Wilhemina Gets a Job

      Wilhemina the Eventide Eyrie lived a comfortable life, in a comfortable NeoHome, in comfortable clothes, ate adequate food, and enjoyed a good amount of fun. Her owner cared for her quite well, but sometimes Wilhemina felt as though she wanted a little more: gourmet foods, battledome training, and a petpet. Not to mention a Usuki collection!

      One day, after recovering from a bout of Sneezles with the Healing Faerie’s help, Wilhemina gathered her courage and asked Marina if she could have a job. Marina looked thoughtful. “Well, I already have a limit on how often Neopets can be healed and how often they can buy supplies, so I don’t get overwhelmed,” she said. “It has worked so well for so long.”

      “I could be an assistant! Surely you could use a break every now and then. I could dust your bottles, tidy up, and make sure everyone waits politely in the queue,” Wilhemina said.

      Marina the Healing Faerie said, “The Healing Springs has magic that keeps all the supplies clean and dust free. But I suppose you could be in charge of crowd control. There have been rumors of unrest and there’s been an increase in demand for healing potions in case. It has been so long since the Obelisk War, after all. Let’s have a day’s trial tomorrow.”

      “Really?” Wilhemina asked. “I cannot thank you enough!”

      Marina smiled. “Please be sure to be here tomorrow at 9 in the morning.”

      Wilhemina skipped home and could barely contain her excitement for the rest of the day. Everything she did, no matter how mundane – organizing her meager collection of Usuki dolls, brushing her teeth, or tidying up – was done with a smile on her face. She could barely sleep that night and briefly worried that she would oversleep, but instead she woke with the sun and bounded out of bed.

      “Hooray!” she cheered over her Kau Kau Milk. “Hooray!” she said as she made her bed.

      Fifteen minutes before 9 Neopian Standard Time, Wilhemina greeted Marina. “Good morning!” she said.

      “Good morning,” Marina said. “I was thinking you could take some of these old stanchions to help form a nice, orderly line. After that, you could supervise and make sure everyone is content as they wait their turn.”

      Starting at the front of the queue, Wilhemina hauled crowd control barriers and directed pets to wait within them.

      “We’ve never had to do this before,” said a tough, Red Grarrl.

      “Yeah!” said a Tyrannian Poogle further back in the line. “Why fix what isn’t broke!”

      Wilhemina didn’t have a good answer for this, except, “Marina asked me to do this, so if you could –”

      “Why didn’t Marina tell us this herself?” asked the Red Grarrl.

      “Maybe you’re trying to bamboozle us and we won’t know until we get to the front of the line,” said the Tyrannian Poogle. “By then you’ll be long gone!”

      There was a chorus of “Yeahs,” but not from everyone. Some of the Neopets, including a Baby Kougra with Pollenitis, looked very uncomfortable. The Baby Kougra sneezed delicately and appeared to try to disappear between customers.

      Luckily, the line began to move forward again, and with it the discontent Neopets. Wilhemina breathed a sigh of relief.

      As she worked on, however, there was a new problem: she was running out of places to put the stanchions. She was getting closer and closer to Neopets who were waiting to spin the Wheel of Excitement. There was also a steady flow of Neopets from the Wheel of Excitement to the Healing Springs after they either lost hit points from the wheel or contracted Chickaroo.

      Eventually she gave up. It seemed impossible to keep the line barrier moving out without bisecting the line the Wheel of Excitement, and a bad feeling formed in her stomach. She was going to disappoint Marina, the Healing Faerie. Her face was hot with embarrassment and she wanted to run away, but knew she couldn’t. Marina had given Neopia so much, and Wilhemina needed to face her failure head on.

      “Hello, Wilhemina,” Marina said.

      There was a pause. Wilhemina had trouble coming up with the words and feared that she wouldn’t be able to speak without crying. Still, she had to go on. “Marina, Healing Faerie, I think I messed up with the line barrier.”

