All day, at any given moment, an insipid song can be heard simpering through the PA system–”Close to You,” “Cracklin’ Rosie,” “Muskrat Love.”  It is aural terrorism.  The office Annie shares with another woman is small–a storage closet the company converted into a space for two computers and a shared printer, shelves above small desks.  All day long insurance salesmen come to her office with letters barely legible, badly written, full of outrageous misspellings and ask Annie to type them.  She does so, automatically making the necessary changes.  At the desk behind her the other secretary, very young, clacks away on the keys of her computer.  She sniffles all day.  Allergies.  Annie brings her bee pollen and sinus/allergy tablets.  The other secretary, her name is Janey, thinks Annie is so nice.  Actually, Annie can’t abide the sniffles.  It makes her sick to think of other people’s snot.

Jimmy Dare is one of the insurance salesmen.  This is his real name.  Annie suspects his parents found it in a comic book. In his spare time he trains dogs; he drives a ‘67 Ford pickup with striped seat covers coated with dog hairs.  He owns two coon hounds.  When he arrives for work in the morning his suits are slightly rumpled and often covered with dog hair.  Annie tells him to dust himself off, if she notices, when he is leaving for a sales call. Jimmy Dare is the worst speller of all the salesmen.  His dogs are named Buck and Joe.  Annie thinks these are stupid names.  Dogs should be named something like Baxter or Winston or Taffy so people know it’s your dogs and not your friends you’re talking about.