Destination Poster

Clarisse looked at the poster¹, “Visit Iceland”, it read, depicting a sunset showing through the opening of a cave. She sighed, one again limited by the size of her wallet. Feeling dejected she walked away. “Maybe some day,” she thought to herself and she drudged through the muddy road. “Maybe if I get the job?” a pause. “Forget it, I bombed the interview.”
Clarisse got home and changed out of her suit and into an oversized t-shirt with shorts, her favorite sleepwear, and slumped onto her bed. She opened her laptop, a beat-up old Dell held together by duct tape and sheer willpower, “Once I get a job I’ll need to replace this thing… hopefully that happens before it breaks for good.” She looked at the open window, job listings, before sighing and minimizing it, she’d already dealt with enough real life for today. Opening up YouTube she resumed a hour long video she had started this morning. “Another ad? I really need to get an ad-blocker,” she thought to herself before realizing it was the same as the poster she saw earlier, “huh, weird coincidence,” pause, “well, that or our phones really are listening…” She checked how much time was left before her video resumed and noticed that this version of the ad had a raffle. “F*ck it,” she thought as she typed one of her burner emails into the website, “nothing to lose.” The ad ended and she resumed her video, finished it and watched another. Before she knew it it was 1am. She realized and turned off the lights mentally scolding herself for losing track of time, after all she had *another* interview in the morning.
Clarisse woke up to her third alarm at 8am. Cursing to herself she hurriedly got ready, grabbed a granola bar and ran out the door, the interview was in 30 minutes.
2 hours later she walked out of the office, “I think this one went alright,” she thought to herself as she headed home to continue her search.
After lunch Clarisse was browsing her phone when she heard an email notification, excitedly she opened her mailbox thinking maybe one of the jobs had gotten back to her and she was now employed. Nothing from the companies, nor the ad, but a separate offer. A group had reached out to her through LinkedIn about a temporary full-time position… IN ICELAND!

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