Captive - FourTris

Thirty-Two

JANUARY 20
4 MONTHS, 21 DAYS

Tobias's parents are out this afternoon, and so we take full advantage of it, spreading the newspaper and applications and resumes all over the floor, trying to decide the best plan of action. Organization has never really been my forte, but today I'm equipped with highlighters and sticky notes and a notepad.

Our mission, should we choose to accept it, is to get Tobias a job. A decent one, not a minimum wage one like he's had before.

Those jobs aren't making an impression on his savings account.

He wants to move out. Bad. So we're going to find something that pays enough for him to get out of his parents' house, and once he's in his own place, everything is going to change. Finally, we can put them behind us.

It will just be us and we can forget the things they've done to him, and he'll just think of me and our future. Nothing will touch us.

I pick up a piece of the classifieds. "What about this?

'Day laborer wanted. Busy construction co seeks hard worker. Starts at nine dollars an hour.'"

He wrinkles his nose. "I don't know ... nine bucks isn't much if it's hard work."

I shrug. My mum only makes me work in the summer, and even then, I think it's just to keep me busy while she works. She puts half my money into savings for college and I spend the other half on whatever I want. I've never really had to labor. I guess I can't judge him for that.

"Okay, how 'bout this one? 'Electricians Assistant. Pay DOE, some experience preferred.' I mean, you don't have experience really, but if they don't get anyone good they might give you a shot."

He shrugs and I know he's not into it. I guess it's kind of a long shot. Tobias doesn't have much job experience, just some short stints at a couple restaurants and some summer work at a landscaping company. All the drama at home kind of ruins his reliability, and people don't really care what problems you have, they just want you to show up every single day as if you haven't spent all night keeping peace between your mum and dad.

I hand him the paper. "Okay, well, look through here and I'll work on the applications then. My writing is neater."

And so I pick up the first one, for a hardware store, and I painstakingly print his name, birthday, address, and phone number. It's all memorized.

When I get to 'Reason for Leaving Last Position' I have to get a little creative. For the landscaping position, I write 'No opportunities for advancement'. It's mostly true and I'm sure no one will ask. What kind of opportunities could there be? He mowed lawns all summer.

The whole thing is an exercise in creative writing. By the time I get to the end, I'm not sure if there are more truths or lies. But they're only white lies and omissions, and he needs a job to get away from here.

Once he's been at the new job for a while, he'll have a whole new history and he'll be able to move up and forget all these silly little things. We're going to rewrite his past, one year at a time. Once I'm out of college, we'll both have clean slates and bright futures. It'll be perfect.

I didn't manage to apply to UW like I'd always planned, so it looks like I'll start off by going to community college. I haven't said anything to Tobias yet, but sometimes I want to ask him if he'll go with me, take a few classes and build something for himself.

Maybe it would give him something to look forward to.

By the time we're done, I have six applications written in neat little block letters, and four more places to drop resumes off. My hand is aching, but I feel good about this.

Tobias's mood lifts once he sees our progress and realizes that maybe a new job will be reality. I realise all I have to do is show him how to put his dreams into practice, put things into motion, and he'll see how easy it is. He doesn't have to just dream, he can do it. Nothing can stop him.

Nothing can stop us.