The Letter #2
“Down here,” her grandma’s voice came from the basement. “I’m doing laundry.”
“Grandma!” Maria exclaimed, hurrying to the top of the stairs. “I told you I’d do the laundry when I got home! You ought to be having a nice relaxing time looking at your quilt patterns!”
“I like doing laundry.” Grandma smiled sweetly. “Besides, I already looked through all my quilt pattern books.”
“Well, I’ve got something else for you to look at,” Maria said. “You’ll never guess who sent me a letter.”
“Seth?” Grandma asked.
As if Seth would have the nerve! Seth would probably never talk to her again.
“No, not Seth,” Maria said. “Look at this.” She held up the letter. “It’s from my grandma Austin.”
“Patricia?” Grandma sounded incredulous. “What would she be writing you about?”
“Here, you can read it,” Maria said. “I’ll finish the laundry. Grandma Austin somehow knows that I don’t have a job, and she’s offering me a summer job at the Rocker A. As a cook.”
“How would she know the Virginian closed?” Grandma asked, taking the letter. “Does she keep up on southwest Michigan news? I don’t keep up on Montana news.”
“I have no idea,” Maria said. “I can’t believe it! She hasn’t tried to get to know me for twenty-four years, and all of a sudden, out of the blue, she wants me to come.”
“Maybe she feels guilty,” Grandma said, squinting at the letter. “Here, read it to me. I left my reading glasses upstairs.”
Maria read the letter aloud.
“Well, what do you think?” she asked. “I’m totally confused about this! Now I’ll have to reply, or it’ll be rude. Maybe I’d better take that other job offer, quick. Then I can let her know thanks, but I already found another job here.”
“You mean that pizza place?” Grandma asked. “Do you really want to work there?”
“Well, it might be okay at least for a while,” Maria said.
She found the laundry hamper Grandma had left and began sorting whites and darks.
“The last thing I want is to go out west because my relatives, who don’t care about me, need somebody to cook, and they thought they’d offer me this job out of guilt or charity or whatever. It’s insulting, that’s what.”
Grandma tsked. “I can’t say I understand it myself. But Patricia sounds like she regrets not getting to know you. She did call you her ‘missing granddaughter.’”
“Well, it’s not as though I was lost. She knew where I was. She could have reached out anytime in the past twenty-four years.”
“That’s true,” Grandma said. “Well, I’ve only met Patricia once, at your parents’ wedding. She seemed like a hard worker, a proud woman. I couldn’t figure out what was going on in her head. She was so disappointed that her daughter wanted to leave the ranch and marry a Michigan policeman.”
“She must never have gotten to know Dad,” Maria said. “I can’t think of anybody who doesn’t like him. Except maybe criminals.”
Grandma smiled. “I’m sure your Grandma Austin would have liked him too, if she had given him a chance.”
“I almost don’t want to show him that letter,” Maria said.
“I mean, I’m going to show it to him. But it’s so frustrating.
Grandma Austin thinks she can ignore me my entire life and then send a short note, with no explanation, offering me a job?
Who does she think she is? Does she think I’m going to drop everything and run out there?
Like I’ve just been waiting to be invited?
And it’s not even like she’s inviting me to visit.
She’s inviting me to work for them. On top of us paying her back all that money. ”
“I see how that would be frustrating,” Grandma said. “Well, why don’t you put it aside for a while. Don’t stew over it. Let’s start this wash and go put those photos in their frames. We can surprise your dad.”
“Thanks. You’re right. I won’t stew over it. I’ve got plenty to keep busy. I think I’d better call Rick’s Diner. It’s been long enough since I applied that I think it should be okay to ask about it.”
The woman at Rick’s who answered the phone assumed Maria wanted to order food. “Actually,” Maria told her, “I submitted an application a few days ago, and I was wondering if a manager had gotten a chance to look at it.”
“Let me check,” the woman said. “Please hold.”
Maria waited, saying silent prayers under her breath. “Please, please, please, dear God, let this work out!”
It seemed an age before the woman got back on the phone. “I talked to the manager,” she said. “I’m sorry. We’ve already hired somebody for that position.”
“Oh.” Rats! Who would have thought a random diner would have so many people trying to work there? “Well,” Maria said, “thanks for letting me know.”
“No problem,” the woman said. “Sorry about that. Good luck finding something.”
Maria hung up. Drat! That was a bummer. She wouldn’t get to work with her old coworker Linda after all.
And from what she had seen online, Rick’s Diner was a good place to work.
Who had beaten Maria in the application process?
Was something wrong with her resume? Did the new hire have personal connections?
It didn’t matter—Rick’s Diner hadn’t hired her. That was all. She’d have to do something else. She could call the rest of those places she’d applied.
Two places said their managers weren’t in and they didn’t know about the state of Maria’s application.
That wasn’t any good. The American restaurant that had interviewed Maria said they’d gone with somebody else too.
Oh, no. What was wrong with her resume, that these places didn’t want her?
Did she come across as inexperienced or naive?
That left only one place: the Main Street Kitchen pizza job.
She’d have to take that job after all, at least for now.
Maybe she could find some other places to apply while she was there.
§
Maria didn’t mention the letter or the job search stuff when Dad came home. She showed him the photos instead. She and her grandma had cut mattes to the right size and made a photo collection in the living room. Grandma knew all about hanging pictures, so Maria didn’t have to look it up.
“Wow,” Dad said, surveying the pictures.
The center was a picture of Maria with both parents in the mountains.
Arranged tastefully around that photo were ones with Mom riding horses and mountain climbing; Maria with the tumbleweed; Maria’s parents together, thanks to the self-timer on their camera; Dad next to a sheriff’s office sign.
“What do you think?” Maria asked.
Dad smiled. “Just beautiful. Thank you, Princess.”
Maria put an arm around him. “Grandma and I picked them out. I thought it would be nice to have our little family in here.”
“It’s perfect,” Dad said. He squeezed Maria’s shoulder, clearing his throat. “Now tell me what else you’ve been up to. Have you got any more job offers?”
“Not today,” Maria said. “Well, actually—sort of.”
She hadn’t meant to say anything about the letter. But, technically, it was a job offer.
“Sort of?” Dad asked.
“She’s had a letter from Patricia,” Grandma said, bustling through the living room with a broom and dustpan. “Why don’t you show him?”
Maria sighed. “I didn’t want to gripe about it right when Dad came home,” she said, “but I’ll get it.”
Dad read the letter twice, his brow furrowed. Maria stood waiting.
“Well?” Dad finally said, looking up. “What do you think?”