I nodded along but only understood part of what he was saying. My parents hadn’t allowed us to have phones, even before the plague, and I’d only gotten on our home computer a few times when I needed to look something up for school. The internet was just one more thing I didn’t understand all that well.
“That’s cool. Maybe you can still do that one day. I’d watch you play video games.”
He smiled. “My very first subscriber. How about you?”
“I wanted to work with animals. Maybe at a zoo or an animal shelter.”
“Not many zoos left anymore.”
He was right, and there probably weren’t any in Promised Land either. “Maybe I could work in the stables?”
“How do you feel about mucking out stalls?”
“That’d be fine, as long as I can pet the horses once in a while.”
We puttered around a bit more. Artemis was first to be called in and came back a few minutes later with the news that she’d be working as a preschool teacher, which seemed like a good start. Gizmo was assigned as a machinist’s apprentice, working with his new friend Wylie, and Macon would be doing general grounds maintenance, and he seemed only a little bit disappointed about it. “At least I’ll get in a good workout,” he said, trying to stay positive.
Teresa came back and said they’d assigned her to work in the general store. She’d wanted to be placed with Artemis, but there were no other open positions.
“I bet they have candy there,” I said to make her feel better.
“I’ll check in on you and make sure you’re doing okay,” Macon said and nudged her side. She smiled up at him and nodded.
Then it was my turn. Sitting across from six strangers, I tugged on a loose thread of my shirt while they asked questions about where I’d grown up. They seemed surprised that we’d survived on our own for as long as we had. They asked me about Little Miss Purrfect too, who was now an official resident, complete with a collar and tag.
“And how do you feel about slaughtering animals?” one of the committee members asked.
“Not good,” I said, my stomach turning at the thought of it.
The same woman said, “The thing is, Joshua, our animals are for work or for food. And even when caring for work animals, death is sometimes part of the job. You might have to shoot a lame horse or cull a sickly calf.”
I shook my head. “I don’t think I could kill an animal, even if it was sick.”
She nodded, her eyes crinkling with kindness. The committee members leaned toward each other and discussed it. If I had Cipher’s hearing, I might have been able to hear what they were saying.
“How’s your stomach?” the woman asked.
I glanced down at it. “In general? Sort of hungry.”
She smiled. “How do you handle, say, medical situations?”
“I once had to stitch up my brother’s hand when he cut himself on a sharp piece of metal, and I cared for my mother when she was…” I had a flashback to her final weeks, too weak to leave her bed and covered all over with sores. I’d bathed her as gently as possible, trying not to cause her any more pain while keeping her wounds cleaned and dressed. “I took care of my mother when she had Rabbit Fever. She passed away though.”
They nodded with sympathy, then the five of them spoke quietly to one another again.
“I’m hard of hearing,” I said. “I can only hear in one ear. I put that on the form, but I thought I should tell you, just in case.”
The woman straightened in her chair and said, “We were thinking of placing you in the kitchen, but we happen to have a new position that just opened up today.”
“Okay,” I said cautiously.
“Our new midwife is going to need some assistance. Our current nursing staff is already dedicated to the hospital and Dr. Foley’s practice. How would you feel about being an apprentice to Sister Marion?”
“Does that mean working with babies?” I asked, daring to hope.
“And pregnant women too. For now, you’d probably be taking notes or running errands or assisting Marion with the things she may need, especially as she continues to recover from her injuries.”
It sounded like a dream come true.
