Esmerelda

Esmerelda sighed as she scrubbed away at the graffiti on the wall, it was a slow day at the corner deli where she worked, and so her boss had told her to clean up “that mess”’ as he put it. She grumbled as she often did about the need to work for any pocket money, it's not that she needed a lot of money, she was 18 for Circe’s sake, it's not like she needed to support herself at the moment, and if she did, she wouldn’t have settled for a deli. Nine dollars an hour wasn’t exactly a salary to live on, especially when you worked 6 hours a day for only five days a week.

She stood up from where she had been crouched down scrubbing the bottom of what was originally an exotic flower in full bloom, it was the latest work by a local artist who was only known by her pseudonym, Euphoria, Esmerelda loved the artists work, of course, she also happened to work for the only store owner in all of Newark that for some reason hated the artist with a burning passion, Esmerelda couldn’t see why, Euphoria was an amazing artist and most shop owners loved having their work on the buildings, oddly enough, the Anonymous artist didn’t want to be paid.

Instead, they had insisted -by posting flyers everywhere- that if someone wanted their store painted specifically, then they should donate at least a hundred dollars to the local animal shelter and post a flyer with any specific requests on the side of their building that they wanted to be painted.

Esmerelda had no idea how they specifically knew who had actually donated, but the system worked for everybody, and their city was prettier for it.

It was at times like this when she often wondered what it would be like to be so comfortable financially that you could eat the cost of all those painting supplies regularly. It's not like she was living on the streets, but her families financial situation never allowed for frivolous spending, and occasionally necessary spending, with her mothers boyfriend the only one bringing a steady income into the house, things were a bit tight, her mother did uber to help as much as she could, but with her bad ankle, she couldn’t work more than 20 hours a week.

Suddenly a beeping sound filled the air around her, Esmerelda took the kitchen timer out of her back pocket with a small blush, she didn’t have a watch, and not wanting to spend any of her saved up money on one, Esmerelda had gotten permission from her mother to take the kitchen timer with her to work so she would know when her shift was over, Esmerelda had a bad habit of forgetting to check the time, her good for nothing boss would let her work overtime and conveniently forget to pay her for it.

Taking off her work hat and letting her dark hair down she dropped the brush in the soapy water and went in through the employee entrance, dumping out the dark water in the bathroom toilet, Esmerelda tossed the cleaning supplies in the utility closet before going to clock out.

On her way home from work she stopped by the bank to take out some of her monthly pay, when she had gotten a job she had started giving half of her pay towards bills, her mother and her mother’s Boyfriend had always tried to ensure that her and her sister didn’t know how much they tried to hide how often they struggled to hide that they weren’t as well off as others but they weren’t very good at it, well they weren’t when it came to her, her older sister on the other hand, well she swore money grew on trees.

Speaking of the devil. Esmerelda walked in the door and scowled at her sister and her sister’s boyfriend who were both sitting on the couch playing Sims. Esmerelda did not get along with her sister, her sister had always been the bane of her existence, Rebecca was lazy, selfish, and greedy, not to mention in need of heavy anger management. When she was younger she had thought that Rebecca was the favorite, now that she was older and capable of more complex thought

She realized that her mother was just completely incapable of letting her eldest daughter sink in her self-made mess, at 20 years old Rebecca Johnson was a high school dropout, had her good-for-nothing boyfriend move in.

Esmerelda rolled her eyes and went to her room. Locking her door she walked over to her painting and grabbed her little black book, her mother had given it to her a year ago, it was her first journal, and this little thing held all her dreams and plans for the future. She opened it and flipped through the pages, “oh how one person can grow in a year”. She muttered to herself as she flipped through her pages, her bucket list, idea’s for future books, rants about all the ridiculous things her boss has her do. That reminded her. She wrote down the latest of unnecessary tasks on her long list of why she hated her boss, really, who wanted to take down perfectly good art.

Half an hour later she heard a knock on the door, Esmerelda groaned and got up, opening the door she saw her mother standing there with an envelope. “Honey this came for you.” she said, “Thanks, mom,” she said. Grabbing the envelope. Impatiently she opened the letter, at first she looked confused and glanced at her mother. “Do I have an aunt Melinda?” she asked.

Her mother’s eyebrows rose into her hairline, “Why, yes, you do actually, my older sister, I haven’t seen her in years, why?” Her mother asked. Esmerelda looked back at the letter and cleared her throat. “Dear Esmerelda, though it might surprise you to know, I am your aunt Melinda, I am writing you to let you know that I am selling all my worldly possessions and moving to live off the grid, as such I have decided to give you twenty thousand dollars to help out with anything you might need, love auntie.”

Her mother blinked for a moment. “That's, that's, that's exactly like Melinda.” Her mother said with an exasperated sigh as she rubbed her head. “So, what are you going to do about the money? I assume there’s a check?” her mother said tiredly.

Esmerelda blinked and looked inside the envelope, sure enough, there was a check inside. “I-, well there’s so much I could do..” Esmerelda said, trailing off. But as countless possibilities trailed through her mind her eyes landed once again on her little black book, or more specifically, her things to do before I’m 20” list. “I’m going to put half in the bank to accumulate a bit of interest and the other half is going towards my college fund. The money combined with a few grants I’m eligible for should cover my tuition and supplies,” she said.

Her mother smiled at her. “Best get working on your application then,” she said, patting her daughter’s cheek. Esmerelda beamed and basically ran to the laptop her grandmother had gotten her for her birthday, Esmerelda had thought it would have taken her another few years to save up that kind of cash, but she could hardly think about that now, She was going to college!