"Ed, you can't be serious? I haven't missed a day of work in what? Fifteen years? I'm out for a week with a terrible cold complete with fever, chills, and night sweats, for heaven's sake, and you're letting me go? Really?"
"Janice, I really am sorry, but it's all about ratings. You know that, right? It isn't personal. It's business. We brought Ariel in while you were out and we had a three-point uptick in ratings. I feel terrible about having to let you go but those three points mean tens of thousands of dollars in new advertising revenue. Look, you know there'll be a substantial severance package and you can still get another job."
"Oh, that's rich! I'm being let go at 42 in Omaha, Nebraska, and I'm just gonna go out and find another job at one of the many other TV stations in town. Sure! Ed, I turned down an offer to go national ten years ago because we love Omaha. Doesn't loyalty count for anything?"
Ed Hanson was the station manager for KMTV and Janice Jones-Monroe had been doing weather for him since she graduated from college 20 years ago. She'd been young, smart, and gorgeous. Several years later, she'd married a local businessman and as she said, had turned down an offer from a major cable network with just five years of local experience.
But ratings had been flat lately. After Janice took sick two weeks ago, they'd brought in a girl named Ariel Freeman, who was about as pleasant...and hot as they come. Her beautiful smile, long, gorgeous blonde hair, short skirts and high heels had boosted ratings more than covering the nearby Iowa caucuses every four years. She was an instant hit and the station owner wanted her brought on full-time.
Ed had made his case to keep Janice on as she was still a very attractive woman who didn't look anywhere near her age. But he'd been turned down flatly. Even his suggestion to move Janice out of prime time and back to her old slot was shot down. She was being let go and that was that.
"I did my best, Janice. I fought for you. I made the best case I could. But the owner was having none of it. I'm sorry. Loyalty should count, but in this case, youth seems to have won out. I don't know what else to say."
Janice sat there and stared out the station manager's large corner office window as the sun shone brightly. She'd just fully recovered from the nastiest cold she'd ever had, and on her first day back she learned she was being let go. She took a deep breath and said, "I guess it really is dog-eat-dog in this business. I just assumed by staying local I'd be allowed to age gracefully rather than finding out the hard way being over 40 is a death sentence." She looked back at Ed and told him, "Pardon me if I sound bitter, Ed, but as much as I appreciate your efforts, the bottom line is I'm now unemployed."
Hanson was genuinely sorry. He and his wife Margie were good friends with Janice and her husband, Tom. It was killing him to have to be the bearer of such bad news, but he knew it came with the territory. For that matter, so did Janice. "So do you have any thoughts as to what you might do after this? You know I'm gonna write you a killer recommendation."
Janice smiled and tried to be sarcastic. "Ed, there isn't any room in a city this size for a 'weather girl' my age who's been let go. So while I do appreciate the recommendation, it isn't going to help me land a new job doing weather in Omaha. I honestly have no idea what I'll do. I think I'll take some time and do some real reflecting and I'll definitely spending more time in the gym or the pool. I may even get back to playing racquetball. Did I ever mention I won a couple of tournaments in college?"
"No, not that I recall anyway. Why'd you quit playing?"
"Work mostly. And then marriage. I was juggling too many things and I still wanted to be able to swim and do aerobics so something had to give. Lord knows I'll have plenty of time to get my game back up to speed now."
"Well, the good news is you have Tom to lean on. The two of you are as close as anyone I know and together, you'll figure this out. Speaking of Tom, we all need to get together here real soon. It's been way too long, Janice."
"Yeah, it has been quite a while, Ed. I'll talk with him and give Margie a call." She looked around and said, "Well, I guess this is it. All I have to do is grab my things out of wardrobe and I'll be out of here."
Ed looked down and said, "Um...we um...already took care of that, Jan. Ariel needed the space and...."
"Oh, for God's sake, Ed! Are you serious?" She refused to lose her temper or her dignity but she was right on the verge. Rather than lay into him, she just stood up and told him goodbye and walked out.
It was summer and very warm outside thanks to a high pressure system. The thought of that almost made her laugh. Almost. She took the elevator to the parking garage, got in her car and left the building where she'd gone to work every day for all those many years.
Her husband was late getting home—again—and Janice was having an uncharacteristic second glass of wine when he came in. She stood up and welcomed him home and asked how his day had been as she poured him a glass. "Busy, as usual," he said as dropped his keys in the bowl on the sideboard by the front door.
Tom Monroe owned four car dealerships in the Omaha area having started with one used car lot some 20 years ago which just happened to be the same time she'd started out doing the local weather. He'd beat the odds and turned it into a franchise which did quite well allowing him to buy a second franchise and then a third and finally a fourth.
Janice had initially turned down the "used-car salesman" when he asked her out the first time, but she'd said 'yes' when he persisted and asked her again. He was five years older than her, and he'd been so handsome when they first met.
Janice had always had boys and then men standing in line to date her, but after she made her TV debut doing the local weather, her social life exploded. She was something of a local phenomenon and was regularly invited to do promotions for anyone and everything in Omaha from hospital charity events to local golf tournaments to advertisements for a local car dealership. And that's how and when they met.
Tom had stood out from all the other guys because of a particular quality she believed he had that Janice so admired. Loyalty. He was loyal to a fault and Janice had trust issues with men. She'd been cheated on and hurt enough times that she'd almost given up on marriage and romance. But Tom was different. He was old-fashioned in the best possible way and he'd been so romantic. It hadn't taken long to be swept off her feet and when he proposed, she was thrilled to say goodbye to dating say 'yes' to him.
Like all couples, they'd had their problems over the years, but on balance, life with Tom had been good. Until recently, when their automobile business began taking a real beating due the sharp downturn in the economy as well as another rival having opened three new dealerships in town flooding the market, Tom had been home in time for dinner pretty much every evening for as long as they'd been married. He'd repeatedly assured her things were fine financially, and she trusted him primarily because she had no reason not to. Even so, he was working late nearly every night now and he was often gone on Saturday and sometimes even on Sunday.