      Marina nodded. “I think the failure was not with you but the idea of the line barrier itself. When Neopets congregate freely toward the Healing Springs, it makes it easy to perform mass healings, especially for Neopets who come to the springs mostly well. The line impeded that.”

      Wilhemina shed a few tears while nodding before the Healing Faerie said, “Oh Wilhemina, it’s not your fault! We tried something new but it didn’t work. That’s okay. The Healing Springs was already so well optimized to its purpose that it seems I do not need an assistant after all. It does not reflect on you.”

      This made Wilhemina feel a bit better, but she still felt sad. “The Healing Springs seemed like it would be the perfect place to work,” she said.

      Marina said, “Perhaps it is the perfect place for me, but you need to find a different perfect place. Perhaps you could check on Terror Mountain? Mika and Carassa may need help pulling down their wares from their attic. Oh, and don’t let me forget your payment!”

      The Healing Faerie pressed 5,000 Neopoints and a bottle of Essence of Everlasting Apple into Wilhemina’s paw. “But all I did was cause problems,” Wilhemina said.

      Marina laughed, “No, you helped me perform a day long experiment! It was very valuable information, and now I know why the stanchions were in storage. When I get a free moment, I’ll just whisk them back in there.”

      Trudging home with her payment in her pockets, Wilhemina felt down. She had tried, but the Healing Faerie didn’t really need help. Hopefully Mika and Carassa, the Chias who ran the Igloo Garage Sale, could use her help. She deposited half of the Neopoints into the bank and tucked the Essence of Everlasting Apple into her cupboard for safekeeping.

      ***

      The next day, Wilhemina flew to Terror Mountain. It was much colder there than she was used to, and it had been such a long time since she’d made the trek. When she got to the Igloo, Carassa and was moving merchandise out onto the shop floor. The shop seemed to be doing brisk business, and Carassa looked a bit flustered as Neopets would stop to ask questions or attempt to haggle, despite a sign that indicated there was no haggling allowed.

      Wilhemina waited until there was a quiet moment, after a particularly large supply of Red Fuzzles sold out, and approached Carassa.

      “Hello, I was wonder if you needed an assistant for your garage sale?”

      Carassa heaved a particularly big sigh that contrasted with her small body. “I think we could definitely use some help. It seems like we’ve been trying to get our attic cleared out for years! It seems like I’ve always been trying to move to Neopia Central from the top of the mountain. What we really need help with is bringing the merchandise down from the attic. Mika works really hard, but there are just some times when he gets aches and pains and can’t move as fast. Could you help us with that?”

      “I definitely could!” Wilhemina said.

      “We can’t pay very much, just 1,000 Neopoints a day, but we would let you take home five items for free from our merchandise. Plus you would get first pick!”

      “You’re sure?” Wilhemina asked.

      Carassa laughed. “Can you start right now? Go on up and help Mika out!”

      Taking off her coat and putting it in the closet, Wilhemina then headed up some stairs and then a rickety ladder before spotting Mika. “Hello!” she said. “My name is Wilhemina, and you Carassa said you could use some help up here.”

      Mika let out a sigh of relief. “Thank goodness! Have you worked the details out with her already?”

      “Yes,” Wilhemina said. “I’m all ready to start.”

      “Then here,” he said, handing her a box full of Red Blush. “This is officially your first task.”

      Bringing the merchandise over to the floor felt so much better than trying to manage the queue at the Healing Springs. After putting the Red Blush on display, she headed back up and retrieved a box of Hot Buttered Toast.

      The day continued on, with Wilhemina picking out a Hula Girl Usuki to take home. Mika and Carassa approached her at the end of the day and said she was free to go.

      “Thank you for all your help today, and if you’re willing, we’d love to have you back tomorrow! Hopefully between you clearing out our merchandise and taking some of it for yourself, we’ll be able to move to Neopia Central by Christmas,” Carassa said.

      “I’m so glad,” said Wilhemina. “I can’t wait to see you tomorrow!”

      The End

      The End.