Icing on the Cake

~87~

The next morning, we saw Julia downstairs reading the newspaper.

“What are you reading?” I asked her, putting the twins in their booths to get breakfast together.

“Classifieds.” Julia said, butchering the pronunciation and clearly just reading the word from the top of the page.

“Why?” Calum asked.

“I want job.” Julia explained. “I want pay money, for you let me be here.”

“You want to pay us rent?” I asked.

“Yes.” Julia said. “You let me here, for free. I want to give you something.”

“Okay, that’s great.” Calum said.

“I don’t know how to get job.” Julia said. “I don’t know English well.”

“I might know someone.” Calum said. “I might be able to get you a job.”

“Really?” Julia asked, excitedly.

“My uncle owns a McDonald’s here in Sydney.” Calum said. “I could see if he needs someone to work in the stockroom, replenish materials, stuff like that. You wouldn’t need to speak English for that.”

“That be perfect!” Julia said.

“I can give him a call.” Calum said, picking up his phone.

A rush of bad feelings washed over me. I could feel a tear drop roll down my cheek, so I immediately stepped out of the room. Calum saw, put down the phone, and walked behind me into the other room.

“Luke, what’s wrong?” Calum asked.

Notes

Next chapter will be a bit longer so that will be a nice little treat for y'all.