Title: Job Offer
By: Jay Mendoza, CW
No one in my family is working.
I’ve been searching for a job for months,
hoping for a call from any random number to tell me
“You got the job.”
Today feels like every other day:
Just now getting home to a house that only contains my sister,
singing her heart away.
My parents are at a meeting for something I can’t even understand.
They’ve brought my brother with them, seeing as that was the only choice they had.
All I can understand is that I need a job. I need to support my family.
Today changes when I hear my phone ring.
Upon seeing the unknown number, I smile,
hoping that I’ve finally been accepted in.
Picking up the phone, I try to contain my happiness,
acting professional, just the way I learned in AcaDec.
“Hello, is this–”
My raised shoulders drop as fast as my mood
as the dull tone in their voice fills my veins with a poisoned dread.
“–eldest child of–”
What happened to my parents? To my brother?
Please
just get to the point.
Tell me they’re alright.
“I regret to inform you
that your parents and brother
are here–”
In the hospital? From a car accident?
But how could this happen?
My father’s most cautious when he gets onto the road.
“Your parents are in critical condition.
You and your sister need to come take care of your brother
and be at the side of your mother and father.”
Today, I got the call I wanted for a job offer
in the way I didn’t expect nor want.
In a week’s time, all three children will be dressed in black.
But even before that moment, I must take my place.
“Yes, I will,” I reply
as I accept my job, as eldest daughter,
to become my siblings’ caretaker,
as we are now without Mother or Father.
~JRM {20160111}
