Sunday afternoon, Emily heard a knock at the door. Her parents were seeing a movie and shouldn't be back yet, so she peeked through the privacy lens in the door. Hard to tell, but it looked like Mrs. Mitchell from next door. Not a salesman, anyway. She opened it to see Louise smiling at her.
"Hello dear, you're just the one I wanted to see! How are you?" She was overly cheerful, Emily thought. What does she want?
"Hi, um, I'm okay, how are you? Is Mister Mitchell okay?"
"Well, we're both okay, just a little slower each day, dear. But that's why I wanted to ask a favor. May I come in?" Louise started towards the door, expecting to be let in.
Emily allowed her in, but thought it awfully forward of her to assume.
Louise continued with her cheerful chatter. "My, you've grown! I remember when you were so little! You're quite the pretty young lady now."
"Oh, uh, thanks, haha," Emily still wasn't sure where this was headed, but she was sure the "favor" would be revealed soon.
"Can I get you something? We have some lemonade, or I can make coffee."
"No thanks, dear, I won't be long. I'll get right to the point."
She spoke quickly, pausing only for air when she needed, as if the speech had been rehearsed several times.
"I wonder if you could come over in the morning to make sure Walter has his mid-morning medicine? He's been forgetting it lately and if I have him take it at noon it messes up his schedule the rest of the day."
"I'd call him but that doesn't seem to work; he just says he'll do it and then he forgets anyway. If there were actually a person there to remind him, and make sure he takes them, it'd be such a big help."
"Could you do that for me dear? I'll certainly pay you for your time; I'm sure you're busy with other things."
The sales pitch was well-delivered. Louise had said it over and over to herself until it sounded perfect.
Emily had to pause a moment to digest it all before she replied.
"Oh, uh, well, I have a job now, so I don't know that I could..."
Louise interrupted her, "Ah, that's nice dear, I didn't know. Well, maybe I can have one of the other neighbors do it," and she headed back to the door almost as quickly as she came in.
"I'm sorry, I'd help if I could. I am off tomorrow; that's my regular day off. I can do it just on Monday if that would help," Emily didn't really want to obligate herself for the once-a-week ritual, but maybe Mrs. Mitchell would find someone soon and they would do the favor every day, including Mondays.
"That'd be sweet of you, dear. I'll certainly compensate you for your trouble..."