i went back to the clinic on monday, the start of my third week. the new girl covered the early shift. i don't remember much of that day, i only remembered Maria, the new girl, told me what doc told her that morning. he told her that if your mother in law worried that much, maybe you should quit the job and stay home. that's an awful comment, and Maria was mad.
doc told me to buy a cork board on tuesday so he could protect his huge flat LCD TV screen for promotion. i thought i know what cork is although it's different than what doc pointed to me. i did not question about the difference. then i drove to stable and looked hard. the only cork board was the ones hung on the wall, with a wood backing and frame. i could not decide what should i do for a while. i eventually bought a clip board made of cork. i wondered how was doc gonna do this. i felt it's not right but did not know what else to do. when he saw what i bought he was mad. this time he showed me a cardboard material instead although he still pronounced cork on his mouth. i thought to myself, ah, so what you really want is a cardboard! then he told me to be firm with the store clerks and taught me to say that i will not leave until they showed me where the cork was. so i went back and amused that doc did not really know what cork really was. i was not happy at the same time. doc had a very foul mouth when he's annoyed. i was still debating about cardboard or other form of cork this time. i bought a cardboard at last. a cardboard was easy to find though he still claimed he wanted cork. he's both annoyed and mad when i got back. but he tried hard to contain himself. he asked how much time i'd been doing this all morning. this was such a simple task. i could simply asked the store clerk! he decided to go with me and showed me the right way to do it. i did not explain it well i guess. i was then totally confused what he wanted me to buy. on the way to stable, he lectured me on how i should get my feet and hands dirty. how i needed to get in there doing things rather than being an onlooker. the importance to speak my mind and not take other people's shit. etc...etc...etc... problem was finally solved after he asked the clerk where cork board was. yes, now he learned what "Cork" really was. but he did not want a real cork. he bought another board made of white layers of unknown material. it's a good thing. because it's quiet on the way back.
as it turned out, doc decided to put Maria out front as a real receptionist, and i could do some other "business" related jobs. he wanted to organize his contact list in mobileme, an apple application, which connected cloud, apple PC and iphone. doc first told me to get all his stoneham lawyer contacts from his contact list. there were not many. so he told me to find all the stoneham listing of lawyers. he taught me what to say and told me to call those lawyers. first to confirm they were still in business and to see if they took personal injury cases. i printed out the list from online, a long list. and i started to call. it's a painful process for me. more than half of the calls were picked up by office secretary, or receptionist. those were quite courteous and polite. some were very experienced, some were not. i could see that doc's particularity on answering the phone was indeed important to business. some of the lawyers picked their phone themselves, many of them were sharp. they would ask who i was, what i wanted very direct to the point. i felt like my name would be famous... or infamous... after this "exercise". while i was doing this, Maria was not happy with doc. Maria was very capable being a receptionist, but sometimes she was confused at what doc was asking her to do. doc was not a man of words, he lacked the patient to train and skills to communicate. when Maria did not understand or mistaking what he said, he became annoyed and he even yelled that do you understand english.
when doc was not out front, or when he stepped out, Maria and i would talk a little. she would complain about doc's bad temper and murky direction he gave out. i could only agree. i learned she was married and was a kindergarten teacher in greece. she worked in macy for the last 3 months as a seasonal employee. i wanted to leave the place very much. i thought that since doc already hired Maria, i could leave now. i probably told her that i wanted to leave. i thought she told me that her husband and mother in law encouraged her to quit the job. on thursday morning, i received a call from census department. i took their test a while back and they were now asking if i could go to their training. i said yes. i but i told them that i needed to quit my current job so i will give them a callback tomorrow. they were surprised but agreed to wait for me tomorrow.
i walked in on thursday afternoon. Maria was there already. she told me with a smile that she decided to quit and already told doc. doc also consented to let go of her. she said that i should quit too. but i was thinking, "What!" i can't quit now... there's no one for doc if i quit too. Sarah will definitely not able to work everyday now. on the other hand, there was a small voice saying, screw him, i don't care. i decided to stay. Sarah came in that afternoon. We three were cramped behind the receptionist's square. Maria was in good mood that afternoon. she also left early that afternoon, she gave me a greek snack. Sarah brought in her snack and passed around. Maria asked my cell phone number, but i did not have one. i was embarrassed for not having one to give her. i never saw Maria again after thursday. and my nightmarish 3 weeks started afterwords.
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