I was pretty good at that
Maybe I should list it as a skill on my resume. Excels at crossing boundaries and saying what you shouldn’t.
So I asked her point blank why she spelled Phil in such an odd way. “I’ve never seen Phil spelled P-h-y-l-l.”
I could tell by her icy stare, she wasn’t going to answer me, but it was worth a try.
“Unless.” Of course what else could it be?
“Phyll is for Phyllis.”
“Think you’re pretty darn smart, don’t you?”
“Oh, no. You were right. I shouldn’t stick my nose in other patients’…I mean, other folk…oh, you know what I mean.” My tongue couldn’t get any more twisted.
The woman leaned forward and covered her eyes with her hands.
“Please don’t cry, Mrs. Weiss.”
“Ms,” she said, correcting me.
“Oh, God, no! It was my fault. All of it. I’ll just leave you alone and never…”
Gertrude dropped her hands in her lap and let out a burst of laughter. “You really brightened my day. You know that?”
I couldn’t see how