"Martha Soukup - Over the Long Haul" - читать интересную книгу автора (Soukup Martha)

тАЬWhat the fuck you want an accounting license for anyway?тАЭ Avis asked.
тАЬItтАЩs just minimum wage. Your oldest is thirteen next year, so you get out
one way or another.тАЭ TruckingтАЩs also a labor option for mothers with just
one preteenager, but IтАЩve only seen a couple women who chose it when
they didnтАЩt have to. TheyтАЩd put her on some other workfare labor. Maybe
sidewalk cleaning. ThatтАЩs what I did, five hours a day, before Cilehe. I used
to hate it, but itтАЩs better than trucking.
Kimberlea took her paper napkin off her lap, folded it neatly, and laid it
on her tray. тАЬI donтАЩt like being on welfare if I can work,тАЭ she said. тАЬNot this
workfare jokeтАФa real job. I always worked until they took my job away.
ThatтАЩs the way I know.тАЭ
The boy was screaming so loud now even Avis couldnтАЩt ignore it any
longer. тАЬShit,тАЭ she said. She stuffed the rest of the Snickers into her mouth
and went to get him.
Kimberlea and I talked for a couple minutes until her watch started
beeping. тАЬBack to the road,тАЭ she said. She gathered up her two kids, who
had been reading quietly at another tableтАФdonтАЩt know how she saves six
bucks a week, if she buys them booksтАФand left.
Avis came back. тАЬDamn kid needed a new diaper,тАЭ she said. тАЬWhereтАЩs
old Kim Burly?тАЭ
тАЬHer break was up.тАЭ
тАЬStuck-up bitch.тАЭ She wiggled her fingers in my face. тАЬSo do you think
green or blue?тАЭ
Tomi tugged my arm and pointed. I was set to ignore him, but the room
had gone quiet. I looked up. There was a man in the dining room.
Maybe if you donтАЩt truck, you donтАЩt know how strange that was. When I
was little, I guess most truckers were guys. Then they came up with the
remote-driving system, one guy in his living room controlling a dozen
trucks. The unions kicked a fuss about that, of course, so everyone yelled
at each other until they came up with a couple solutions: early retirement
with heaps of compensation for the old truckersтАФlot of younger guys took
that and went into other workтАФ and retraining the truckers that passed
the tests to be controllers at a big fat salary. At the same time, they passed
a law that there had to be a driver in each truck. For manual override in
emergencies, like that was going to happen. But nobody trusts computers
and leastways unions.
Then came the Welfare Labor Act, the workfare act. Bound to happen,
they put us in the trucks. ItтАЩs boring. It doesnтАЩt pay shitтАФthe controllers
get the real money. We all know why they put us with two kids in the
trucks. ItтАЩs like, you get yourself one kid, they put you cleaning sidewalks
or something and thinking on what happens if you get another one. You
get another one anyway, and bam! into a truck. So now youтАЩre on the road
all the time, only get out at a truck stop and see other drivers and theyтАЩre
all women too. A third kid is too many to live in a truck cab, so youтАЩd get
out, but howтАЩre you going to get a third one? Locking you in a convent
couldnтАЩt work any better.
What they say is truck cabs are perfect classrooms, educational TV the
kids (and their moms) canтАЩt get away from. Getting away from bad
influences. Breaking the cycle of poverty.
What itтАЩs about is punishing us, keeping us away from that nasty stuff