Jobs and Decisions
Jasmina Hamidovic
Carmen Vertica was walking her dog down the steep San Francisco hill on the street that she
lived on. Even though it was 6 o'clock at night, she was sweating as if inside her house had
heating instead of air conditioners inside, on a day when it was 100 degrees outside. Her shirt
was stinky as if she didn't take a shower for a month and her face was dripping wet as if it was
raining, which she wish it was. She bent down and put the leash under her foot so she could tie
her long, thick, wavy brown hair into a pony tail. Her dog felt twice as bad because of all of the
nasty, thick fur that she had. It was so horrific that it was torturing her so Carmen had to walk
home as soon as possible. She was whining which made her go even faster to be over with this
pain and high weather. But as Carmen walked home she just thought about how her younger
brother felt with an insulated AC in the apartment without needing to be directly facing the sun.
When she got home Carmen opened her apartment door and felt a burst of cold shivers that made
goose bumps on her dark, tan skin. She saw her brother in his pajamas curled up in a ball saying,
''Frrrrreeeeeeezzzinnng, frrrreeeeeezzzzinnnng.'' It was a little bit funny especially because he
was 14 years old and she expected him to be more mature than that. As she rushed to go see if he
was okay she started to feel a little numb in not even a minute. Carmen felt shivering cold and
felt as if she would develop hypothermia or something. She touched her brother's head and it was
crazy on fire. It was up to Carmen to take care of her little brother Jakup. These were the times
she wished her parents were around to take care of him. She often felt like a single mother taking
care of a teenager while working full time. Carmen went to the medicine cabinet to get the
thermometer. She took his temperature and it was 101 degrees. She gave him some Tylenol, just
like her mother had done with her when she was sick to bring down the fever. They both would
have an early morning the next day so she sent him to bed early.
The next morning, Jakup walked into Carmen's room dressed for school and asked her if she
wanted breakfast. "What happened? Do you feel better?"
"Yeah, I got a good night's sleep and now I'm ready to go to school. So what do you want for
breakfast?" Jakup said.
"A waffle and coffee. Thanks." Carmen got out of bed and got dressed and ready for work. When
she entered the kitchen her breakfast was ready for her. A horn outside honked and Jakup
grabbed his bag and rushed out. She ate it quickly, gulped her coffee, grabbed her keys and purse
and walked to the bus stop.
The bus arrives and Carmen hurries on to get a seat in the front. She checks her watch and
worries that she might be late for work. Carmen stares out the window and thinks of Jakup. She
hopes he will be okay. She always worries about him. There wasn't much traffic so she arrived to
work on time.
Carmen quickly walked off the bus looking straight ahead, trying not to make eye contact with
the creepy man on the stairs who smokes cigarettes all day. She walked up the stairs into the
market, hoping today more customers would be shopping. Her paychecks had been small
because of the lack of customers lately.
"Just in time Carmen," said her boss Greg.
"Were there any cusomers"
"No not yet. I just got here," Greg replied.
The first customer came before I even got my coat off and purse down. The woman was walking
around the store putting chips and candy in her basket, struggling because her kids kept
complaining that they wanted more. "This is all we're getting. If you keep this up we're not going
to buy anything," The woman said to her kids as she was walking to the register.
Carmen greeted the woman and the children. "Good morning. How are you today?"
"Uh, not so good today. Sue, stop fighting with your brother!" The woman scolded her children.
Carmen gave the kids a lollipop to distract them, but the kids continued to fight and run around
the store. The woman set down her purse on the counter to find her wallet and pay for the
groceries. The woman handed Carmen a $20 bill. As Carmen was getting the change ready to
give back to the woman, she saw her bolt out of the store running after her children.
Carmen grabbed the bags and the purse and ran out of the store to find the woman. She ran down
the stairs and looked in all directions and saw no one. She asked the creepy man on the stoop
where the woman went. In between cigarette puffs he said, "They ran to the side of the store and
when I looked again they were gone." Carmen walked up and down the block looking for the
woman but couldn't find her. Carmen walked back to the market thinking how strange it was that
they just disappeared. Carmen walked back into the store and set the purse and the bags behind
the counter, assuming the woman would come back to get her things later.
The day passed and the woman never came to pick up her things. Carmen opened the woman's
purse and looked inside. She felt uncomfortable looking through the woman's things but she
wanted to find a way to contact her. As she looked through the purse she found her wallet and
license. Her license said her name was Susan Ray and she lived in Orlando, Florida. What was
she doing here, Carmen thought. Then Carmen's eyes widened. Tucked inside of her wallet was a
huge stack of bills. Carmen held up the wallet and the wad of bills fell on the floor. Sprawled out
on the floor was a bunch of $100 bills. Carmen pushed them into a pile before her boss saw her
and shoved them back into the purse. She looked around to make sure Greg didn't see her. He
was coming towards her so she shoved the purse back under the counter. Her curiosity was going
to kill her. She had to know how much money was in that purse.
"Time to close up the shop." Greg reminded Carmen. "You're all set to go. See you tomorrow."
Greg headed to turn the Open sign to Close and then shut off the lights. Carmen took her own
purse out of the closet and shoved it inside the woman's bigger purse. Greg glanced over at
Carmen and stared at the big, shiny, pink purse hanging off her arm. "That's some purse you got
there," he said to her with eyes narrowed.
"Oh, yeah," Carmen said nervously. "You never know what you're going to need." She let out a
nervous laugh and rushed out the door before he asked her anymore questions.
Totally ignoring the creepy man on the stairs, Carmen pressed the purse tightly against her and
ran to catch the bus. She could feel the wad of cash bursting in the bag. When the bus stopped at
her apartment, she ran off and quickly made it to her apartment door. When she walked in the
door, Jakup was on the couch watching tv. "Hey Jakup," She said walking directly to her room.
"Nice purse, is it new?" He asked. Carmen ignored him and closed the door to her room and
locked it. She dumped the things out of the purse onto her bed. She took the money into her
hands and counted bill by bill. $3,000! Carmen jumped up and down.Carmen stopped because
she heard her phone ringing. she was listening to her ringtone trying to look for it.when she
found it it said best friend.Carmen picked up the phone and said "Hello" her friends name is
jan.jan said "hey remember me,Jan?"
Jan lived in chigaco.she called her and said that she has exiting news. "What is it?" carmen
asked."i got you a job interview.but the cool thing is,you dont need to go there because i just
gave them a survay that i signed about you.then they looked at your grades and thats it." ''wow''
Carmen said. Carmen was absoulutly shocked that she just got a job like that and she doesnt need
to work at the little corner store anymore.Carmen took a goods night rest and went to the bus
stop.she went to work and ran to her boss and said ''im sorry but im quiting'' she just left and
went home not saying bye or anything.
When she went home she told her brother.He was so exited about moving to chicago but she
stopped being exited because she found out what is she going to do with her money.She brought
Jakup into her room and showed him the money.she said ''do you think i should keep it to go or
should we not?'' ''Heck yeah!'' So Carmen called Jan and said that they were moving there.