• It was summer. There were no lectures, no assignments, no annoying classmates, no condescending TA's, not even any roommates to use up all the hot water. Everything should have been peachy. She was supposed to be happy, delighted even. It was different this year though. She was no longer an elementary or high school student; rather she had entered the realm of university.

    Summer was long. It was more free time than Sara had ever had. What couldn't one accomplish, even if she had to work? FOUR WHOLE MONTHS! That was two times two months!

    Reality set in quickly however as her first university summer approached. Finding a summer job in her hometown when she wasn't living there at the time was tricky. She calmed herself though. Seriously it was only May. All the high school kids were still in class for another 8 weeks. There would be no competition for jobs this early, so she thought.

    ***

    Like all her peers, Sara had waited until the last hours before her parent's arrival to start packing. She had watched as her roommates left one by one but felt assured she’d have enough time to get everything done. Then her mom called and everything changed.

    Rushing from room to room, Sara picked up lone socks and leftover garbage. Hearing the knock on the door, she rushed to it. Greeting her was her mom and her dad and her 15 year old brother and following them her RA, Aruthi. Sara had met Aruthi when she moved in and the upper year had terrified her instead of comforting. Aruthi was meticulously neat and organized. Not a single shoe was allowed left in her hallway and no one dared to leave hair in the showers.

    "That lamp should be in the common room Sara, you know this," Aruthi began her tirade and Sara quickly began running again. By the time Aruthi finally, grudgingly, nodded her approval and signed the release form, Sara was panting. Her family had patiently stood beside the door waiting for her to be ready. When they realized that Sara had no plans of moving after passing out on her bed, her mom coughed.

    "Sara, dear, are you ready to go?" she asked smiling. Of course she was smiling; she was amused. Sara mumbled a few choice words under her breath and threw a bag of laundry at her brother.

    ***

    This was it, her first job interview. Sara had already been home for 3 weeks, scouring the newspapers and on-line job sites for anything that had the word office. After sending out thousands of copies of her resume and ad-lib cover letters she had finally gotten a call back.

    The lobby she sat in was interesting to say the least. For one thing, the frost covered houseplant beside her looked close to death. Sara knew all office buildings had air conditioning, but this room felt more like a cooler. The receptionist, a little Asian girl, looked very nice and smiled at Sara reassuringly every few moments. The girl looked about 14 and managed not to shiver in a sleeveless top. Sara's arms were wrapped around her trying to preserve her body heat.

    "Ms. Couhlier, the boss will see you now," the little Asian girl called out.

    Sara leapt out of her seat and headed for the one door beside the reception desk praying that the boss's room was more temperate. Seated behind the folding table was a short Asian man whose nameplate read Mr. Chang. Sara smiled and stretched out her hand across the table. The little man shook her hand and sat down briskly.

    "What makes you think you're a suitable candidate for this job?"

    How could she answer that when she wasn't even sure what she had to do? The ad had mentioned office work and computer skills required. The actual job description was never given and when Sara had called, the receptionist wasn’t very forthcoming.

    Sara had no previous work experience, so the only thing she had been able to put on her resume was some volunteer work she had done at the food bank; 3 years ago; for 2 hours, once. "Well, I have very strong communication skills and excellent computer skills." Sara racked her brain for any other transferable skills she possessed.

    "Do you know how to program jaguar?"

    Her eyes must have widened at the question because Mr. Chang shook his head disappointedly. He placed her resume back on the table and stared at her, "Jaguar, the programming language. You said you had computer skills," he prompted.

    "Well, I meant I could use a computer, like check e-mail and Microsoft Office and stuff. I don't know how to program," Sara replied, stuttering, "I'm an English major; it says so on my resume, I mean…" she was cut off.

    "Then I'm sorry, but you are not qualified for this job. Thank you for your time," Mr. Chang dismissed her. As if on cue, the office door opened and the little Asian girl appeared. Sara stood baffled at how great their timing was.

    "The next applicant has arrived Mr. Chang."

    "Thank you. Please see Ms. Couhlier out."

    ***

    Sara stood outside the door of the office building, stunned. Nothing added up. How had she even gotten outside? Right, the little Asian girl had practically shoved her out the door.

    Letting out a sigh, Sara began her walk to the bus stop. This was unbelievable. How could she blow her first interview? Sara was not going to cry. She was far too old to cry in public. She was, pause, she was going to get herself some ice cream.

    Sara felt the lump in her throat begin to dissolve the moment she walked into the Baskin Robbins. She limped to the counter cursing her mother’s shoes. Ordering a large sundae, Sara brought her chocolaty comfort to a seat at the counter and dug in, trying to console herself. This had been after all, only her first job interview. She was bound to make mistakes, especially when the interviewer was such a mean, cruel, evil little man.

