The Kingdom Land (19 page)

On the other hand, he didn’t
understand her last outburst. “It wasn’t God’s fault, it was mine.
It wasn’t just a nice feeling, it was real, but I walked away. It’s
my life, it’s my mistake, and I don’t want to talk about
it.”
It sounds like someone that’s got
more problems than me
. It was fine to
imagine Laura in the bunkhouse, but Erik didn’t know if he wanted
to be that close to someone that fast.
What if I messed up something that God wanted to be in m
life?”

Erik knew he would have to leave the bunkhouse at
some point, but not now, not until he could make more sense out of
it. He would eat in the house and try to not let Mary and Henry
sense anything was going on. That wouldn’t be easy. His moods were
obvious and Aunt Mary was too perceptive, but he would try. He
wouldn’t even go to church this Sunday. His aunt and uncle would
worry, John would expect him there, and who knows, Laura might even
be there. But that was just another reason to miss. He wasn’t ready
to face Laura again.

He wanted nothing to do with this land, but for now
this land was his refuge. No one would interrupt his patterned
ruts. He pulled the plow another notch deeper into the ground and
the tractor’s smoke turned black with the new strain of work. The
plow turned little else than dust in fields that had not felt a
drenching rain in three years. The sun shriveled the crops around
him and the grasshoppers took more from the land that was already
without life. In the midst of all this Erik was comforted by the
solitude and the sense of His presence.

Chapter Fifteen

L
aura had
planned to arrive early for her interview, but not this early. Her
timing was off because the landlord had been cleaning the carpets
at the new apartment complex. She hadn’t been able to sign the new
rental agreement nor unload her pickup, and of greater concern, she
wasn’t able to clean herself up before the interview. She did the
best possible at a service station bathroom, but she had hoped for
a shower and an iron for her cotton dress.

When she pulled into the WinRight Grocery Store she
was far too early. Her pickup didn’t have air-conditioning so the
heat would quickly destroy the curls she had just made at a Texaco
gas station. The male station attendant had knocked on the door
twice urging her to hurry.

“
C’mon, lady. I saw you take your
make-up in there. Read the sign. This is a private restroom for
customers only and not some type of homeless shelter. I didn’t pump
any gas for you. There’s a paying customer out here waiting, and
that’s more important than you trying to make yourself
pretty.”

The sweat caused her newly pressed cotton dress to
cling to her side. She said a quick prayer to God for success.
Neither success nor talking to God had happened much lately.

Soon her hair wasn’t the only problem. The clinging
cotton revealed more than she wanted and a circle of sweat started
to form around her armpits. Before long she would look like one of
the farmers who came into the Mint after work.

She had no choice but to go in much too early for the
interview or be completely drenched and wind blown.

“
Excuse me. I’m here for an
interview. I didn’t get an application yet. Do you know where I can
get one?” Laura had chosen the one checker who didn’t look busy at
the time. She didn’t want to bother the manager.

“
Sure, I got one under my cash
drawer. Have you talked with Ken yet?”

“
I guess that was his name. He never
did introduce himself and he didn’t have a name tag. I’m suppose to
meet with him at 1:30 so I’m way too early” Laura had a clear view
of the wall clock that said 12:30 so she expected him to be at
lunch.

“
Sounds like him, forgetting his
name tag. He’s really a nice guy, but a scattered brain. He’ll
probably even forget he made the appointment. Just to let you know,
don’t let him try to say we don’t need any help. We’re really short
of checkers no matter what he says There’s no way I’m going to work
another Sunday, so he better hire you.”

“
Thanks for letting me know. Where
can I wait until he’s free?”

“
He will be free when you are. I’ll
make sure of that. He’s probably in the back eating his bologna
sandwich with two Oreo cookies. The guy has the same lunch every
day like his mom made it. How and why he can stand the same thing,
I don’t know. Here is a pen. Why don’t you go over to the next
aisle? As soon as you’re done with the form, I’ll make sure Ken
will be free. By the way, my name is Barbara, good
luck.”

A customer had come to Barbara’s aisle and she had
begun ringing the items as she talked. “When you’re ready, just go
in the back through those double doors. You’ll see him.”

Laura filled out the application and then made her
way through the swinging double doors that Barbara had indicated.
The man she had spoke with yesterday was there.

“
Excuse me. My name is Laura
Randolph. I spoke with you yesterday, and you asked me to come back
today.”

Ken was unloading a box of lettuce and stacking them
in neat rows. His quick dexterity showed a man who had performed
the same job many times. “Sure, Laura, I’m glad you made it back.
I’m sorry that I didn’t have time to talk yesterday. Monday is our
shipment day, and it takes all mine and everyone’s attention to get
it unloaded. I’ve been working people too much overtime as it is.
Overtime pay is nice, but so is being home with the family.”

Laura finally let herself breath. He seemed so
nice.

“
Got the application
done?”

“
It’s all done except for my address
and phone number. I just got a place at the Highline Apartments,
but I forgot the address. I’ll get it as soon as we’re done and
finish the form.”

“
That’s no problem. I’m more
concerned with the phone number. What’s the deal there?”

I called from the apartment manager’s office and the
phone company said they could have one installed by Thursday
afternoon, Friday morning at the latest. But I’ll have to be there
when it’s being installed.”

“
Haven’t even been hired and you’re
already asking for time off?”

Laura felt her face get red, but she could tell that
Ken was only joking. He scanned the rest of her application
indicating he didn’t expect an answer.

“
I see you’ve worked at the Mint Bar
and the Glad Tidings Health Food Store. How much experience have
you had with a cash drawer as a bar waitress?”

