Family Affair (20 page)

"What?"

"You don't instigate hugs," Gitana said.

"This is the new me. Did you get the doughnuts and bagels as was prearranged?"

"Yes, they are in the truck."

"Orange juice, coffee and herbal tea for the freaky ones?"

"Of course," Nora said.

"Did you think of anything else they might like?" Chase had taken out a small notebook and was looking over her list, checking things off.

"A raise but that's not in the budget," Nora said.

Gitana peered over at Chase's notebook trying to get a closer look. Chase shut it and put it back in her pocket. "What are you two up to?" Gitana demanded.

"Employee breakfast. I want to show my appreciation for all their hard work," Chase said.

"It sounds more like bribery to me."

Chase unlocked the front door. "It is," Nora said, holding the door open for Gitana.

"You two need to read Dale Carnegie's book. It's all about presentation."

Both Nora and Gitana gave her a look of skepticism.

"I'm going to make this a fun place to work."

"Sure," Nora said. "Why don't we unload the goods? I told the employees to show up twenty minutes early for a staff meeting."

"So everyone is in on this except me," Gitana said.

"We knew you wouldn't agree," Nora said over her shoulder.

"Exactly," Chase said, following her to her truck.

At the staff meeting Gitana sat on one side of the break room as Nora introduced Chase. "Now we all know that Gitana is with child so we're bringing in her partner, Chase, to help run the business in her absence."

There was a strange quiet like a collective drawing in of breath. ..

Chase stood up. "Lighten up. This will be fun. I mean, I'm going to pick your brains for pertinent info. Nora will be guiding me through the day-to-day operations. Don't worry. I'm only crabby on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. I haven't water boarded anyone in at least two years and my only stipulation is that if I catch you texting while you're on the clock I'll break your fingers."

Nora and Gitana blanched. There was no response from the fifteen employees.

"Geez, you people really need to lighten up. Grab some chow and I'll be around later to see what it is you all do."

The employees still looked shell-shocked as they got breakfast. Chase joined Nora and Gitana.

"I thought that went well. Don't you?" she said. She bit into a bagel and felt serene.

Gitana rubbed her temples.

"Except for that bit about breaking fingers," Nora said, pouring a glass of orange juice and handing it to Gitana.

"I was just kidding. It's all about instruction through humor."

"According to the Mr. Carnegie," Nora said.

"You've got it," Chase said, slapping her good-naturedly. She looked at Gitana holding an empty plate. "Can I get you something?"

"No, suddenly I'm feeling a little ill."

"Ill at ease," Nora said quiedy.

"I'll be in my office. Please show our new MOD around the place."

Chase looked puzzled. "MOD?"

"Manager on duty," Nora said, snagging a muffin.

Gitana looked pained and went to her office. Watching her go, Chase said, "Was I that bad? It was supposed to be funny."

"Don't worry. You're right about the texting and they know it. Seems to me it was the perfect way to let the employees know that you have the inside scoop."

"Ghana's worried I'll scare them off," Chase said, pouring another cup of coffee from the large silver decanter. She was glad Gitana wasn't there to see. Her downsizing on coffee in support of the cause was proving more difficult than she'd thought.

"Chase, this is a sweet job especially if you're studying botany or you like working with plants. Most of the employees have been here two years or more. The worst you'll do is call them on their bullshit. Besides, you're good at asking questions and being interested in new things. People like that. It makes them feel important."

"Thank you. I feel much better. Can I hug you again? I have to practice."

"Sure." Nora wrapped her big arms around Chase. "See, it's not so bad."

"No, it's really not."

"I'm proud of you," Nora said, stepping back and studying Chase.

"For what, exactly?"

"For realizing your full potential."

"You have read Dale Carnegie," Chase said, picking up her coffee cup with relish.

"No, I haven't, but I think I'll know most of it by the end of the week. Are you ready to get started?"

Chase gulped her coffee, straightened her shoulders and nodded. "Let's go."

Nora got Chase an apron and a set of clippers. Then she gave her cash register instructions. Technological advances such as bar codes and registers that indicated exact change made that part easy.

