Page 16 of August

“I need your help. I wasn’t kidding. And you’ll be able to help out your boss here, too, while you’re at it. I need someone who knows how to order groceries and then teach the process of how to order them to other women. I have fifty-one women that need a job, and the other reason I can’t get them into the workforce is because I don’t know how to teach them to order food for the homes they’ll be working for.” She asked her if she understood. “Domestic help depends a great deal on knowing how to use the computer and to order. If they can’t do that, I have nothing for them to go to daily.”

“What will I do after that job?” Before she could come back with a snarled answer to her own question, Ms. Erickson told her that there would be fifty-one more women. Then, more after that. “This is a real job?”

“It is if you take it. I do need someone who understands the computer systems that they’ll be working with and knows how to be patient with those that she’s training. I’ve seen you out there working. I couldn’t do what you do without tearing my hair out.” Carrie snorted at her. “All right, I could, but I’d not like it. I have children that I want to be home with so that I can laugh when they do. They’ve not had a great deal of laughter in their short lives.”

“What about my mom?” She said that one of the perks of working for her would be that her mother would get round-the-clock care. And a home that would be suited to their needs. “My family isn’t going to like this very much.”

“Oh fuck them.” They both laughed. “We’ll take care of them as well. Not in the same way that we are you however. But the Erickson’s are a powerfully monied family and they protect what they love. I’m betting right now that by the end of the first week, you’ll wonder why you were putting up such a fuss about this.”

“I want to believe you, but I’ve been scammed before. By my own family.” She asked her if she could come with her. “To your home? Are you nuts? I just told you that I didn’t want to be scammed.”

“Let me make a couple of phone calls, and I’ll talk to you again. When do you get off here?” She told her. “Good. It’s almost that now. I’ll pick you up with my family, and we’ll talk more. Thank you very much, Carrie.”

She still had the money in her pocket when Mr. Thomas came back to the office. He told her that things had slowed down and that if she wanted to take a break, he’d keep an eye on things. Before she could let all of the notions of working for the Ericksons go, she asked him about them.

“Are they true to their word? Yes, more than even me, and you think I’d never lie to you. I wouldn’t, but I think you understand. But I know a few of them boys. When they first started around here, two of them worked for me. Let me think…Locke and his brother Dusty. Kindest men you’ll ever meet too. And they sure did Mrs. Grable all right, too. Had her looking like a new woman in just a few weeks as well. They want you to work for them?” She nodded. “Then you’d be a fool not to, and I know for a fact that you ain’t no fool. When are you supposed to start for them? Whatcha going to be doing?”

Carrie told her boss everything that had been said to her about the job and what she’d be doing. He told her that would mean he’d have to hire someone to work for him. Then she told him that they said they’d take care of him as well.

“You do that, little bit. You go out in the world and make it modernized for us old people. And take care of your momma like you are. I’ll not tell that family of yours nothing. You can bet on that. But this will help you in ways that you won’t believe.” She asked him again if she could trust them. “More than anybody on this here earth, child. You’ll tell me if I’m right about them, too. Go on now. When you get off, you—oh crap nuggets. That sister of yours is here.”

She handed over her money and told him to keep it for her. Going out on the floor, her sister turned and sneered at her like she knew what was going on behind the office door.

“So instead of helping me out, you’ll help out old Mr. Thomas. I see how you are.” She asked her what she wanted. “You got Mom’s check? I know it comes in on the first of the month. I need it real bad. You’ll just have to figure out some other way to get food for yourself. And you’re not to go blabbing to Wayne, either. He’ll have to do without his portion this month. Hand it over.”

“I’ve been working all day, and I’ve not had time to go to the post office.” Glancing at the clock, she told her that she’d have to wait for tomorrow. It was too late to go tonight. She asked her for the hundredth time why she didn’t have her checks coming to her mom’s home. “She’s my mother too, you know, and the reason is that her checks kept coming up missing. I guess you know all about that, don’t you?”

