The General Store

Janice

Since graduating from College with an Art and Design degree, Janice always worked three jobs

simultaneously to be able to make ends meet. She is the type of girl who holds doors open for strangers

even when she is late, helps the elderly carry their groceries home and spends her free time

volunteering at local animal shelters to “help the unwanted strive to find their furr-ever homes”.

Even though she had trouble saving up due to always having received low wages, she saved every penny

she could for 20 years, even if that meant not eating well and not going out or spending “unnecessarily”

on self-care, clothing, or getting her hair done. Her blue-green eyes were enough to always make her

feel “slightly pretty”. She always undervalued the beauty of her brown locks--always shiny and healthy-

looking because she couldn’t afford to dye them at the salon. Those splendid brown locks nevertheless

always gleamed despite being cut crookedly by her own hand, using a pair of sharp Singer sewing

scissors her mom had left behind after she passed on.

In March of 2018, she was able to buy her idea of a dream home: a tiny little cottage nestled in the

woods, amongst wonderful neighbors--just like her—who loved and adored and “collected” unwanted

animals like she did. It finally began to look like things were on the up and up! She had saved up enough

for the down payment and was keeping up with all her bills with a little bit of extra disposable income

every month. She bought wood to build a fence to allow her cats, her chickens, and her goat to roam

free across the property—but not too far—"we wouldn’t want them to run into the deep woods and get

hunted by the vast wildlife that resides out there!” Her neighbor from down the road, the town’s local

carpenter, taught her how to use power tools, so the world was now her oyster! She painted the fence a

bright fireman red. Her carpenter friend agreed, “this color screams you! It screams freedom for your

furry creatures! And it truly complements the green of your house siding and the brick chimney--Great

choice, girlie!”

She got an amazing job at an aerospace company one day, for which she wasn’t fully qualified. But boy

did she work hard! She worked there diligently for 3 years, studying all the internal procedures and

documentation she could get her hands on. She would go home, and study some more. She built Excel

spreadsheets containing acronyms to try to keep up with the aerospace lingo, and in time, she even

wrote procedures, training manuals, coached and mentored her peers. She trained new hires with the

patience and empathy they so merited! She did so well in aerospace that she was finally able to let go of

her extra job on the side, working for the local general store, located just a brisk 20-minute walk down

the dirt road from where she lived.

Until one day, from pure temptation, she applied internally for a position. She had read the job

description and said aloud “I think I can do this! And I could use the extra cash to buy my furry babies the

premium food too!”

In her new role, she was bullied and told she was incompetent, not suited for the position, and “slow”

by the very peer in charge of training her. As she felt her self-esteem crash, her motivation slowly faded

as well. It was like a downward spiral inside her head: fighting tears during work hours, then going home

with no capacity to study or self-train for this new role. She had strived from hard work before, but this

time, it was just impossible. The sadness of not being treated the way she had treated her prior peers

was overwhelming.

Jean-Jacques

Jean-Jacques, born-and-raised native of the town of Demeter Falls, owned a convenience store. He had

inherited it when he was 32 from his father, Pierre-Jacques, a hard-working man who had shown his

only son the ropes of running a “slightly successful” business. Since the tender age of 5, Jean-Jacques

loved coming to work with his father. He loved that his father loved his work, and hoped he too one day

could own his very own “slightly successful” business!

To no one in Demeter Falls’ surprise, Jean-Jacques had grown to be exactly like his father Pierre-Jacques.

Having watched the boy happily stock shelves which he couldn’t reach at the age of 8, falling repeatedly,

getting back up and trying again until he grew slightly taller at the age of 10, the neighborhood felt they

knew him even better than they had known his father. Through encouragement, kind words such as

“it’s ok, you did your best—try again with a ladder”, the whole town felt like surrogate parents to the

boy.

As he grew tall and strong, resembling his father’s girth, Jean-Jacques amazed the people of Demeter

Falls. Their love for him kept his love for The General Store going. And, in turn, Jean-Jacques never

worked anywhere else—not even when that new aerospace company moved into town, offering

employment with high salaries and benefits.

Dean

Dean, the local carpenter of Demeter Falls, used to love telling stories to Jean-Jacques about how he and

his father Jean-Pierre had built the store “from the ground up with our bare hands”. As a young boy,

Jean-Jacques listened to Dean’s stories, in awe of his father’s persistence and perseverance in a field he

admired: carpentry and woodworking, “a real man’s job”.

Dean was especially ravished when Jean-Jacques hired his new neighbor, Janice, a bright-eyed, brown

haired girl with shiny hair. He had seen her move in all alone from the Big City, driving in the little

belongings she had up the dirt road to her house. She and Dean shopped there almost daily at The

General Store because, well, you pretty much had no other options in Demeter Falls, unless you wanted

to drive 60 miles to a Wal-Mart Superstore in Caledonia Hills!

Dean was good-natured man overall: hard-working, honest, friendly, approachable, and talkative. Janice

teased him about being “a chatty, chatty chatterbox”, which always made Dean smile. She enjoyed his

stories and admired his positive, hopeful, easygoing outlook on life.

