“Mom! The toaster broke again!” Mellie shouts to her mother from the kitchen as she pulls her frozen bread out of the toaster oven and tosses it on her plate. Her mother insists on keeping the bread in the freezer so that it doesn’t spoil. Mellie thinks it’s silly, because bread never lasts long enough to go bad in the Tift household.
“Ugh, I just bought that toaster a few months ago” Norma sighs quietly as she rubs her temples.
“Okay, I’ll take care of it,” she shouts back at her daughter from the room down the hall. “Are you ready for school?” She asks Mellie as she walks into the kitchen, still putting on her earrings.
“I was gonna have toast for breakfast, bu-”
“There’s no time for breakfast anyway. I have to drop you off early today for my interview this morning,” Norma interrupts Mellie. “Grab your backpack, we have to go. Don’t forget your sweatshirt.”
Mellie grabs her backpack and sweatshirt from the kitchen table and follows her mother out the door. She heads toward the car as Norma sticks the key in the door handle, twists the key, forcing her other keys attached to the keychain to chip off another piece of forest green paint from the door. Once the house is locked, she rushes toward the car where Mellie stands by the back door, waiting patiently for her mother to unlock it. Norma unlocks her door, then proceeds to reach over and unlock her daughter’s. They get in the car, Norma still breathing heavy from rushing around all morning.
“Are you picking me up from school today, mommy?” Mellie asks her mother.
“Yes dear, you get out at 2 today, right?” Norma responds.
“Yeah, I only get out at 1 on Fridays.”
“I’ll be there,” Norma assures her daughter.
“Don’t forget about me mommy!” Mellie tells her mother.
“I would never forget about you, baby,” she promises Mellie. “Okay, off you go,” she encourages Mellie to get out of the car as she stops by the curb in front of Mellie’s elementary school. “Have a good day, honey,” she tells her ten-year-old daughter as she kisses her cheek before Mellie gets out of the car.
“Thanks mommy, good luck with your interview! Don’t forget about me today!” She tells her mother one last time before closing the car door and walking toward the main entrance.
“Love you, Mells,” Norma tells her daughter before following the other cars--who also just dropped off their children--out of the Spring Heights Elementary School parking lot.
“Norma Tift, so nice to meet you,” Norma introduces herself with a handshake to who she hopes will become her new boss.
“The pleasure is all mine, Norma. I’m Jim, the owner of Bagel Café. Thanks for coming in for an interview. I understand you are interested in the management position that recently opened up,” Jim says as he sips his black coffee out of a, clearly, very old mug that reads “My Dog Loves Me” on the front. He’s an older man, maybe in his early sixties. His hair is dark, but is beginning to go grey in a sexy salt and pepper sort of way. “What makes you want to be part of the team here at Bagel Café?”
“I’m glad you asked, Jim,” Norma replies with confidence. “Before my late husband fell ill with terminal brain cancer, I worked as a marketing manager at a major firm. Once he got sick, I chose to spend my time taking care of him, and decided to leave my position that I loved dearly. Since his passing, I have wanted nothing more than to get back to work. Of course, I took the necessary time in order to allow myself to grieve, and I am ready to get back on the horse, so to speak.”
“Wow, Norma, it sounds like you have quite the story. I’m so sorry to hear about your husband, and I appreciate you sharing all of that with me. If you don’t mind my asking, why are you bringing your talents here to Bagel Café, instead of another major marketing firm? I can assure you I won’t be able to pay you like they can,” Jim says.
“I appreciate your honesty, Jim. Now, I’ll be honest with you. When my husband fell ill, we were forced to move to Southern California for the medical facilities at UCLA. Due to my husband’s high medical bills and us both being out of work, we couldn’t afford to live very close to the city. I don’t plan to stay here in Lancaster much longer, but the school year just started, and I don’t want to uproot my daughter again so soon. She has had an easier time making friends here, and even though she is going through a difficult time having just lost her father, she is adjusting very well. I have decided to stay here through the school year and move back to Seaside next year,” Norma explains.
“Ah, I see. How old is she?” he asks.
“Just turned ten over the summer.”
“They get so big, so fast, don’t they?”
“They do! Do you have kids?” Norma inquires.
“Nope, no kids for me. It may not seem like much, but this Bagel Café has been my child for almost as long as I can remember. I used to work here as a boy, until both my parents died in a car accident, just after my eighteenth birthday. I inherited the café, and have cared for it as my child ever since. The management position is only available because my best bud, John, who has managed the joint as long as I’ve owned it, just passed away. Heart just gave out one day. No warning,” Jim says as he begins to stare at the wall behind Norma.
She let him have a moment before interrupting his thoughts.
“I’m sorry to hear about John. It sounds like he was a real stand up guy,” Norma tells him while silently staying strong about the grief she felt for her husband, George, in that moment.
“Thank you... He was,” Jim says slowly, snapping out of the trance that the thought of John had put him in. “Anyway, you are definitely qualified for the position. You are my last interview, so the job is yours if you’d like it,” Jim offers, his eyes a little sadder than they were before he mentioned John.
“Thank you, Jim. I would love to take the position,” Norma half smiles as she stands up from her seat, offering him another handshake.
“Thank you, Norma. Can you start next Monday?” he asks.
“Yes, Monday sounds great,” she replies as she looks down at her watch and realizes the battery is dead. Damnit, when am I going to have enough extra change to get this damn watch fixed?
“Perfect. See you then. Shift starts at eight. Enjoy your weekend,” Jim says as he shows Norma out of the front door.
“Thanks Jim, see you Monday.”
“How was school?” Norma asked Mellie, as the two sat down for dinner.
