I'm kicking myself. This really should have been posted BEFORE the first Modern Day Cavegirls chapter.
This happens the day before Su-jin meets Jodi.
If you've read that chapter, then you've seen Su-jin's personality come out of her shame and unhappiness.
In this, she's just arrived in New Mexico with not much more in her pocket than a little lint. She'd been terribly unhappy and felt misery and carried a ton of guilt.
About the last person that she's ready to believe in is herself. All of that shows in this chapter.
She laughs because she's dying to laugh for the first time in so long.
She's uncertain and emotional and she's looking for somebody to give her just once chance - so the fighter part of her persona is so well-hidden that she's almost forgotten by Su-jin herself.
0_o
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Downtown Business District, Baltimore, Maryland
She was still a little nervous toward the end of the video interview though overall, she felt that it had gone well - a little surprisingly so, considering her newness to things here. As it went on, Su-jin was felt much more comfortable, feeling that she'd gotten to know and understand the client's needs more and more. And though there had been some awkwardness at the beginning, she'd come to even like the client that she was speaking with so she now felt even more hopeful to succeed.
At one point, the woman just chuckled and said, "Ms. Kim, to be honest here, I'm up to my eyes in things that need doing and very few of them have very much to do with anything that I know much about. I can run my business and doing that requires that I sometimes have to hunt work down to get it. Doing that leaves me less time to pull my hair out as I try to do what I've finally decided that I need help for.
As well, the biggest part of my business involves aircraft and to earn any money, those aircraft need to be in the air and flying. We're still a little small and so I'm one of the pilots - and I can't do what I need you for while I'm flying."
The woman smiled over the internet connection, "So what I'm saying is, I very much need your help, and from our talking here and the examples that we've talked about, I think we can come to some arrangement."
They went on to discuss some of the terms - the ones which the agency wasn't in charge of - such as travelling expenses for Su-jin to get there and how she was to do it and whom to call once she'd arrived - and that was only to get to the nearest large airport. From there, she'd be met and flown even further into who knows where.
Her accommodations would be provided in the form of a small house not far from where she'd work, which sounded a little odd until the client explained that the original business - which was still going there - was a large farm.
"We've been farming here for generations - over a hundred and twenty years," the client said, "As I'm sure you know, farming almost anywhere on Earth has changed a great deal over that time. As it grew originally, there was a lot of manual labor involved and for that we needed people. In the 1920s and 30s, there was a large migrant workforce available due to the upheaval of what they call the Great Depression. Our farm would hire these people and provide housing and food as well as pay.
But as we grew larger and as more efficient ways of farming became available, we didn't need all of those workers. By that time, most of them were either back in the work force or they were in the armed forces since there was a war on. The bunkhouses stood vacant for many years and we demolished all of them years ago.
But there are still four buildings there in addition to the farmhouse, and they're not the bunkhouses. They were built as homes for the foremen and their families, since they stayed all year round.
The houses are a little small and they're old, but they have been maintained and improved. I live in one of them myself, so you and I will be neighbors because you will live in one of the other ones. Your morning commute will be about one mile and it is a pleasant walk. I know that because I've been walking it almost all of my life. I was born only a few hundred feet from where you'll be staying.
We're not far from the local airport or the town. Actually, you'll be working at our offices in our hangar at the airport. You could walk or somebody here could drive you if you wanted to go shopping."
She chuckled, "We even have bicycles around here somewhere. Trust me, getting around here is no problem.
We get some snow in the winter, but it's not very cold and there's probably less than where you are now and we have a lot of mountains. If you put those things together, you'll see that our community is a little known as a good place if you like skiing.
She smiled, "We do get a lot of celebrities here in the wintertime."
The agency representative asked about the choice of airport and the client shrugged, "It depends on how Ms. Kim wants to come. The largest airport with direct service by all the major carriers would be Albuquerque International."
Before she could say anything else, the representative said that it sounded best to her.
The client tilted her head, "How do you know what I was about to say? I hadn't said a thing about the other choices. Do you think that you know a thing about my business? At all?
If Ms. Kim flies into Albuquerque, she'd need to catch a smaller flight to get to us and there are no regionals flying to our airport. We're about it - all there is - and we fly out of it, besides one other company, but they don't provide more than air taxi service anyway. We don't like that option for the simple reason that Albuquerque's an international airport and that's why it's landing fees are correspondingly high. So if we don't meet her there, she'd still have to catch a local flight for the last 120 miles."
She rolled her eyes, "Larry's executive transport flying out of the ass-end of Albuquerque terminal from the trailer that's also the hair care center there or some nonsense - and they'd back charge her for the landing fee that they had to pay. They're not going to charge her a hundred bucks to fly her out to us if they have to pay two hundred just to land on the way back, are they?
She could fly into Las Vegas, but it leaves us with having to pay a higher landing fee the same as at Albuquerque.
So that you understand what I'm trying to avoid here, flying into an expensive airport with no goods to make money on hurts, though we'd do it if there was no other option.
I suggest flying into Santa Fe Municipal since it has service by some common American carriers. It's about sixty miles or so from us, about the same as Las Vegas, but the fees are better for us and it's not such a huge place to get lost in. She could take a bus from there, but that would most definitely mean a longer trip over roads. I have no idea how often a bus goes from Santa Fe to Angel Fire these days, I only know that it does, since I've ridden it before myself now and then. We would very much prefer to fly out to get her in order to make her feel welcome."
She leaned forward and made it clear that she was speaking to the representative and not to Su-jin. "I called you to supply for my needs. I've agreed to pay your fees. Don't presume to tell me how to arrange to pick Ms. Kim up. Making aircraft appear when they need to be someplace is what I do.
