Jessie's Journal (8/27/26) (Patreon)

Dear Journal:

When sis came home after getting hired at Mel's, she was happy.  That surprised me.  If I had suggested working at a diner a few months ago, she probably would’ve laughed in my face. 

Michelle is two years older than me, but she’s never had a job.  Soccer camps and travel ball precluded her from working previous summers, and this one was supposed to be all about getting back in shape.  Oops!  I bet mom and dad feel like chumps for falling for that.  They were still clinging to the hope that they might recuperate a modicum of their sizable investment in sissy’s soccer ability with a deferred athletic scholarship.    

Although that gravy train has plummeted off the table, sissy probably still thought she could bypass the entry-level toiling most teenagers go through and immediately be hired by a trendy boutique or, at worst, a fashionable shop at the mall.  (Denial is a river that runs deep in our family.)  After weeks of searching, however, reality was setting in.  Still, I didn’t expect her to be so giddy at a greasy spoon job.  I guess it felt good to be wanted.  Especially when that feeling was getting harder and harder to come by.

Of course, I had something to do with it.  The mother of a friend of mine, Tabby Tucker, is a chef at Mel’s.  She is, by far, the fattest person I’ve ever seen.  Like, circus fat.  (I haven’t been over to their house in a few years, but the snacks were sensational.)  Anyway, as you might expect, Tabby is fat, too.  She’s several hundred pounds short of her mom’s 600-Pound Life level, but for a while, she was the only one at school who could give me a run for my lunch money.  I think that’s the reason we stopped hanging out.  Everyone thought we were sisters.  It was so annoying.  Nobody ever suspected I was related to the hot girl who was actually my sister, but put a couple of butterballs together and everyone assumes you’re turkeys.

My point is, Tabby has taken my sister’s barbs almost as much as I have.  So, when I called to ask her for help with her job hunt, she was all too happy to oblige.  I’m not sure what she told her mom, but it obviously worked. 

Now it's time to see if Mel’s magic works on Michelle like it's worked on so many before her.    

--Jessie