Hunted - 5

“I’m sorry but without your degree or references from former employers…”

Logan ignored the rest of the man’s words. He’d already heard them too many times over the last few days.

Back on the sidewalk again, he scrubbed a hand through his hair while he stared blindly across the street. Then a sign caught his eye. He quickly crossed the street and entered the business. There was a small waiting room, with a desk set to one side manned by a middle-aged woman. She looked up, smiled, and asked how she could help him.

“Your sign says you hire for day labor,” Logan replied hesitantly.

“We do.” She looked him over carefully. “We specialize primarily house and yard work although we occasionally get requests for men to work on building sites.” She opened a desk drawer, took out a set of papers and handed them to him. “Fill these out first, I’ll give them to Mr. Lawrence to look over and we’ll go from there.” She pointed to a table on the far wall. He walked over, sat, and set to work.

Fifteen minutes later he gave them back to the woman. She disappeared through a door at the back of the room, then returned and told him to have a seat.

"Please," he whispered as he cast his eyes upwards. Please let this happen. He was down to his last few dollars and desperately needed a job, even if it was only raking leaves and picking up fallen branches in someone’s yard.

“Mr. Fitzgerald?”

Logan looked up with a nod, then followed the gray-hired man into the back room, which turned out to be a large office. Rows of filing cabinets filled one wall; bookshelves took up a second one. A large oak desk sat in the middle of the room with two chairs in front of it. Logan took a seat when the man pointed to one.

“I’m Mr. Lawrence,” the man said by way of introduction. He shuffled the papers in front of him before he said, “I have two jobs that I think you could handle. One is helping a landscaper who had an employee quit on him. The other is construction. It says here you’ve had some experience in interior home rebuilding.” He looked at Logan questioningly.

“Yes, sir. It was a summer job between my junior and senior year. I put down my employer’s name and address. I think, I hope he’ll give me a good reference.”

Mr. Lawrence nodded. “I’ve already emailed the company. Barring a negative response you can start to work in the morning. I hope that’s not too soon for you.”

            “Oh no,” Logan replied, keeping his sigh of relief to himself. He listened as Mr. Lawrence told him where to report and wrote down the address. He hoped he could find the place, and that either the el or a bus would take him there. After the first time, presuming they wanted him to continue on the job, it would be no problem for him to return there.