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Sue peered out, a little foolishly, from under the
desk. "What's happening now?" James asked
himself. He seemed to live his life in a perpetual state
of mild bewilderment.
"What's the matter?" asked Kath.
"My knee gave way," she said. "Ow."
She began to rub her left leg. It did not look convincing
even to James' uncritical eye. "It does that sometimes."
"Let me help you up." James offered her his
hand.
"No!" Her voice sounded more screechy than
she intended. "I'm fine down here for a while,"
she added, more smoothly.
James could not tell what was troubling her but he
sensed he should play along. He handed the fruit salad
down to her and sat at his new desk, wondering how to
distract Kath.
"Listen, it'll be Deb's birthday soon. We need
to think of a surprise. Will you help?"
"Sure. What do you need?"
"Ideas?"
She thought for a moment. "An art book? Something
for Crabtree and Evelyn? And we could make a special
dinner for her. Why are you asking me? You know her
better than I do!"
A knock on the door interrupted her. It opened a few
inches and a plump, familiar face appeared in the crack.
"Heard the news?" it asked.
"Hamlet!" cried Kath. "Come in. How
did you find us?"
Hamlet shrugged in that irritating way he had when
he wasn't going to answer a question. He seemed to like
to confound people. Probably he had called James' home
number and asked Debbie.
"What news?" James said. He noticed that
Hamlet was peering down at Sue. "Oh. Sorry. Let
me introduce our new partner. This is Sue."
"Don't get up," he said, with a friendly
smile.
He sat on Sue's desk and folded his arms. "No
severance," he said, "unless you were there
more than a year."
"What!?" Kath's anger tended to mount quickly
where Doberman was concerned. "I was only there
six months."
"I was there ten," James put in.
"I missed severence by three days," said
Hamlet.
"Can they do that?" Kath asked.
"Technically no," said James. "But if
they've run out of money you either take what you're
offered or sue them. And who'll sue them if they've
run out of money?"
"We gotta do something," said James, glumly.
Sue handed up the plastic container, now empty, and
her fork. James reached out to take it. As he did so,
Sue slipped a scrap of paper into his hand. He shuffled
some papers on his desk and lay the note next to them.
"The magician's outside the window," it read.
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