Troubled by Rob Henderson

Author:Rob Henderson [Henderson, Rob]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Gallery Books
Published: 2024-02-20T00:00:00+00:00

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My new job required employees to wear solid black shoes. Fortunately, there was a Payless right next to the grocery store. I bought the cheapest size 11s from the clearance rack for $19.99. These turned out to be wildly uncomfortable. It wasn’t just that I had to bag items—the store also had “carry-out service,” meaning we walked customers’ groceries to their cars for them. The job also required stocking shelves, sweeping and mopping, cleaning spills, and collecting carts around the parking lot in the scorching hundred-degree weather. These cheap shoes became gooey in the heat and provided little support. I mentioned this to John’s dad.

“Well, I have some Dr. Scholl’s inserts in a pair of boots I don’t wear anymore,” he replied. “You could pull them out, see if they help.”

I thanked him and pulled out the boot soles. They were for a size 13, so I had to carefully cut around the edges to get them to fit into my shoes. They helped a little; my feet hurt less at the end of long shifts.

In the meantime, Tyler and I had been thinking about what we wanted to do after high school.

We were in the school parking lot again. “I’ve been thinking about it for a while, bro. It’s not like I’m going to college,” Tyler said. He explained to me that he’d made an appointment to visit the air force recruiting office downtown.

“One time I told my mom’s friend that I was thinking about joining the military,” I replied. “She was like, ‘That’s stupid! We’re in the middle of two wars—do you want to get your ass shot off?’ ”

Tyler laughed. “Whatever. People get shot here, too. Did you hear about Enrique?”

“What about him?” I asked.

“Dude. You don’t know? Edgar’s brother got shot.”

“What the fuck—are you serious?”

“Yeah, he was like trying to join a gang or something. He had to do deliveries and shit for them. For part of the initiation, he had to play Russian roulette and, well, yeah.”

I shook my head in disbelief. I knew Enrique was trying to join a gang last year but hadn’t heard that he’d been shot. I’d known him and Edgar since grade school. Enrique used to part his hair on the side and get good grades. He even tucked his shirt in. I rarely talked to Edgar anymore but saw him around school sometimes. He was naturally a big kid but I’d noticed he’d recently put on a lot more weight. I wondered whether that was because of what happened to his brother.

I tagged along with Tyler to the recruiter, who gave him a bunch of brochures and helped him schedule a time to take some kind of standardized exam for the military.

The recruiter turned to me and said, “So how about you? You could join Tyler here to take the test on the same day together. There’s no obligation or anything, but you’ll learn which jobs you qualify for.”

I flipped through a pamphlet, looking at the images of service members in their dress blues.

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