This was going to be the best birthday yet.
Mom and I stood in front of the cake mixes, pondering the perfect flavor for my Sweet Sixteen cake.
“I think it should be pink!” I said.
“Anything my baby girl wants,” Mom said. “We could get strawberry, which already comes in pink. Or we could get a vanilla one and add food coloring.”
“I like vanilla best, but food coloring is expensive,” I said. “We only have forty dollars to spend, and we would waste a whole dollar on the color.”
“You already ran the numbers?”
I glanced through the basket. This was one of my strengths. “Eight ninety-six, ten forty-two…” I slid my hands over the boxes and jars. “Actually, we should have a few dollars to spare. We could get the pink!”
“Done,” Mom said, dropping the vanilla cake mix and the bottle of food coloring into the basket. “You’re so good with figures!”
She cupped my chin to look into my eyes. I saw the joy there. I was glad I made her so happy. Wewere a team. We could create a feast from two potatoes and a leek. Our time in the kitchen, making the most of our meager food supply, was one of the best parts of each day.
“I’m so proud of what a resourceful, level-headed girl you’ve become this time.”
“This time?”
Mom’s smile froze, and my belly quaked. I’d said something wrong. I spoke quickly to fix it. “Should I see if I can find some fruit on sale? If we save some money there, we might be able to get ice cream!”
Mom’s smile returned. “That’s a good idea. I’ll go to the frozen section. There’s a nice store brand.”
“I’ll meet you there!” I scurried toward the produce. We’d budgeted six dollars for fruit and vegetables. Surely I could find things on sale for less than that.
I passed the bulletin board near the front door, and a sign caught my eye.
Are you sixteen? Be a stocker at Shelfmart!
I was sixteen! I could be a stocker!
Earn up to $15 an hour.
Fifteen dollars an hour! That was four cake mixes! Two tubs of ice cream! Every hour!
We could buy more food. Get new clothes. Watch more movies than the four we had. I saw the titles in racks at the store. I loved how Mom laughed when the Munchkinsshowed up inThe Wizard of Oz. There had to be more movies that could make her laugh.
A girl not much older than me walked up to the board and stapled a flier in an empty spot. She wore one of the red Shelfmart shirts. Her badge read “Natalia.”
“Need some help?” she asked.
I pointed to the sign. “What’s a stocker?”
“That’s the people who unpack the deliveries and put the food on the shelves.”
“Oh, I could do that!”
Natalia waved toward a tall man who stood behind the customer service counter. “Go talk to Frank. He’s desperate for someone.”
She pulled a paper out of one of the big envelopes hanging on the board. “You’ll need an application. You can fill out this one, or you can do it online.”
Online. I wasn’t sure what that meant, but I’d ask Frank.
I took the paper and headed for the counter. No one was waiting, and Mom was way over in frozen foods, so I was safe to talk to him. What a surprise this would be if I got a job. She’d be so happy!
When I arrived at the counter, Frank leaned over with a big grin beneath a fuzzy mustache. “Hey, are you turning that in?”
