Six years ago…
As Isabel sat in front of the college admissions office checking her paperwork for the umpteenth time, her phone rang.
‘Hi Aunt Georgina, what’s up?’
Isabel clutched the phone between her right ear and shoulder.
‘It’s about your mum, darling,’ Georgina’s voice sounded worried.
“She had symptoms of a heart attack this afternoon.
No surgery is required yet, so I can support her financially.
But the doctors said she has coronary heart disease, and if she has another attack, it will require surgery that will cost over $100,000.”
Isabel’s heart raced as she hung up the phone.
Linda was fine now, but surgery could be needed at any moment.
She knew she needed money for tuition if she applied to college.
But she could save that money and use it for her mother’s treatment if she refused to go to school.
Isabel thought back to her parents’ business selling jerky.
Maybe she could try to make money at it.
But to do that, she needed her parents’ old kitchen appliances, which were still in the confiscated house.
Isabel returned to a friend’s house where she was temporarily living.
She was looking for affordable housing and a used pickup truck to move equipment for her business.
The next day, she went to the garage.
Isabel asked the owner if he had any used pickup trucks for sale, and luckily he had one.
She bought the one she could afford, and it wasn’t as bad as she expected.
It rattled a bit at first, but the mechanic fixed it and it was ready to use.
She gathered her things from her friend’s house and drove to the studio flat she’d found online.
The room was smaller than it appeared in the photos, but it was enough, so Isabel signed the lease and paid the first month’s rent up front.
That night she parked her pickup truck in front of her parents’ old house.
But when she went to the front door and made sure no one was watching, she noticed a large, rusty lock hanging on the door.
She didn’t have a key, and the back door didn’t exist.
Isabel’s gaze slid to the dormer window on the sloping side of the roof.
The glass was still broken – the same one Linda had always asked William to fix, but he’d put it off.
Isabel had an idea.
She parked her pickup truck in front of a window on the first floor and climbed up the pipe that ran parallel to the dormer window.
She climbed through the window into the attic and switched on the torch on her phone.
Dust and cobwebs filled the space and the light no longer worked.
Isabel noticed a box labelled ‘KITCHEN’ in the corner.
She ripped off the scotch tape and found the supplies Linda used to make jerky.
She also found another box that contained Linda’s cookbooks and an industrial oven.
Isabel carried both boxes downstairs and loaded them into her pickup truck through the first floor window.
She closed the window so no one would suspect she was here.
She got out of the house through the skylight and drove to an abandoned house a few blocks from her studio.
She had decided to set up her production space there since her studio was too small and she didn’t have enough money to rent another space.
Stopping at an abandoned house, she looked around to make sure no one was following her.
She then quickly headed into the courtyard, but the door was locked with a small padlock.
Isabel pulled out a stiletto, picked the lock, and… click!
The door creaked open.
Isabel moved everything into the basement and set up a small production area.
However, she had to wait for the lights to be installed.
She couldn’t cook in the dark or during the day.
She couldn’t risk getting caught for trespassing.
Several days passed.
At first Isabel followed her mother’s recipe, but the jerky turned out horrible.
Something wasn’t right.
She started experimenting with the marinade because she wanted her jerky to have a unique flavour.
Isabel didn’t want to limit herself like her parents did by creating a product that was only sold to people she knew.
She dreamed of selling it all over the state and in major retail chains across the United States.
‘Oh my God, this is it!’ – she exclaimed as she tasted a fresh batch.
She finally had the product she wanted.
But there was more work to be done.
Isabelle spent the next month perfecting her sales pitch, sending out cold emails to major retailers and sending samples.
Finally, the response came.
Subject: jerky product proposal
Dear Isabel,
I hope this letter finds you in good health.
We thank you for your recent proposal.
After careful consideration, we feel that your beer jerky snack is a perfect fit for our customers’ interests.
We would like to try your samples…..
Isabel didn’t bother to read further.
She responded immediately, and a week later she was sitting in the retailer’s office with the food evaluation team.
She managed to fulfil the order for 1000 packs as requested.