Saturn had spent a leisurely and happy month with his mom. He had for the most part stuck around his house and relaxed. When his mom was at work he would usually workout and play guitar. When she was around the two would often spend hours talking about all kinds of things. They had also spent some time going around the city, especially visiting the mall where Saturn would work.
It was there that he learned the lounge player was actually a recently added position to the mall, and it required a certain level of skill hence why the position stayed open so long.
The week before he started his job Saturn and his mom went and bought a nice suit for his job. Ms. Thompson had informed him that the suit would be a requirement. Saturn would have flared up at the late information, but she not only expressed remorse, but she also explained how it wasn't her fault. Apparently the mall had added the clause the day she informed him. There was also the fact that Ms. Thompson had whole-heartedly helped Saturn to get out of prison.
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The first day Saturn started his job he was taken in by his mom. Her day off had linked up with his first day and she was planning on spending at least an hour or two listening to him. He showed up thirty minutes early to make sure he was prepared, after all it was the first job he had ever had. He had met the one who would be his boss in the employee lounge. His boss was a young handsome fellow, who also wore a fancy black and white suit. The young fellow was likely around his early thirties. He had bright blond hair with no blemishes, it was jelled to be spiky, but not an ugly punk spikiness more like a jock spikiness. He was a pale white, clearly he had spent many years doing paper work instead of going outside. Another testament to him doing a lot of paperwork was that he was pretty chubby. He was pretty short as well and he had light blue eye's.
Saturn walked up to him and stuck out his hand.
" Hi I'm Saturn, I'm here to start my job as the lounge piano player. "
" Hello, I am Charles, you're pretty early aren't you? "
" I wanted to get here early since I have never had a job before, I wanted to make sure I didn't mess anything up. "
" Alright well it was nice to meet you. I have to go and do a walk through of the mall before we open. If you want you can go to the lounge and make sure everything is alright. "
" Alright, I will, thank you and have a nice day. "
After that the two men walked their separate ways. Saturn did the seven minute walk to the lounge where his piano was sitting. The lounge was less like a room and more like an indoor gazebo. It was sat right in the middle court of the mall. The mall itself was like a giant plus sign with entrances in each of the long corridor buildings. So if one wanted to go throughout the mall they would have to pass by lounge.
The gazebo was plenty large enough to seat thirty people, though any more and it would be tight. The piano was sat right in the middle of the gazebo with a ten feet circle around him. There was some sound proofing in the gazebo so that someone could actually hear the music without the people outside of the gazebo disturbing those inside of the gazebo to much.
( I may have said gazebo a bit to much. )
Saturn sat at piano and played around on it a little. He played a song on it that had become pretty popular around the world recently. It was from an old Russian guy who had studied piano his whole life. He was pretty famous for playing everything by the book, so it was pretty surprising that the song he had made was pretty wild. It was didn't have a set pattern or method, instead it changed everything up every dozen notes or so. It was a fairly erratic song. It was pretty popular even among people who didn't usually listen to piano music. The song was pretty difficult and it was one of the last songs Saturn had learned before he left for prison. Despite being pretty difficult it was also pretty good as a warm up song to get back into the groove.
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By the time Saturn had finished two songs twenty minutes had passed and the people started entering the mall. Saturn didn't take any break instead he continued playing the next song. Around ten minutes later Amelia showed up and sat at one of the chairs. Apart from a small smile he shot towards the young woman Saturn barely even acknowledged his mother, clearly treating his job very professionally.
As he played people would occasionally show up and listen, some would stick around for ten or twenty minutes others would leave instantly. There was one fellow who stuck around even longer than Amelia did. He was an older fellow maybe late fifties, he had a full head of salt and pepper hair. He had some obvious age signs, but for the most part he seemed pretty healthy for his age, he didn't even have the slightest slouch in his back hinting that he may be a veteran.
He stuck around for three hours until Saturn was allowed a thirty minute break. The older man walked up to Saturn while blank exited the circular area surrounding the piano.
" Hello I am Luther Webbs, I've gotta say you must have spent quite a few years practicing to be so skilled at your age. "
" From the time I was five till the time I was fourteen, I would have liked to learn longer but thanks to some unfortunate circumstances I couldn't. "
" You were in prison right? "
Saturn narrowed his eye's and right as he was about to angrily question the old man he was interrupted.
" Saturn, I see you have met my great uncle Luther. He is an old veteran who really enjoys listening to classical. He is the reason I heard you as a lounge player, he made sure he came to see you. He knows about your circumstances because I told him. "
Saturn released his tension hearing Charles explanation. Though he didn't appreciate his information being given out without his permission he wasn't as angry.
" Well please refrain from giving out any of my information in the future. "
Charles realized he might have been a bit out of line so he didn't flare up out Saturn's cold tone. Plus he was somewhat scared of the ex-prisoner since he knew Guy had went into prison for murder.
" I will. Now I do believe you have break time, correct? "
" Yeah, have a nice day. "
After that Guy walked towards the food court since he had a date set with his mom. Of course it wasn't a romantic one, it was just a dinner date. When he reached the court he saw his mom sitting at a table with Chinese from Guy's favorite restaurant at the mall.
When he sat down his mom slid his plate across to him and she started eating.
" So how have you enjoyed your first day so far son? "
" Pretty good, it's nice to finally play piano again. Let me tell you this though. "
After that Saturn told Amelia about his situation with Charles and Luther. Amelia turned out to be pretty upset listening and by the end she was fuming. In the end though, Saturn had calmed her down a little so she turned to only being extremely angry as opposed to fuming.
" Well, sadly I'm going to deal with such situations in the future. It's honestly not even that big a deal, at least the old fellow likes my playing right. "
" Yeah but it still pisses me off that your boss gave your information out without any consent. Surely that has to be illegal. "
" They're rich and I'm an ex-prisoner even if it was illegal they would be able to get away with it. Plus all kinds of other problems would come up if I were to actually try and take this to court. Not only would my future be screwed even more, I could also ruin the program for future prisoners. In the end it isn't worth it. "
" ' Sigh ' I know It just sucks. "
" Yeah. "
Like that thirty minutes passed quickly and Saturn had to get back to work.
He played a cover of a popular pop song from the early 2000's. It was the first song Saturn had learned to play on the piano and it held a special place in his heart. It seemed quite a few people recognized the song and he had a decent amount of people show up and listen. Since there was a pretty good reception Saturn decided to play another cover of a pop song. After that he didn't actually know any other covers so he decided to play another pretty popular classical song that basically everybody had heard. The song not only functioned as a lullaby song it was also popular among adults.
At that point there was a pretty good crowd gathered so Saturn decided to play some more difficult songs.
Like that six hours passed and Saturn's work day ended. He collected the tips that was situated at edge of the circle surrounding the piano. It was a box that was situated on a fancy table. It was pretty nice considering it was simply for tips.
Saturn had collected eighty dollars in tips and he's pretty sure that fifty dollars were from Luther.
After he collected the tips he went back to the employee area and turned in his time sheet. After that he met up with his mom who had returned to the mall to pick him up. Sadly he couldn't make getting picked up and dropped off a regular thing since his mom also had a job. That meant he would need to start taking the bus until he saved up enough for a car.