EPISODE THREE: A TIME FOR CHANGE CHAPTER NINE: THE LAND OF OPPORTUNITY

Mitzi must now depend upon herself to provide for her needs and Randi's. She sets out in This Great Nation of Ours, as proud Plasticopians call their country, to look for a job.

This looks promising.

"Hi, I'm Mitzi, the Unemployed Single Mother. I'm looking for work."

"Hello, Mitzi, I'm Sharon the Grumpy Coffee Shop Owner. I could use some help, if you don't eat all the donuts and can tolerate standing on your feet for eight hours a day at a dead-end poor-paying job without benefits ...... zsssst, don't even ask about medical insurance."

"I can see why you're grumpy. When do I start?"

"How about tomorrow?"

Here, let me introduce you to some of our ordinary everyday Plasticopian regulars. This is Janice the Flower Shop Proprietor,

and here's Leroy the Pilot and Barstone the Candlestick Maker.

Over there is Kathy Cowlick the News Rudder and Myrtle the Indulgent Grandmother Who Never had to work a Day in Her Life for a Paycheck. "

"Nice to meet you. Well, I must be going. I've got a show in an hour."

"Are you going to talk to Cindersara again?"

"That's very likely. We've had so many complaints that we treated her unfairly, asking her all those hard questions, that we think it's only fair to give her another chance with some easy questions. I'll keep you updated."

Mitzi is so excited to have a job that she splurges the last of her egg money that she took out of the sugar jar before Jack took everything else, including the jar. She buys some paint and some fabric and works magic on some junky garage sale furniture and hand-me-downs from her more prosperous relatives. For two weeks, while she waits for a paycheck, she and Randi live on stale donuts from the coffee shop and food samples from their daily tour of Costso.

Meanwhile she paints....

and sews.

Soon the little townhouse looks like a home.

The inviting living room.

The cozy bedroom.

The functional kitchen, where Mitzi turns her first paycheck into much awaited hamburgers and apple pie.

Every working day Mitzi drops Randi off at her older sister's house.

In the evenings, after Randi is asleep, she reads Harley Quinn romances

or watches chicky flickies and cries herself to sleep in this Great Nation of Ours.