Joyce Schultz had just graduated from high school with honors, and while her parents were very proud of her accomplishments, she were both in agreement on one thing. Joyce was not going to spend the summer in the house reading.
"You're going to get a job," her mother insisted when the subject came up. "I don't care what it is - volunteer somewhere if you want to - but you have to get out of the house and interact with people."
Joyce nodded and shrugged her slumped shoulders, like she often did when faced with a something she didn't want to deal with, but unlike the other times, her parents were not going to let her squirm out of this.
"She has to get some kind of life," Betty Schultz told her husband that night in bed.
"I guess," Jack Schultz said, and although he knew his wife was right, there was something to be said about being the parent of a girl you didn't ever have to worry about.
"Who knows, maybe she'll even meet a boy," Betty suggested.
"Or a girl," Jack added.
"She's not gay, Jack," Betty said, once again rejecting her husband's semi-serious theory for why no boys ever came calling.
"Not that there's anything wrong with that," Jack said. "I just want her to be happy."
"Why don't you see if Don needs help at his place?" Betty suggested, and to get his wife off of his back so he could go to sleep, he agreed.
***
"I don't know anything about ice cream," Joyce said to her parents the next day.
"What did I tell you?" Betty said to her husband with a grin. "I told you she would say that."
"There's nothing to know," Jack Schultz said. "You stick it in a cone, hand it to somebody and take their money. For crying out loud, you had a 99 average last year. You're telling me you can't figure it out?"
"I don't even eat ice cream," Joyce whined.
"Your Uncle Don will appreciate that," Betty said. "Not that you couldn't stand to gain a few pounds."
"And stand up straight honey," Jack said. "Please?"
"Nothing wrong with being tall," her mother added. "Slumping like that doesn't make you look any shorter."
Joyce nodded and straightened up, having fallen into that habit of stooping over once she reached 6' tall, and when she finally ran out of excuses, agreed to go with her Dad to talk to her Uncle about working there.
***
"Wow!" Don Schultz said when his brother brought Joyce to "The Snackatorium", his summer enterprise that kept him busy until the snow started flying and his plowing business kicked in. "Look at you, Joyce. You're a tall drink of water."
Joyce nodded and blushed as her uncle kissed her on the cheek.
"So what do you think?" Don's brother asked. "Do you think you can give Joyce a job?"
"Absolutely!" Don said as he looked over his niece, and tried to curb his habit of mentally undressing the girls who interviewed for jobs with him, at least until his brother was gone. "Especially nights and weekends. All these kids want to book early at night. You okay with that, Joyce?"
"I guess," Joyce said with a shrug, and was left to look around the storeroom as her father went to talk with her uncle.
"That will work out well," Jack said of his daughter. "She doesn't have much of a social life. Correction. No social life, so nights and weekends work out well for everybody then."
"No boyfriend huh?" Don said. "Well, the way these clowns hang around drooling over the girls that work here, that might change."
"I doubt it," Jack said. "But if you can get her out of that shell of hers, that would be great. She's an incredibly intelligent girl, but socially..."
"Leave that to me," Don said boisterously, slapping his brother on the shoulder. "By the end of the summer you won't recognize her."
...
"Here's your uniform," Don Schultz told her new employee as he handed Joyce a couple of t-shirts with the logo of The Snackatorium on the front. "Very few rules here. Don't chew gum while you wait on people."
"I don't chew gum."
"Good. Do you smoke? No? Great. Show up on time, do your best and you'll be fine," Don assured the nervous teen. "Be here tomorrow at 4 and I'll break you in myself. It'll be great to have somebody besides me that can reached the stuff on the top shelves. You're almost as tall as I am. What are you Joyce, 6'2"?"
"About six foot," Joyce lied, knowing that she was a bit taller than that now and her uncle's guess was probably correct.
"Well, stand up straight," Don said, patting Joyce on the back and squeezing her bony shoulder while whispering to her that he only said that because her old man told him to. "Oh, and one more thing. I ask all the girls to wear bras. Family place and all."
Don Schultz eyes went down to the lanky girl's chest, and even though she was wearing a baggy blouse he suspected that his niece didn't have much up on top. While that might turn off a lot of men, Don was certainly not one of them. Just the opposite.
"Okay," Joyce said, blushing.
"And so we'll see you tomorrow. Welcome aboard!."
Joyce awkwardly shook her uncle's hand before walking out of the store with her father.
"Congratulations!" Joyce's father said, winking at his brother. "You're now a professional."
Don laughed and watched his brother walk out of the store with his new employee, and as they turned the corner Don rearranged his pants to accommodate the erection he was sporting as a result of seeing little Joyce again.
"Little Joyce?" he said to himself. "Not so little. Behave yourself Don. That's your brother's kid."