Summer Reading Essay by Allyson G

Damien had arrived in Memphis only a week before today. He remembered the first day. Junice and her sister were welcomed into a good foster family, which was hard to come around in these times. For that, he was grateful. He had a hard time finding a place to stay for the amount of money he had, and it had to be near Junice’s house, because she was the whole reason for coming here.


Sitting on the stoop of his apartment complex in his old, dark purple hoodie and baggy jeans, Damien remembered the long bus ride and the trouble it took him to find his new home. It had taken almost all of the money he had saved to get the apartment. He had paid the rent for the apartment two months in advance and in that amount of time, he would have to conjure up more money to pay for the next two months and this was why he got up and started to walk down the main street, looking for help wanted signs.


Soon, he was amongst the crowd that filled the street during everyone’s lunch hour. He observed the different people swarming about, trying to get into their favorite café. There were so many different people. They were all sorts of shapes and sizes and ethnicities.


There was one family that caught his attention. It was a family of six. There was a mother a father, and four boys, but one of the boys looked unhappy. Damien assumed that the boy was simply not getting his way and being sour about it, but then he looked closer and, Damien couldn’t tell what it was, but there was something different about him. The boy looked more than unhappy; it seemed that he was scared.


Damien also noted how the family was dressed. They were definitely tourists by their ball caps and cameras, but something was strange. The family was dressed nicely, but this one boy looked like he was wearing rags.


Noticing all of these strange things about this boy, Damien decided to follow him and his family to wherever they were going, forgetting all about his job hunt. They lead him to a nearby hotel and Damien stopped following them once they reached the lobby.


Leaning against the outer wall of the hotel, Damien thought. Why was he chasing these people around town? So, the little boy made him interested in them, but that was no reason to be following their family.


Damien was startled when his thoughts were interrupted by the door opening. Out walked two men that were wearing maroon bellhop uniforms. One man had curly blonde hair and the other had straight black hair. They were talking to one another.


“Sam, I’m not sure if we’re going to find anyone in time. We’ll never get that raise if we can’t find someone to fill Harriet’s spot. Mister Collins will assign the job to one of his daughters, and then we’ll be bossed around even more than we are now,” a man with curly, blonde hair said to the other bellhop walking beside him.


“Well, Barry, We’ve still got time. Tom said we have another two days. Who knows, we might find someone,” the other said reassuringly.


“Hey, you need someone to work here?” Damien asked, standing up straight. The two men spun around, surprised by Damien’s sudden interjection. Sam nodded his head vigorously.


“Yeah, we’re in desperate need,” Barry said with a smile. All you need to do is ask Tom Collins, but make sure you say Barry and Sam found you. His office is right next to the desk in the lobby. Ask the girl who‘s sitting at it.”


Damien nodded and said a quick thank you as he turned around and entered the hotel. After speaking to the girl named Candy that was sitting at the desk at the end of the lobby, Damien was allowed into Mister Collins’ office. Damien didn’t need to knock, because Tom Collins had already opened the door to let him enter. He was asked to sit in a cushioned chair in front of Mister Collins’ desk.


Within thirty minutes, Damien walked out of the hotel with a smile on his face. He would start his new job tomorrow, and he would have enough money to pay rent within the first month.


----------


Damien arrived early for work the next morning. He walked down the stairs of the hotel to its basement, where the laundry mat was. He would be bringing fresh towels to people’s rooms while they were out.


He grabbed a while rolling bin that was filled with warm towels. A man named Carl had showed him how to do his job yesterday, so he already knew what to do. Damien pushed the bin up a ramp and into the elevator.


He took the clipboard off of the side of it and read it. Going down the list of people who hadn’t had their towels restocked in a while. The first number was two hundred and seven, which was on floor six. He pressed the sixth button on the elevator and he felt it start going up. Damien scanned the rest of the list to see if there were any more rooms on that floor that needed towels. There were seven.

Once the elevator stopped and the doors opened, Damien quickly pushed the rolling bin out of it and went to the closest room, which was two hundred and three. He knocked on the door. Since there was no answer, he swiped his card through the lock and it opened.

He soon began throwing old towels into trash bags and replacing them with new ones.