Page 111 of Wicked Pickle

Oh. Now, I get it.

Me: I don’t think Merrick and Diesel are coming back. Where are you?

Greta: The Leaky Skull. Sitting by the door.

Oh, shit. I imagine the woman I saw briefly at the wedding standing outside the deserted Leaky Skull, the sun bearing down on her.

Greta: I have Caden with me.

What? She has her kid? I guess it is summer. No school.

Me: Can you call for a ride into Miami?

I imagine her being penniless and lost.

Greta: Yes. But I don’t know where to go.

I glance at the clock. I have hours to go on my shift. This really should be Rhett’s problem. Or any of the Pickles.

But somehow, now, it’s mine.

Me: I’m not off work until four. But you can go to a coffee shop near my apartment. I can meet you when I’m back. I’d take off, but it’s literally my first day.

Greta: I can get a hotel, I guess. For a little while.

So, money is an issue. She’s in some real trouble.

Me: Are you in danger?

Greta: No, but I left Jude. And he’s frozen our accounts. I have one credit card in my name, but it’s not going to last forever.

Me: Don’t get a hotel. Go to the coffee shop. I’ll meet you there.

Greta: Send me the address.

I do, then package up my sandwich. It’s time for me to head back to work.

And then who knows what will happen.

Greta is on my mind as I suffer through a very slow first day of work.

I’ve never had a job outside of sacking groceries and working at a coffee shop, so I don’t have much to compare this to.

But it is definitely boring.

The most exciting part about reading the manual and filling out forms was the orientation video that was surely filmed in the nineties. While the building was more or less the same, the section on computer security reminded us to remove both floppy disks before the end of the day.

I didn’t know computers ever had two floppy drives. Seems wasteful.

I check in with my supervisor at the end of the day to let her know how far I’d gotten in my manual and to turn in the forms.

“We’ll have some proper work for you to do tomorrow,” she says.

“Excellent. See you then.”

I fly out of the door and race down the street to the employee lot. I was given a free pass for the first week, then I have to decide whether I want to pay for it or take a bus in.

I’m glad I have my car as I drive across Miami to my apartment near campus. I trade messages with Greta during every red light, letting her know I’m getting close.

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