Catalyst by Ross Richdale Page A

saying?"
    "You had a row at home. At least you still have your
own father. Mine's gone."
    "Yeah, I heard about your mom's boyfriend and his
little slut of a daughter you have to put up with. My God, I'd
wring her damn neck if it was me."
    "So what do I do?" Courtney said.
    "I'm leaving," Kathleen replied in a hushed voice.
"Wanna come?"
    ****
    "I thought it was a joke but Kathleen had it all
worked out," Courtney said to Renee." She had a new Toyota to
replace the wrecked car. One Saturday morning in early June we
headed a thousand miles south down I-75 and ended up in
Florida."
    "Didn't your parents realize what had happened?"
    Courtney shrugged. "I'm not sure. Kathleen didn't
seem to worry and I was so screwed up I didn't think about it." She
sighed and gazed at the glowworms. "We intended to keep going to
the Florida Keys but went across to Jacksonville instead. It was
too big, so we went south to a town called Saint Augustine. The
beach has white sand that goes for on for a hundred miles, I'd say.
It's a beautiful area but was crowded with the summer influx by the
time we arrived. Do you know the area?"
    "No. I've been to New York and Niagara Falls but
nowhere else in the east."
    "Anyhow, that's when we got tired of driving. In
Saint Augustine we found a campground that rented RVs as mobile
homes. They were a bit tatty but the rent was reasonable and we
were allowed to stay as long as we liked. Most campgrounds have a
three-week restriction over the summer."
    "So what did you do?"
    "Went job hunting," Courtney growled. "I soon found
out how the other half live."
    ****
    Much to Courtney's relief, the manager of the White Sails Restaurant gave the girls' resumes a cursory
glance and seemed more interested in their physical attributes than
any academic qualifications they may have had. Perhaps this was
just as well for the documents were faked.
    "You're lucky," he said without a smile. "We're short
staffed so we can take you on."
    He took out a document and pointed to the main
clauses. "You get fourteen dollars and twenty cents an hour with
ten percent deducted from your tips to distribute to the kitchen
staff. Watch the British tourists. They aren't used to tipping and
may need a polite reminder."
    Courtney shuddered. This cold man was not her idea of
a good employer. However, after a spending the week searching,
their optimism had disappeared. Dozens of inquiries, a lesser
number of interviews and one embarrassing moment when a woman
called to confirm their high school record, made them ready to take
anything available.
    "Your hours start at 6:00 p.m. and include cleaning
up after the restaurant closes. After 2:00 a.m. there's a small
overtime allowance." The manager appeared grim. "This rarely
happens. The uniform you wear is provided but can be worn only on
the premises, so you change when you arrive. Jake Cadasso is the
kitchen manager and your immediate superior. You can start this
evening."
    ****
    "We need to find cheaper accommodations," Courtney
muttered to Kathleen three weeks later. "By the time taxes are
deducted, our income barely covers the cost of hiring the RV and
food. There's nothing, not a cent left over. I've had to dig into
my savings to pay my share of the car expenses."
    "I know, but where can we go? The other workers are
no better off. Sylvia lives in a truck parked in the service
entrance of the restaurant and Marianne shares a pokey apartment
with eight others."
    "Eight?"
    "Yeah. One of those extended Hispanic families.
Compared with them, we're well off."
    "Only because we had a bit of capital when we
arrived," Courtney grumbled. "My three thousand is down to one. In
a month there will be nothing left. To be frank, what we earn does
not cover living expenses. It's stupid."
    "So what do we do? I'm not going home."
    "Ask Jake for a raise. There's that clause in our
contract about us being entitled to an extra supplementary benefit
over the holiday season because of higher living costs. It won't