Sunny Hill Farms Act 1

Sunny Hill Farms

Over the years, I've had many different jobs. Some of them I liked and others... not so much. There was one job however that I could never forget. At the time I decided to take this job, it was around the middle of May and I knew that I would be going to college soon. Because of this, I wanted to take my laptop with me. However, the laptop I owned at the time had numerous dings and scratches in it and it had recently been making noises similar to a jackhammer on numerous occasions such as when I opened a program and even when I just let it idle for a bit. This wouldn't have been a problem if it ran great but unfortunately, it was really slow to load virtually anything! Much to my dismay, I didn't have the funds to purchase a new one since I had spent quite a bit of my savings on a birthday gift for my best friend a month prior.

This wouldn't have been too bad except my family and I weren't exactly the richest people in town. In fact, a lot of my things such as my clothes and even my phone once belonged to my older brother. So asking for a new laptop or even the money to purchase one wasn't really an option for me. At the time, I thought the best way to earn money was to find a job. However, the idea of working in some loud, overcrowded, and stuffy kitchen for subpar wages was ridiculous to me, especially considering the fact that I wasn't exactly a fan of noisy places. So, I decided to start looking for jobs in the local paper, as I felt I would have a better chance of finding a job that wasn't too far away from where I lived. I skimmed through the help wanted section and as I got to the end, I slammed the paper down on the couch.

"How is that possible?" I thought to myself. When I was looking through it, a lot of the jobs I saw either had really lousy pay or required experience that I didn't have at the time. Hell, I even think some of the other jobs listed had both of these qualities. I mean, even for a local paper, you'd think there would be at least one or two good jobs in there. I took a deep breath and grabbed the paper, placing it on the large wooden coffee table. After that, I decided to open up my phone's web browser and look on different job sites, hoping to find at least one good paying job that I was qualified for. I looked on at least three different job sites but much like with the paper, I hadn't found anything.

As my options dwindled, I sighed and rubbed my temples. I tried to think of other avenues I hadn't explored and needless to say, I wasn't getting anywhere. A few minutes later however, I snapped my fingers and shouted, "A-ha!" out loud. I picked up my phone and typed "Craigslist" into the web browser. Now before you say anything, yes. Even back then, I was aware of the site's less than spectacular reputation. But at that point, it was worth a shot. I searched through a few of the categories in the job section and I eventually came across a listing for this place called Sunny Hill Farms. I read through the post line by line. From what I remember, it said something along the lines of:

"Hello! We are the owners of Sunny Hill Farms and we are looking for a new farm hand. Our farm is about four hundred and thirty four acres in size, which means we need all of the help we can get in maintaining it.

We are looking for the following qualities:

* Must be willing to work with animals

* Must be honest, reliable, and willing to work hard

* If you plan on commuting back and forth, you must provide your own method of transportation

* Must be flexible with work hours

To inquire, send us an email to the provided address and attach a copy of your resume (if possible). If you have any further questions, please call our company hotline."

I also noticed that they were willing to pay at least ten dollars and seventy five cents an hour, which I thought a pretty decent wage. After looking everything over, I came to the conclusion that this was the best job compared to some of the others I had previously looked at. I decided to borrow my mom's computer and send them an email with my resume attached. As a precaution however, I excluded my home address from my resume, as I didn't want them knowing where I lived, especially if they turned out to be dangerous.

Three days after I sent my email, I hadn't received a response and the inside of my stomach grew cold as I began to debate the authenticity of the post in my mind. At that moment, I decided to call the number they listed in the hopes of putting my uncertainty to rest. The dial tone went off at least a few times before it suddenly stopped. A moment later, a woman with a vauge Bostonian accent could be heard on the other line.

"Hello this is Sunny Hill Farms Becky Miller speaking. How may I help you?" the woman said. I explained my situation to her and asked why I hadn't received a response. She apologized and said she was going to check the inbox. A few moments later, she told me that she had two new emails. One from Arnold Jackson and the other from James Pachico. She then asked me which email she should open.

"The one from James," I replied. She clicked on the email and downloaded the attachment. Once that was done, she told me that she was looking through my resume. As she examined it, she would occasionly mumble things like, "Hmm, they're a good group," and, "That's interesting." After she finished looking at my resume, she told me that she liked what I saw. However, she wanted to ask me a couple of questions to see if I was serious about taking the job, which I allowed her to do. The first question went something like,

"Now I have a couple resumes from other people saved into my computer. So why should I hire you over any of them?" I moved the phone from my ear and took a deep breath.

"Because I'm talking to you and they're not," I said sternly. I wasn't sure if it was the best response but I figured that the short and sweet approach was the ideal way to go. The next question she asked me was,

"So a typical work day for us starts at ten in the morning until seven at night. Is this going to work for you? If so, will you be able to get to work on time?"

"I don't think the hours are going to be an issue for me. Plus, if the map in the post is correct, the farm isn't that far from where I live. So I should be more than capable of getting there on time," I said with a smile. After I answered the question, Becky didn't say anything to me for quite a while. As I waited for her to say something, my body tensed up and my breathing became quiet and shallow. I waited at least a minute or two before she finally said something.

"Will you be able to start tomorrow?" she asked. I said that I would be more than happy to do so and she told me to have a nice day and hung up.