Apothecary Inquiry

If there was anything that Tommy missed after turning into a vampire, (besides the soul and humanity and the ability to eat of course) it was sleep. Sleep broke up the monotony of life and gave some respite from reality. He frowned at the mug of blood, donated by some stranger who seriously needed to ease up on the sugar. If only he could wake up from this nightmare. With a sigh he threw back the blood, looking out at his garden, so beautifully lit up by the sun. That was another thing he missed. The feeling of sunlight on his skin. Well, rather, feeling that he wasn’t about to be set on fire. He frowned at the herbs next to the door. They didn’t smell right.

He cleaned the mug and washed his hands clean of any evidence of his lunch. The sound of the wind outside was alluring and he was glad he could at least have the door open to let in the breeze. Retrieving his ledger, Tommy went back into the main area of the shop, leaving the two inline doors open to try to get some of the breeze to come into the shop. The darkness was bright to his dead eyes and he sometimes wondered if it was too dark for people to see by. Oh well, if someone thought so, they would’ve said something. He had just settled on his stool when he heard the bell ring. He inhaled and was hit with the strange scent of death. Not undead and not vampire. But dead.

With a shrug, he turned back to his papers. This was an odd place, it wasn’t uncommon for him to come across creatures he had never expected. Shuffling his papers, the irritable vampire frowned at his notes. Something wasn’t right here. Why did that herb smell off, was it a virus? A parasite on the leaves? He wracked his brain for all of the possible reasons, writing all of them down in turn as they came up in his mind. Finally exhausting the list, Tommy had started crossing them off one by one, with a note as to why they didn’t fit. What would his father say? ‘We have to treat them like our patients,’ the voice rang in his memory, ‘except they can’t tell us what’s wrong.’ Certainly, the elder Pulfer had been wise. But that didn’t help Tommy now.

So caught up in his thoughts, Thomas’ vague sense that someone was approaching and he hated to say he startled a little bit when she spoke. Outwardly, the vampire stilled and slowly lowered his pen. Inwardly, Tommy was fighting the flashes of chills that ran down his spine. Strange, how human it felt to be startled. Tommy looked across the counter at the blonde beauty standing opposite him. He raised a brow. “Do you have a resume?” He asked, taking no care in choosing his words. Nor did Tommy make any move from his stool. He didn’t expect this to take long and he just didn’t feel like moving. Most of the people he had gotten inquiries from so far he hadn’t even considered after the first interview. Which was possibly his own fault. He didn’t necessarily know what he wanted from an employee, he’d never had one before. It didn’t seem fair to hire someone to just run the register, any first grader could do that. No, Tommy was looking for someone with a good head on their shoulders, smarts, someone who knew what the difference between Motherwort and Holy Basil, or just someone was at least willing to learn.

Tommy opened his mouth to tell her that not having her resume was fine, but she continued before he got the chance. Young people. Always in such a rush. He suppressed a sigh and sat back, his tired eyes alert as he listened. He scratched at his chin a bit as he listened, considering her words more carefully than he had moments before. “That’s great experience to have,” he said when she took a breath. She talked too much, he had already decided. Young people tended to do that, wasting air and time. It was fine, not everyone had all the time in the world. He remembered being that way, eager and excited to prove himself. It nearly twitched his lips into a smile. Nearly.

Nodding ever so slightly, Tommy kept his expression neutral. Coupled with her experience and her desire to learn, she may be a good fit. A college schedule may be complicated, but at least it could be considered in her field. Her passion really surprised him and he found himself getting hopeful that maybe there was someone on this godforsaken island that would be able to help him in his shop. He checked his thoughts to keep himself from getting too hopeful, he had been burned before. There were plenty of qualified applicants, but the ones he had come across had been arrogant and unwilling to learn. Tommy held up a hand to stall any further monologue on her part. “It’s good you’re willing to learn, I need someone who can do more than just punch numbers.”

Satisfied, Tommy, got to his feet, shoving the stool a little out of the way with his foot as he did so. He extended his hand in a formal introduction. “I’m Dr. Pulfer,” he quirked a brow ever so slightly, as if to remind her that she hadn’t actually introduced herself yet in her eagerness to prove herself. Tommy turned away from the girl and went to the doorframe of the workroom and reached up to pull a small book off one of the shelves. He returned to the counter and flipped it open, revealing a weekly planner with obscure notes and numbers in it. “If you can get me your resume and two references by the end of the week, I can have you in for an interview, say Monday?” He looked up from his planner.

“Also,” he said suddenly as the thought popped into his head, “an application. Or you can do that now, if you’d like.” Tommy dug underneath the register to a small and simple application and slid it across the counter for him. This was all formality, the interview would be the most telling piece of information. It had a space for a name, email, and other contact information as well as the standard information necessary for a background test. On the back was the legally necessary clauses about how he would not discriminate based on gender, race, species, etc. Tentatively, he wanted to think this girl would be a good fit, but he had been wrong before.

