Bye Bye Job

I'm unemployed, it seems. I had a job three hours ago, and now... well, I found out over the radio that the bookshop I work in, Hughes and Hughes, was closed, due to the fact that it had to go into receivership. We had an idea that the company wouldn't last long, what with less people travelling, and so less sales at the airport, but we never thought it would happen so soon. I literally said to someone at six o'clock last Saturday, "See you next week!"

Unless we all meet up tomorrow, that's not going to happen.

I feel oddly empty knowing I've no work tomorrow. It was different when I took a holiday before, to study for my mocks. I knew why I wasn't in work... I knew I wouldn't be in work... this just came on very sudden. And I had to pass the shop too, on my way to the cinema, which is where I was going when I found out about the dead company. It looked so dark, so lifeless... okay, so the lights were off and it was empty, but that's not what I meant. The soul of the shop was gone.

But even still, now as I type this, I can't claim it's all about me. I don't know most of the people who are now unemployed, but I knew the people in my shop. Two of them are the main income earners in their families. Two are in college. One just moved into a new apartment. One's living with his girlfriend, but he'll need a new job if he's to keep that up. And the last is my boss, whose wife doesn't work... well, not in a company. She's a writer. I think lots of us know how little money that will get them.

I'm going to be stuck thinking about how they're managing. I won't be able to help it. These people are my friends, and now we're all without a job, just suddenly, without direct warning from the company. Unless someone else buys out the place and keeps all the shops running...

My parents are advising me to look for somewhere else. My mum said it doesn't have to be a bookshop. But she doesn't get it. I loved working in a bookshop. It was my thing. If I had to get a new job, I'd love for it to be in another bookshop. Nothing else would feel right.

Nothing else could make me feel happy like Hughes and Hughes did.