Page 17 of Road Trip
A week later Maddix Powers III handed in his paper, which sheinstantly recognized as being AI-generated. Maeve gave him the F he deserved, then reported him to the college’s baseball coach. Which did not go over well.
Exhibit A of how well things didn’t go was Janelle’s email to her, which had arrived at approximately the same time Uncle Keith was informing them that their mother had mortgaged their childhood home to the hilt.
The email was brisk and brutally to the point.
Maeve, as you know, the department has suffered some serious budget cuts this year, which has mandated staff reductions. Regret to tell you that I won’t be able to offer you a contract for the upcoming year. Someone from HR will be in contact shortly. Wishing you all the best, Janelle.
She felt as though she’d been punched in the gut. No new contract? She’d been teaching at the college since getting her master’s in literature eight years ago, and her PhD five years after that. She was a recognized Flannery O’Connor scholar, had excellent ratings from her peers and students, had done important research resulting in several publications in academic journals. She was up for tenure this year.
Maeve scrolled through her contacts until she found Janelle’s number, and tapped it. Her call went directly to voice mail. Her voice shook as she left a message.
“Hi, Janelle. I just received your email and I’m frankly shocked. After all these years working together, and what I thought was a friendship, I can’t believe you don’t even have the balls to fire me in person.”
Her phone beeped to notify her of another call on hold. Kaitlyn. She hesitated, then disconnected the call to Janelle and connected to her friend.
“Hi,” she said wearily.
“This is absolute bullshit.” Kaitlyn was practically shouting.
“How did you hear? I just got the email.”
“It’s all over campus,” Kaitlyn said. “Also, Pratt’s in your office right now. Boxing up your stuff.”
“What?!”
“I asked him what was going on, and he tried to play coy. Just said there’d been some departmental ‘reassignments’ and since he was taking over some additional sections, Janelle had suggested he’d be more comfortable in a larger office.”
“I’ll kill them both,” Maeve said through gritted teeth.
“So that’s how you found out? A fucking email? Janelle didn’t even have the decency to call you in for a meeting? And what, the day after your mom’s funeral? She’s such a twatwaffle.”
Maeve nodded a silent agreement.
“Are you okay?” Kaitlyn asked. “Do you want me to come over there? I could run by Frosty’s and pick up a thermos of margs. We could get shit-faced and plot revenge.”
“It’s barely noon,” Maeve pointed out.
“You know what the kids say. If you’re gonna day drink, best get started early.”
“That’s sweet, but no. There’s a lot going on…”
“With your crazy sister?”
“Partly. Also it turns out my mom went completely batshit before she got sick and gave away all her money to some goddamn televangelist.”
She sketched out the details of Mary Helen’s infatuation with Brother Jerome.
“So, what happens with the house?”
“I had it appraised by a woman I went to school with. She thinks it could sell for three hundred and twenty-five grand with six or seven grand worth of improvements, or we could sell ‘as is’ because there’s more value in the lot than the house, which could be a teardown. But Mom’s new mortgage is for three hundred twenty-five thousand, so no matter which option we choose, we’re under water.”
“Sucks,” Kaitlyn said.
“In the meantime, Mom did leave us with a coffee can full oftwenty-dollar bills that she had deluded herself into thinking would be enough for me and Therese to take a road trip to Ireland together.”
“As one does,” Kaitlyn said. “And this is your crazy actress sister who couldn’t even be bothered to come home and see your mom while she was dying?”
“Correct. She walked into the funeral twenty minutes late.”