“Pleasure, Amelia,” he said, giving her the first small smile and taking her hand in a firm grip. Pulling his hand back his smile lingered for only a moment, never really lighting his tired blue eyes. Tommy was done with the whole act of pleasantries. If given the chance, Tommy certainly would have grown into a crotchety old man, by the end of his life, seeing far too much and being weary and ready to go by the end. But, much to his bad luck, here he was, immortal, eternally waiting for the end that would never come.

He pulled back before he digressed too far, at his age, time no longer had much significance and he had been known to zone out for hours on end. Luckily, his day job was calming enough to allow it, while his night job was demanding enough to never give him the chance. “Great,” he replied, “How does one in the afternoon sound?” He looked up at her from his calendar. He didn’t have anything going on, except mixing and grinding away at some of the dried herbs he had in the back. That was exactly why he had no hours on Monday, it gave him some time to hide in the back and actually make things, instead of having to pay attention to what was happening in the shop. “It’s closed on Monday, so when you get here, just knock and I’ll let you in.”

Nodding, Tommy went back to his ledger, giving her time and the illusion of privacy to fill it out. He took the application from her and scanned it quickly, noting that nothing obvious was missing he placed it on the counter to examine in more detail later. “Looks good. Just drop off that resume and references by the end of the week and we’ll be good to go for your interview.” He extended a hand again. “It was a pleasure to meet you Amelia.” He reached for a small pile of business cards on the counter and handed one over. “And here’s my card, in case you need to reach me.” It read: Thomas Pulfer, M.D.; Manta Carlos Hospital, along with contact information for the hospital on one side and the Apothecary on the other.

With confirmation, Tommy penned her into his schedule. He knew it was old school and he could just as easily pull out his phone and note it there, but he had been writing his schedule down for centuries and he’d be damned if he stopped now. Luckily, the notebook was just a backup, he tended to remember things well. He looked up at Amelia and wondered just how he was going to teach her. A hundred years ago he would have taught her like his father had taught him, books and trial and error. In the age of the internet, it still blew him away how much information people had at their fingertips.

Tommy gave a simple nod. “Perfect.” That would give him the weekend to look over her application and determine if there was even any hope. He returned her smile with a much more subdued one and reminded himself that he couldn’t overlook someone for hiring just because they were cheerful. Leaning back to put the planner back on its shelf, Tommy was already thinking about what he was going to do next. He could bring some of the herbs to the counter and get working on getting some more mixtures ready. He couldn’t really go out and deal with his plants right now. But that was part of his motivation to get an assistant. If Amelia could go out and harvest his plants and care for them in the daylight, that would be ideal.

He looked back up at Amelia and nodded at her comment. “I’m an ER doctor mostly. Whoever said, ‘You can sleep when you’re dead’ is a damn liar.” He shrugged as if it were no big deal. Now, Tommy’s eyes softened slightly as he remembered her hope to work at the hospital. Rather than embarrass her and guess what she was feeling, Tommy shrugged his shoulders and gave her an amused smile which exposed his fangs. “We have an advantage in that. Plenty of study time.”

Monday snuck up on Tommy. He got off work and was looking forward to a day off, a day where he didn’t have to talk to people. However, when he got home, Amelia’s resume was on his kitchen table. With a sigh, he sat down and looked it over. Right, that was tomorrow. He checked his watch and breathed a sigh of relief. He still had time. He shed his scrubs and showered, feeling much more prepared to take on the world after he had cleaned up a bit. It had been a rough couple of days and Tommy really didn’t want to take it out on the first plausible candidate he’d had for his shop. It was also unfair to her. Dressed in casual jeans and a button up, Tommy habitually rolled the sleeves to his elbow and went to his fridge for breakfast.

He’d looked over her resume previously, but he had left it out to refresh himself on her qualifications. To be honestly, if there was a problem with Amelia, it was that she was too good a fit. Throwing on a cloak to make the descent to his shop, Tommy settled at his stool and looked back over her resume and notes he had from her references. He sat like a statue, moving only when a question popped into his head so he could write it down in his notebook. Waiting wasn’t something that bothered him anymore. But come the time of her interview, Tommy was glancing at his watch every few minutes.

He heard the knock and it shattered his thoughtful trance. Checking his watch, Tommy nodded to himself. She’d passed the first test. The bell rang as he opened the door, hiding behind it from the sunlight that surged into his light starved shop. “Welcome, Amelia,” he said, waving her inside. “Have a seat,” he said indicating the stool behind the counter where she had found him a week ago. Tommy reached into the back room and grabbed a second stool and settled himself upon it. “Your resume is thorough, and your references speak highly of you,” he said wasting no time on pleasantries. He flipped open his notebook and retrieved the pen he had tucked on his ear. “You mentioned you have experience at a medical center, tell me more about that.” Tommy set his blue eyes on her, his gaze stern and perceptive, set on catching every detail.