Chapter 10

Finally, Darren walked down to the corner store and used some of his limited change to buy the day’s edition of the Tanque Verde Herald. When he got back to the apartment, they spread the classified section out on the rickety table and each of them took a page to read the ads.

“Everybody wants experienced people,” Darryl grumbled after he had scanned the first column of his page. “We know how to do a lot of things, but how do we get references and stuff? We haven’t held a real job, just worked for father—the Leader—and the elders on whatever they told us to do.”

“I know. We’ll have to try, though. Maybe we can be laborers for construction or landscaping or something. That shouldn’t need a lot of experience. I saw three or four ads for those jobs.”

After they marked several such ads and wrote down the addresses or phone numbers to check the next day, they again sprawled on the bed, this time remembering to shed their outer clothes so as not to get the bedding dirty.