Page 77 of Free Heart
He doesn’t look ashamed or even like he’s been played. I don’t know if he has or not. I know he’s dying to get out into nature again, but Tuolumne Meadow isn’t the place to start. A nice park area or a drive up to Cook’s Meadow Loop to walk on the wide paths and get in some fresh air and new scenery, sure.
I don’t think Sailor is trying to hurt Dan. I believe she wants to help him. But she also doesn’t have his best interests at heart like I do. She wants to make content for her channel, and Dan’s interview brought in a lot of hits for both of them.
“Oh,” Sailor says, right as I’m getting ready to walk away. “I got the first payment on the video from our interview.”
I pause, curious.
She wakes up her phone, touches a few icons, and then turns the screen to me and Dan. I do a double take. “That much?”
I can’t believe it. The video did well, much better than any video on Dan’s channel has done so far, but the last timeI’d looked, it’d only gotten somewhere around three hundred thousand views—which seems like a ton when you think of each as an individual person, but alsonotlike a ton when you realize that making a living on YouTube often requires millions of views. So, I’m shocked to see that the single interview with Dan has generated over three thousand dollars. Half of which will go to Dan.
Sailor proceeds to send that via Venmo while I watch with my mouth hanging open.
“You really can never tell how much money you’re going to make on a video,” she says. “Some of mine have a couple million views, and they don’t do this well. A lot of it is based on the content itself, if the algorithm believes it has ‘value’ or not, and how long viewers watch, whether they come back to watch it again, and where the viewers are watching it from. Different ads in different countries pay different amounts. Regardless, I consider this a few hours well spent, don’t you?”
I can’t help but agree. I don’t know why Sailor gets on my nerves so much, but she hasn’t done anything except make our lives better since she arrived. Even just now when I’d told her “no” to the Tuolumne Meadow plan, she’d accepted it easily. I decide to do better, be better, and have more patience with her.
The rest of my shift flies by, and soon enough I’m walking next to Dan on his crutch, leading him out to the car. Sailor stuck around and they’ve been fielding questions and comments from more fans that have flocked, and I wonder how actual celebrities stand it. Even this bite-sized fame has become more invasive than I ever imagined.
“Do you mind if I interview you soon, Sejin?” Sailor says. “What days do you have off this week?”
“Well, since I’m taking on some plumbing work this weekend? None.”
“Oh.” She frowns.
I briefly wonder where she getshermoney. I know her YouTube channel does well, and her uncle must pay her something for the advance fixer work she’s doing, but she lives and acts like someone with wealth, as if work is fun and optional.
“Well, is there any free time at all?”
I pull out my phone and give it a long look. “I have a few free hours between teaching Movement at the preschool and working here at Papa Bear on Wednesday.”
She brings up her phone, clicks a few things, and says, “Is that around two?”
“Yes.”
“Great. I’ve booked it. See you later,” she says, giving Dan a hug before turning to me with her arms wide.
I hug her, and she squeezes me tighter than I’d expected.
“Oh, and I’ll text you about tomorrow, Dan,” she calls over her shoulder as she strolls away.
I put Dan’s crutch in the trunk and help him into the passenger seat, even though he doesn’t really need my help anymore. He’s supposed to be putting more and more weight on his leg.
“Tomorrow, you have a follow-up appointment with the orthopedist,” I remind him, getting in behind the wheel. “Lowell said he’d drive you down to Fresno since I have Tater Tots in the afternoon.”
“I know. Sailor’s coming with us to shoot some phone footage for our channels.” He puts on his seatbelt.
I pull out of the Papa Bear lot and direct the car toward Peggy Jo’s house. “I thought she was working on that YOSAR documentary.”
“She is.”
“When? With what time?”Ugh.Why am I irritated with Sailor again?
“She’s no busier than you,” he tells me. I’d be willing to dispute that since she spends way more time with Dan than I do lately, and she literally just sat in my café for a few hours holding court. “But, also, she doesn’t sleep much.”
“Insomnia?”
“No. She’s running out of time.”
