​     Hold on girl, Katy told herself.​ Don't do it. You're sliding away into the panic/despair zone, but hold on! There's more than one person you can call. But her next thought was, okay, so exactly who would that be? It was after one o'clock in the afternoon. Anyone she could think of to contact was already at work themselves, although, really, when she thought about it, Katy couldn't really even say that. The fact was, she didn't really have any friends anymore, not like when she first got out of high school and was in college. She had plenty of friends then, Jody and Monica and Rockland and Sally, but one by one they fell away to pursue careers or get married or find other groups of friends to hang out with until, finally...at one o'clock on a Friday afternoon, Katy felt the desperate need to hear the voice of a friend, someone who loved her and knew her intimately to her very soul, but she couldn't think of a single person to call. 

     She finally decided on her cousin, Noreen. Katy's own sister, Laura Lee, was someone she never talked to ever, but as youngsters Noreen and Katy had always been as close as sisters, so... 

     Ring. Ring. 

     "Noreen? Hi. This is Katy."

     "Katy?" Kate caught a bit of a confused pause on the other end of the line. Then, "What can I do for you, cuz?"

​     "I...I..." Katy didn't know how to begin.  "I...I just lost my job, Noreen, and I don't know where I'm going to get another one, even for minimum wage, and I need to pay my share of the rent...and my boy friend is a stoned idiot so I can't just...I need someone to talk to, Noreen. I'm starting to...I'm afraid I'm..." 

​     "Oh Katy, you poor darling." Katy could almost hear Noreen's mind whirring. Really, it'd been months, maybe years, since they'd last spoken, and it'd certainly been years since they'd been at all close, and now Katy calls out of nowhere sounding needy and desperate? Noreen probably had her afternoon all planned. "Katy, I'll tell you what," she said. "Where are you going to be in three hours?" 

     "Three..."

​     "Yes. Four o'clock. You see, I was just on my way out the door, and, you know, normally it wouldn't matter, I'd be there for you, you know I would, but I'm on my way to something I've been planning for weeks that I just can't get out of and..."

​     "I..."

​     "I'll be back at four. I'll be making dinner for Javiar and the kids by then, and we can talk while I'm putting something together."  

​     "I...I understand," Katy managed to mutter, although she found it hard to get the words to get past the lump in her throat. 

     "It isn't that I don't want to help you, Katy, but you've got to understand..." We're not children anymore, was what she was really saying. We're adults now. Deal with your own life, please. "Call me later, though, okay? Call me at four. No, make it four thirty. I'll be done with what I'm doing by four thirty, I promise. Call me, okay?"

​     "Uh...Uh, sure, okay."

​     "I'm serious. Call me. I want to talk to you. I want to hear about this."

     "I gotta' go, Noreen."

​     "Katy, please, I..." 

​     "Gotta' go." At which point Katy, again, as with Dwayne, broke off the connection.

CONTINUE