Episode 13: The Reason Why

Episode 13

The Reason Why

Jennifer takes a sip of her coffee, still half asleep. The sun isn't even up yet, the world is still dark – almost as dark as her coffee. Jennifer never used to drink black, bitter coffee, but ever since the copy machine fiasco Jennifer has opted for coffee as dark, or almost as dark, as the ink that had gotten her in trouble in the first place.

Jennifer finishes her breakfast, scrambled eggs and dry toast, and drinks the last of her coffee, before heading out.

The only light outside are the streetlamps and the occasional car headlights. Halfway to the stables, Jennifer starts to hear the early birds singing and within a few minutes the sun starts to rise. She yawns and forces her eyes open.

Over the last few days Jennifer had been part of a game of human-hot-potato – where she had been the potato. Because of the fact that certain people in The Historic Society didn't want Jennifer fired, she had been passed around from job to job, not particularly succeeding in any of them. Jennifer has, so far, been a personal assistant, an associate tour guide and a day-care worker – needless to say that she didn't thrive in any of the environments and was now on her way to job number five.

She wishes that someone would just fire her.

“Once upon a time, is how most good stories start, but that's probably not how my story started. That phrase implies a happy ending. It's just hard to imagine a happy ending from this particular point in time,” Jennifer says as she turns down the road on the right. “I'm not useless or bad at everything. I'm as good as a fish would be when expected to fly – I wasn't made for these jobs, I will never be good at these jobs... and, yet, here I am.”

Jennifer walks into the stables through the front door and directly through to the back. She is what is known as a Stable Boy (or girl) and is expected to care for the three horses that she is assigned. This job includes brushing, cleaning out the stables, feeding the horses and preparing them for out rides. Doing this for three horses sounds like a lot of work, doesn't it? That's because it is.

Jennifer has never relied on coffee more heavily in her life. Besides the fact that her entire body aches and that she is now officially a coffee addict, Jennifer is exhausted and constantly finds horse hairs everywhere.

Jennifer grew up around horses and learned how to ride from a young age, this is one job that she might not screw up. But, on the other hand, this is the one job that might just kill her before she can screw up.

This is her third day on the job and she is already contemplating getting herself fired, but she can't bring herself not to give her all.

Jennifer checks the notice board on the wall, checking her schedule for the day, and is woken by the shock of what she finds.

She has to prepare all three her horses for an out ride at eight.

If the out ride starts at eight, Jennifer has to be done by half past seven at the latest. Within seconds, Jennifer has her grooming kit, is in the stable number 7 and starts with her first customer – Casey.

After having finished with Casey, Jennifer moves on to Gold. Gold is not a morning horse and tries to shove Jennifer into one of the stable walls once she enters, but soon enough he realizes that it's no use and keeps still. Halfway through combing out his mane, the horse had rolled around in some bush and tangled his hair nicely, Jennifer's phone starts to ring. Jennifer feels the intense urge not to answer, but does so anyway, all while continuing with Gold's hair.

“Darling, are you at the stables yet?” Jennifer's mother asks, after having exchanged pleasantries.

“Yes,” Jennifer tries to say as Gold starts to scratch his head against her body and she almost drops her phone.

“Good. Anna just called, her car was stolen last night,” Her mother says and Jennifer stops grooming, she takes a step away from Gold as well. Anna is supposed to lead the out ride.

“We're in a bit of a bind with the out ride at eight, you wouldn't mind leading it, would you? Tracy, Mrs Naud, will go with, but she's not as familiar with the rout as you. All you have to do is point the way, Tracy with go through all the safety regulations beforehand...”

“Sure!” Jennifer says, before her mother can finish.

After getting the rest of the information from her mother, Jennifer starts whistling while working. Her day had just gotten a little brighter. There are few things that she enjoys as much as going up into the mountains for a few hours at a time.

She finishes with Gold and checks her watch, there is still enough time left to finish with SP (Shining Prince) and saddle up.

In what feels like no time at all, Mrs Naud walks into the stables and starts talking to Jennifer. They go over the safety regulations, as Jennifer finishes saddling up.

Jennifer will be riding Casey and Mrs Naud will be on Queen, one of the two horses that another stable boy had gotten ready.

While waiting for the clients, Jennifer thinks to herself how much better it is to have a small out ride group. Seven is already a bit large, but five is just right. Halfway through her happy train of thought the clients arrive, Jennifer welcomes them and leads them to the main stables. But while doing this her phone starts to vibrate. Someone is calling her; she rejects the call without the customers noticing and continues talking. Jennifer wouldn't want to be rude.

While Mrs Naud explains the safety regulations, Jennifer's phone starts buzzing again, and she proceeds to reject the call just as Anna Goodhals walks in.

Jennifer frowns, she thought that Anna wouldn't be coming.

Jennifer leaves the group and checks her phone, it was her mother that had called.

