“Oh, wow, thanks,” he replied, looking over his shoulder, out the window, at the lone car parked along the curb.
“I also jotted down some of the places I was thinking might be hiring,” she added, pulling out a scrap of paper from her back pocket. “Sorry, I didn’t have time to look up directions,” she said with a frown.
Jacob chuckled. “Callie, you’ve done more than enough,” he reassured her, looking over the list of business names. “Seriously. This is great, thank you,” he smiled.
She grinned back at him and gave him a shrug. “It’s no problem, really.”
“So, should I come back here when I’m done, or…?” he pondered, gesturing to the car key in his hand.
“Oh, no, that’s okay,” she waved a dismissive hand. “I don’t need it ‘til tomorrow night. You can just park it over by the dorms and give me the key back in Bio tomorrow.”
“Okay. I guess I should get going, then,” he said, appraising the long list of businesses, wondering if he would have time to make it to all of them. “Thanks again,” he repeated with a wave.
“Good luck!” Callie called as he ducked out the door.
Jacob hopped into the small car, pushing the seat back to make room for his long legs. It had been a while since he had driven a car, but he got his bearings quickly. Adjusting the mirrors and making sure he knew where all of the important buttons and switches were located, he silently thanked his past self for decided to renew his driver’s license when he arrived in Cottonwood. He had almost dismissed the chore as pointless, given that he didn’t have a car yet, but he figured he would get the task out of the way for when he was able to scrounge up enough cash to snag an old beater off of Craigslist.
A vibrant tune sang through the speakers when he turned on the ignition, and he switched it off to focus. He thought about stopping by the library again to search for map of the city, but it was a small town, so he decided to just wander until he saw a “now hiring” sign or found his way to one of the names on Callie’s list.
It took up all of the morning and afternoon, but he made it through most of Callie’s list, plus a few other places with signs out front along the way. The process went about as well as Jacob expected it would, although he was more confident than he had anticipated. Or at least, he appeared to be, which in the end is all that really matters.
Everyone he had spoken to was nice and polite. They all accepted his resumé with a smile, and some – the more well-dressed employees, likely managers – asked him a few questions about himself. What type of a job he was looking for, what would make him qualified for the position, how flexible was his class schedule, etc. It was only when he had to fill out their official applications that his palms began to sweat and the pit in his stomach rumbled uncomfortably.
Resumés he could handle, and conversations with managers had become relatively comfortable. He had researched how to make a blank resumé appear more impressive, what kinds of questions to ask a potential employer to show them you were listening and eager to learn. But there was nothing that could prepare him for that little white check box, that mocking little box that he couldn’t help but feel was sure to seal his fate.
And after the fateful question – the question whose answer would be sure to elicit a tight smile and a polite “thank you for coming in,” along with a goodbye handshake and a nod to the door – there always followed a measly three blank lines, as if that would ever be enough.
Have you ever been convicted of a felony?
Two little white boxes, one before “YES,” one before “NO.” And three – sometimes two – blank lines labeled “If yes, please explain.”
Jacob did not care to explain. Not with three lines with which to do so. Three pages would hardly even be enough. So, he always left it blank, although he wasn’t sure which would be less well-received – the truth in three, pitifully summed-up lines, or pleading the fifth. He took his chances with the latter, given the lack of time to come up with a detailed response.
After around the sixth “YES” box he had to check, he realized it was probably for the best that Callie had to bow out of their plans, as he wouldn’t have been the best company. He spent most of the drive from one place to another pumping himself up for the next conversation, reminding himself of how well the last one had gone and trying to convince himself that perhaps his charm and firm handshake would make up for that little white box and all that it represented.
As he made it to one of the last few businesses on Callie’s list, he checked the clock on the dashboard. It read 4:45pm, and with a sudden growl in his gut, he realized how hungry he was. He wanted to finish off the list before heading back to campus, but he didn’t want to spend the money on eating out, so he settled for grabbing a cheap snack at a nearby grocery store.
It wasn’t a store they had in New York, so nothing was in the right place. He racked his brain for what would satisfy his hunger best for a few hours until he could head back to campus and have a proper dinner. The first non-freezer aisle he came to was filled with rows and rows of candy, so he snatched a more substantial, peanut-filled bar for the moment. It would do, in a pinch, if he couldn’t find anything else.
Rounding the corner to the next aisle, he looked down to appraise his candy bar, wondering if he should just settle for that and get back to his list, rather than wasting more time wandering the aisles of the unfamiliar store. He looked up just in time to slam hard into a woman coming from the opposite direction.
“Oh!” he exclaimed at the force of the impact. “I’m sorry,” he said, reaching down to pick up a few items that had fallen out of her hand-held basket.
“No, that’s totally fine, it was my fault!” she corrected, gesturing to her phone that she had been texting with during the moment of collision.
Looking up from the floor to return her items to the basket, their eyes connected and he recognized them instantly. Wide and icy blue, he would know those eyes anywhere. His empty stomach twisted into a knot and he swallowed the dryness in his throat to speak.
“Sarah?”
THEY STARED AT EACH other in silence for a long moment, her eyes wide with bewilderment and his mind racing with all of the questions he never he thought he would get a chance to ask, awoken from their coma by the hope of opportunity.
“Jacob?” she finally muttered, a confused crease wrinkling her forehead as she appraised him. “How… what are you doing here?” she asked, looking around the room as if to double-check that she was, indeed, in a grocery store in Cottonwood, Ohio.
He made a conscious effort to focus his thoughts on her question, tearing his mind away from all of the pressing inquiries vying for his attention.
“Um… well, I kind of live here,” he shrugged, chuckling a bit at the absurdity of the chance encounter.
Sarah’s eyebrows pulled together more deeply, her gaze far away as she tried to make sense of the situation.
“Oh,” Jacob interjected, realizing the likely source of her confusion. After all, he was supposed to be locked away in a hospital in New York, for all she knew. “I was released early,” he added in a lower voice, although the store wasn’t busy and nobody was close enough to be listening in. “About a month ago.”