Becoming Johanna by C. A. Pack Read Free Book Online

was any more food. She found a bag of licorice in a metal
desk in the receiving area, as well as a can of soda. A veritable feast. She
ate half the candy and drank the can of soda. Then she managed to
count a couple more shelves before exhaustion set in.
    On Sunday, she pushed
herself to finish the job. She worked straight through until the
last book was counted. By then it was ten p.m. She knew that
because she owned a watch that had put her into hock. She wondered
how much the company would pay her? She had been there all weekend.
If she didn’t get out until Monday morning, she would have spent
sixty hours straight in the warehouse. That was like a week and a
half’s pay. More if they paid her overtime. They have to pay me overtime. That
would help straighten her bills out.
    She woke up Monday morning
when she heard the bay door open. She looked at her watch. Six a.m.
She picked herself up and straightened her clothing. She slowly
descended the stairs. The lack of food made her
lightheaded.
    “ Hey, you,” the foreman
called out. “What are you doing in here?”
    She explained why she was
there. The foreman’s eyes widened when he heard she was locked in
all weekend without food. He handed her a brown bag with his lunch
in it. “It’s just a couple of bologna sandwiches and an apple, but
you’re welcome to it.”
    Johanna really wanted to
go home and shower, but she was too hungry to refuse. “Just one
sandwich please, and I’ll be on my way.”
    A second warehouse worker
walked in. “Hey, who’s your friend?”
    “ She was told to do the
inventory—by herself—and they locked her in.” Johanna would have
added to the story, but she was too busy eating. “So I gave her my
lunch. She looks a little shaky. Maybe you ought to drop her at
home.”
    “ Do you live far?” the
worker asked.
    She gave him her address,
and he gave her a lift to her cottage. She showered and changed,
but dared not lie down—even for ten minutes—or she might fall
asleep and be late for work. Instead, she walked back to town to
start another week.
     
    Johanna lived on instant
soup and peanut butter sandwiches all week, and avoided going out
the front door at work because she didn’t want to run into Amaranda
or Derrick until she had their money.
    Finally, it was payday.
She ripped open her pay envelope and stared at the check. No! She marched inside
her boss’s office and waved it in his face while she repeated how
she had been locked in the warehouse for sixty hours and deserved
time and a half for that, besides her regular salary, but the check
was made out for one week’s pay, the same amount she received every
week.
    “ Now, Johanna, don’t get
upset. I’m just waiting for the higher ups to approve the time
sheet you submitted. They’re having a hard time understanding how
you could put in for one hundred and three hours of work for a
single week. They weren’t going to pay you at all, until I
convinced them to at least let me pay you for your regular
workweek. We’ll sort it out.”
    She left his office with
tears in her eyes, snuck out the back door, and walked home. As she
turned the corner in front of her landlady’s house, she spotted
Derrick’s car parked in front of her cottage. She didn’t make it
that far.
    “ Johanna, I have to talk
with you about the rent.”
    She turned to see her
landlady standing in the doorway. “I paid the rent. In cash. It
couldn’t have bounced.”
    “ No, dear. It’s just that
a realtor was nosing around here, inquiring about the cottages.
Apparently, some big mucky-muck is thinking of buying them all. So
I brought an appraiser through your cottage to see what it’s worth.
I explained I had a tenant, and he asked what I was charging you,
and when I told him, he said the place looked so fresh and clean, I
could probably get twice as much.”
    “ Fresh and clean? I’m the
one who made it fresh and clean. I’m the one who painted the
inside. And washed the windows. And