The Staircase of Dragon Jerico
Chapter Nine
“HOW GOES THE JOB SEARCH?” Dolores asked. They had just enough time to wipe down the restaurant thoroughly between the breakfast and lunch rushes. She made it a point to work beside Erin.
“I’ve had a couple of informational interviews, but so far, no real job interviews. I spoke to the president of Vaughn Furniture Manufacturing; it was nice that he took time to talk to me. And an HR person at GenCo Electronics said she’d like to find something for me but didn’t have an active opening,” Erin said. “I’m still waiting to be called to interview for an actual job.”
“Shelly wants to cut her hours to only Tuesday and Thursday mornings. Interested in taking her Monday, Wednesday Friday shifts? It would put you here from six a.m. until two p.m. three days a week. Nobody else works both breakfast and lunch,” Dolores said.
“For three days a week, I could stand it,” Erin answered. “If you’ll try me, I’d be happy to take it on. I only have one more mortgage payment guaranteed and I’m trying to put away enough to make another month before I have to talk to the bank. I can defer payments on my 401k loan until the end of the year if I need to, but the mortgage will be a problem. Home sales are going slow at the moment, too.”
“How are you holding up?”
“I’ve got time. If I pick up the three breakfast shifts, I’ll still have most afternoons to interview if someone calls me. The divorce is final. I have my maiden name back. I’ve got to believe there’s something out there. My next option is to start looking at the national market and see if there’s a job available in the city. I really don’t want to leave Jerico, though.”
“We’d definitely miss you here. Not thinking of going back to Cleveland?”
“No. I like the climate here better, even if I’m a lone fan of the Browns. I left my friends that I had in Cleveland. I don’t want to leave the friends I’ve made here. And Bruce went back to Cleveland. I don’t see any reason to risk running into him,” Erin said. “You and the other girls. Livy, the real estate agent. She’s even suggested I study for a real estate license. I don’t want to leave.”
“We want you here. Which reminds me… Some of us have decided to try forming a bowling team. Are you interested?”
“I haven’t bowled since I was in college and got a PE credit for it. Sounds like fun!”
Erin prepared her tables, content to know she had a little extra income expected, even though it was far less than needed to be truly independent in Jerico City.
“Good morning, Jerry,” Erin said when she seated him on Thursday. She handed him a freshly disinfected menu. “Special today is fried chicken with mashed potatoes and caramelized carrots.”
“Good. How is the job search, Maizie?”
“Oh, I just got called for an interview after work today. I just hope I’m not too nervous. I haven’t really interviewed in a long time.”
“I’m sure you’ll do great. Just relax and be yourself. I don’t see how anyone could help but hire you.”
“You’re sweet, Jerry. Let me get your coffee and get your order in.”
Jerry looked around the room and out the windows. He still wore his hoodie, sunglasses, and mask. He was afraid his mother might be spying on him.
It had been easy to just have Mrs. Armstrong take a long lunch on Thursdays. She’d felt that was a well-deserved bonus for putting up with him. His mother was a different matter altogether. She wanted to know why he needed a long lunch and where he was going. She wanted to know if he was ‘seeing’ anyone. He finally grabbed his things and left. He dressed in his lunch clothes in the elevator and left by way of the garage to hurry the three blocks to the diner.
He still had the uncomfortable feeling that his mother could spot him at any time, and didn’t know why that should concern him so much. He felt like he was sneaking out of his room again at sixteen to go out on the river with Gene.
The fried chicken was perfect, and he managed a little broken conversation with Erin as she hustled to her other tables.
“Any news on selling your house?”
“The good news is I have an offer. Livy called last night. It isn’t quite what I was hoping for, but I’m out of time and I can cut my expenses significantly by moving. I’ll probably spend the weekend cleaning out the house and getting ready to move,” Maizie said.
“That’s great news, Maizie. Um… Anything I can do to help?” he asked.
“Oh, that’s sweet of you, Jerry. I think I have everything set. My bowling team is coming to help. I wouldn’t want you to feel uncomfortable around so many strange women. They don’t come any stranger than us,” she said lightly.
She’d noticed his discomfort around people and it didn’t seem to offend her. She was concerned for him! Wow!
Preston imagined himself casually going for a walk downtown and bumping into her. He’d smile and ask her out. She’d wonder who the heck this guy was if he wasn’t wearing his sweatshirt, mask, and sunglasses. Yeah. For that matter, he wasn’t sure he’d recognize her if she wasn’t wearing her pinafore uniform and name tag. Was Maizie even her real name?