    "You know, talking to yourself is the first sign of insanity."

    Colour rose to Sara's cheeks. The voice had come from the man sitting beside her but she couldn't bring herself to look up.

    "It's also rude to eavesdrop," she retorted, still staring at her bowl.

    "You really should be thanking me. If I didn't sit here, everyone in the store would think you were crazy. Ranting to yourself about some evil little man?"

    Sara blushed even deeper, "Thank you for your unsolicited assistance but I think I can handle my frustration now."

    "Are you sure? You seem very angry. I almost feel bad for the evil little man."

    Finally looking up, Sara glared at the man beside her. For his part, he sat comfortably, grinning at her with a cone in hand.

    "So are you going to tell me what's wrong?" he asked her.

    He was obviously obtuse, and young, and would have been kind of cute if he hadn't been so obnoxious first.

    "I'm sorry but I don't usually go around barraging random strangers with my problems and they don’t usually ask."

    The man shrugged before replying, "What can I say? I'm a nice guy." He grinned again.

    "No!" Sara hissed, "You are not a nice guy because if you were, you'd see that I want to be left alone with my ice cream instead of being harassed. If you were nice, you wouldn't have even sat next to me in the first place since I've obviously had a terrible day and am in no condition to be friendly or even civil. So why don't you actually be nice and go away instead of being creepy and annoying!" Sara huffed and turned her back to him.

    "You're being awfully touchy," he noted taking a bite from his cone.

    Spinning around to face him, Sara was close to livid, "Touchy? Of course I'm touchy. I just had the most horrible job interview, my shoes are eroding the skin off my feet, I don't know how I'm going to pay for next year's tuition since no one is willing to call me much less hire me. I don't even know why I'm looking for office work when I hate dressing up and sitting behind a desk but isn't that what university students are supposed to do? I can't just frolic with my friends in the sandbox anymore. Throw in the fact that my mom now expects me to do my own laundry, wash my own dishes and make my own lunch since I’m now ‘a big girl’ and shouldn’t be pampered, which is ridiculous because the whole reason I'm home is so she can pamper me and treat me like a kid. I miss when I could wake up and watch cartoons until lunch, a lunch that was prepared for me, and then play in the park. I hate this growing up!"

    Everyone in the store stared at her. She could feel their eyes and she wanted to run in front of a car. Her cheeks had already been red from anger so the blush of embarrassment could barely be seen. Sara buried her face in her hands.

    "I hate you," she muttered through her fingers at the cause of first her irritation and then humiliation.

    "Would you still hate me if I offered you a job?" he asked casually.

    Quickly looking up, Sara asked disbelievingly, "You're kidding?"

    He shrugged, "Not if you want it. You mentioned liking the outdoors and I’m a park supervisor, for the summer at least and we need someone. It's not that big a park but you'd have to walk around, make sure there was no litter, no one causing a ruckus, water some things if there's a dry spell. You'd get an awesome tan."

    She stared at him. "You're kidding?"

    He laughed then, "No really, I'm not. My name's Johan." Johan stretched out his hand.

    Sara stared at it, her mind trying to catch up with what was happening. Her eyes widened when it finally did and she grabbed Johan's hand, shaking it excitedly.

    "Oh my god, thank you. I mean it's like, you really are really nice and," Johan laughed cutting off Sara's jumble of words.

    His hand was still being shook and he extracted it gently, "No problem, glad I can help. I know what it's like looking for your first job with no contacts." He took a pen out of his pocket and scribbled the information she would need on a napkin.

    Handing it to her he said, "If you're really interested meet me tomorrow morning, 9am at the gates." He stood up and Sara realized that while she had been yelling at him he had finished his cone.

    "I'll see you tomorrow."

    ***

    The realization first hit her when the door had closed behind Johan; she had never given him her name. So what exactly was she supposed to say, 'Hi it's me the emotionally unstable girl who screamed at you at Baskin Robbins before you offered her a job. Yeah, hi.'

    This was crazy and stupid and she couldn't believe she was actually going. For all she knew, Johan could be some psychotic maniac who was just trying to get her into a secluded park before strangling her with his shoelace. No, he didn't seem the shoelace type, more likely fishing wire.

    Sara stopped walking but shook her head and continued. It would be fun to work here. She'd be outside all day and not freezing in a cubicle. She'd have fresh air and get to see kids with their parents playing. There would be soccer games and enough free time for her to catch up on her reading. 'What the hell,' she finally thought to herself as the park gate came into sight. After all, she had brought her pepper spray.