Cinderella in Overalls - By Carol Grace Page 0,5
Logan, agricultural specialist.”
He shook her hand and felt the calluses on her palm. He thought he could smell fresh fruit, ripening on the trees, but it was the clean scent of her hair and her skin reminding him of summer days and country roads.
He was still holding her hand, and she looked up inquiringly until he realized she was waiting for him to introduce himself.
“Josh Bentley, assistant vice president.”
She nodded. “Then I have come to the right place.” She sat down again, as if she hadn’t heard him say that the answer was no. “I’m working with the villagers to develop a new strain of potatoes, one that takes up less space and produces a higher yield in a shorter time.’’
Her eyes glowed, and he felt light-headed again. They said it took months before the altitude sickness disappeared for good. He folded his arms across his chest. “How is it working out?” he asked, watching her lips move as she spoke, still in semi-shock to find she was an American.
“Fine. Wonderful. Better than I hoped. I’d only done it on the experimental plot at the university, never on a big scale. I’m very excited about it.”
He smiled. “I can see that.”
She leaned forward and drew her eyebrows together. “Can you? Do you mean I’ve stumbled across the one banker in the world who understands why we need to borrow money to buy a truck to haul our own produce to market?”
Josh rubbed his forehead. He didn’t seem to be able to think straight. He didn’t know how to explain that he couldn’t lend her the money, although he understood why she needed it. But he’d been sent here specifically to put a lid on lending, to put a stop to the making of bad loans.
“Look, Catherine Logan, understanding your need and being able to do something about it are two different things.’’
She stood up and stared at him. “You mean the answer is still no?”
He put his hand on her arm. “Do you know there’s an international debt crisis and that inflation in Aruaca is running about two hundred percent? Have you heard that every time a borrower defaults on a loan the rate goes up and then poor peasants can’t buy shoes or potatoes or—”
She pulled back and squared her shoulders. “Thanks for the lecture. I won’t waste any more of your time, since I see your mind was made up before I got here.” She pressed her lips together. “I should have known. You bankers have an answer for everything. And the answer is always no.”
Josh watched helplessly while she blinked back tears and walked to the door.
“Wait a minute,” he said, following her across the roam. “That’s not a fair assessment.”
She grasped the doorknob tightly. “That’s not fair? I’ll tell you what’s not fair. Foreclosing on a family farm after a lifetime of planting and living and—” She pushed the door open without finishing her sentence and walked out through the reception area to the elevator while he watched.
He stared at the open door. What had set her off like that? He could understand why she would be disappointed, but to cry over the plight of the family farm seemed like an overreaction. But she wasn’t the only one to overreact. Why did he feel such a sense of loss as he stared out the window into the street below, trying to catch a glimpse of a bowler hat and a tear-streaked face?
Dusk fell over the city and lights began to appear across town. The telephone finally stopped ringing. If he hadn’t turned the Logan woman down, she would still be sitting in the chair across from his desk, her dark eyes brimming with warmth instead of tears. She would have leaned back and told him in her lilting voice why she had joined the Peace Corps and how she had learned to speak perfect Spanish.
But he’d had no choice. The Aruacan economy was in terrible shape. He was there to tell the people to tighten their belts, not to buy new equipment. But if he couldn’t even explain it to a woman with a degree in agriculture, how could he get it across to the man in the street, the people down there hurrying home from work to a meager dinner of beans and rice?
Actually beans and rice didn’t sound so bad, he thought, if you had someone to share it with. He wondered where Catherine Logan was right now. How would she get back to