The Book of Isaias by Daniel Connolly

Author:Daniel Connolly
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781250083074
Publisher: St. Martin's Press

Chapter Six

MOTIVATION

April 2012:

One month before graduation

AS THE BUS MOVED SOUTH, Isaias and Daniel Nix played a trivia game on a cell phone. “Latvia!” Isaias called out, then spelled it. “L-A-T-V-I-A.”

They were taking a field trip to a FedEx hub—not the huge one at the Memphis airport where workers load and unload jets, but a truck hub across the state line in Olive Branch, Mississippi.

For many years, FedEx has been the biggest employer in the Memphis area. The city enjoys a central location, access to the Mississippi River, and major highway and railroad connections to the rest of the country. Even before the creation of FedEx in the 1970s, the city had long served as a distribution center. The goods have ranged from cotton and slaves in the nineteenth century to Chinese-made consumer products in the modern era. By the mid-2000s, cavernous, boxlike warehouses dotted the industrial landscape in the southern section of the city, and workers pulled items from shelves and made minor upgrades for customers—sewing monograms on Williams-Sonoma bedsheets, for instance. Many students had put on their best clothes for this trip because FedEx was hiring.

Margot Aleman from Streets Ministries rode on the bus with the students. Nothing unusual about this—if you attended any Kingsbury High School function and looked around, chances were you’d see Margot. She often hugged kids in the cafeteria as she had on the first day, she went to football games, and later in the year, she even went to the prom. She used her Spanish to interact with parents, calling them and sometimes visiting them at home. And she helped run the Streets Ministries events at the community center near the high school, including dances, small group meetings and parties.

She often tried to improve children’s lives in concrete ways, like helping them graduate from high school. Now Margot was paying attention to Isaias.

The bus arrived at the FedEx site, and in a conference room, one of the company’s employees asked the students, “How many are going to college?” Hands went up. Isaias didn’t raise his.

A recruiter said the company hired a lot of students as package handlers.

“What does a package handler actually do?” someone asked. The answer: package handlers unloaded trucks, then loaded them again, even in blazing-hot weather, and they did it for a starting wage of about $10.50 per hour.

The students left the room for a tour of the package sorting center. Margot walked alongside Isaias and talked with him about college.

“Whatever you think is best for you,” she said.

“Yeah,” he responded.

“The only reason we pester you guys on college is that it does open a lot of doors. However—however, I know people who have master’s degrees and they’re unhappy. But overall, a college degree will open up doors.”

The group entered a massive high-ceilinged space of blue-painted metal, conveyor belts and concrete floors. Nothing moved at this time of day. As the tour guide began his talk, Margot felt upset. Isaias had just told her he had made up his mind and never really wanted to go to college.

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