my health was improving rapidly.
    “I’m planning to go to work Monday. I feel much better than I did yesterday, and light-years better than the day before.”
    Larry chuckled. “I’m sorry for laughing, Cassie, but you sound like a cartoon character. Isn’t it part of your job to answer the phone?”
    “Yes.”
    “They may have to have you do something different for a day or two,” Debra remarked.
    They stayed for a time and visited until the light outside grew dim.
    “Do you think that ice storm will get here?” I asked.
    “Last report I heard said it was going to pass north of us,” Larry stated. “It’s just as well. The last bad one shut the town down for three days.”
    This was one more surprising fact about my new home. In the northeast, we couldn’t afford to let winter storms shut businesses down. They came so often, commerce would have ground to a halt.
    “But we walked, so we’d better be on our way,” Debra told me, and gave me a hug. “I’m glad you’re better. See you at the New Year’s Day service?”
    I assured them that I planned to be there, and after watching them out of sight I fell on the box supper and ate every bite.
    Midmorning of my first day back at work after Christmas, I received an unpleasant surprise.
    Ms. Gardner called me to her office and closed the door. In a voice still nasal from the cold she had shared with me and several others, she announced that she had to lay me off.
    “As busy as we’ve been? I don’t understand, Ms. Gardner. How can business be so bad?”
    “Advertising revenues are down seventeen percent from last year, and they’ll probably drop even more, since we were so late mailing the January issue.” She turned the leaves of a ledger as if hoping the numbers in it would change. “I’m sorry, Cassie, but I have to try to salvage what I can.
    “Now,” she closed the ledger and tucked a strand of fading blonde hair behind her ear, “you can stay on for two weeks at your usual salary, or you can take the two weeks’ pay