Melissa’s face turned scarlet. “Um, no, sorry. I left my debit card at home and I don’t have any cash,” she claimed. “Can a manager authorize I or something? It’s only for ten dollars and I’ve never bounced a check. There must be a mistake.”
“I’ll pay it,” the man behind her in line said. “You just pay it forward later, all right?”
Melissa nodded mutely, humiliated. The cashier accepted the twenty the man passed to her and handed him the receipt. “Have a nice day,” she said to Melissa.
“Thank you so much,” she said softly to the man before making her escape. The walk back to her car seemed to take even longer then the trip to the gas station. It was closer to noon and the Florida sun wasn’t shy about letting Melissa know about it. Now nearly two hours late for work, she put the gas into her tank and made the drive to work.
“You look like something the cart dragged in,” Ron, the security man said as she trudged in past him.
“I ran out of gas and had to walk all the way to the gas station in this heat.”
“That’d do it. Were the kids with you?” he asked.
“Nah, I’d just dropped them off at daycare.”
“That’s good,” was all he said.
She winced, spying the checkout supervisor heading her way. “Melissa, in the office, please.”
Melissa followed Nicky Reed into the office. “This is the third time in two months that you’ve been late. You had to leave early two times other than that and called in two days besides those.”
“My kids were sick them two days. If they’re sick, I can’t take them to daycare.”
“I’m afraid we’re going to have to let you go. It’s obvious that you cannot maintain a compatible work schedule. I’ve already had to call someone in to cover for you today and the rest of the week, so just turn in your things. We wish you the best in the future. Maybe you can take some classes, get a home daycare license or something and work around your kids.” With that, Nicky left the office.
Future, what future? She once thought she had a future. She’d worked hard, not even seriously dating until she hit twenty-five. Then she met Tom. They got engaged and moved into an apartment together in Ft. Walton and everything. Then she found out she was pregnant and he emptied their joint bank account and took off., never to be seen again. A year later, she’d met Rob at the children’s Little Boggy playground in Niceville. He’d been there with his niece. They got to talking and he asked her out. He was cool with her having young twins. They got married and she thought everything was great. Then she came home to tell him she was pregnant again, only to find him plowing their next door neighbor, only four months into the marriage. She threw him out and divorced him using a Do-it-yourself divorce kit. He was supposed to pay child support, but the state was always having to chase him as he seemed to get fired a lot.
Deciding she might as well go pick her kids up from daycare. Pulling into the parking lot, she pondered her supervisor’s words again. Maybe they had some kind of grant or something for people her age. What did they call them- mature students, that was it. She walked around to the front entrance and went into the office. She felt welcome and a nice woman there talked to her about the forms of financial aid available. One of them guaranteed full payment of tuition plus a generous stipend towards living expenses. The stipend made her eyes grow round. She could pay her bills with that and not have to worry if she lost SNAP. Be a little extra careful maybe, but not be too worried.
“And I’m not too old for this and having kids is okay?” she asked the woman.
“Not too old at all and having kids is definitely fine. It’s open to women up to the age of forty-five, providing they haven’t entered menopause. The nearest office to hand in your application is in Ft. Walton. They don’t close until five, and we are taking applications right now for summer classes.”
Screw it, Melissa thought. Kids can sit tight at daycare until I get back from Ft. Walton. I’m off to the Bride Registry to apply for their scholarship. She nodded at the financial aid officer and left the building. Climbing into her car, she started the engine, backed out of her parking lace carefully, and then pulled out onto Highway 90. Aliens, here I come!
Gundar Page 16