He left the diner after lunch and wandered through the nearest residential area where there were apartments. Next week. Next week when he came to lunch, he’d definitely ask her out. If necessary, he’d write a note. He could continue to be just Jerry. He stepped into his private elevator and removed his makeshift disguise on the way up to his office.
“How well do you get along with difficult people?” Ellen asked the interviewee.
“Hmm. That’s not as simple a question as you present it to be. There are different kinds of difficulty. In general, I’m pretty tolerant. There are people who have a difficult trait that makes any kind of relationship hard. Those people merit an extra step in trying to understand and get along with them,” Erin said. “At the other extreme, there are people who are simply disdainful of the existence of others and nothing is of importance but themselves. Those people need to be cuffed alongside the head and told to sit down and shut up. Figuratively, I mean. In a practical sense, it is not usually worth the effort to try to change them.”
“Is that what you would say happened with your marriage?” Ellen persisted.
“I don’t think that’s an appropriate subject for an employment interview,” Erin said.
“You are right about the question, but the overall topic is very important. In an employment situation, would you say a manager might act in a difficult manner, but if it is according to expectation… If the manager could be trusted within those bounds, you could work things out?”
“Let me preface this by saying, I’m not that kind of manager,” Erin laughed. “I make expectations clear and get agreement for them. When there’s a failure to meet expectations, we can meet, address it, and go back to doing our jobs.”
“But in your manager?”
“The idea of being difficult is not the same as being abusive. An abusive manager needs to be disciplined, and an employee needs to report that behavior. However, a manager who expects no more from an employee than from herself may be difficult because she holds herself accountable and expects the same from her employees. In my book, frankly, that is an ideal manager.”
Ellen shuffled some papers around, apparently thinking about ending the interview.
“Erin, I don’t have a job for you in marketing,” Ellen said. Erin heaved a sigh and prepared to leave. “I do have a job, however, and you might be suited for it. If you could take the time for a second interview, I’d like the incumbent to talk to you and explain the situation.”
“Why is the incumbent leaving?”
“She’s temporary, but has a deep understanding of the situation.”
“Okay.”
Erin waited in the HR conference room for ten minutes before the incumbent showed up. She was a middle-aged woman—Erin guessed in her fifties—fashionably dressed, with hair and makeup impeccably done. She wore sensible heels, not the tall spikes Erin had seen on some of the younger women she’d seen in the office.
“Erin Scott? I’m Jacqueline Carver.”
“I’m pleased to meet you, Ms. Carver,” Erin said, standing to offer her hand. Jacqueline took it in a firm but non-aggressive shake.
“Ms. Barrett tells me we might have a match in our search for a special position on our staff. Let me say that I reviewed your resume and called your references before you were called for an interview. I sincerely hope you are everything I imagine.”
“Ms. Barrett said this position is not in my major area of marketing,” Erin said. “May I ask what kind of position it is?”
“It is a job as the personal assistant to a top executive,” Jacqueline said. “But let’s not be too hasty in declaring that it is not a marketing job. As a marketing executive, you had responsibility for various projects, managed teams, watched budgets, and had responsibility for the client relationship. The position of a personal assistant is much the same. The responsibility is to enable the executive to do his job, efficiently and without upset. If we said the executive needed to be a strategist, his assistant needs to be a tactician.”
“I see. And if I may infer from Ms. Barrett’s questions, this executive is deemed to be difficult to work with.”
“He has had nine personal assistants in the past seven years.”
“Ouch.”
“The job has simply been both more and less than the assistants expected. I propose to make sure you are fully disclosed on the expectations and the difficulties before we hire you.”
“That would undoubtedly help,” Erin said. Ms. Carver hadn’t stood to leave, so either she was really desperate or Erin truly had the necessary skills.
“After I’ve described the job and we talk, I will be willing to make a proposition that will ultimately get you where you want to be. If you last six months in this position with a favorable review by the executive, we will find you an appropriate marketing position, truly making use of all your skills. I have noted the career path you were on at Allard Holding before you got married and moved to Jerico City. JeriCorp would be a good place for you to realize your dreams.”
“Begging your pardon, Ms. Carver. Ms. Barrett indicated that you are a temporary employee. May I ask how you have the authority to make such an offer?”
“Oh, you’re good. I happen to also be a major shareholder in the family business. The position we are discussing is personal assistant to my son, the CEO and Chairman of the Board. And, frankly, the brains of this organization.”
Erin caught her breath. Personal assistant to the person at the top of the organization? She needed to listen very carefully.
“I got it! I got the job!” Erin cried when she reported to the diner on Friday.