Dean religiously bought his lottery ticket every Thursday at The General Store. Jean-Jacques faithfully

poked fun at him upon purchasing, stating “THIS time, man! THIS is The One—I can feel it!” , to which

Dean consistently, jokingly replied “It’s for my retirement fund—Gotta be responsible an’ all that an’

save up for the future, man! My momma told me that!”. They would both chuckle as Dean walked out,

holding the ticket high up in the air.

One Day at a Time

Janice couldn’t breathe. She gasped for air as he spoke, but her thoughts were too dark to let any

oxygen pass through into her lungs. Her breaths were short, wheezy, insignificant—just like her. How

would she feed her furry babies? Pay her mortgage? Buy groceries? She had tried to grow tomatoes,

basil, lettuce and potatoes in her garden out back, but they had all rotted down to the roots—not

enough sun and planted too close to the swamp—“should’ve known I was a plant-murderer too!”, she

thought. More tears formed in her eyes—too many tears! She struggled to hold them back and “save

face”, as her bully always said to her. He and her company director sat there, insulting her. “Take the

time you need to pack up your things. We’ll send you your record of employment by mail”.

“Fired. Well, there’s a first time for everything, right? I should’ve never left the other jobs; I should’ve

known better than to think I deserved to work for a prestigious company like that. What else could I

possibly have expected? I’m not an engineer, I just have my college degree in artful uselessness!” she

thought to herself as she walked out of the aerospace company’s front doors, holding a box of

decorative belongings she had previously used to make her desk look “slightly less depressing”.

Once home, she made chamomile tea and sat on her red and green plaid tweed fabric couch, clenching

the cup of hot wonderment while staring at a bare, blank spot the wall. When her thoughts stopped

spiraling, she simply felt nothing.

Morning, Night

Janice sent out so many CV’s she could barely keep up with the applications to be able to tell which ones

had rejected her. She reached out to her prior employers— “We’d love to have you back, Janice, but we

simply have no room”.

Janice was especially productive at night. She couldn’t sleep nor eat, so it served her well to use the time

wisely.

As she force-fed herself a cracker in between emails and cover letter modifications, she heard a crash

from the kitchen, then a faint “meow”, and then the pitter-patter of little feet, scurrying away from the

scene of the crime.

As it happens, Janice was so panicked and upset that she had not only forgotten to take the time to sit

down for a real meal for herself, but she had also forgotten to feed her furry babies. Had she spent 3

days like this? Or four? Was today a Saturday or Monday? Regardless, the only factor left in her life that

brought her happiness had been neglected to the point of breaking in through the French doors of the

kitchen and had sent glasses, dishware and utensils crashing down onto the tiled floor when trying to

access the cupboard where she kept the tuna cans.

“No more! This isn’t me! This is unacceptable!” she screamed out loud. She screamed so loudly her next-

door neighbor came to knock on the front door. Janice answered, embarrassed, “Hello Anica. I’m fine. So

sorry about the noise—it was nothing”. Anica stared at Janice with wide eyes, eyeing her up and down,

and retorted faintly “OK, but…OK, never mind. I’m glad you’re ok. I’m here if you need me”. Janice had

lost weight; her hair was matted and she had answered the door holding a broken glass.

No More

Dean and Jean-Jacques were laughing so hard, they were both in tears! “I told ya, ya old Scrum! At this

rate, you should just run for mayor!” screamed Jean-Jacques to Dean. Dean was further engulfed in tears

of laughter and retorted “then what would YOU do!?”. They both laughed hysterically, tapping their fists

on The General Store’s hand-built wood oak counter.

Janice stood there in awe. She had forgotten the sound of laughter. As great as it was, tears formed in

her eyes, as she held a locally grown red vine tomato in her hand, waiting to pay.

“Ya don’t look so good, sweetie”, said Dean to Janice. The laughter had stopped. Dead silence filled the

air. “I’m good, thanks. How much is this?”, she said, as she delicately placed the tomato on the counter,

incapable of making eye contact.

Somehow, they both knew. Janice didn’t need to say anything at all. Demeter Falls didn’t have much

going on in general, so gossip always prevailed. Apparently, the new big shot aerospace company in

town had over-hired during their initial opening years. Their annual report had just been published, and

everyone in town knew layoffs, firings and constructive dismissals were imminent.

“Well, honey…” said Jean-Jacques in a calm, low tone, “…You’re always welcome back here to work for

the store if you need”.

Janice’s eyes lit up but quickly filled with tears. She smiled through them to show her love for the store

and its keeper, but regrettably declined: “There’s nothing I would love more, and the pay was always

more than fair for the work I loved so much, but I can’t afford my mortgage payment with it alone,

especially with part time hours. I’m so sorry, I can’t accept—yet—until I find an income complement”.

“Well, from the way I seen ya build a fence young girlie, have I got a job for you!” exclaimed Dean. “And I

pay my apprentices fifty bucks an hour!”

“I don’t understand, Dean, what do you mean?” responded Janice in a feeble voice.

“Well, ya see here,” Jean-Jacques replied, “Dean and I were just discussing going into business together

‘cause he got himself a bad case of arthritis, and can’t work too much no more. We’re gonna extend The

General Store here and build a woodshop. It’s gonna run down that way, all the way down my papa’s

property. We’ve been talkin’ bout it for years, but now that The General Store just got that donation

from that small sum won in the lottery the other night, we got just enough to pay the materials and

machinery to build it…and enough to train a worthy apprentice.”