“I fired the receptionist today,” Laverne announced, picking up her menu.

“Who? Mildred?”

“Was that her name?”

“That sweet, old lady who’s worked there forty years?”

“It was her time.”

“That’s the same thing the vet said when Dad reversed over Thumper,” I was both shocked and appalled. “What the hell happened?”

“You know those motivational messages people put up at work: Today is the first day of the rest of your life. Be the change that you wish to see in the world… that type of thing? Well, when I walked past reception this morning I noticed that one had appeared on the wall behind her. It read: You don’t have to be crazy to work here… but it helps!”

“Don’t you think you overreacted?”

“She’d written it in her own excrement.”

“It was her time.”

“It was.”