Friday-Assistant Auditions (Ariana, Jonah)

[Elaine Tonaya]

Elaine was horrible at making decisions. At least decisions where she didn't have a little more information to go off of than a simple piece of paper and a few references.

In order to put off having to make the decision and to get to know the six individuals who had applied for the job position, she decided to arrange a few trial sessions. Three days, two assistants each day, and a chance for her to get to know everyone.

She had chosen to work with Ariana and Jonah on Friday because their schedules seemed to be the most free on those days. She wasn't expecting anyone until after school, so it meant she had time to get a few things set up and try to work up a few basic rules for the workplace.

At three o'clock, though, which was the time she had arranged for the two temporary assistants to arrive, she waited politely just behind the counter to present the most professional side of her shop.

When the door opened she gave a big smile. "Hello," she said. "It's really great to finally meet you in person."

She stuck out her hand for a handshake and tried to take an inconspicuous sniff of the air in order to get a good read on this person.

"I am Elaine Tonaya. You should probably refer to me as Ms. Tonaya, at least for today. I've already got a few things lined up for the day. I'd like to talk about expectations for the job and a dress code. But first, let's just get to know one another. Tell me a little about yourself."

[Jonah King]

Don’t be late, don’t be late… Jonah had never been a very punctual person. He was usually the guy running through the door of the classroom with thirty seconds to go before the teacher started to speak, and that was on a good day. Sometimes he was the one sneaking in at the back, trying to look as inconspicuous as possible despite being over six feet tall. This time, Jonah was determined that he would make a good impression on his potential employer by being on time.

He had been rather taken aback to find an e-mail in his inbox from Elaine, but he wasn’t going to complain about it. Maybe she just needed extra people to interview. Maybe he had been the only person to put in an application. But whatever the reason he had been asked to come today, Jonah was adamant that he was going to do the best that he could. He needed a job, and although flowers weren’t his strong point, he was sure he could learn.

So, at three o’clock, Jonah was standing outside Mama’s Garden. It was a nice shop, one he had been into only a couple of times (if in doubt, get the women in your family a nice bouquet of flowers). He took a deep breath, and pushed open the door. ‘Hi,’ he said – a little awkwardly – nodding to the woman behind the desk. ‘I’m Jonah King, I’m here for an interview?’ He had been prepared for her to run a mile at the sound of his voice, but he was pleasantly surprised. Instead, Elaine’s wide, warm smile greeted him, and he made a mental note to thank Honor for her training as he reached out to briefly shake Elaine’s hand. The fact that he could do that was testament to how hard she had been working him, and Jonah was becoming more grateful by the day. To refuse a handshake with someone who could potentially employ you was probably not the best move. As it was, when he took Elaine’s hand Jonah heard a burst of ‘sound’ – but it wasn’t overwhelming, and he couldn’t make it out. Excellent.

He watched her speak, nodding to show that he understood. ‘It’s good to meet you, Miz Tonaya,’ he replied, hoping that he had got it right – it was difficult sometimes to lip-read the difference between ‘Miss’ and ‘Ms’, which was why Jonah generally tried to combine the two. At her mention of a dress code he had to stop himself from surreptitiously checking what he was wearing (green button-down shirt over a t-shirt, jeans, trainers), to see if she was trying to make a point.

This was going to be more complicated than he had thought.

‘Well…’ Tell her about himself? Jonah found himself tongue-tied for a moment. Start with the basics, King, Mia would have advised him. And try not to be boring. Jonah offered Elaine another of his ready smiles. ‘I’ve been going to Hammel for four years. My family live in Vermont, near St. Albans.’ How was it possible for one person to be so bad at this? ‘I’m deaf and I don’t wear hearing aids, but I lip-read. It would only be a problem here if someone talks to me when I’m not looking.’ Jonah paused, a little proud of himself for talking for what was – for him – a long period of time. Then he remembered something else he should tell her, and he looked at Elaine with a bright, serious gaze. ‘I guess you should know, I’m a telepath.’

