We Feel Like We Went On This Journey With You, Author

I’m seventeen, and it’s my fourth day working at my first job as a delivery driver at a pizza place. I get sent on an order at around 6:30 pm. It’s at the childcare center at our local community college, about fifteen minutes away, which is a first for me to deliver to.

I get there around 6:45, and I notice that both front entrances are closed. I get to the back, and it’s also closed with no way to get in. I call the customer so I can ask how she’d like me to get to her; there’s fencing all around the college so I can’t walk around the gates blocking the road. She doesn’t answer, so I call my boss.

Boss: “Did you try the front entrances?”

Me: “Yes, but they’re blocked off, too.”

Boss: “Did you try calling the customer?”

Me: “Yes, no answer.”

Boss: “I’ll try calling her and then I’ll call you back.”

I drive around to the front of the school, and I find a parking lot across the street, which I park in. I look around and I see a thin path for me to walk through. My boss calls me back.

Boss: “I tried the customer four times but got no answer.”

Me: “I found a path to get in.”

Boss: “Okay. Shoot me a text when you’ve got the food delivered.”

By now, it’s around 7:00. I start walking over to the childcare center, and I realize all the lights are off. I think that’s odd but continue working my way over there. I get there, ring the doorbell, and knock on the door, but no one answers. My boss told me earlier they may be in between two other buildings on campus. I go over and check those out. No one. In these two buildings, no one is there, though the lights are on. I try knocking on multiple doors and ringing the doorbells, and I even call the woman again. No one answers the phone or the doorbells.

At about 7:20, after walking around half the campus, I call my boss again.

Boss: “Just bring the food back. We’ll leave a message for her saying she has to come and pick the food up since you couldn’t find her.”

I got back to the store around 7:40. Right after I got back, the woman finally called the store back, and we found out she’d put the address in wrong. She forgot to put the address in the app she ordered through, so it automatically sent the address as her last order’s location. My boss sent me back out, saying she’d probably tip well, since I’d been out for more than an hour trying to deliver to her.

I drove about five minutes away to her house and gave her her food. No tip.

I got back to the shop at about 8:00, and my boss asked how much I was tipped, and I said none. He was just in awe, as were the cashiers. I could’ve made at least three deliveries in that time and at least ten dollars in tips.