Right then and there, Maggie decided her life pretty much sucked. Big time.

Maggie knew what she needed to do. Move. Do something besides eat. Maybe she needed some fresh air. Take a walk around the yard. Go outside, sit on the stoop, and wait for a dog walker to go by for some conversation. One look out the window told her that wasn’t going to happen, since it was pouring rain.

Maggie plucked her cell phone from the charger to see if she’d had any calls that had gone to voice mail while she’d hibernated. She was stunned to see that she had forty-two messages. Listening to them would eat up an hour. “Better than nothing,” she mumbled to herself as she made her way into her family room and flopped down on the couch.

No calls from the sisters or the boys. So they’d done what she asked them to do; therefore, she couldn’t complain. They’d left her alone to her misery. All the calls were from friends, tips on possible happenings, crank calls, political calls. A dental reminder. A call from Hero’s vet to say his special cat food had come in and she could pick it up at any time. Well, there was no hurry on that, since she still had at least two weeks’ worth in the pantry. Hero wasn’t going to starve anytime soon.

Just because she couldn’t go back to work until Monday didn’t mean she couldn’t call the gang. She hit her speed dial and hit the number 1 for Nikki. The call went to voice mail. Ditto Alexis. Okay, that probably meant they were in court. She called Yoko, and the phone just rang and rang. Knowing Yoko, she’d probably left the phone someplace and couldn’t hear it ring. Isabelle was next on the speed dial, but a robotic voice came on saying her phone was timed out. Whatever that meant. The next call went to Kathryn, who picked up on the second ring. All Maggie could hear her saying was that she couldn’t hear her and she was in a dead zone.

Maggie looked at the phone in her hand. Surely Myra or Annie would respond. She called Annie first. When Annie clicked on, Maggie sighed so loud that Hero popped his head out from under a pillow where he was hiding to stare at his mistress.

“How are you, dear? Are you feeling better?”

“I am. By Monday I should be good as new. Is everything okay? Anything going on? Did I miss anything?”

Annie debated telling her star reporter about Cosmo but decided it would only upset Maggie to hear about it. “No, dear, everything is fine. Just take care of yourself and don’t overdo anything. Rest. Eat lots of chicken soup, and don’t forget the garlic tea. You’ll be right as rain if you do that.”