Gus Now and Then and Sparky: Chapter Nine

I took this picture of Gus, our pet xylaria polymorpha this morning:

I took this picture in 2012:

It's true. Things just aren't what they used to be.

Sparky's Funtime Summertime Murder Mystery
Chapter Nine 

Sparky here. This is Chapter Nine of my story about how Gerry Ringbold met his untimely end. The story starts here.

I think we were all surprised - me, my beleaguered foster parents, my guilt-ridden and grieving aunt and uncle. None of us could have guessed how well I would take to retail.

2005 was the worst year of my life. I had all these people looking out for me and they all saw me going in the same direction. Straight down. 

What brought about my transformation was not a stroke of genius or even a last desperate attempt. Just one day my foster dad said I needed to come with him to the small electronics and appliance store he and my foster mom ran. They had been focused on keeping me at school and making new friends, so they had never got me involved in the store. But that day he needed me to go, so I went.

He showed me the files of product information he kept to help him make snappy sales pitches. They needed to be sorted and filed. After about an hour of him futzing around in the front of the store and me going over the documents in the back, I said, "You know, I could sell this stuff."

So began my brilliant career in retail. I stopped being the poor little thing who had lost her whole family in the Boxing Day Tsunami. I became the poised young woman who could tell anyone everything they needed to know about Samsung and Bissell ... and who could sell anything to anyone. 

I know it sounds kind of stupid, but helping consumers make informed decisions about vacuum cleaners and portable sound systems gave me a foothold. And it raised me some serious cash. 

I worked in the store after school and on weekends. After I finished high school, I worked for another year - after I had reached the age of majority and was no longer in need of foster parents - to earn my own living and save for university.

My money situation for all my retail success was still a bit precarious. My parents had planned on living to collect their pensions. The house was mortgaged to the max and they had a lot of credit card debt. My aunt was the executrix of my parents' estate and, after all the debts were paid, she put the left over money into a trust for me that I could have when I turned 18.

It wasn't a lot.  

So long as my former foster parents had their shop, I had a place to work. But, they sold the business in 2012, just when I'd finished J-school. All those people who had been looking out for me were still looking out for me. They made some calls and helped me get an interview for a summer job for 2013 as a washroom attendant at the Thompson Gardens.

The pay wasn't going to be as good as working on commission, but I was ready for a change.

I was a journalist after all, and my first big story was going to be about something ... I just didn't know what until that cop walked into the lady's washroom.

You can read Chapter Ten here.