Story 02 – Part 4 – Future Job Openings

“This sure cleans up easily,” Jordan told Vire as he helped her wipe off the fruit splattered areas.

“Did you design the building with that in mind?” Nero asked, coming back from putting the knives back in his kitchen.

“I forgot to tell you,” Vire grinned, “but most Morgans are good at making messes.”

“Or else good at cleaning them up,” Carmine said.

Jordan looked up and saw the young man from the airport eyeing the orange mess. It really had been a spectacular mess and completely unrehearsed. Years of training had kept Jordan from flinching like everyone else when the fruit exploded. Vire had apologized after the agents had taken away the now cooperative con artist away. She honestly had not realized that the orange would blow up like that. She was just trying to help intimidate the con.

“What happened here, Vi?” Carmine asked as Tech poked his head around.

“One of my contraptions blew up an orange,” Vire stated. “And it’s about time you brought my son back home.”

Tech signed something and Carmine laughed while Vire snorted. With a grin, Carmine took the rag from Vire and started cleaning. Vire did not even try to stop him and left, complaining about trying to wash the orange off her. Tech motioned to Nero, asking for the full story about the exploding fruit. Nero glanced at Carmine for a moment and then shrugged, launching into the full tale of intimidation.

“And I thought my part time job in a pawn shop was interesting,” Carmine laughed. “Do you have any current job openings?”

“Job openings come when we actually have something to do,” Nero explained. “What can you do so I know when to ask for your help?”

“Um, translate?” Carmine suggested. “I’m pretty good with languages.”

“He’s also really good at reading people,” Vire interrupted as she rubbed her short hair with a towel.

“Reading people?” Nero asked as Carmine looked a little embarrassed.

“Sort of like a lie detector, only better.”

“And you didn’t mention this earlier…?”

“He’s been out of the country for a year,” Vire said.

“What did she mean, ‘only better’,” Jordan asked Carmine.

“I’m pretty good at judging personalities,” Carmine admitted. “For example, you’re ex-military, never been married, and you really like video games.”

Jordan just stared for a little while. He could give ex-military and never been married up to good observation, but how Carmine had figured out his gaming obsession was a mystery. That was actually the worst part about losing his right hand. It was really difficult to use a controller with only one hand. Though, now that Jordan thought about it, Vire could probably design something. That woman seemed like she built random things all the time.

“All right,” Nero said. “A translating lie detector that’s related to Vire and Tech. Works for me.”

“Well, I’m going to lie to my mother and not tell her about the exploding orange,” Jordan said. “Or the details of my part time job you had for me, Nero. She tends to panic”

“Then what are you going to tell her?”

“I work in a government consulting business,” Jordan said with a straight face. “And I really enjoy the work.”