Emolument

Salary, Compensation (n.)


Sarah worked one of the carts they have in malls, you know the ones that have stacks of cheap sunglasses or self-help tapes or those bronze things that look like mechanical spiders that you're supposed to rub up and down your scalp to relax yourself? She didn't sell those, though. She sold little plastic stress tubes filled with soap and water that flopped and flipped limply when squeezed. You could buy family packs of them in different sizes or you could buy them individually. They were supposed to make you feel calm after a long day at work. The cart had a big cardboard sign on it that said "Because you deserve it!"
Sarah got the job because she needed money, because when she went with her friends to the mall they always bought all kinds of clothes and accessories and she wanted to buy clothes and accessories too. Their parents gave them an allowance that they could spend on these things. But Sarah's mother couldn't afford an allowance on her nurse's salary since her husband, Sarah's father, ran off with a girl from the accounts payable department in his office. She told Sarah to get a job. So Sarah checked websites for advertisements and sent emails and was hired by a guy who owns all the carts in the mall. He met her, looked her up and down, and said "sure" and showed her the floppy tubes and gave her a contract with very small print that she signed and dated. Sarah was on commission for selling the tubes. She got paid according to how many she sold per day. But Sarah didn't know much about selling things. She just wanted to buy clothes like her friends.
While working she wore a lot of make up and a tucked-in polo shirt and she sat on a stool, hunched over. It sucked because her cart was right outside of the Gap, which was where all her friends bought clothes and accessories. So she would sit there at her cart, hunched over, polo shirt tucked-in, flipping a tube up and down in her hand, daydreaming at the mannequins in the windows of the Gap as potential customers passed by her cart. Every half hour Sarah would look at the sign on her cart and read it under her breath "Because you deserve it!" and then return to staring at the mannequins.