Rock Bottom

Connections

After almost two weeks of handing out resumes Alec was still unemployed, but he couldn't claim to be too upset about it. There was something healing about sitting on the Carstairs' couch and watching endless hours of television, or so he told himself. Mrs. Grey tried to keep his spirits up by telling him he just had to be patient, that the perfect job for him was out there somewhere.

"People simply don't want to hire without work experience," Alec told her one day. "I've had at least two people tell me exactly that."

"Hmmm," she replied thoughtfully. "Maybe we should take another approach. Sometimes getting a job isn't about what you know, it's about who you know."

Alec didn't really understand what she meant, but had nothing against trying another tactic. He was getting sick of walking about and giving people his narcissistic pieces of please hire me paper anyway.

"Oh, I almost forgot," Mrs. Grey said suddenly. "While you were out today your parents came by."

"What? Why?" Alec asked quickly.

"They just dropped off a box for you," she said.

"Oh," Alec relaxed.

"I put it in your room," she added.

"Thanks," Alec said, then turned to keep watching his show.

"Well, don't you want to open it?" she asked.

"Not really," Alec said.

"No one's perfect Alec," she stated calmly. "No matter what they did, they are still your parents."

"Thanks Mrs. Grey," Alec smiled. "But at the moment they are dead to me."

"Such a shame," she sighed. Then she added with more volume, "And how many times do I have to ask you to call me Tessa?"

"At least once more," Alec replied with a laugh.

It wasn't till hours later that Alec got around to opening his parent's box. At the very top was a letter sealed in an envelope with his name on it. Alec set that aside and went to look through the rest. It was a collection of some of his stuff, including the blanket he'd see taken away the day they'd lost the house. Some of his books were there as well, and his cell phone. Alec rummaged around a little more and found his charger, which he promptly plugged into the wall along with the phone. It would be nice to have a phone again. He took some of the books out of the box and put them on the empty shelf Mrs. Grey had cleared for him to use. It felt good to be at least a little unpacked.

Then Alec turned to the letter.

'Dear Alexander

We hope returning your things is a step towards repairing what was broken between us. The rest of your things have been returned as well. They are in a storage unit along with ours. We didn't know if you wanted them all at once so we just included those things we know are your favourite. If you want anything else, don't hesitate to ask. Our phone numbers are the same as before, and are in your phone. When you are ready to talk please contact us. We will be waiting.

I hope everything's okay and know how very sorry we are.

Love

Mom and Dad'

It was nice to know that the rest of his stuff was his once again. And Alec felt far less cut off from the world with a cell phone to call his own. Leaving it plugged in, Alec checked his messages. He had a bunch, but most were old and no longer relevant. However, he did have one from Izzy that looked like it needed a reply.

'Hey big brother,' Izzy's text read. 'I just got my cell back so I figured maybe you did too. How are things?'

The time stamp said she'd sent it about three hours ago.