The Disciple

Chapter Fifteen

As I start my first day at Nursing Home, I enter the kitchen as the manager welcomes me to her office. As she starts speaking, most of the words were hard to understand as she couldn't speak clearly. I nod my head yes every time she asks me a question. She has me sign papers and we walk out of her office as she introduces me to Rodrigo.

"He will be training you today." She says to me.

"Okay." I say.

I place on a hairnet, gloves, and an apron as we head toward the back of the kitchen. Rodrigo then pulls out a cutting board along with three knives; one for the peanut butter, another one for the jelly, and another one for slicing the sandwiches in half. He then starts spreading the peanut butter and jelly on the bread and slices it in half. Rodrigo steps aside and makes room for me as he hands me the knife.

"Okay, do it." He says.

Simple enough, I start spreading the peanut butter and jelly the way I normally do it at home. He then stops me as soon as I finish one sandwich. I become confused on what I was doing wrong. I mean we're just spreading peanut butter and jelly. He then takes the knife and says.

"This, no good." He says as he spreads it quickly and swiftly for a new sandwich

"Okay. I can do that." I say.

I take the knife from him dipping it in the peanut butter and I begin to spread it quickly and swiftly. He then takes the knife from me again and shakes his head standing in front of the cutting board and tells me to look.

"No, like this." He says as he starts spreading the peanut butter and jelly.

Sweat then starts dropping down my face as I begin to get nervous. I could tell that this wasn't my type of job. I can see the manager on her computer and from the looks of it, she wasn't paying attention to what anyone was doing. It seemed like she has no history of how to manage the business because from what I've heard 4 of the old employees quit. I then take the knife and start slicing and spreading. I do at 3 peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. Finishing up the sandwiches I turn to Rodrigo and ask .

"Hey, how many sandwiches do you do?" I ask.

"Ya. You do them." He answers back.

The work day passes by and I keep messing up things; dropping plates, spilling food on my pants and shoes, dumping utensils in the garbage, being too slow at everything. I felt like letting out tears as everything I did, I messed up. The manager was there and I can tell that she didn't know I was struggling. I then start wrapping utensils as I try to go as quickly as I could, but I couldn't. I became frustrated as my co-workers only cared about clocking out early and leaving work.

I finish my last utensil and rip off the apron. I throw away the hairnet and head straight for the locker room. I then sit in one of the chairs and open my locker taking out my water bottle. Tears then begin running down my face as I stare at the white ceiling. I can hear 3 of my co-workers outside laughing ,wanting to ask me if anything is wrong. I burst out crying in the locker room and realize that this is not the right job for me. I wait until 8:30pm to clock out as I sit alone in the locker room weeping in sadness. I pull out my cell phone and look at the time. It's 8:30pm and I grab my stuff and head to the first floor. I punch in my numbers and place my finger on the scanner clocking out. Walking out of Willow Hall Nursing I see my parents in the black mercedes.

"How was work?" My mom asks.

I burst out crying as my parents look worried. They continue to drive as I continue sobbing with my uniform drenched in tears.

"What happened?" My mom asks.

"IT'S.....TOO.......STRESSFUL.....!" I exclaim as I continue weeping.

"Why? What happened?" My dad asks.

"I keep messing things up and I'm slow at doing things." I say as my sadness wears down.

"So you want to come back to the office?" My mom asks.

"Yes it is too stressful there." I say again.

"That's good I didn't want you working there in the first place." My mom says.

We finally reach our complex after a 20 minute drive and I exit the car still weeping trying to make myself stop. First off I didn't like how my hours were and secondly the management was terrible. I mean who makes a new employee work 7 days a week with only 4 days of training. Adding to that, who gets hired that easily without doing a proper background check. I just couldn't take it anymore. The manager gave me no choice but to quit. I decide to call James and ask him for advice. Calling him on my phone I wait for him to pick up as I sit in my sister's dark room.

"Hello?"

"Hey James."

"Hi."

"I can't take it anymore. It's too stressful."

"Why, what happened?"

"I dropped food on my pants while clearing out the food out of the dishes and the person training me got annoyed from me asking too many questions."

"In training you're suppose to ask questions."

"I almost knocked over a container filled with lemonade, I kept forgetting things, I was slow at wrapping utensils and I kept dumping the utensils in the garbage."

"Takes practice bud. It's only your first day. Don't be so discouraged."

"Yeah too bad I won't be working there anymore."

"So you're not going to work there anymore?"

"Well I'm going to talk to my manager Monday and see if I can work solely weekends. Weekdays I'll be working in my mom's office. That way it's less stressful"

"Maybe it also depends on what you agreed to when you they hired you."

"Yeah. I guess I can find my way around their Nursing Home schedule and to tell you the truth everyone was nice. I guess the first day it's stressful, but I think I'll get use to it."

"That's good. I know you can preserve Tristan. Don't give up. I'm going to get some sleep I'll talk to you tomorrow."

"Okay night."

Leaving my sister's dark room, I hang up my phone and lay on my mattress. My eyes slowly shut as I doze off into a deep sleep. I hope for a better day tomorrow. I envision Holy Trinity North Shore in a panic as the church is surrounded by a ring of fire. Then in the dream, the incident is on live tv coverage everywhere on WGN, CBS, NBC, FOX, ABC, and even CNN. My dream then takes me to where Abbadon is standing on stage in the Holy Trinity auditorium forcing everyone to bow down. Seconds before everyone starts hailing the villain, I wake up in shock.

"Whoa! We have to do something." I say to myself.

I then turn on the kitchen light tearing off a sheet of notebook paper and take out a pen. I begin to draw a strategic plan to stop Abbadon. My schematic looked like something off Kevin McCalister's battle plan when Harry and Marv were planning to break into his house in the movie "Home Alone." I start to yawn and my eyes start closing shut. I can't stay awake long enough to finish the battle plan. Shutting the lights, I lay in my bed and go to sleep hoping I can talk to my manager tomorrow to work only weekends.

"Abbadon you want a fight, then you're going get one sooner than you think." I say to myself.

Before going back to bed actually I text a picture of my schematic to James to see what he thinks of it. I hope he likes it because it might be our only shot in stopping Abbadon once and for all. Also there is still the matter of dealing with the bodyguard. I wonder what he is truly planning once he gets everyone at Holy Trinity to hail him and what's with the ring of fire?