Between the Asymptote

Chapter 3

The next day, Amir and I had to start working early since it was the last day of vacation. We had to use the time to increase our pay for at least one day. I drove to the mini-mart at around nine in the morning and parked the truck.

“Good morning” I said to Amir as I entered. The store had no signs of customers at an early start.

“Good morning, boss told me he’s coming over” Amir answered.

“He called?” I asked.

“He did, and that’s not normal” The owner of the shop wasn’t a fan of phone calls and was the same exact reason I was wondering why he had to.

“Did you ask him why?” I wanted to know more.

“No, I tried, but he hung up” Amir answered with the same baffled look.

“Did he say what time he was coming?”

“No. He just told me he was coming because he had to talk to the both of us” He said as I put on my apron and settled my things under the counter.

“That’s weird” I continued.

“What do you think is he going to talk about?” Amir asked.

“I have no clue at all”

“The CCTV’s are not working are they?” Amir asked in great concern as his eyes rolled on the CCTV’s. I didn’t know why he asked the question.

“They don’t seem to be” I asked, knowing the CCTV’s were just there for compliance purposes.

“I had to bring home some chips a few days ago” He said.

“So you stole from the shop?” I asked him smiling.

“I’d pay for it!” He tried to defend himself. I gestured him that he was going to be dead once the boss arrives. “That’s not what he’s going to talk about you think?” He asked. I shrugged.

Moments later, the chimes by the door rang. It was either going to be a customer or the boss himself. From the storage room, I knew it was him. I could see Amir’s face grew pale, that’s how I knew.

“Is Clyde here as well?” His low voice confirmed my assumption. I walked out towards the cashier and saw the boss standing with his morning attire. He looked at me.

“Good you’re both here” He added.

“I have to make an announcement” He continued. Amir swallowed hard, in the back of his mind I knew he was afraid to get caught red-handed. The boss sighed for a bit and faced the floor before looking back straight at us.

“What is it sir?” Amir asked politely.

“Well” He brushed his chin and continued.

“As you’ve noticed, the shop isn’t getting much customers than before” We knew it was going to be bad news. “I didn’t know what happened exactly” He laid an envelope on the cashier. The envelopes are where our salaries are concealed, but it was kind of early to be receiving pays.

“I gave you a little extra for this, and it’s a bit early for salary. You both are working hard, but sooner or later I might need to close the shop” He continued as frustration filled his face. Amir looked at me and we both felt dumbfounded.

“Is there a way that we could gain more customers?” I asked him in the hope of a better outcome from his conclusion.

“I wish there was, but I’ll be reselling the space to someone else if needed be” We had no choice but to hold on to the tight edge.

“We’ll see in a few days. Spend your money wisely boys” He said. His face was devastated as well and we knew it was real. He tapped his knuckles on the counter twice and left the shop. We watched as he drove away. Amir and I shared a moment of silence on the news. We were worried for what was next. Finding a part-time job wasn’t easy for us, and finding another one was going to be harder.

“He said ‘we’ll see’. Let’s hope for the best” Amir said in positivity, handing me the envelope with my handwritten name on it.

“Let’s hope so” I grabbed the envelope from his hand and it was thicker than our usual pay cut. I had expenses for the apartment and gas for the truck. It made me worry even more.

“I hope something good comes up today” I said, like he was hoping for a miracle.

“We both should hope for the best” Amir replied. The day went on like normal, but it had to start rough. At the moment when classes were about to start, we lost the momentum.

“I don’t feel like going all out today. Maybe we should close early” I said. I sure wasn’t feeling good.

“Yeah, will do” He answered. As we agreed, we were about to close the store early in the afternoon to plan out well what he had to do, and if in luck, find another job. Before we could leave, two sheriff’s arrived in the shop.

“Two cups of coffee would you?” One of them said.

“I thought they were just lost or something” The other sheriff said to him.

“Yeah, me too. The car was too expensive to be here, and they looked like they had enough money to buy this town off” The sheriff on the counter answered. Amir was preparing the cups of coffee when the sheriff on the cashier looked at me.

“You haven’t seen a black luxury car pass by here kid, did you?” He questioned.

“No I haven’t sir, why?” I asked out of curiosity.

“Well, we may have visitors in town then. They were actually here for the college, and we didn’t know why they had to inquire here when they looked like they could afford a better one. You go to Great Yorkfield as well right?”

“Yes sir, we both do” I said pointing to Amir who had just finished filling the cups.

“Thank you, keep the change” He handed Amir the bill.

“You two have a good day” The other one said as they left chattering about the same thing.

“I hope we had as many visitors in this shop” Amir continued, watching the patrol car leave the parking lot. We decided to go to school after closing. David appeared to us before we entered.

“You both look tired” He said with concern. We continued walking alongside each other.

“We actually are” Amir answered.

“What happened?” He asked.

“The mini-mart is about to close.” I answered.

“Wait what?” David replied. We stopped walking towards the school entrance.

