Читать книгу The Cell Phone Lot - Greta Gorsuch - Страница 5

Chapter One

Jessica’s life was over, and it was only ten in the morning. She sat there in her new red car. The car she saved months for. The car she borrowed money for. The red car with two doors and black seats. The red car with the endless speed. Her little Nissan 370Z.

Jessica didn’t start the car. She just sat and looked straight ahead. She could see the back of the Wintergreen Drug Store. There wasn’t much to see. The manager at Wintergreen made employees park in the back. Next to the dumpster.

The back of the Wintergreen Drug Store looked different from the front. At the entrance, the windows were large. You wanted to go inside. You could see so many bright things to buy. Candy, cosmetics, shampoo, T-shirts, and cards. In the back of the store, there was just the dumpster. And on this cold February day, the view looked dark and sad. The plain, windowless door was shut tight.

So Jessica sat, thinking that her life was over. She couldn’t believe it. What happened? Things were going so well. She had a job as the head of the beauty department at five Wintergreen stores. She worked hard to get the job. She went to cosmetology school. She spent a year studying skin care, makeup techniques, and business management. She graduated at the top of her class.

She interviewed at every department store and beauty salon in town. Her older brother, Brandon, said, “See, you messed up again. Why didn’t you go to college? No one’s going to pay you to do makeup.” But then she got a phone call from the manager of cosmetics for Wintergreen Drug Stores. It was a national chain! He invited Jessica to come to the headquarters for an interview.

Her father, Juan Vasquez, drove her the six hours to Dallas in his huge car. Jessica wanted to drive by herself. Since her mother had died two years earlier, her father had become very quiet. Still, he wanted to drive her to Dallas. He said so. And Jessica decided she wanted to spend time with him. It was a silent drive.

They got to Dallas. Jessica had her interview. And she got the job! She was the new beauty and cosmetics manager for Wintergreen Drug Stores in her hometown. When she told her father on the way home, he smiled.

“That’s great, Jessica, amor,” said Juan Vasquez.

Her brother and sister wouldn’t believe it when she told them about the job. Jessica was the middle child. She was the one who always messed up. She was the one who hadn’t gone to college. She was the one who smoked. Her mother, Victoria Vasquez, yelled at her at least once a week. “You should be in college! Become a lawyer! Become someone! Stop partying and start studying!” But Jessica spent her last two years of high school going to parties. She didn’t study. She found she enjoyed doing her friends’ hair. She tried new makeup techniques on them. Her mother just shook her head. Jessica would not be going to college.

When Jessica and her dad got home from Dallas, she called her younger sister, Veronica.

“I don’t believe it,” said Veronica.