Chapter 6: First day at the job

Tonight the stars were shining bright in the night sky, the almost full moon illuminated the street, and the fresh smell of rain was in the air.

Whilst Connor was walking back to his apartment he was replaying the events that had transpired just a short while ago over and over, not wanting to believe, that after all this pain and misfortune, there finally was a ray of happiness.

However, even when he tried to snip his foreehead to check if he was dreaming, the only thing that happened, was that his forhead started hurting.

"I really can't believe it, things are finally getting better"

He was walking swiftly on the sidewalk, below the orange lights of the streetlamps, occasionally he could hear an animal cry in the distance, but otherwise it was peaceful.

"But I must never let what today happened happen again nontheless. I will get through this. As Tim said, things are gonna get better, maybe I really just bottled things up too much."

Eventually, he arrived at the familiar doorstep of the complex he was living in. After unlocking the main door, and making his way up a flight of stairs, he went into his room, hung up his still damp clothes to dry, and went to bed.

"I am gonna do my best to make it up to Tim though. I wanna show him that the help he has offered me was not wasted. I am gonna work even harder from now on."

With these thougthts still in mind, he quickly fell asleep.

The next morning he was woken up even before his alarm clock started to ring, feeling as awake and energized as never before.

"A new day a new adventure, I got to make sure that I am in time, I can't be late for my first day at work.. and also I am gonna take an umbrella with me this time. You are not gonna get me again rain!"

Connor chuckled to himself and quickly his usual routine of working out, shaving and then getting dressed. However, today seemingly everthing he got up to just felt ten times easier then it has ever before. He breezed through his workout without his arms getting sore, shaving went without a single cut, and everthing else just went well. Everthing felt good.

And so, seeing that he still had about 2 hours to go, until he had to depart for his first day of work, he got out his books, sat down at his computer and began to study.

Even before he had gone to uni he had always wanted to become a professional programmer, thus he had studied whenever he had time, and since this didn't change when he went to uni, it also wouldn't now that he was not going there anymore.

After spending his time engrossed in his books, researching and trying to figure out different code, it was eventually time to get to work.

So he put on his shoes on, and went on his way to work. On his way there he recalled once more the events of the previous night, and couldn't help but have a giant smile on his way the whole way to the shop.

When he arrived at the Tim's shop, he looked around but didn't manage to find Tim. However, since this was the first time he had time to properly look around in the shop when the lights were on, he finally managed to get an idea of what exactly the shop was selling and how it looked.

Connor noticed that there were different sections of things, on the left there was an area with one long shlef, were sweets were displayed. Most of the sweets were ones, that Connor rememebered from when he was in his teens, that were not really sold in the standart supermarkets anymore.

One of the sweets especially triggered some happy memories for him, the squishies, which were essentially gummi sticks that were a 2 different colors, they tasted sweet and a little sour, and fruity at the same time. He still remembered how he sometimes would go to the local market in his town and buy a bag for him and his sister with his hard earned pocket money.

He remembered how she would always have the biggest smile on her face, whenever he surprised her with a bag, and how they would sit infront of the tv for hours, eating the squishies, and watching their favorite anime.

Silently, Connor decided, that he will definitely buy some of the squishies and send them to his sister, together with her birthday present.

The other side of the shop was made up of two sections, the window area, which consisted of old-school CD's, statues, games and other bits. The backwall side had one big shelf, which displayed some wooden animals, that seemed to be carved by hand, probably by Tim.

Looking at them, Tim was very impressed. Although the animals were small, they were extremly detailed, almost as if their were real minianimals turned to wood.

The middle of the shop was a straight path, which led to the counter. The counter was very similar to the ones in other shops, it had some trinkets on it, as well as a little bell, but the middle was free, so that the customers could put the things they wanted to buy there.

Behind the counter there was a door, which led to the back part of the building, Connor still rememberd that the first door to the left in the corridor behind the door, led to the kitchen in which the two of them had eaten last night.

After waiting for a little while, Connor decided to ring the bell, since Tim was nowhere to be seen.

"Diiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiing"

The bell produced a clean, and very harmonous sound.

"Connor? Just come in here, it's the first door to the right! Sorry, I am kinda busy here so I can't come out."

A familiar voice came from the door behind the counter.

Just as he was asked, Connor walked past the counter, through the first door, and then into the door to the left.

When he stepped into the room, he could smell the pure scent of freshly cut wood invading his nose, and after his eyes had adjusted to the dimmer light in the room, he saw that this room seemed to be entirely dedicated to woodwork.

There were many shelfs filled with carved statues just like the ones he saw in the store, the only difference being, that they had yet to be finished, there were 2 workbenches with tools on them, and many logs were lying on a pile in one corner.

On one of the workbenches Tim was sitting, he was wearing an apron similar to the ones used by people welding things together, he was wearing a kind of glasses with muliple lenses used for magnification, and since he was wearing a shirt, Connor could see, that despite his age he was very muscular.

When Tim noticed Connor stepping in, he put down his tools, and turned around to look at Connor, and with a big smile across his face, he said:

"Welcome to my shop. Are you ready to start your first day of work? By the way, I am happy to see that you are smiling again."

Hearing those words, Connor couldn't help but smile more than he was already.

"Hehe, well it can't be helped, I am really excited to start working. So tell me, how do you want me to help?"

In the following hours Tim showed Connor around the the shop, explaining to him, that his job was mostly to keep the shop tidy and to serve customers, as well as to take note of the things that were being sold out, and to order new products if necessary.

After everything was explained and Connor felt like he was ready to give it a shot, Tim went back into his workshop, and Connor started getting familiar with the shop.

Once he had made an inventory of all the things that he thought were important to keep an eye on, he went back to the counter and started looking into how the computer was set up.

The reason he did this was, that when Tim explained the parts about ordering new products and selling things to customers, he noticed, that the computer programs still required a lot of manual input, since the system itself was very out of date, and most of the programs used were not used very efficiently.

However, despite this area of the town being very run down, and a big supermarket being nearby, the shop got surprisingly busy, especially towards the evening. This left Connor very little time to look into the computer more, between serving customers, ordering new things that were running low, and cleaning.

By the end of the day, Connor was beat, but he felt great. The work he was doing was fun, whenever he had a question he could just go ask Tim and he would give him an answer right away, or help him if necessary, and the customers were very nice.

After closing up the store, Connor gave Tim a summary of what had happend throughout the day, and Tim was more then satisfied.

"If you want to have some more soup, I still have some left from yesterday. I can't promise you that it will taste as good as it did then, but it is still really good."

Connor glady took up Tim's offer. While eating the soup, the two talked a lot about their respective goals and dreams. For Connor it was becoming a professional programmer, and to create a wonderful ficional world, in which everyone can life their dreams.

Tim however, was very content with what he had, truly enjoying carving his wooden statues, and runnig the shop of his. His only wish was, that maybe someday he could present his statues to the world, so his work could bring happiness to people around the world.

After some chatting, Connor eventually returned home and after writing down some notes about the computer at work, he went to sleep.