“That’s not good” He continued. We were well aware of the consequences if we lost the shop.

“There will be a way” Amir said. I decided to stay and ring mom before getting inside.

“You go ahead, I’ll be right with you in a sec” I told them as they went on ahead of me. I got to a spot on the side of the parking lot and called her. It took a few rings before she picked up.

“Hey, what’s going on?” She said. I could hear the voices from the Medical Center.

“Are you busy?” I asked. I wouldn’t be able to talk to her properly if she was working on something urgent. “Not really, just checking on a patient’s blood pressure, are you okay?” She asked. I was hesitant to tell her at first but I had to.

“The shop that I was working on, you know, the mini-mart?”

“Yes, what about it?”

“Well, it’s about to close, and we’re not sure when”

“Hold on, the shop you were working on since last year? Why?” She said, surprised.

“He said the customers came less, and that he had to resell the place if necessary”

“Oh my goodness, so what’s your plan now?” She said in a worried tone. I didn’t want her to think about it. “It’s okay mom, I’m sure there’ll be a way, just don’t worry too much.” I said to pacify the situation.

“Okay, I sent you something in the mail yesterday, I hope you got it”

“Oh really? I’ll go check it later”

“Are you going to be alright?”

“I am, I will be mom, I just miss dad a bit” I answered. She silenced for a while hearing the clutter of the medical tools on the line.

“I miss him too, but we have to move on and live sweetie. I’ll pay him a visit when I have the time”

“Thanks mom, you take care, I’ve got classes tomorrow”

“Okay, I’ll find a way to pay for your apartment if I can”

“I’ll do my best to find ways to pay for it by myself”

“Alright, don’t stress too much, I’ve got to get back to work, call me again okay?”

“Sure, bye, love you” The phone hung up. I did what I could to stop thinking about it but I was definitely tense. I looked for Amir and David inside the school and found them reading a post on the bulletin board. Their eyes were scanning deliberately.

“Take a look at this” David grabbed me and faced me towards the paper post. I read it as it said.

TECHNOLOGY SHOWCASE COMPETITION!

Inquire in the Science department now!

It made no sense at first since this was the first time I’ve heard of it, until I rolled my eyes to the prize. It was a two year scholarship grant if the showcase won! This was a good hope and a good way to get at least a few years off my payables!

“Let’s go to the Science department” I told them. Amir was left on the same spot for a bit.

“Wait! what are we going to build?” He asked as he chased David and I who were racing towards the science department head, Professor Henderson. We knocked on the door twice when David accidentally pushed me, letting the door flew open and us stumbling on the floor of the office.

“Are you in a hurry for something?” Mr. Henderson asked. His brown hair and black framed glasses peered through his table.

“Hey Mr. Henderson!” I greeted as David and I got up. Amir walked through the door seconds after, panting. “It’s for the competition isn’t it?” He said, as he sat back his moveable leather chair, closing his hands.

“Yes professor, definitely about the competition” David answered. Amir was still trying to catch his breath. Professor Henderson looked directly at Amir and was looking through the door as if he was expecting someone.

“Didn’t you read the guidelines?” He asked us. We looked at each other wondering what he meant.

“What guidelines professor?” Amir questioned.

“There should be four members in one group, and I see only-” The professor counted carefully.

“Three, unless … you’re expecting one more?” He added. There were only three of us, and we weren’t expecting anyone else, but the desperation to achieve the prize was evident.

“We’re not expecting anyone else professor but we can do it! Just the three of us” David tried to persuade him. He shook his head.

“Sorry boys, no can do. We follow by the rules and the guidelines no matter what” He stood firmly as a science department head. I sighed, with a hopeless face towards them.

“We still have two more slots, and you have to catch up before it’s gone” He informed us, leading us to conclude that there was no chance for us to have a four person group at anytime before the slots run out. “Alright, well thank you Professor” I replied as we were about to leave. He looked at me carefully since his eyes were not that keen to detail from the hazy glasses.

“You’re Grayson right? My student last year?” He asked. He indeed was my professor last year in Biology. “Uhm, yes Professor I was” I replied as David and Amir wondered what the relation was to the competition. “You did an impressive research paper the last time, that’s why I gave you an A” He reminded me of my grading report. That research paper was actually easy but I placed a lot of work into it to make it sound great.

“Thank you professor, I appreciate that” He thought for a moment and looked back to what seemed to be a list of the participants in the competition.

“I can do something for you” He continued as the three of us paid very close attention.

“I’ll reserve a slot for you, two days from now. Find another member and come back to me before your deadline runs out” He offered.

“Yes!” Amir was feeling great knowing we all needed it.

“I think you’d put up a good show if you were in the competition Grayson, I’ll expect your last member in the second day of classes”

“Thank you professor! We’ll do what we can!” I answered as he asked for our complete names and wrote it on one of the slots. We left his office and thought of the person we would be asking to join. Most of the smartest people in class were already part of a group, and made it harder for us to find the last member. We roamed around the school premises to find the perfect candidate but to no avail. It felt like we were desperately inviting anyone who went our way. We asked even the students who would rarely say yes, and even they answered the same ‘no’ several times. After a few hours of inviting, we decided to sit down in the library to talk about it.