[Elaine Tonaya]

Elaine was a little surprised to hear Jonah's voice. She knew from his application that he was deaf, so she had braced herself for some difficulty. Jonah's telepathic voice was quite well controlled, though, and there didn't seem to be any problem when they shook hands. From her days at Hammel Elaine knew that telepaths often had a very hard time with their power. She'd trained a few times with a telepath in the very early stages when people were still trying to find out what her own power was. When it was later identified she was placed in her own study group, but she never forgot some of those early days of training.

Elaine was not picky about her name. Ms, Mrs...all of it ended up being the same thing in the end, so she rarely bothered to correct anyone. Jonah's neutral "Miz" worked just fine for her. She caught his glance down at his clothes and smiled.

"Don't worry, you look fine. I have a speech written out here, so I don't forget anything." She grinned again.

Jonah seemed to be having some trouble to start, but once he began speaking he was doing all right. She nodded politely as she listened. From his aura and his facial expressions she gathered that he felt quite shy and awkward, as well as a bit lonely. She guessed that he'd had a very difficult home life, which made her instantly wish that she could help him to feel more confident in himself.

"That's good that you can lip-read, and you are speaking well. I don't think there will be many problems. But if there are people who complain I am sure we can figure something out." She smiled again at him, encouragingly.

She did laugh a little when she mentioned his power. "I know, Jonah. I went to Hammel, too, and I can tell when people are speaking in my head. Don't worry, though, you're doing a good job here." She looked around the shop.

"Well, it looks like the other person I invited in wasn't able to come, so we will have to start without her. Come, let me show you the shop."

She gave Jonah a quick tour of the place, pointing out some of the important areas and showing him her different organization techniques. She gave him a glance into the back room of the shop where she worked on her more delicate arrangements and stored extra inventory, then led him back out front again to the counter. Pulling out a plate of cookies and setting them on the counter, she sat on one of the benches and gestured that he could take the other one.

"I hope you like peanut butter," she said, biting into a cookie. "Now. You have seen the shop and everything seems to be good. Do you have any questions for me? Anything about the shop, about myself...I'd like for us to have some time to talk and get to know one another."

[Jonah King]

In a way, Jonah knew that he was actually very lucky. Being raised in what the deaf community referred to as ‘the oral tradition’ – speaking, and lip-reading in a hearing family – he had a big advantage over some of his friends. True, he disliked speaking, but some of them could barely form words. And in a world where words are very important, they found life pretty difficult. Jonah could order in a shop without needing to write anything down, and he could understand what people were saying to him, as long as he could see their faces. Some of his friends would never have been able to apply for this job at all, since it involved serving customers. ‘It should be fine,’ he confirmed with a tentative smile. ‘If they don’t understand me, I can write things down.’

When Elaine told him she had been to Hammel, Jonah felt surprisingly relieved. She would know, then, how to deal with telepaths – she wouldn’t have the residual distrust that other people usually had for them. Not that Jonah didn’t understand why someone would have a problem with telepaths. If someone didn’t have the control or the ethics to stay out of your head, it would be terrifying.

It was a nice shop, and Jonah watched with interest as Elaine told him the names of all the flowers – he had always loved being outdoors, but had never really paid much attention to the plants, before. He made a resolution to himself that he should find a book in the school library, whether or not he got this job. It would be good to know what he was looking at when he went out and about. Jonah tried to remember everything Elaine told him, but he was more focused on making a good impression. More than anything, he wanted Elaine to like him, and to think that he would be a good person to employ. That Robbie had also gone for the job did not fill him with hope. After all, Robbie was chatty and funny: everything Jonah wasn’t.

When Elaine produced a plate of cookies, Jonah lost his look of concentration and let his face break into a smile. ‘Thank you,’ he murmured – his smile becoming even more delighted when he discovered that they were made with peanut butter. He watched her speak, and tilted his head thoughtfully to one side. ‘You said you went to Hammel,’ he said after a moment, having finished the cookie in record time. Jonah rarely had baked goods that he hadn’t bought in a shop, and he had forgotten how good they were. ‘Have you lived in Pilot Ridge since then?’

