'It could be worse kid... But then again, it could also be a whole lot better...'

He didn’t look a whole lot like me, but that still didn’t change the fact that I felt like I was looking into a mirror. His wavy brown hair, blue eyes, that nervous fidget he did with his fingers. It was a mirror image alright. One that started about twenty years ago and ended with a slap in the face after a college football game.

He was the fourth person I’d interviewed that day, and truth be told, he’d probably be the last. Not because I was impressed with his resume or blown away by his people skills, but because I’d been fighting back the urge to vomit since he stepped into my office and told me his name. He was only sixteen years old, maybe a whopping hundred and fifty pounds, but sitting in the chair across the room, he made me feel like I was about three inches tall.

“So, uh… Chris. Do you go by Chris or Christopher?”

“Oh, just Chris, sir. Only my mom calls me Christopher,” he joked.

I didn’t laugh.

Sarah always said she liked the name Christopher; said it reminded her of Winnie the Pooh. I guess she liked Winnie the Pooh.

“Alright, Chris, well, uh… it says here you’re still in high school?”

“Yes, sir.”

“And what grade are you in?”

“I’m about to start my Junior year, sir.”

At least he had good manners.

“And are you part of any clubs, play any sports, anything that might interfere with work?”

“I used to play soccer, sir, but I quit about two years ago.”

Of course he played soccer. So did I when I was his age.

“Why’d ya quit? If you don’t mind me asking, that is.”

“Ahh, I just got tired of it, I guess,” he said with a shrug; that nervous twitch in his hands still going at it.

“Alright, well, nothing wrong with that. I, uhh… I also noticed that you didn’t put anything down for past work experience. So, I assume this would be your first job?”

“Yes, sir, it would be.”

“Any reason you put in an application out here?”

I could tell that question made him nervous.

“Well, because… Well, because you were hiring, if I’m being honest,” he nervously laughed. “That and I really want to buy a car. So, I gotta save up some money, ya know.”

Nodding my head, I acted like I wrote something down.

I didn’t.

Obviously uneasy by the awkward silence, he started to ramble. Again, something he only could have learned from his mother. I always hated listening to people ramble.

“My, mom said her first job was working as a cashier at local grocery store where she grew up. She said she learned a lot about how to talk to people and how to think on the fly. Said it helped give her the confidence she needed to go after her business degree.”

I guess Sarah finished college after all. Good for her.

“Right… Well, I can honestly say that you’d be getting a lot of the same experience here. We stay pretty steady most days. Did your mom ever say anything about where she worked at when she was younger?”

I didn’t mean to ask that last question. Even I knew I wasn’t legally aloud to pry like that. Luckily for me though, Chris was only sixteen and had no idea what was and wasn’t legal.

“Uh, she just said she worked there through high school for a while and a few years while she was going to college. I think she was still working there when she had me, but I’m not really sure.”

“Uh-huh… Well, it also says here that you just moved out this way. Is that correct?”

“Yes, sir. About four months ago.”

“What brought ya’ll to McKenzie?”

“My mom grew up around here and most of her family is from West Tennessee. So, she wanted to be closer to them.”

“Really, well that’s nice. How are you liking it so far?”

I could tell he wasn’t sure how to answer that one.

“It’s alright, I guess. Sometimes I miss Portland, but at least here you don’t have to worry about someone breaking into your car or trying to sell you drugs every few minutes.”

“Is that why ya’ll moved here? To get away from the crime?”

Now, I was prying.

“Uhh… I mean. No, not really. My mom just got divorced, so she wanted to move back a little closer to her family.”

If there was ever a time I wished I could crawl into a hole and die, right then would have been it. I’m not really too sure what he said after that, but whatever it was I can only imagine it was something heartfelt. Something about how his stepdad treated him like his own, or that he was there to fill in the shoes his real father had left behind. Again, I have no idea what he said after that. I was too busy trying my best not to puke all over the table.

“I’m, uhh… I’m sorry to hear that, son. That has to be hard.”

He just nodded his head.

“It’s fine,” he shrugged, trying to put on a strong face. “My mom’s happy, and that’s all that matters to me.”

He was lying. Not about being happy for his mom, that part was true, but about being ‘alright’ with it all. I knew without a doubt he was lying, though. I knew so, because he did the same thing I always did right before I lied; nodding his head three or four times before biting the corner of his lips – the little bastard.

“Yeah,” I sighed, “I guess that is all that matters.”

This was getting awkward. More awkward than it had already been.

“Right, well, I guess you know that our hours are from nine to seven, Monday through Saturday; twelve to eight on Sundays. Of course, if you were hired, you’d be coming in after school to help close up everything and probably a few extra hours during the weekend. Is that alright?”

“Yes, sir,” he replied, a hint of joy returning to his eyes.

“I assume you get out of school around three?”

“Yes, sir.”

“So, we could bring you in around four-ish? Would that give you enough time to get here?”

“Yeah, yeah! Yes, sir! That works great!”

“Alright. And of course, I’d need Sarah to sign a permission slip for you to work here since you’re under eighteen.”

As soon as the words left my lips, my entire world froze.

FUCK!

I just called her by name!

He never told me her name!

What the fuck was I thinking?!

My ears turned bright red. My heart started pounding. This was it! He was about to know!

Gripping my clipboard, I braced for the worst.

But in the end, the worst never came.

He didn’t pay it any attention at all. Didn’t even flinch. I could have said her full maiden name, and he would have been none the wiser. He was too caught up in his own little world to notice what was sitting right in front of him.

But then again, what else did I really expect?

He was my son after all.

“Uhh, Mister Snider,” he hummed, drawing me back from the awkward silence I was writhing in. “Do I… Do I have the job, sir?”

“Yeah,” I muttered back, not even realizing what I’d just agreed to. “Yeah, we’ll give you a call in a few days.”

Grinning ear to ear, he rose out of his chair and shook my hand. Again, he said something, but I have no idea what he told me. I was too busy trying to make sense of the giant mess I’d just gotten myself into. And by the time I looked back up, he was already gone.

Sitting alone in my office, I had a thousand questions racing through my mind and only a handful of answers. Just outside the door, another interviewee sat patiently waiting their turn to come in. And outside that small grocery store I’d been working at since Sarah and I broke up, was the son I’d never met before.

“Shit,” I groaned to myself. “It’s gonna be a long summer.”