Becoming Johanna by C. A. Pack Read Free Book Online Page A

pruned the overgrown bushes in
the front yard.”
    “ You did use my shears to
do that. Besides, you don’t have a lease, dear. I don’t believe you
have anything spelling out how much the rent would be on the
cottage. I’m asking you to sign a lease now. I don’t want to double
your rent, dear, but I do have to raise it a couple of hundred
dollars a month. It’s only fair.”
    “ But I’m the one who paid
to fix it up,” Johanna argued.
    “ It was a diamond in the
rough. The value was always there. You got off cheap for a while.
It’s best that you sign this lease, or I can’t promise the rent
won’t go up again.”
    “ Are you going to pay me
for the paint and cleaning supplies I used to get it so
clean?”
    “ We already discussed
that. I told you I couldn’t afford it but graciously allowed you to
do it if you were willing to bear the expense.”
    Johanna signed,
reluctantly. “Can I use your bathroom?”
    “ Your own bathroom is just
a few doors away. Don’t tell me you can’t make it that
far?”
    “ I can’t.
Please?”
    “ Okay, go ahead, but don’t
touch anything. I don’t go in for snoops, and I’ll know if you move
anything or open the medicine cabinet.”
    Johanna knew she couldn’t
hide out in her landlady’s bathroom. She just hoped Derrick would
give up and go away. When she walked back in the living room, she
saw her landlady staring out the window.
    “ Are you trying to avoid
those two people parked in front of your cottage?”
    “ Two people?”
    “ Yes. A young man, whom
I’ve seen entering your apartment with you on occasion. And a dark
complexioned girl with flaming red hair.”
    “ Amaranda.”
    “ Why are you avoiding
them?”
    “ I owe them money. I fully
intended to pay them back today, but I don’t make that much money
and you just raised my rent. I was supposed to get paid for working
all last weekend on a special project for work, but they haven’t
paid me yet, so I don’t have their money. I feel too ashamed to see
them right now.”
    “ Well, you can’t stay
here, so you’re just going to have to see them, aren’t
you?”
    “ Yes, ma’am.”
    Johanna walked out of her
landlady’s house, ready to face the music. She was just in time to
see Derrick and Amaranda pull away. Thank
God. But she knew they’d be back, and
unless she wanted to hide in the dark all weekend, she’d have to
apologize and beg their forgiveness.
     
    Derrick and Amaranda
didn’t return, and Johanna felt optimistic when she went to work on
Monday, hoping to straighten out the pay snafu with her
boss.
    “ I have a check for the
special project you worked on.” He handed her a check for three
hundred dollars.
    “ No. This is wrong. I
worked overtime. Plus, I was locked in. I should get time and a
half for the extra sixty-three hours I worked here.”
    “ I’ve been informed that
special projects are reimbursed separately from regular hours
worked. This project was budgeted as a two-day job at one hundred
fifty dollars a day. It’s contract labor. We gave you the full
amount. You’ll have to pay the taxes on your own.”
    “ No. This can’t
be.”
    “ It can be, and it is.
That is all, Johanna. You may leave now.” He shooed her away with a
flick of his wrist.
    Johanna felt her face
flush with anger, but she refrained from arguing with her boss. It
would only waste time, and he would probably dock her regular pay.
Instead, she tried to think ahead. At lunchtime, she would cash the
check and give the cash to Derrick, to settle her debt with him.
After work, she would return the dress, bag, and shoes she’d
purchased and pay back Amaranda. And that would be that.
    The rest of the morning
dragged, probably because she was anxious to get on with her life.
At the stroke of noon, she popped out of her seat.
    “ Hold on, Johanna. You’re
not going anywhere.” Lucinda, who rarely uttered a word to her, was
staring at her intently. “I have to leave early today and was told
to