Need to skip work for a concert? Say a grandmother died. It’s the perfect excuse.

"Didn't you say that your great grandmother Anna died a few weeks ago? In August, that is why you needed to get a few days off work," John's boss said. "Now you are saying that she is just sick and needs help." His boss was onto him, he might not be able to go to the concert.

"Oh," he paused trying to think of what he needed to say to get out of this bind he was in. "When I told you that, I did actually think she had died, I had gotten a call from my mom saying as much, but she was wrong. Grandma Anna is alive now, but she is getting sicker every day now. You know how being old and sick often go hand in hand." It was not likely that he would be getting out of this. He would have to work this weekend. No rock concert "My mom needs a break, she has been taking care of her nonstop since I, we, no longer have grandpa or dad with us anymore."

His boss, Janene, stared at him. "Right, I will have to see if it is possible to get you have the schedule this weekend," she said as she looked at the work schedule on her ipad. "We need someone covering the pharmacy counter at all times, and we are short staffed with Ralph and Amy quitting."

"That's right," said Alice, John's coworker. The tech who would have to be covering the pharmacy counter if John skipped out of work. Again. "We need you to work this weekend. I have been covering every weekend for the last 2 months. This weekend was going to be my first day off for ten days."

"Its not my fault that Ralph and Amy quit two weeks ago," said John, getting defensive. "You just don't pay us enough," he told Janene. "We care for and sell at least a million dollars worth of drugs here, and we only get paid what!? $16 an hour? Where does all the money go? I didn't get a college degree to get stuck in this pit of dispair so that you could get rich of my work."

There was utter silence in the pharmacy, besides the beeping of the fridges and registers. An older customer who had come to the counter stood in silence, waiting to see what happened. "Hmm" went both Janene and Alice as John realized what he said. "I don't think a associate's degree in drama counts as a degree," said Alice.

"A college degree is still a degree"

"Fat lot of good it's done you, probably should have done something useful like computer stuff, or business," murmured Alice.

"Sorry," John told Janene, ignoring Alice. "It is just getting really stressful working here, just the three of us. My mom says grandma wants to see me before its too late, that God is keeping her alive until I see her. And that is why she is no longer dead.