Daniel recognized Imani. She was wearing the same yellow vest, but there was no assignment badge clipped to it now.
“They sent me home yesterday,” she said when she saw him. “My payment didn’t clear in their system. It cleared at the bank. I showed them. They said to check again tomorrow.”
“What was the payment for?”
“Kitchen readiness. They sold us a course. Four videos about hygiene and customer service. We had to pay before the first shift, then they said the first shifts were training.”
Daniel took out one of the sandwiches and offered it. Imani declined. He put it back without comment.
A supervisor came outside holding a tablet. He called six names, none belonging to the people at the front of the line. The man with the cane asked whether seniority affected assignment. The supervisor smiled. “It’s flexible staffing. We reward initiative.” He invited anyone with a question to submit it through the office portal, then locked the door again.
“Initiative means paying another fee,” Imani said. “Every week, there’s a new reason we’re not ready to be employees yet.”
Daniel asked if she had considered another job. She gave him a look that made him regret the question.
“I’ve applied to twenty-eight. I need something reachable by bus because I take care of my grandmother. They know that. When you’re waiting on one bus route, they can change your schedule until you give in.”
As the line shortened, a cook named Rafael Ortega waved Imani over. He had two daughters and a wife whose hospital shifts changed without much notice. He had been offered ten hours of work one week and forty the next. The childcare bill didn’t care. Rafael showed Daniel a screenshot of the scheduling screen, then withdrew his phone when the red-lanyard supervisor appeared at the door.
“No photographs at the job site,” the supervisor called.
“We’re outside,” Rafael replied.
“You want future shifts, you follow the rules.”
The supervisor disappeared. Rafael’s face changed in a way Daniel recognized from his father’s last years: the reflexive calculation of what an argument might cost. It was a look Daniel had seen on men waiting outside repair shops, women deciding whether to complain about a paycheck, customers counting coins before ordering lunch.
He remained on the sidewalk until a security guard asked whether he had business there. He answered honestly: he was learning how the staffing worked. The guard said visitors needed an appointment. Daniel pointed out that he wasn’t behind the fence. The guard glanced toward the supervisor and retreated without further argument.
At noon the hired workers emerged for a break. They had fifteen minutes to eat, and the only affordable food nearby was a convenience store a ten-minute walk away. Daniel found the last of his sandwich in his bag and held it out to Imani again. This time she accepted half. The other half went to Rafael.
