-S-
Sara was putting apples in her refrigerator.
“What do we do if we can’t sell all these?” Bailey said.
“Then we will eat all of them. At least they are good for you.” Sara responded.
“Don’t worry, Bailey. We will sell all of them,” Jake said while he was bringing another box.
“We have more?” Sara asked.
“Yes. I will take two boxes, too, and I will bring another two to Jennifer’s.” Jake put down the box next to her.
After that they made caramel and chocolates apples. They sliced them into four pieces and attached them to wooden sticks. Then they dipped them into either the chocolate or the caramel.
“This is good.” Shawn finished two of the apples.
“Yeah, really good.” Sara really liked it, too.
“I guess we are ready!”
“Alright. Me and Shawn will go there and set up the board. See you guys tomorrow,” Jake said.
“You’re not coming back?” Bailey asked.
“I have to work tonight.”
“Do you and Michelle work at different hospitals?” Sara asked.
“Nope, we both work in the same place, but just in different departments. She works in oncology, and I work in orthopedics. We are definitely cooler than them.” After Jack and Shawn left, Jennifer came to her house. They talked about the festival and made the work schedule. When Michelle came back from work, they ate an early dinner together.
“It’s tomorrow! Everyone has done great so far!” Michelle said.
“Yes. We will see you tomorrow morning at the festival!” Bailey said while she was eating another caramel apple.
After her friends left, Sara picked up the ‘Great Gatsby’ for a little and went out to run before it got too dark. She saw a guy walking in her direction. She realized it was Jack, the guy who she met while she was passing out the flyers. She switched directions to avoid him. She did not want to be mean, but she did not want to talk to him. She was still getting text messages from guys that she met at the dance. The sky was getting dark. She liked this time of the day. It was the time when her father got off from work, and the time when her family gathered to eat dinner together. She missed her family. She called her parents before she went to bed that night.
The next day, Sara and Jennifer arrived at the festival sight early to set up the booth. Jake and Shawn did a good job setting up the photo booth. At 11 a.m. the festival officially started. When Shawn and Bailey came to work, Sara and Jennifer explored the festival. There were many different booths and shops. Food, games, magicians, bingo, and anything else you could imagine. Some weren’t even apple-related. Sara noticed a few of them were actually taking pictures of their customers just like her table. They went to Jennifer’s friend who was doing the Tarot card readings. Jennifer’s friend had many piercings on her eyes and nose. Sara thought she was scary.
At 2:00 p.m. the place was full of people. They sold their first apple a little after noon. People liked the idea of free photos and there were a lot of people coming. Sara and her group got very busy and worked really hard. At 6:00 p.m. Jennifer went to her favorite psychic show and Sara worked alone with the camera. Michelle and Jake came at 7:00 p.m. and Sara could finally rest. When Jennifer came back, she was very excited about the show.
“I recorded it!” Jennifer showing her cell phone to everybody, but they could not watch it because of the high volume of customers. Soon, Jennifer’s date came to the festival and they left together. Sara could tell Jake was not happy. He ate five chocolate apples, but nobody said anything to him. When Sara was emailing a picture to her customer, somebody called her name.
“Hey, Sara.”
Sara turned back and there was Jack standing in front of their booth.
“Do you remember me?” Jack was smiling.
“Yes. I do. Jack, right?”
“Correct. This is a cool shop.”
“Thanks.” Jake and Bailey were looking at them. Sara felt awkward because Jack was standing there saying nothing and staring at her. She wished more customers would come, but at that moment it seemed like no one would come to rescue her.
“Well. I have to go hang out with my buddies, but I will come by later,” Jack said.
“Yeah, I hope you have a good time.” After Jack left, Sara sighed.
“Who is he? He really likes you, but he is so awkward,” Bailey said.
“That is the guy I met in my neighborhood.” Sara hoped that he wouldn’t come back, but he did and this time with a bunch of his friends. He and some of his friends bought the apples and took a picture.
“Can I have your number now?” Jack asked with big smile. Since Sara promised, she gave her number to him.
“Cool, I will call ya.” He waved at Sara and she tentatively waved back.
“What is wrong with that dude?” Jake said.
The festival lasted until 1 a.m. and there were a lot of people. Sara started seeing drunk people and hearing loud music.
“We may need some more apples.” Bailey said while she was covering the caramel container.
“We can always buy more.” Jake told her.
“We made $1540 today!” Michelle screamed.
“That’s really good because there will be even more people here tomorrow!” Bailey was excited.
“Yeah!” Shawn grabbed the bundle of money and pretended to throw the dollars in the air.
“If you really do that, I will smash you with chocolate.” Michelle told Shawn. It was funny, but Sara could not laugh because she was so tired. She fell asleep as soon as she got home.
Sara and Michelle were supposed to work at 2 p.m. but they arrived there at 12 p.m. to enjoy the festival. It was already filled with people. They walked around every corner. There were many shops that were not there yesterday. Michelle won a huge doll from shooting game, and Sara bought a small Native American style hairpin at a shop. She also won a gold fish playing “Apple Bingo.” After that they went to watch the circus and came to their booth.
“Hi, guys! Did you sell anything?” Michelle asked Jennifer and Bailey. Sara realized they looked a little bit serious.
“You guys ok? What happened?” Sara asked.
Before Jennifer said something, Jake said, “She is just sad because the psychic show is cancelled. Guess who was going to be the guest?” Jake pointed at Jennifer.
“You? Really? I ‘m so sorry! Why did they cancel it?” Michelle said.
“Because…” Jennifer was slowly saying it and Jake interrupted again.
“Apparently, he not only can talk to dead people. He can actually generate dead people.”
“Shut up Jake.” Bailey was just as emotional.
Later they told Sara and Michelle how the psychic had killed his wife and assistant and ran away. Jennifer sighed. She was in shock. Sara’s booth was very busy that day with a lot of people and they made $2100 that day. Everybody was excited except for Jennifer. Sara did not know how to comfort her. She grabbed one of the chocolate apples and wrote, “Cheer up!” on it and drew a smiley face on it. She gave it to Jennifer.
“Thanks, Sara.” Jennifer smiled.