[Elaine Tonaya]

Jonah devoured the cookie, and Elaine had to smile. It always surprised her a little how quickly food could disappear when in the hands of someone who has hungry, or someone who really enjoys what they are having. She nudged the plate toward him in case he wanted another.

"Yes, I've lived here ever since I moved up to Hammel. I had to, really. I had a baby to take care of, after all, and going to college wasn't really an option for me. My grades weren't good enough, and nobody would have wanted to take in a single mother who couldn't afford higher education. So I went to work, and after a little while I started my own shop. I've been working here ever since, and I love it. There are some really good people here. And I get to continue helping my high school, where I met some of my best friends. My son, Morgan, grew up here, and I think he likes it here too. Pilot Ridge is a good place, if you don't mind the small-town atmosphere."

Elaine sat quietly for a moment, musing silently about her life in Pilot Ridge. "What about you?" she asked Jonah finally with a smile. "Are you liking Pilot Ridge and Hammel? Or are you bored and just waiting to get out? I know a lot of people like that, too, and there's no shame in admitting it."

[Jonah King]

Elaine’s story gave Jonah a newfound respect for her. It would have taken her a lot of guts and strength to set up a new business while raising a child on her own – Jonah didn’t need to be a telepath to see that here was a woman with steel. He couldn’t help but compare Elaine’s life to his mother’s horror at his sister’s pregnancy: if Elaine could do so much as a single mother, surely his sister would be fine, despite being a mother at such a young age? Jonah’s sister had the advantage of her baby’s father still being around – Elaine seemed as if she had done everything by herself.

Quietly impressed, Jonah gave his potential boss a small smile. ‘I like it here,’ he told her. ‘I think it’s going to be difficult to move away.’ That he would have to eventually leave was a given – although Jonah still needed to work out what he was actually going to do with his life. He needed to work it out soon: going home for the grace period most people enjoyed between finishing school and starting Life was not an option for him. Being there during the holidays was bad enough – being in that awkward house for any longer stretch of time was unthinkable.

‘I’m looking forward to being independent, though,’ he added, giving a slight shrug. A thought occurred to him, and he looked at Elaine with a curious expression. ‘If you don’t mind my asking, what’s your power?’

[Elaine Tonaya]

Elaine nodded sagely at Jonah's words. "Yes, I think a lot of people have trouble trying to deal with change, especially when they are already happy and comfortable. But sometimes what you are moving on to is even better than what you had. And Pilot Ridge can't be home to everyone. You just have to make the best of wherever you are, I suppose." She couldn't exactly tell that Jonah didn't want to go home, but she suspected that there were problems with his family based on some of the paradoxes she was smelling.

"Good to hear that you're ready to move on, then," she said, smiling at the young student. "There are some people who never seem to want to move on. I raised one of these and he still lives nearby. Not that I'm exactly complaining--I love having my son close, but it was a bit of an effort to get him to try things on his own. Sometimes I wonder if he'll ever get married and start his own family or if he'll continue sticking with what he has. But I believe there is still hope for that child." She placed a hand over her heart and looked into the future with a sort of distant look, then smiled at Jonah and laughed.

When he asked about her power, Elaine was caught a bit off guard. She could tell that he was genuinely curious, and she felt a bit strange trying to lie or work her way around his upfront honesty. So she gently sighed and clasped her hands together. "It's a bit hard to explain. When I first arrived at Hammel, in fact, even the teachers didn't know what power I had. All they knew was that the meta gene was present, so clearly I had some sort of power. It actually took a few months for me to recognize that I was...smelling...things. People. The only way I can try to describe it is 'aura smelling,' but that's not completely accurate. It's not really an aura, but that's the only word there is for it in our language." She shrugged. "Really, it's pretty useless. I just get to see people a little more clearly, that's all. And it took me a very long time to find out what each smell meant. Now, though, I can usually tell what something is, even if I've never run across it before, just because it will smell like something else. It's very confusing, and I'm sure you're not really all that interested in it. Instead of me rattling on about something as silly as powers, how about we do a few trial runs for the shop? I'll ask you for some flowers, you try to get them. How does that sound?"