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Brielle stared at her a moment, taking the mail from her cautiously, figuring she was just being asked to add it to the pile of mail and straighten it.
“Read it!” Mrs. Tanaka sighed, exasperated. “You know, I got a job right out of high school. I never went to college. Then I married Tomokazu and quit to stay home and he got transferred to America after a few years of marriage…”
Brielle wasn’t sure if she was supposed to read the letter or pay attention to the woman’s story just then. The way Mrs. Tanaka’s voice got choked up toward the end, Brielle felt compelled to listen.
“Tomokazu was a good provider.” She nodded, as if approving of the house around them. “I really didn’t even need to work. Especially since we had no children. But I loved staying busy. Being with people. I didn’t care if it was not agoodjob.”
Unsure where she was going with this, Brielle nodded and forced a smile on her face. Perhaps she was about to be told to stay a cleaner forever again—not that she would even care about that as much as her mom might. Even so, with the clock ticking on her first payment due for her student loans… She glanced over the letter. It was from the historical museum downtown.
“I worked at the museum downtown for years,” said Mrs. Tanaka. “Decades really. Just as a cashier and a greeter. It might not have exactly been the type of job one could bank on for retirement, but I was lucky—I snagged that rich husband.” She winked at me.
The letter, addressed to “Emiko,” said it was wonderful to hear from her and that the letter-writer was glad to know she had met a young woman interested in museum work. He couldn’t promise a position at the moment, but he had an opening for a Museum Assistant in Collections. If the “young woman” was interested, he’d be willing to interview her first before he advertised. Brielle gasped.
“I know it’s not a fancy city,” said Mrs. Tanaka, “but whether you use it for more experience and connections or you wind up loving the work so much, you stay here for decades to come, what’s important is thatyoudecide. And that you don’t let that mother of yours devalue her own career by insisting you get a ‘better’ one.”
“Thank you!” shouted Brielle, screaming and jumping in place. “Yes! Yes, I’d definitely be interested in an interview.”
“Good,” said Mrs. Tanaka. She sniffed. “Because I got a little impatient about waiting for the postman to bring my response, so I went ahead and called Jim and I already said you’d be interested…” She laughed. “I was going to feign you got another job offer if you refused me.”
“No, I wouldn’t…” She stared down at the letter, shaking her head. “This is the closest I’ve gotten to a job offer in a field I’m interested in. Or a job offer at all, really.”
“I’d say it’s more than an offer. I acted as your reference, and so long as you show up wearing clothes and smiling, I’m pretty sure you got the job.”
Brielle screamed again and hugged Mrs. Tanaka once more as a thunderous sound echoed in the hallway and both of her cats ran past and up the stairs.
Clomping her feet into the hallway, Nora folded her arms, the cleaning cloth still in her hands. “Okay, seriously? You have to tell me why you keep screaming. You scared the kitties.”
“I think I got your sister a museum job.”
Brielle grinned and grabbed the woman by the shoulders. She didn’t even care that Nora scoffed as she did. “Thank you!”
“Awesome,” said Nora. “So you’re moving out and I get to take over all your shifts. Is that hot disabled guy still your client?”
“No, remember?” said Brielle, stepping back and smoothing her apron. “And his name is Archer. Besides, it’s the museum downtown. I don’t know if I need to move out.”
“Oh, Mom willlovethat.” Nora examined her nails. “She thinks as long as you still live with us, she can’t downsize.”
Brielle frowned. How did Nora know their mom intended to sell the house, but not Brielle? Maybe her mom didn’t want to put added pressure on her. But is that why she cared so much about her finding a job?
“About that,” said Mrs. Tanaka, grabbing for her purse on the hallway table. “I may have told you about my cousin’s daughter, who moved here last year? She got a job at the same company Tomokazu worked at.”
Brielle didn’t remember this cousin or her daughter at all, or even know why Mrs. Tanaka would expect her to catalog her obscure relations, but she supposed she’d probably told her about it last summer, when Brielle’s mind had wandered whenever she’d had to deal with her. She was on such a high from the maybe-probably job offer, though, that she just grinned and nodded.
“Well, she had a roommate until last month, when the woman just up and left without much notice.” She flicked at her phone screen. “She was charging her roommate dirt cheap rent, so I don’t know how the girl could be so ungrateful if you ask me. It was about a boy, I’m sure.” She shook her head. “It’s a two-bedroom, second-floor condo my cousin and her husband outright bought for her. She just wants three hundred dollars a month from a roommate to help with taxes and utilities.”
Nora glowered. “Her parentsboughther a condo? And she still wants a roommate?”
Mrs. Tanaka nodded. “Her mother doesn’t feel comfortable with her living halfway across the world alone. I offered a room in my house, but the girl refused. Something about my cats.”
Nora chortled. “Three hundred? I’ll move in with her if Brielle won’t.”
“No you won’t,” said Brielle, gripping the letter tighter in her hands. She had no idea what this job would pay yet and how many hours she’d work, but she’d be crazy to pass up rent for only three hundred dollars. It probably wouldn’t be much longer before her mom expected her to chip in just as much—or even more. And she was tired of walking on eggshells around her about the whole thing. She wanted this. Unless it was in a bad neighborhood or something. “Where is the condo?”
Mrs. Tanaka turned her phone around so Brielle could read the screen. It was a Google map showing an address. “It’s not that far.”
Brielle laughed. She stared at it and laughed again.
“What’s so funny?” asked Nora, stuffing the cloth into her apron pocket and peering over her shoulder.