“We’ve asked almost everyone here” Amir said.

“Yes we did, and we only have a day to find one” David added. We felt like we had ups and downs in chances and hope.

“We still got a day left, tomorrow is the opening and who knows we may find someone in the same class” I stated as David nodded.

“Now’s the time to think what we’re going to do for the competition” Amir said, and I knew he was right. We wouldn’t be sitting around waiting for a miracle to happen. We had to think of a good concept to start the project.

“Amir’s right, we must get going with the project” I said as they agreed.

“Let’s go over my place! Let’s hope my brother doesn’t mess it up” David suggested.

We decided to go over David’s place to start planning it. His house was near the coastline and had a great view of the coast from the upper floor. I stopped the truck across the street.

“Wait here, I’ll have to ask permission from my mom and check on my brother” David said. His younger brother had a bad reputation of playing around while David was working on something important. His mom and dad would sure be in the house if his younger brother was there too. His parents had to bring him to work if David wasn’t around since they didn’t have much of a choice. David left the car and slowly opened the door. We watched as he slowly closed it and waited patiently.

“Doesn’t this feel like we’re stealing something?” Amir whispered. It actually looked like we were. David took at least five minutes before tip toeing back to the car. He breathed out.

“Bro’s asleep, mom’s on the kitchen and dad’s doing some paperwork, so just whisper inside the house okay?” He said.

“Yeah, it does feel like we’re stealing from someone's house” I said agreeing with Amir.

“Just make sure you’re father knows we’re coming, I don’t want get pounded by him” Amir said as we left the truck. When we entered the house, David’s mother gestured silence as she waved at us. David’s room was on the second floor and we had to pass through his younger brother’s room and his father’s room. We slowly moved and his father didn’t notice we were there at all. We entered David’s room as he shut the door and opened the window. We sat on his bed as he joined us.

“So what will we be making?” David introduced the agenda.

“What do you think would get the attention of the students and the teachers?” I asked, for them to formulate the best ideas.

“As long as it’s budget friendly and we could just easily find the materials from scrap” David suggested. I thought it was a good idea. The simpler, the better.

“What the students really need” Amir added.

“What the students would like to have” David supported.

“A voice controlled alarm clock!” I suggested.

“Yes, a voice controlled- what?” Amir was baffled.

“You heard me, a voice controlled alarm clock” I repeated. The idea sounded ridiculous but was the most realistic we could achieve.

“An alarm clock that you have to manually tap in order to stop beeping is such an annoying thing, why not one you could control with your voice?” I had to insist my point.

“I’ve had to tap my alarm clock six times before it went off and that’s not such a bad idea after all, but where would you start?” David followed up with the question.

“We need a digital alarm clock, a voice recognition software, some external storage, mini microphone, tools in your dad’s shed, and a little bit of imagination” I laid down what we needed. They thought about it then contributed their own ideas.

“I think I have a digital alarm clock that’s not used and some scrapped hard drives” David said.

“Well, I can find a software on the internet later when we get back to the apartment” Amir identified what he could do to help.

“I think I may have an old phone where I could get a mini microphone” I stated. David scavenged inside a wooden chest where he got a ten inch sketchbook, and then grabbed a pen for each of us.

“Well then, let’s work with our imagination” He suggested. We made the blueprint of how we imagined it to be and how we were going to do it. It took us an hour and a half to do so. Finally, we got everything set up and something we agreed on. We’ve decided to start working on it even without the final member but it wasn’t today since it was getting late. More ideas came breaking in until we heard a knock on the door. It wasn’t a big knock, just a small continuous thud on the door. David came to open it, revealing his younger brother.

“Alright, uhm it’s time to go home.” David said. His brother immediately stepped inside.

“Drawing!” His brother uttered and rushed towards the sketchbook as Amir nervously closed the hard cover. “You better keep the blueprint, he’s definitely going to ruin it” David said as Amir and I rolled the blueprint. We stood up and went outside.

“We’ll have to find the final member of the group tomorrow” Amir said looking at the both of us.

“We will, let’s just hope someone would say yes” I said.

“I’ll see you two tomorrow, don’t be late” David said. As usual, we left with fistbumps. Amir went straight to his room while I checked my mail. Mom had sent me an envelope that had a rectangular outline bulging. I waited to get to my room before opening it, and it moved me to see that it was a framed picture of me and my dad back when I was young and we played baseball on the yard. From behind the picture, his handwritten note said ‘So proud of you’ from dad. My mom knew exactly what I needed. Inside the envelope was a letter.

’Dear kiddo,

I know how you missed your dad so much, and so this is for you, I hope this reminds you everyday of how much dad and mom loves you. I may be far, but you’re always in my heart.

Love, Mom’