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12/16/2004: "Peppermint"

I called Lucy first thing this morning at the VNA office. I wanted to bring my camera by and download some pictures I took at the Cookie Walk last weekend. Privately, I wanted to see Agnes. She told me to drop by and I stopped at the store on the way over and bought some candy canes. I gave one to the receptionist who paged Lucy. Lucy came downstairs after a few minutes and we tried to get the pictures on her computer. It recognized the hardware but the software refused to sneak up the cable to find the files. I didn't feel it would be polite to hijack her computer to troubleshoot the problem, so I promised to make a CD and bring it back. I gave her a candy cane.

I told her I wanted to give one to Agnes Wickfield. I went back to the desk to ask if she was in, and was sent up the stairs, around a couple of corners to her niche. What followed, innocent as it was, will not be revealed. I gave her a candy cane.

I went on to my appointment with Vanessa. She had never hired a pet-sitter before, and I had never been hired by someone who had never hired one before. I met the cats, learned their routine with the bowls and the box, and the little bits of individual lore that Vanessa thought were significant: the runny eye, the favorite toy, the door into summer. We didn't know where to go from there. I gave her my contact information, tried to reassure her, and stepped out the door. She was barefoot, telling me one last bit of information throught the open door. I didn't give her a candy cane. It didn't seem appropriate.