Ketchup Popsicle 14

First I need to get a job. Sandra thought to herself the next morning as she punched the word secretary into a job search engine on Mike’s computer. She erased the word a secretary and replaced it with office administrator. Sandra decided that now that she was a mother, she had to have a gown up job. No more video store or convenience store jobs for her. She had worked part time in an office for a few summers throughout high school and figured that experience might get her in the door somewhere. The search came up with 1,348 jobs that matched the description. She opened the first listing.
"University Degree required." She read aloud. "To answer phones?"

"Phone!" Daniel echoed and waddled over to his toy box and pulled out a Sesame Street phone that Marta had given him. He pressed the button with Big Bird on it and listened to the voice say "Hello Friend."
Sandra opened another job posting and read, "Must have a minimum of 5 years experience." She let out a sigh and took a sip of her tea. Daniel put his hands on her knees and then up in the air wanting to be picked up into her lap to tap on the keyboard. Instead Sandra put Barney on the TV to keep him busy while she buckled down and tried to find a job that didn’t require, well, much.

196 postings later Sandra had come across a few potential job options. There was a welding shop looking for somebody to answer phones and do invoicing, a lawyers office looking for a lackey to answer phones and run errands and a computer warehouse looking for somebody to do inventory. Sandra rubbed her eyes and typed was about to power off the computer and call it a day when she came across a very interesting posting. ‘Executive Assistant - Neason Advertising. Besides the actor, Sandra only knew of one other person with the last name Neason.

Knowing the odds were slim, she clicked on the posting to open it up and found that it was a small company looking for an assistant to the president, Robert Neason. Could it be Bobby Neasen’s father, Sandra wondered? She scrambled for a pen and paper and wrote down the address and phone number to the Advertising Agency. With shaking hands she folded the piece of paper and held it to her chest for a moment before tucking it into the pocket of her robe.

Trying not to get her hopes up, Sandra decided that she would drop her resume of in person to Mr Neason. If it was Bobby’s father, he might remember her from the old neighborhood and give her the job, even despite her terrible resume. It was a shot in the dark, but it’ who you know not what you know her father would always tell her. It was another of her old neighbours that she worked for during summers as a teenager. Sandra’s heart dropped as something occurred to her at that moment.

If Mr. Neason was living in the area, then his son must surely visit him from time to time. Why had Bobby never looked her up? Her father had never moved; it wouldn’t have been very difficult to find her. The thought made her feel - unloved. It was irrational, she knew, since Bobby didn’t owe her anything, not even a phone call since so much time had passed. They might as well have never known each other at all. They might as well be complete strangers.

Marta dropped Sandra off in front of the entrance to the building that the Agency was in exactly two weeks later. Sandra had purchased a pair of heels and a stylish light blue suit that hugged her now firm body in all the right places. She would have not have been able to purchase the shoes without the generosity of Marta. When she told Marta that she wanted to find a job, she knew the old-school woman would be hesitant. So Sandra said the words that she knew would gain her full cooperation. "You will babysit Daniel while I’m at work won’t you?

I wouldn’t be able to leave every day unless I knew he would be with somebody who loves him as much as I do." Marta visibly melted in front of Sandra’s eyes at the thought of so much alone time with her grandchild.
"Of course I will!" She shouted, causing the patrons in their favorite cafe to look in her direction. "Of course I will," Marta said more calmly this time. "
Sandra waved bye-bye to Daniel through the car window and walked into the tall gray building with a heart full of hope and a stomach full of unruly butterflies.