Sleet

Something wet is falling from the sky. It’s an unsettled wetness that can’t make-up it’s mind. Should it be snow or rain? It shifts by fits and turns. Now sleet, then snow, then rain again. By afternoon it decides to be snow, though not a resolute snow. It lingers on the tree-branches but melts on the ground.

Spring is a fickle season, troubled with doubt; should I take off my winter coat, or wait a little longer to put on my summer clothes?

Let me sleet awhile and think on it.

I tug my watch-cap tighter and pull-up the collar of my peacoat. I can wait. I’m good at waiting. I’d rather not be wet while I wait. There’s a diner on the corner. I’ll wait in there.

The sign outside says: Ben’s Burgers & Fries.

It’s a small place with only grill, countertop, and five stools. The view through the big storefront window gives cinematic drama to the sleet falling outside.

I order fries and coffee.

“No burger?”, asks Ben. Naw, I’m between jobs, gotta watch what I buy.

“Understood. Not doin’ so good myself. That’s why I only sell burgers and fries, Less overhead. Most of my customers come for breakfast, lunch, and right after they get off work. Nuthin’ in between. That’s why there’s nobody here but you and me right now.

Say, maybe I can help you. The box factory down the street is hiring. You ask for Carl, he’s a friend of mine. Tell’em I sent you. He’ll give you a job”.

Ben delivered a burger along with the fries. “You can pay me later, after you got a job”.

I thanked Ben and walked through the sleet to the box factory.

The sleet hadn’t decided what it would become. Neither had I.

Carl hired me. I quit at noon and took the few dollars I’d earned back to Ben’s to pay for the burger and fries he’d served for free. Ben wanted to know what happened. I told him.

Carl was one of those people who get promoted beyond their level of competence. Ben knew his pal Carl as a hard-worker, just like himself. He never saw Carl as a boss.

From eight to twelve I watched Carl bully every worker with unceasing foul-mouthed cruelty. None of it warranted. As far as I could see everyone was working very well.

Carl seemed to believe the only reason everyone was working very well was because he was screaming at them. Carl was an idiot. I can’t work for an idiot.

Next day the sleet changed to rain.

I saw a help-wanted sign in a window. I walked in and got hired. It was a small shop that did nothing but paste Yellow-Page ads on cardboard sheets to be photographed in a process that ended as individual pages in the local Yellow-Page book.

It was a dreary job. I didn’t mind. I worked diligently, being careful to clean-off all the excess rubber-cement from the paste-up. I thought I made a pretty good job of it. The boss came by. “What the hell are you doing”? Just making sure the paste-up is clean. “Well knock It off, time is money. They’ll opaque all that !@#% off the negative”.

This was disturbing. I started work on Saturday and quit on Sunday.

Surely, somewhere the Sun was shining.

I kept searching.

After many dismal jobs, and before Christmas, I found such a place, managed by decent people doing serious work. They appreciated what I brought to the job and rewarded my work with their thanks, and higher pay.

Things only got better after that. Many people aren’t so lucky. Many settle for a lifetime of monotonous drudgery. I don’t know why. It may be they think “Things are what they are, nothin’ I can do about it”.

It’s not true.

Things never stay as they are. If there is anything that remains forever true it is that nothing ever stays the same. The Hollywood mogul, Michael Todd once said, “I’ve often been broke. I’ve never been poor”.

Being and becoming never stops.

Sleet is transitory. It is but one of many forms of unpleasant wetness; humid air, mist, rain, hail, sleet, and snow; none of which are permanent. Bad weather never lasts, neither do bad times. There are more sunny days than wet days.

Bide your time. Stay alert to opportunity. One day the sleet will stop falling and the sun will shine. Be ready for that day.

That’s always worked for me.

I think it works for anyone.

By K. L. Shipley

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