“
I did most of the taking money,
mopping the floors, hauling out the trash and when I had time I’d
help the cook. It was a job when I needed one, but I can’t say it
was one that I enjoyed.”

“
I’m a little concerned about you
working at the Mint. But I doubt any of your customers came from
Fairfield. The ladies of Fairfield would love to gossip if they
knew a barmaid was working at WinRight.”

Laura had long ago left behind feeling bad about
being a “barmaid” since that had been exactly what she was and she
needed to make a living somehow, but she had never stopped to think
of how others would perceive her.

“
You have register experience but
are you used to lines, and carts full to the brim with a farm
family week’s supply of groceries?”

“
No, the bar was tables not lines,
but it got awful busy, and the people at the health food store
hardly ever had more than three or four items. But then again, how
many people in Fairfield have even that much
experience?”

“
Good answer, and quick thinking on
your feet also. You said you didn’t like the bar job, but you had
to have a job. What would make me think that this job won’t be the
same and you’ll be down the road in a couple months?”

“
I have to admit I don’t know about
the future, but I do know if I got a good job and could work in a
pleasant environment, I won’t see any reason to leave. I talked to
Barbara and she seems awful nice and you seemed very different than
my old Mint boss. My first impression is I’d love to work here.”
Laura had felt more confident of that fact the more she talked. Now
she didn’t know why anyone would hire someone like her: no phone,
no ties to the community, and no real experience.

“
Let me be upfront with you, Laura,”
Ken began. Laura was ready to hear the bad news. “When I need a new
employee, you would think it would be easy to find one in a small
town with few jobs and a lot of farms not making it. You’d think it
would be easy to find help with the wage we pay, but most women are
tied to their families and guys don’t want to put on an apron and
get stuck inside all day.

“
What I need is someone that is
reliable and can pick up the job quickly. Mostly I need someone who
is personable. The SaveCo store down the street is twice as big as
us and they got lots of parking. What we have is people with a
smile on their face. People in a place like Fairfield come to buy
groceries, but they also come to visit with their friends from
around the county that they might not see except for their trip to
WinRight. The same it true for them seeing a smiling, friendly face
at the checkout stand. Some of the checkers are pretty new; some
have been here for over 15 years. They know more about some of
their customers than their own families.

“
People here will put up with
waiting in line for five minutes because a checker is slow, but
they won’t put up with a checker that doesn’t care their new cat is
sick or their joints hurt and the checker gets a weather forecast
passed on that pain. That means something to most customers and
it’s the thing we rely on at my store.

“
Do you think that you could handle
a job like that?”

“
I think I’d love a job like
that.”

“
Well we’ll soon find out. If you
want the job, you start Monday. You were honest about your other
jobs and honesty goes a long way with me. You can teach someone to
work a register, but you can’t teach honesty. I still have to call
your references, but if they check out, you’ve got a job. When you
get your phone, give me a call. I’ll put you on the schedule for
next week. One suggestion, the phone company isn’t that busy, they
just like to act like it. Bug them a little bit and they’ll be out
quicker.”

Laura checked her excitement as she waved goodbye to
Barbara who now was busy with a line of customers. The only thing
she had to worry about was Ken checking her references. She could
image that creep at the Mint giving her one last slap. Also she had
wanted to leave Billings behind forever, and now her old friends
would know her new location. But that was a risk she had to take.
The WinRight just felt good. The whole move to Fairfield had seemed
to come together in an almost miraculous way.

Not yet. Don’t get too excited yet.
Too much has happened to get too excited yet.
The memories of last night still lingered in her
thoughts.

Her thoughts had hardly passed
through her mind when she turned the key to her pickup and there
was no response.
Dead battery. Serves me
right for thinking that everything was going to be okay. Nothing
that easy for me.

To her horror, Ken walked out as soon as she opened
her hood.

“
Well, I guess I don’t have to worry
about you going down the road for a better job.”

Laura started to think about excuses, but Ken already
had a pair of jumper cables in his hand.

“
You aren’t the first person this
has happened to. They’re a lot of “mature” cars in this county. I
wind up starting three, four cars a week. Maybe I should use
knowing how to use jumper cables as part of the interview. Do you
know how to use these?”

“
No”

“
Well, I’ll add that to the list of
first day ‘to do’s’”

“
My first day. I’ve got the
job?”

“
I just finished calling your
references. Make sure you have clothes ready for work,” Ken said
with a smile.

Laura forgot to say thanks as her pickup started and
left the lot, but somehow she didn’t think it would matter.

Chapter Sixteen

 

 

K
en at
WinRight was right. She gave the phone company another call and had
a phone installed by Thursday. Ken scheduled Laura to begin her
training on Friday and Saturday, take Sunday off and begin her
regular shift on Monday.

Laura would train with Evelyn, the oldest and most
experienced checker and who had seen everything from robbery to
drunken cowboys to the rare local who thought they needed to be
catered to. For the first hour Laura felt as the schoolgirl being
lectured by the school matriarch. She dreaded facing two days of
this. Then Barbara intervened.

“Evelyn, don't bore this girl to death with all your
old stories and bad manners. We want her to stay around for a
second year let alone a second day. Evelyn is from the old school,
as in counting with her fingers and toes.”

“
Barbara, at least I can count.
You're just jealous ‘cause customers come to my register rather
than yours. Laura here is sharp enough, she could probably take
over your register and do twice your job”

“
Now, Laura, before you believe her
lies, know one thing, we all love each other,” Barbara gave Evelyn
a big hug.