Jennifer quickly calls back, already knowing what her mother would be say – that Anna was on her way and that Jennifer didn't have to go on the out ride anymore. But, Jennifer wanted to, she really, really, wanted to. She had even finished mucking out two of the stables to make up for the time she would lose while on the out ride.

After having talked to her mother, the result was as expected, Jennifer continued with her regular chores around the stables, but was finished by ten. There wasn't enough time left for Jennifer to saddle up another horse and go with the group, so she had to stay behind.

Because of the fact that she had finished most of her work in record time, Jennifer didn't have anything to do... except lounge on top of a bale of hay, in the back room, daydreaming about being out in the mountains on horseback.

“There's just something about being away from this small town, about distancing one’s self for a bit. It's like a mental reset, you get to clear your head and leave your entire life behind. I sometimes wonder if that is what the founders had tried to do – escape their lives.” Jennifer says and sleepily starts to drift off to the world of dreams, before being awoken by a loud yelp.

She looks around and finds one of the other stable workers standing frozen with a shocked expression on her face.

“Are you okay?” Jennifer asks, wanting to go back to sleep.

“I thought you were dead,” Is all the blue-eyed girl says. “I came in and saw you laying there, and you weren't moving and...” She takes a heavy breath, folding double with her hands on her knees – her shoulder length brown hair falls around her face in the process.

Jennifer hops off and puts a hand on the girl's shoulder, to which she lets out another yelp, before realizing that it was only the not-so-dead-Jennifer again.

“Don't do that!” The girl says angrily.

“Sorry,” Jennifer says with a laugh. “I'm Jennifer.”

“Rebecca,” The girl says. “What were you doing up there anyway?”

Jennifer tells Rebecca what had happened, while helping her carry enough feed to her assigned horses in the process. After a while the two switch topics and Jennifer discovers that Rebecca doesn't do well when watching anything remotely scary – as she had done the night before – and that her mother also works for The Historic Society. She also has a younger sister, Miya. Rebecca also tells her that she usually works in the stables every vacation for a little extra money, she's apparently saving up for when she goes to university in a few years.

Part way through their conversation about all the silly things that their families have done over the years Mr Trout, the stable manager, had walked past and asked Jennifer why she wasn't working. To this she replied by telling the entire story again, Mr Trout then proceeded to give her the rest of the day off with a grunt and a “Can't have you keeping my other staff away from their work.”

In twenty minutes, Rebecca and Jennifer had concluded their conversation and Jennifer was on her way to the library again – she wasn't nearly as tired anymore and was hoping to run into Enoch there. The Reilly family had gotten back from vacation the day prior, but Jennifer hadn't seen him yet... and she felt too silly to call. So, Jennifer opted for going to his favourite place instead.

While walking down the street, Jennifer started thinking about Rebecca again. She was nice, a little strange, but a good kind of strange. Jennifer wouldn't mind getting to know her a little better...

Was that sign always there? Jennifer asks herself, as she stops in front of the library.

In the far-left window, there is a slightly faded sign that says HELP WANTED. Jennifer has never seen the sign before, but, judging by the look of the paper, it must have been there for a while... to be fair, Jennifer isn't very observant.

Jennifer dismisses the sign and walks in, they probably aren't hiring anymore... they probably found someone and had forgotten to take the sign down.

Inside, Jennifer takes her usual seat at the back, near the sparrow window, after having browsed the shelves for a few minutes. Jennifer didn't care to take a book, sometimes she just likes to walk through the aisles and read the names of the authors – one of them might be her author – and fantasizes about who she thinks these people are.

She didn't find Enoch anywhere; he must be at home... unpacking or doing something equally boring.

Jennifer takes out her note pad, she'd been writing to Enoch over the last few days... she found that she liked writing letters and didn't know who else to write to. After the apology, she continued to write about her various jobs and how, particularly, bad she had been at taking care of the young explorers at the Unicorn Trail Daycare. She wanted to write to him about what had happened in her day, but, before she could, she started wondering whether or not she would give Enoch the letters once she saw him.

Dismissing the thought Jennifer starts writing, but then can't seem to get past the third sentence.

“Would I give him the letters?” Jennifer asks herself. “I wrote them to give them to him.” She tells herself and tries writing again, but fails for a second time.

She heaves out a heavy sigh. So, this is writer's block.

Jennifer leans back in her chair, plays with her pen and continues to talk to her reader, or herself.

“It's just that it's odd. Why would I give him a stack of letters?” Jennifer says and starts drawing little flowers on the page in front of her – her eyes start to droop and the flowers become harder to draw and her eyelids take longer to open.

“I don't want him to get the wrong idea... I don't want to lose my friend...” She says with a yawn and puts her pen down. She shakes her head and tries to wake herself up, but before long she's decided, not to sleep, but just to lay on her arms for a bit.

