One day, as I was buying my weekly supply of fresh squeezed juice from my favorite vendor at the market, I ran into Fran. She is so small that I almost didn't see her, a smiling face in the middle of a crush of people.
After asking her a few questions, I confirmed that her current employer was abusing her and making it impossible to use the money that had been donated to her to attend her computer class. I told her it was time to quit. I said she could move in with me, sleep on my couch, until she found another job.
The middle-aged couple who ran the juice stand heard us talking and offered her a job in a new restaurant they were opening with their daughter. They promised that Fran would be released every day by 5:30 so she could attend an evening class. She would work 6 days a week and have Sundays off!
Fran and I couldn't believe our luck.
Fran had to find a way to get out of her current situation. She was afraid of her employer, and was afraid she would not be paid for the work she had done the previous week if she resigned. So she told the senora that she had a family emergency that she needed to take care of on Sunday, and could she get her salary to pay for her trip?
The next morning, while the senora was out on an errand, the young men who worked in the bakery helped Fran load her things into a taxi and she was gone. She arrived at my place with everything she owned in two suitcases.
Her new job would start in a few days.
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