Ch.16, Pt.4: When Katherine came into work the next day…
When Katherine came into work the next day, Betsy handed her a message. It was from Blaine, and it read simply “Please see me as soon as you get in.” Katherine took a deep breath, straightened her shoulders and went to Blaine’s office feeling that it would be the last time she’d ever do so. The door was open and he looked up at her knock.
“Hi Katherine. Close the door, will you? Take a seat.” Blaine looked as if he had news of someone’s death. Katherine waited. He looked her in the face and grimaced. “There’s no easy way to say this. So I’ll say it straight out. We don’t see another opening for someone of your capabilities. We have to let you go.”
Katherine nodded thoughtfully, without surprise. “I was expecting this.”
“I’m afraid there’s no other option. We’ve considered everything.”
“Of course. I’m sure you have. I understand.”
“The next step is for you to meet with Peggy in Human Resources, to discuss severance and placement assistance.”
Katherine stared at the top of Blaine’s desk.
“I’m sorry that things didn’t work out. We’ll miss you.” He paused as if waiting to hear from her.
“Well, thank you. How long do I have?”
“You have two weeks’ notice. You can stay here the full two weeks if you like, but you can also leave earlier if you finish up sooner.”
“OK. Thanks. I’ll work on wrapping the last show, then.”
“And Peggy’s waiting to hear from you.”
“Right. I’ll call her right away.” Katherine got up to leave. Blaine stood also, and held out his hand. “I’m honestly very sorry to lose you. You’ve brought a lot of recognition to CMIS. If it was up to me alone, we’d continue the show.” He shook her hand slowly for a long time. For a second she wondered if things would have been different if she had agreed to go out with him. “I hope we keep in touch. Let me know what you decide to do. And let me know if I can help in any way. References and so on. No question.”
“I appreciate it.” Katherine took her hand from his fleshy grip.
* * *
The first thing that Katherine did that afternoon when she got home, after letting Noodle out, was to call Bennett Clark. He needed to know that she’d been fired from CMIS, she thought. He wouldn’t want her for the educational program without her connections through the station.
“Greenvale, Bennett here,” was the greeting as the phone was answered.
“Hi Bennett, it’s Katherine Glee.”
“Katherine!” he said warmly. “I’m glad you caught me inside. I was just heading out again.”
His voice sounded very attractive to Katherine, rich and full. Good radio voice, she thought. “I won’t keep you. But there’s been a development that I have to let you know about. I’ve been let go from CMIS. They’ve cancelled the whole Health and Healing show.”
“Oh no.” He sounded genuinely concerned. “Katherine, I’m sorry to hear it. I loved the show. Listened as often as I could. Why did they cancel it?”
“It wasn’t attracting the right audience for the advertisers.”
“I would have thought the opposite, actually. That it would draw plenty of listeners. I thought it was the best program the station had.”
It really was remarkable how handsome he seemed over the phone, Katherine thought. Hard to believe he’s so unattractive in person. “Thank you. That’s very nice to hear. Especially now that I’m out of work!”
“What will you do now?”
“I’m not sure exactly. I have to look at my options. I don’t have anything lined up. But I thought you should know, as you probably won’t want me any longer for your programs.”
“Why wouldn’t I want you?” His voice sounded affectionate in Katherine’s ear. “I’d be hiring you, not the host of Health and Healing. Unless you don’t think you’ll be available. Maybe you’ll be moving away?”
“No, I don’t want to. I want to stay right where I am. As long as I’m not surrounded by a subdivision.”
“Yeah, there’s that, too. Poor Katherine! Your plate’s pretty full right now. But don’t worry. Our group’ll see what we can do on the home front. As for work, you’re still considering a little job with Greenvale?”
“Sure, but I thought you’d want someone with profile in the community.”
“You still have that, as far as I’m concerned. You’re very well known and respected, and must have good contacts with interesting people. That’s all valuable to me.”
“Well, thank you. That’s very kind of you. Very encouraging.”
“So is our meeting still on? I hope so, because I did a special shopping for it. Muffins and herbal tea and cheese with mould on it. Things I don’t normally buy, but thought you might like.”
Katherine laughed. “Who can resist that offer? If you’re sure you’re still interested, I’d like to come.”
“Absolutely. See you tomorrow at 5:30, then.”
Ch.16, Pt.5: Greenvale was yet another fabulous property… » »
A couple of times I’ve caught myself going back to the previous chapter to make sure I had not missed one. These complete changes of scene are something that in book form are easily signalled (the chapter ends and a new one begins, or you see **** or some other indication of time passing). Released bit by bit, it’s less obvious, and that may be a slight drawback to the novel as blog. The chapter and part numbers at the top help though!
I can understand the confusion. There are also many parts within each chapter, because people tend to want to read much shorter sections online. I guess that’s partly because you want to finish a section, since you can’t just put a paper bookmark where you stop. The structure of a novel blog is more stringent. I wonder if descriptive titles for each chapter would be better, or numbering each part sequentially throughout the whole thing, so you know that you’ve just read part 35, and will read part 36 next, instead of having to try to remember which chapter number it was as well.
Well, it’s not really too confusing, and you are right, online readers do need short sections. Sequential numbering is something to consider for your next novel as blog, but I’d keep going the way you are for this one.
“My next novel as blog” makes me smile. Will I ever finish the novel I’m researching for now? Will I have the interest to publish it as a blog? Will I never get a “real” publisher???
I have confidence you’ll find a “real” publisher, but I can see you having fun with the experiment and not wanting it to end with the final chapter of Stonyfields.