AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Chapter 2
Jovie
You ever have that dream where you’re walking down the street and everyone is staring at you?
They start to laugh as you pass by, subtly at first, but it gets faster and louder until you finally look down and realize that you’re naked.
Yeah, it’s kind of like that.
Except I’m not asleep and I’ve checked three times already to make sure I put on pants before I left Hank’s house.
No, they’re just staring at me because that’s what people do when your name is Jovie Ross.
It starts on my street with Mrs. Clark, the pastor’s wife. Her dog barks at me from the porch as I walk by her house. She steps outside, takes one look at me, and bolts right back in, dragging her dog by the collar as she goes.
I should see this for the omen it is but I keep on walking like an idiot, quickly happening by several other neighbors who more or less do the exact same thing. Some just stare. Slightly fewer wave. One literally clutches the pearls around her neck.
It’s nice to be remembered, I suppose.
I hit the town square and walk down Main Street until I reach Trin’s Toy Store on the corner, sandwiched between the bookstore and a coffee shop that wasn’t there when I left. There’s a ‘HELP WANTED’ sign displayed in the window. My lips curl at the small victory. At least I know he’s hiring.
But is he willing to hire me again?
Only one way to find out.
I pull open the door and the entry bell rings above my head.
“Welcome!” I hear from the check-out counter to the right.
I catch sight of Mr. Trin himself standing behind it. He doesn’t look up from the small stack of paperwork in front of him, displaying his shiny, bald head to the world.
I snatch the ‘HELP WANTED’ sign from the window and walk straight toward him, taking wide, purposeful strides until I can lay the sign down in his eye-line.
He peeks up at me over the rims of his glasses and his brow furrows.
“Absolutely not,” he says.
“Hi, Mr. Trin.” I deepen my smile. “It’s good to see you!”
“No.”
“I would like to talk to you about a jo—”
“No.”
I tilt my head. “Please?”
“The position is for serious applicants only, Jovie.”
“I am a serious applicant, Mr. Trin.”
“Serious applicants include those with perfect work histories,” he argues. “Not girls who stop showing up without notice.”
“I know,” I say, leaning forward. “I was going through something at the time — and I’m really sorry — but that’s all over now…”
“You left me in a lurch.”
I hold my hands in prayer between us. “I did and I felt really badly about that.”