By this time, it ought not be necessary to announce that Jennifer had fallen asleep, given her history with falling asleep at tables – but it shall be announced none the less.

Jennifer had fallen asleep.

She found herself standing between the shelves in a library. The bookcases were infinitely high, as she looked up, and infinitely long, when she looked to her right. They were jam packed with books of every colour and size, their spines decorated with titles in every font – the word, the phrase and name that forever defined them stamped onto their very backbone.

Jennifer looked to her left and saw, not very far away, a passageway between the shelves. Each book whispered the words once upon a time as Jennifer passed them on her way to the passage.

Once there, Jennifer found that the narrow passageway continued on forever in front of her and forever behind as well. There were golden numbers on each of the bookshelves, she admired the number 13 on the bookshelf to her left before the chirp of a bird pulled her attention away.

In front of her in the passage, stood a happy little sparrow. Chirping and turning its head from side to side, looking at Jennifer with its beautiful little eyes. Without warning, the little bird takes off and flies over Jennifer's head and – for some very logical reason – she decides to run after it.

Jennifer ran and ran until her legs wouldn't anymore and then she walked. After a while Jennifer had lost sight of the sparrow. Sad and disappointed she continued on down the passage, not knowing where she was or where she was going. She continued walking and continued to look at the checkered floor as she did so. She thought up nonsense and argued with herself and then suddenly the sparrow chirped from beside her.

She stopped in her tracks and found the bird perched atop a shelf numbered by a golden 41. The bird pecked at the shelf, before flying down and in between the shelves. Jennifer followed and found the bird sitting on top of an old book with a red cover – just above Jennifer's height. Its spine had no name, Jennifer reached up to take the book and look for its name...

A loud sound and the vibrations of the table beneath Jennifer's head woke her instantly.

She sat bolt upright and, half panicked, looked around – only to discover that Ms H had slammed a rather large book down on the table where Jennifer was sleeping.

“This is no place to sleep,” Ms H says and walks away, placing the book back on the shelf as she walks back to the front desk – her heavy skirt swaying around her ankles with every step.

Jennifer looks at the time on her phone, she should get going, but she's in no rush and, while slowly making her way to the door, Jennifer decides to stop at the front desk and ask about the sign in the window.

The thing is that... Jennifer has nothing against horses or working in the stables, but she's not particularly strong and the physical labour is killing her. If Jennifer can get a new job, she knows that no one at The Historic Society will have any objections.

“Hi, um, I was wondering about the sign in the window?” Jennifer asks Ms H, once at the front desk.

“What about it?” Ms H asks, while continuing to type something on the computer.

“Are you hiring?”

“Indeed,” Ms H says, continuing to type, but then stops typing after about a second. She looks up at Jennifer and then frowns. “But the job is not available to you.”

“Why?” Jennifer asks, taken back by the woman's frankness.

Ms H leans back in her chair and takes off her glasses. “Well, my Dear, almost all of your library books have been late – punctuality is important. Last week you came in here with ink on your hands – which either shows that you lack respect or brain cells. Before that, you came here almost every day to sit and stare at people. This is no place to sit and stare. Then you came here today and fell asleep, does this look like a bedroom to you?”

“No,” Is all Jennifer says in reply, with a stiff smile on her face. All the air in her lungs have gone and Ms H might as well have slapped her through the face. Ms H starts typing again, but just as Jennifer starts to turn away Ms H stops and leans back in her chair.

“Tell one thing,” She says. “Why?”

“I don't understand,” Jennifer says, her heart racing in her chest. “Why do I want the job? Why did I have ink on my fingers? Why have I come here so often? What do you want?”

“Interpret the question as you like,” Ms H says. “All I'm looking for is a good answer.”

“Because, I'm looking for a job,” Jennifer says, exasperated.

“Wrong answer, would you like to try again?” Ms H says with a look of sympathy on her face.

“Because I've messed up,” Jennifer says without thinking, without understanding why she wants this so badly. She hadn't realized how much the last few weeks had gotten to her. She hadn't realized how sorry she was and how lost she felt and how desperately she'd been trying to fix things.

“I've messed up horribly. I don't know where to go and I don't know what to do and, no matter what, I always end up here. This is the only place I have, this is the only place where I belong. If you could just give me a chance, I'll prove myself. I'll prove to you that I belong here.”

Jennifer takes a breath.

“Please,” She says. “I don't know what else to do.”

Ms H looks at her for a long second, there is no expression on her face.

“Be here tomorrow morning at half past six and not a minute later, we'll sort out your paperwork then,” Ms H says and for a second Jennifer imagines that a small smile flashed across her mouth, but it was gone so fast that she wasn't sure.

“I got the job?” Jennifer asks hesitantly and starts to tear up when she hears Ms H's answer.

“Yes, little bird. Be here tomorrow bright and early and you might just keep it,” Ms H says and goes back to work – this time Jennifer definitely saw a smile.