After that Nora sent her off with Eliza, the head nursery person, for lessons on orchids. Eliza looked at her tentatively. She was a small woman, with mousy brown hair, round black spectacles and thin lips which she endlessly applied ChapStick. Chase tried not to get caught up in studying her mannerisms for future writing projects and set herself to task for learning about orchids.

Soon Eliza seemingly forgot that she was teaching Gitana's psycho-wife about all the plants and their care. She methodically started from the beginning and went forward in a concise way. Chase liked this. It worked with her brain type.

"Orchids are of the orchidaceae family with eight-hundred described genera and twenty-five thousand species. They are the most advanced floral evolution ever known."

"Top of the plant chain, eh? What about the name? Is it Latin?" Word origins were always of particular interest to her. As a writer, she liked to know. Years of poring over the dictionary had only furthered this obsession.

"Actually, it's Greek for Orchi which means..." She stopped and blushed. She stroked the white petals of an orchid and avoided Chase's gaze.

"Yes," Chase said, now very interested.

"It means testicle," Eliza said quickly.

Chase laughed. "You're kidding, right?" She couldn't imagine Eliza making such a joke but maybe it was a long-standing practice of deceiving the newbies.

"It's because of the subterranean tuberoids. Theophrastos first used the word, orchis in his book De Historia Plantarum, the Natural History of Plants."

"He must have been a fag."

Eliza ignored this comment and proceeded with the tour.

Gitana came out of her office as they passed by. "How is it going?"

"I had no idea you liked testicles." Chase smiled smugly.

"Why did you give her the word origin?" she asked Eliza.

"She asked."

"All you need to know is care, feeding and type," Gitana said, pointedly looked at Eliza. She went back into her office.

"Ball queen," Chase called after her.

"I'm not listening," Gitana said as she sat down at her desk. "Carry on."

Eliza led her to the first greenhouse which was the potting house. "The orchids feed according to their natural habitat on air and other plants but not as parasites." She seemed adamant about that as if preserving the innocence of the orchid by stating that it would never do anything so loathsome. "On rocks in rocky soil, rain water, humus and their own dead tissue." In the greenhouse, she stuck a scooping shovel into a bucket of what looked like bark. "Ours are mostly terrestrial plants and grow in soil."

"I see." Chase fingered the soil. It looked like regular potting soil with big woody chunks in it. It must be magical to grow such beautiful and expensive plants. They didn't have orchids at the house. Gitana said she needed a break from them at home so she left the gardening to Chase and adored the cut flowers from the jewel garden. These plants that Eliza was gingerly examining were no tray of six from Home Depot for a dollar seventy-nine.

"All the orchids are marked. This one is a Calopogon, a bumblebee orchid. This one is a wild orchid from the Sumatran rainforest..."

"I like coffee from Sumatra with a lot of milk, of course."

Eliza nodded. Boy, these people are dry, Chase thought.

"This," Eliza said, pointing to one of the many orchids perched on the tables, "is a Dactylorhiza Fuchsii or the common spotted orchid."

This made sense to Chase despite the overblown name as the orchid flower was indeed spotted.

"This one is a Gymnadenia Conopsea or the fragrant orchid."

Chase leaned in to smell it. This was the amazing scent that had filled Gitana's studio apartment the day of her seduction. She was about to relive that amorous moment when Eliza slapped a hardbound book with a dark green cover into her hands.

"This is the manual describing every orchid we feature. It is updated every time we get in a new orchid and is absolutely crucial to this job."

"Do I have to memorize the fancy name?" Chase felt the weight of the book and was alarmed.

"Only if you want to appear knowledgeable and thus credible to our discerning buyers." Eliza applied more ChapStick and adjusted her spectacles.

She suddenly reminded Chase of her Latin teacher in the ninth grade. The prim woman who'd been the physical incarnation of Miss Jean Brody but without her apparent disregard for convention. The girls had given her the moniker, "bitchi extremus."

"Got it."

"Good. The manual follows the nursery placement. I came up with its application so you can be assured that all is as it should be. You should begin there at the Anacamptis Pyramidalis. I will supervise and answer any questions you have. Shall we?"

By lunchtime Chase's head was pounding and she'd taken to counting the number of times Eliza had applied ChapStick which was fifty-eight. She now sat in the break room, poring over the orchid bible as Eliza put it, The Kew World Checklist of Orchids.