SEVENS

A NEAR MISS

"The key to a good con is understanding communication." At least that's what my mother told me, but I knew her as well as she knew manipulation and she probably only said that to make herself feel better about the lies. Hell its what I told myself. Funny thing though, she never shied from calling herself a conwoman.

Maybe that's why I hadn't been able to convince Mr. Michaels I was worthy of the scholarship— I mean— aside from the fact that they had already chosen a recipient. I'd never been good with words and mom had only taught me ways to steal with them. I had tried to learn, to please her, but nothing other than a pocket full of diamonds would have done that. Then again as much as lying was a natural part of living, it also tore at me from the inside out. I was caught in limbo. I was alone and anything I did was for myself, if only to keep going. That's what I told myself. It was only for my survival.

That's what this job was. I'd gotten the job on a prayer, a whim, and a little lesson from dear old mom. "Lie if you have to, just don't let an opportunity go to waist. You're not worth an actual chance, so you gotta steal it." A poet really.
But with a little stealing, a button up from the thrift store, and a little lying saying I was seventeen and not my actual age of fifteen, oh and that I was homeschooled when I was really not— they had hired me for my clean record and available hours. Not necessarily conning according to what I'd seen from mom, but she wasn't there so why did it matter anyway? I got the job.

Since I'd begun working at the golf club, I've been honest about everything. I haven't lied to get out of a shift but, I haven't done subpar work either. It was my way of striving for forgiveness. Sometimes I convinced myself I didn't like lying, and sometimes I believed it.

Work was one of those things I had convinced myself of. I'd been working at the club for almost a year. I was a part of the lawn and grounds team which meant I was usually awake and mowing lawns when everyone was still tucked in bed. Once the club officially opened I trimmed bushes, pulled weed, and polished sidewalks. I really shouldn't have gotten the job, but they had been eager for young bodies they could work into the ground, and I was more than willing. I worked long hours and long weeks, even through the school semester. My homeschooling excuse worked like a lock pick to a shitty doorknob. It opened up all the work hours I could have asked for and kept prying eyes from looking too hard into my life. Nobody would be able to easily prove I wasn't in fact being homeschooled. Not that anyone looked to hard at me.

There were six others working this early morning shift with me but after being signed in and given my daily instructions I didn't see them much. Sometimes there were a few higher ups who came in to do paperwork, but I didn't talk to them much either. I had been riding the mower back and forth over the eighth hole course for the past hour. Each day I tried to mow at least four courses and this week I was behind. If I wanted to keep to my schedule I needed to double that.

The beginning of the week had brought devastation to my schedule by the breakdown of the lawn mower. I had spent the day investigating the problem and when I had found it to be more than a blade switch or a oil change I spent the day calling around for a mechanic that could fix it. Then I'd spent the next day waiting at home. My shift had been cut when the mower had been taken into the mechanic.
I considered myself a pretty level headed person, I wasn't often throw off my roll, but being behind on my schedule was one of the things that had no trouble getting under my skin. My schedule was just about all that kept me from unraveling. I was okay with that, I could depend on something — something I created — and not be let down. As long as it was a thing and not a person. But now? Now, I was behind and though it wasn't necessarily my fault I felt betrayed — by myself.

Today I had to catch up and I'd be damned if I didn't try my hardest. Thankfully I had a key to the garage, and I knew the mower had been returned repaired yesterday night. With the key I was able to get a two hour head start more than enough time to catch up for one days work, but lucky enough for me this was my second day of doing this. The only problem was that I —yesterday and today— had to get up at two to have enough time to walk to work and get there on time. This meant that after three hours into my shift I was too tired to pay attention to anything that wasn't directly in the mowers headlights, so when a person appeared directly in front of me when I turned I panicked and sped up instead of slowing down.