Chapter Nine
Interest

Mina was tapping away briskly, eyes riveted on the list of stock holders for 1932, when someone tapped on the wall of her cubicle. She looked up to find some sort of a delivery person standing in the doorway. What on earth? They're not shipping me supplies or records, are they? Usually I have to haul them in myself. "Yes?"

"Mina O'Connel?"

Uh oh. Maybe it's a process server. Have I done anything that I can be subpoenaed for? It wouldn't be for that library book I spilled soup on, would it? They said I could pay them back a little at a time. Evade, evade, evade. "This is her office." When the boy swept the interior with a snide look, before returning a scornful gaze to her she said sourly. "All right. It's her hole. What do you want?"

"You authorized to accept deliveries for 'her'?"

Emphasis on the 'her'. I ain't fooling no one. "Yeah," she said resignedly.

"Geez, lady, I ain't bringing you a summons. It's just flowers."

"Flowers?"

"Flow-er, to be exact. And a nice one." He stepped in and set a vase on Mina's desk, offering a clipboard. "Can you sign for 'Miss O'Connel'?"

Mina took the clipboard, signing. "I can't afford to tip, but if I could, you would have blown it."

"I'm crushed. Enjoy." He left.

Since when did the majority of the population become smart-asses? The vase was pretty, cut glass, and heavier than she would have expected. She could make out a single, long green stem through it's sides. The upper part of the delivery was wrapped loosely in green tissue paper, and Mina carefully peeled it down.

She almost gasped. It was a single rose, and she had thought that she was beyond being impressed by a single rose. It might have been pretty significant decades ago, back before you could by them off street-corner vendors or in the floral section of the all-night supermarket, but now? Eh. That's what she had thought. Of course, no one had ever actually given her roses. She found that she wasn't as indifferent as she had expected to be.

Maybe if it had been the usual red or pastel pink, but this... It was salmon pink, a deep, rich shade that had a touch of peach in it. It was full blown, at that perfect point when it was at it's most magnificent, it's most fragrant, just before it would start to become blowsy. Almost in awe, Mina touched one velvety soft petal with her fingertip. "There has to be a mistake," she whispered. "People don't send people like me flowers."

"Very nice, Mina." Mina looked up to see Hollachuck in the doorway.

"I think there must have been a mistake."

"Check the card."

Mina had been so distracted by the beauty of the flower that she hadn't seen the pasteboard card hanging from the white ribbon that was tied in a bow around the narrow neck of the vase. She detached it carefully, and looked at in. In fine, careful script was "Mina--perchance."

"Well, it has my first name on it, all right. I can't make any sense of it, though. It's not even my birthday."

"Well, there's something going on. You aren't the only one to get one of those."

"Oh?" She felt unaccountably let down. Figures. No one would single me out for attention. I just have to remember that's a good thing. "Who else? Everyone in records?"

"No, you're the only one here. But there were two in accounting, one in personnel, and one somewhere else, one of the grunt workers, I think." she cocked her head. "It's very nice."

"Well, I suppose so. But it's just a flower, after all."

Hollachuck had come in. "May I?" She was already reaching for the flower, so Mina went ahead and nodded. Her supervisor picked up the vase, and made a surprised sound. "My word! This is heavy!"

"I noticed that."

Hollachuck lifted the vase high, peering at the base. She blinked rapidly several times. Then she pulled her reading glasses from her skirt pocket, perched them on her nose, and looked again. Finally she set the vase down, very carefully. "Mina, that's Waterford Crystal."

"What? You mean that brand that they register in all the fancy bridal stores?"

"Yes. I was out pricing gifts for my cousin's anniversary last month. A vase just like that was priced at just under one hundred and seventy dollars."

Mina opened her mouth, the words 'You're shitting me' on her tongue, but she bit them back just in time. At last she said, "No fooling?" Hollachuck snorted. "Why would I joke about something like this?"

Oh, pardon me. I forgot, you have NO sense of humor, cruel or otherwise. "This is... confusing."

"I'll say. Who would send YOU such an expensive present?"

Oh, thank you VERY much. "Do the other's have vases like this?"

"I don't know, but I'm going to find out." She left the room.

Mina peered out of her tiny office and was treated to the rather astonishing sight of Hollachuck leaving her post during working hours for some purpose other than to eat lunch or pee. The rest of the office noticed it, too, and turned questioning eyes on the data transcription clerk. Mina just shrugged, and went back to work.

A few minutes later, Hollachuck returned. "Yes, they all have the same vase, but the flowers are different colors. A red, a maroon, a pink, and a yellow. Barenski, Schulburg, Potter, Liang, and you. All women, no men."

"Do they know what's going on?"

"They're as mystified as you are. The cards that came with them aren't signed, either. There's just the woman's name, and a short inscription. All of them look like they were written by the same person, though."

"What do their cards say?"

"Let me think..." She started ticking off on her fingers. "Barenski's was 'perhaps', Schulburg's was 'possibly', Potter's was 'maybe', and Liang's was 'mayhap'."

"Well, there's definitely a theme to them, but where it leads, I have no idea."

"I'd be tempted to say it was some sort of elaborate practical joke, if it wasn't for the sheer expense involved. After taxes, and including the flowers and delivery costs, this little stunt set someone back close to a thousand dollars. People simply don't spend that kind of cash on a whim."

She sniffed. "If they'd gone to the heads of each division, I might have thought they were a gesture of appreciation. As it is..." She trailed off.

Since I so obviously do nothing to be appreciated, you're at a loss. Stuff it. "Yes, very puzzling. Excuse me, I was in the middle of a file." Mina turned back to her work, leaving Hollachuck to decide if she wanted to go against her principles and interrupt a busy worker, or leave. The older woman obviously didn't like being dismissed, but force of habit was too strong. She left.

When Hollachuck was gone, Mina stopped again, and contemplated the flower. It really was beautiful. But...

But it was out of the ordinary. It meant that someone had... noticed her. You don't send a hundred-seventy dollar gift to someone who's below your radar. This troubled her.

Well, there's nothing I can do about it, I suppose. I'm darn sure not going to throw it away. Daddy didn't raise a fool. She settled it on her desk where she could see it every time she glanced up from her work.

She dropped the card in the wastebasket, and started to type again. After a moment, though, she stopped, staring into the cylinder. She reached in and picked the card out, studying it again. "Mina--perchance. Perchance, what? Maybe, what? Possibly, what? Perhaps, what? Mayhap, what? Who are you, and what kind of game are you playing? Because this is a game, isn't it?" No reply of course. "I don't want to play."

But she didn't throw the card away again. Instead, she tucked it into the corner of her desk blotter, next to her keyboard. And every time she looked at the rose and smiled, she would look at the card. And frown.