“Good. Jessica got 9/10 on her math test, but I only got eight,” Mellie said as she bit a piece of pasta off her fork.
“That’s still a great score, sweetheart! Maybe math is Jessica’s strong suit. If you want to get better at math, all you have to do is study it a little more. I’ll help you make flash cards if you want. What was the test on?” Norma offered her daughter some comfort.
“Fractions. I don’t like fractions very much. They’re hard,” Mellie told her mother.
“Let’s make some flashcards for fractions after school tomorrow. I’ll help you,” Norma tells her daughter. Norma’s phone screen lights up, distracting her from her conversation with her daughter. It’s an email from her old marketing firm. She hasn't heard from them, other than to wish their condolences for George, since she left her position, two years before. Norma immediately unlocks her phone screen to read the email. She thinks it is odd that they would send her an email around dinner time. Most of the people who work there leave at five, so it’s unusual for her to receive communication from them so late in the day. I wonder what's going on, it’s already 6:30. Norma begins to intently read the email.
“What’s wrong, momma?” Mellie asks, beginning to feel concerned as her mother anxiously huddles over her smartphone.
As she snaps out of the trance the email put her in, Norma looks up from her phone, not realizing how frantic she must’ve looked to her ten-year-old daughter. “Oh, nothing honey. I just got an email from my old boss. Give me a second to finish reading it, please.” Norma finishes reading the email, and immediately begins trembling.
“Momma, what did they say?” Mellie says as she drops her fork and scoots her chair closer to her mother.
“They want to give me my old job back, but they say I can work from home! This is great, honey!” Norma says excitedly, grabbing her daughter, squeezing her tight, and lifting her up off the ground as they both laugh.
“I’m so happy for you, momma!” Mellie says with a big smile.
“Thanks Mells!” Norma says as her smile begins to fade. She quickly realizes that she hasn’t used her laptop since it crashed last month. She hasn’t been able to afford to get it fixed, and hasn’t needed it much up until this point. She lost her appetite, grabbed her bowl of remaining pasta from the kitchen table and took it to the fridge. “Finish your dinner, sweetheart. I’ve got to check on some stuff for work, okay?”
“Okay, momma.”
“Do you have any homework?”
“Yes, some math and english.”
“Okay, get started on your homework after you're finish eating.”
“Yes, momma.”
Norma began to sweat as she attempted to power on her computer. Please just work. She pressed the button over and over, but to no avail. The old HP laptop was not designed to last this long. She’d had it since she graduated college three years before she had Mellie. It truly did last a long time, as far as computers go.
I knew I should’ve bought a new computer before all the money was gone. George had a small retirement pension that was mostly used to treat his medical bills, but the family used it for other expenses too, when they could. While George was still alive, she wanted to use the money buy a new laptop before hers crashed. She figured it was too soon since she didn’t actually need it yet, even though she knew hers was becoming obsolete as time continued to pass. The pension money is long gone now that George is gone.
Norma takes out her smartphone and begins to type an email to her former boss who offered her job back:
Dear Julianne,
Thank you so much for the incredible opportunity to work for your company again, and to work with my difficult circumstances. I would absolutely love to take the job. However, I do have one hiccup that perhaps you can help me with.
Last month, my laptop crashed. Needless to say, I can no longer work from that device. As you know, times have been tough since my husband fell ill. Perhaps the company can loan a computer to me until I can afford to purchase a new one?
Please do let me know if this is an option. I would love to get started right away, if the company can provide such a valuable resource for me to use during this difficult time.
Endless thanks,
Norma Remmington
After spending an hour or so assisting Mellie with some flash cards to help her with fractions, she checks her email for a reply from Julianne. She finds one that reads:
Hi Norma,
I am so sorry to hear about all of that. I know we have talked briefly since George’s passing, but I want to wish my condolences again. I cannot imagine what you must be going through.
Unfortunately, the firm has fallen under hard times in the last year or so. We have had to let go of many of our staff and decrease salaries, which resulted in a further loss of many of our best employees. We had to downsize drastically just to stay afloat. I’m sorry to bombard you with all of this disappointment, but I think it’s only fair that I am up front with you from the start.
We cannot afford to pay your former salary. We hoped you’d accept a decrease in compensation in order to be back with the company working remotely.
With all that said, I am afraid we cannot offer a computer loan for you. I am so sorry that this is what it has come to, but after new leadership bought out the firm a year and a half ago, business has steadily decreased. We have recently been bought out by another new firm, so things are looking up in terms of management, but we haven’t quite reached the point where the new management intends to spend any new money on us.
If you are able to come up with a laptop or computer, and are willing to take a decrease in salary, please let me know. We would love to have you back with us to help rebuild what the old-new management destroyed.
Best wishes,
Julianna Darkovsky
Communications Director
Prestige Marketing Management
Norma’s heart sinks after reading the email. There’s no way I can afford to get a new computer before receiving any payment from Prestige. Bagel Café certainly won’t pay me enough for a new computer. Maybe a new toaster. Probably a new watch battery. But a new computer? No way. Norma begins to cry as she looks at the mountain of medical debt notices on her dresser and realizes that she will have to reject the job she so desperately needs in order to help lift herself back out of poverty; all because her computer was designed with a predetermined lifetime. Feeling defeated, Norma removes her watch with the broken battery and sets it on her bedside table. She lays down on her bed, closes her eyes, and lets the tears roll down her face. She stays quiet so that Mellie doesn’t hear her. Don’t let Mellie hear. Don’t let Mellie hear my tears. She repeats in her mind, over and over until she unwillingly falls asleep.
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