“Congratulations! I knew you’d succeed,” Dolores said. “Now, I suppose I need to cover your shifts.”
“I’m sorry, Dolores. I really am. They want me to start Monday morning. I had to talk them out of starting today.”
“They must be really desperate. Not that you aren’t completely qualified and all, but to want you the next day?”
“Actually, they say I’m way over-qualified, but I have my foot in the door. If I last six months at this job, they’ll find me a position that matches my qualifications,” Erin said.
“Six months and a promotion? That’s pretty aggressive.”
“I don’t completely trust them on that. I’m going to work for the same company that hired Bruce and then fired him in a cutback. You know: Acts of nature, acts of God, the economy, whatever. There’s always a way out. But at least I’ll have a decent paycheck for now and I can pay my rent and buy groceries.”
“You could probably have saved your house,” Dolores said.
“I didn’t really want to,” Erin answered. “It was supposed to be a place for Bruce and me to raise our children. Living there alone… It was just a lot of work I didn’t need. And I got most of my down payment back. You know we borrowed against my 401k for the down payment. When we close, the money goes right back in it. I’ll have the rest paid off in a few months.”
“Good for you, girl. And I know you’ll be successful. Better hustle your buns, though. Friday breakfast is incoming. Go collect those tips.”
“Thanks, Dolores.”
Over the weekend, Erin carefully went through her closet. She had professional clothes, though she’d recycled several outfits through a secondhand store when she moved to Jerico City. She thought she’d never need business suits again.
“Well, that was foolish of me. That blue Ann Taylor suit cost $200. It will be a while before I have money to spend on clothes again,” she said to herself. “But it was a pants suit, too. Not good on the first day working for a new male boss. Don’t want him to think I’m challenging his position. Men can be so fragile about those things.”
She tried on her charcoal suit with a simple white silk blouse. The skirt came just to her knees. “Besides, I’ve got nice legs and this doesn’t show too much. His mother was wearing a skirt this length.” But there were other problems. “You’ve lost weight, girl,” she said critically to the mirror. She gathered a fold of material at her waist. “Nothing to do but fix it. I can’t afford to go out and buy new clothes.”
She dug out her sewing machine from the closet and set it up on the kitchen table. Her mother’s sewing machine. It had been three years since she inherited it. The traffic accident claiming the lives of her parents had severed the last bonds of family she had.
“I only wanted you to be able to take care of yourself,” she could hear her mother say. “I’d have taught a son to sew just as I did you.”
“He’d probably have complained less,” Erin laughed. If she was going to talk to herself, she might as well have her mother for company. “I’m so sorry I didn’t give you a grandchild while you were alive, Mom. Now, who knows if I’ll ever give you one.”
“Do you think I care? You rushed into marriage with Bruce with the single-minded desire to have a child because your parents were gone. That’s not the right reason to have children.”
“Was that the only reason I wanted children? I saw you and Dad every day. You had a real partnership. I wanted the same kind of life.”
“And I was envious of you getting your degrees and climbing the corporate ladder. That’s the kind of success the women of my generation aspired to. I surely didn’t want you to be stuck checking groceries like I was.”
“You taught me that all work was good work. Why didn’t you pursue a career? What motivated you to marry and have a child thirty-two years ago? Gram was still around until I was out of college. You didn’t feel the pressure to have a grandbaby.”
“It was a different kind of pressure. Dad wanted me to somehow carry on the family name. He felt betrayed when I married Andrew and took the name of Scott. That’s why I promised I’d give you the middle name of Jericho. Silly name to give a baby girl.”
“And now I live in Jerico City. Suppose my ancestors are from here?”
“Not even spelled the same. I think every family name in the world either has a town named after it or was named after a town. Yours was a town in the Bible.”
“Hmm. When I filed to regain my maiden name after the divorce, did I ask for my middle name back? Oh! I couldn’t even see the form clearly through my tears. I was so angry that day—I just wanted to erase Bruce Silvers from my life.”
Erin focused on taking in the seams of her skirt and trying it on. She hadn’t had an imaginary conversation with her mother since she split with Bruce. She didn’t want to hear her in her mind saying ‘I told you so.’
She should have known better than to fall in love and get married so quickly. If she looked at her relationship with Bruce objectively, there were all kinds of warning signs. She just wouldn’t listen to her own head when her heart was involved.
Satisfied that she had adjusted her suit and was ready to work, Erin greeted the members of her bowling team and got busy packing up the remaining items in her house. She would be ready to move into her new apartment on Sunday.
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