1
Brynn
After three bus transfers and an hour of travel time, I wasn’t feeling upbeat, but I pasted a smile on my face anyway. Now wasn’t the time for me to give in to my tiredness. If I didn’t want to end up living on the streets, I had a job interview to ace.
While I waited for the receptionist to finish her call, I smoothed my hand down my shirt and looked around the lobby. The place was messier than I expected a cleaning company to be. Not that it was dirty, just cluttered. Although the tile floor was spotless, a stack of magazines on the table in the waiting area looked like they were about to tilt over and could use a good dusting. The receptionist’s desk wasn’t much better, with papers scattered all over the side opposite her computer. And the bulletin board on one of the walls was covered with notices and sticky notes that had been stacked on top of each other without taking anything down in what looked like years.
“Brynn Thomas?”
The receptionist’s question pulled me from my thoughts. “Yes, that’s me.”
She pointed toward the hall to her left. “First door on the right, with the human resources sign on the door.”
“Thank you.”
I followed her directions and knocked on the already open door before walking in. The woman seated behind the desk looked in her late fifties to early sixties, and the smile she aimed my way put me at ease. “You must be Brynn. Please, come in.”
After we shook hands and introduced ourselves, Mrs. Acker—according to her name plate—gestured toward the chairs in front of her desk. Once I was seated, she didn’t waste any time jumping straight into my interview. “Tell me about yourself.”
“I recently graduated high school, where I was on the soccer team. This would be my first real job other than babysitting, but I have lots of experience being a team player. And I’ve always been a bit of a neat freak, so I think I’d be a natural fit for this job.” This was my tenth interview, and I’d gotten this same question every time. I’d flubbed my answer the first few times since there wasn’t really anything interesting I could say about myself that would make someone want to hire me. But after doing a little research, I figured out how to take my hobbies and turn them into a selling point.
She jotted down a note before asking, “No plans for college?”
“Not at the moment.” If my circumstances were different, I would’ve been off to college in a flash, but telling her that wouldn’t do me any good.
We went back and forth with her asking the standard questions and me doing my best to sound upbeat for another fifteen minutes. I felt as though the interview was going great until she set down her pen, laced her fingers together, and leaned toward me. “Are you sure this is the kind of work you want to do?”
“Cleaning wasn’t at the top of my list when I started looking, but it’s a job that pays more than minimum wage, doesn’t require me to take my clothes off, and won’t get me arrested. That’s good enough for me.” Her lips parted before pressing together into a thin line as though she wanted to say something but decided against it. Worried that I was making her think twice about hiring me, I rushed to add, “It might not be what I want to do with the rest of my life, but I swear I’ll be a good worker. I’ll show up to work on time for every shift and do whatever is asked of me.”
“This wasn’t what I planned to do with my life either, but here I am,” she muttered, heaving a deep sigh. “I can’t complain too much, though. Dirt Dashers takes good care of their employees. I wouldn’t have stuck around so long if they didn’t.”
None of the people who’d interviewed me had said much about their employer. They’d made it clear that I was there to convince them to hire me and not the other way around. Since I hadn’t gotten a single job offer, it was safe to say I hadn’t been successful. Hopefully, this was a good sign that Mrs. Acker was thinking about hiring me. “How long have you worked here?”
“Almost twenty years.” She pointed toward an old poster on her wall that said Sparkling Clean Company. “I’ve been around for two name changes and three different owners.
“That’s impressive.”
She shook her head and laughed softly. “I have to admit the current one is my favorite of the bunch. I never would’ve guessed it when I first met him with how rough around the edges he is. I thought for sure the company would go under in no time at all under his management, but I’m happy to say that he surprised me.”