“Get off my ass about it. I don’t know why you don’t just shove her in a nursing home and be done with her.” She told her that a nursing home would take her check each month. “Then you keep right on doing with you’re doing. You need her to ask for a bigger amount. This shit isn’t helping me out at all once I get my share.”

“What am I supposed to do for her food and medicine, Syble?” She rolled her eyes and told her to ask for more credit or something. “It’s not a credit card, you fool. And she’ll only get what’s been paid into her Social Security pension. You know, without working to put some money in yours, you might not get any either.”

“Then I’ll just take yours.” After telling her that she’d be here first thing in the morning, she left. Mrs. Erickson was in the store shopping, and as soon as Syble left, she smiled and came up to the line to check out.

“Nice sister you have there.” She told her that she had no idea as her eyes filled with tears. “Buck up, Carrie, it’s all going to be all right for you after today.”

After checking her out, Mr. Thomas told her that she might as well go. She didn’t follow the beautiful woman out but went around to the side of the building where her car was. Just as she was getting in her brother showed up asking the same thing as Syble had. Where was his money?

“I don’t have it. Syble was just here telling me I had to give it to her. And that you’d have to figure out something else for your part.” She didn’t feel the least bit bad about telling on Syble either. Wayne got into his car and took off out of the parking lot so quickly that he rained rocks and stones all over her.

A young man got out of the big limo and got into her car after she turned over the keys to him. With a wink, he was pulling out of the lot in her car and who knows where he had gone. Carrie gotinto the limo and wanted to burst into tears. These people were going to change their minds about her when they figured out where she lived and how.

“I’ve had an ambulance pick up your mother. I’m sorry to tell you this, but the woman who was watching her has been fired. Did you know that she ties your mother to her chair and makes her feed herself? She cleans her up and treats her differently when you come around. Ms. Davis works for your brothers and sisters.” She asked how she’d managed that. “I had a friend of mine do a welfare check, and your mother was a mess. Poor thing. Anyway, she’s been fired and your mom is going to have a health check, something that we only just made up today. She’ll be at your new home tomorrow with better care. Do you need anything from your apartment?”

“Just a few odds and—you know what? No, there is nothing there that I need. Where am I going now?” Jack, as she was asked to call her, said they were going to have dinner at her home. That everything else had been taken care of. “I’m both excited and terrified of this new adventure.”

“Good for you, honey. We’ll have a great time together, and you’ll love your new job. If you don’t, tell me, and I’ll find something else for you.” She laughed with her, and Carrie felt good. She was able to get her brother pissed off at her sister, and that made up for a lot of heartache that she’d been having.

~*~

Demitrius was excited about dinner tonight. He’d been working on the menu for the last several days and was happy his family was coming over to try out the things he’d been cooking. There was also going to be a guest with the family, Carrie Sharp, but she was going to be working for the family soon, and he couldn’t wait to meet her. He just hoped he wasn’t being set up as the next one of them to have a wife. He had enough things going on right now.

The main dining room of the building he was renting wasn’t much to look at. It needed a great deal of work and it wouldn’t hurt if it had a few cobwebs taken out of the windows. But he didn’t want to alert anyone that he was looking into buying the place, as people would hear his last name and jack up the price by a great deal. He’d been renting this place for the last five years and was finally able to talk the landlord into selling it to him for what he paid in rent all this time.

Locke and Alex were the first to arrive. Then came in August and Jack with the special guest. They realized they knew each other from college and hugged. He’d always liked Carrie when she’d come to class with him.

The two of them even dated a couple of times, but it was more like he was dating his sister than anything romantic. She felt the same way. It was a weird combination of sisterly affection and romance, too.

As the rest of his family came into the big hall that he was cooking from, he told them what they’d be trying out. It was going to be the main feature of his place. A combination of country food and elegance. Like catfish, a poor man’s food he’d been told all his life, along with fresh gnocchi with spinach salad. Tonight, they were having something along those lines, but roasted pork and fresh fruit salad.