Jane pushed some paperwork around and placed yet another stack of sealed envelopes to go out in the mail this evening.
She was in autopilot mode, answering calls, writing down appointments and pulling files. All in all, a normal day for a secretary at a small doctor’s office in an even smaller rural farming town.
“We have an appointment available at 8 am on Tuesday.” Said Jane to the older man on the phone. “Sorry sir, I can’t get you in earlier then that. Sir, there is no need to be rude. Sir…Sir…Doctor Schmidt retired almost 10 years ago; Doctor Kline is your current doctor. Yes, this Tuesday at 8 am.”
“Mr. Duffy?” inquired her coworker
“Yes…he just needs to go to a nursing home already his Alzheimer’s is getting worse, that is the 5th time he called today.” Stated Jane
“And he will call again, tomorrow and tomorrow before finally forgetting about the appointment all together.” stated her coworker
“More then likely.” Confirmed Jane
“More problems with Mr. Duffy?” inquired one of the doctors as he walked up to them.
“Yes.” confirmed Jane
“Yes…Doctor Kline.” Said her coworker with a playful smile as Doctor Kline walked over and kissed her and placed a hand on her growing belly.
Jane watched the two of them her coworkers, husband and wife, with a child on the way with a mixture of annoyance and wanting to be loved like that.
Jane…plain Jane, that is what they called her in high school and the name even carried on to college. The worse part was that it was hard for Jane not to admit that it was true. She was rather plane, average height, average weight, average bust and everything else. Even the few times she tried to give herself a makeover, it failed badly. She had only four boyfriends over her entire life and two of them cheated on her and she believed at least another one had as well. All of that, plus the way people had treated her killed her confidence.
After a long day of handing paperwork Jane returned to her one bedroom apartment and opened a bottle of wine and sat down on the couch turning on a romantic movie on the TV.
If this was life in her mid-20’s then life was only going to go down hill from her.
Wishing her life was change, she poured herself a second larger glass of wine.
Unknown to her, the mermaid virus was already at work within her body.