Juliana – Chapter 79 The Librarian

Time in Willow Creek: 1 year, 3 months, 2 weeks, 3 days

It was like a gift. Harriett was fretting about the budget even more when she hired Juliana. It had to be done, but she had to consider cutting a few of her favorite programs to accommodate her. But, like a feather floating toward the ground, everything fell into place beautifully and gently. First, Kara decided she wasn’t ready to return to work when her maternity leave was up. Then, the man who was hired to temporarily take her place found a permanent job. That left just Juliana and Harriett for a few weeks. It was tough. Especially the days when Juliana had to go downtown to handle her immigration business. However, they made it through mostly unscathed, and Harriett hired a new librarian.

“Oh! Here she comes,” Harriett said. “Juliana, come meet our new librarian!”

“Oh! Yes,” Juliana said.

“This is Trisha Henning,” Harriett said.

Juliana was so relieved to see her. She didn’t mind working, of course, but working 12 hour days just about every day for two weeks was tiring. Good thing the library was closed on Sundays.

“It’s nice to meet you,” she said.

“Hey. You can call me Trish.”

“I was just telling Trish here what a great job you’ve been doing, puddin!”

“Oh.” She could feel her cheeks getting red.

“She’s been working with me for about a year now, and she knows how to do everything! She’s my little protégé.”

“Is that right,” Trish said flatly.

Juliana didn’t like the way she looked at her. It was very similar to how she felt around Kara. She never said anything negative to her, and she was cordial. They only spoke about work. But she was very passive aggressive and looked at her like she was better than her the same way the wealthy people did back home. In the year she had been living with the Humphries family, she hadn’t encountered many unpleasant people. However, she wasn’t so naive to believe everyone in Willow Creek was nice. She was bound to run into a Negative Nancy at some point.

 However, Juliana smiled politely and hoped Harriett wouldn’t keep her long.

“Juliana is excellent in the children’s section. They just love her so much! She’ll stay there all day if you let her.”

“Good. Children are not my thing,” Trish said.

Juliana glanced at Harriett and wondered why she hired her. They were desperate for the help, but perhaps they would be better off without her.