Anywhere But Here, Chapters 37–39
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AWBH is an experiment in fiction + serial posting on Medium. I wrote the first draft during NaNoWriMo 2012.
Like something? Find a grammatical error? Leave me highlights and notes please. It’s still a draft.
Chapters 1–3 | Chapters 4–6 | Chapters 7–9 | Chapters 10–12 | Chapters 13–15| Chapters 16–18 | Chapters 19–21 | Chapters 22–24 | Chapters 25–27 | Chapters 28–30 | Chapters 31–33 | Chapters 34–36 | Chapters 37–39 | Chapters 40–42 | Chapters 43–45 | Chapters 46–48 | Chapters 49–50 | Chapters 51–53 | Chapters 54–57 | Chapters 58–60 | Chapters 61–63
Chapter 37: Sandra
“Mom!” Emily called to her mom, Sandra, as the front door opened.
“Emie, I’m back here.”
“High school,” Emily said, walking into the kitchen. “There is a charter high school I want to go to.”
Sandra sighed, she was certain whatever school she picked wasn’t the right one. She didn’t even know what a charter school was. She also didn’t know why getting into a San Francisco public school was so much more complicated than anywhere else in the US. “How did you hear about it?”
“Livie goes there.”
“I went to the district office yesterday and picked a school for you already. There was a lottery five months ago we missed.”
“Livie’s school isn’t part of the lottery system, you have to apply separately.”
Oh great, another wait, another round of filling out forms and endless waiting. “I’ll try, honey, but most of the schools were full. I registered you for a school in the Mission, not too far from here?”
“But I want to go to Livie’s school.”
“I’ll try. Tomorrow I’ll call them. Can we at least drive by the school I have you signed up for?”
“I guess. School starts in two weeks.”
“Believe me, I know,” Sandra said, trying not to frown.
“Can we order pizza for dinner?”
“Sure,” she said automatically, and then remembered she had five dollars in her wallet, not much more in her bank account. She cringed, “I don’t have any cash, so let’s eat leftovers.” Maybe she could bring home lunch leftovers tomorrow?
“Oh, okay. How was your day?” Emily asked.
Sandra wondered what transformed her teen from sullen to communicative in the past 24 hours. “Pretty good, actually, I’m trying to figure out something fun to do at our company.”
“Fun at work?”
“Would have been unheard of at HealthCo, but with small, new companies like mine people get hired so quickly that they want to make sure that everyone knows each other.”
“Did you decide on anything?”
“I think so — improv acting classes.”
“What’s that?”
“Remember I did acting in high school?”
“Kinda?”
“It’s related. Instead of traditional acting where there is a script, in Improv, short for improvisation, the actors make up what they’re doing as they go, usually by picking a scene to start.”
“So they could pretend to be people in the restaurant?”
“Just like that.”
“That’s weird, but cool.”
“How about you, honey, it sounds like you hung out with your new friend again today?” Sandra said, hoping the question wasn’t too probing.
“Yes! We went on an adventure by trolley car down Market Street to Fisherman’s Wharf and then we rode the carousel! You need to see the sea lions, they’re enormous and they lay near the pier barking at each other.”
Sandra relaxed microscopically. For the first moment since their arrival, she felt a tickle of hope. She resisted the compulsion to ask when she’d meet Emily’s friend, or her friend’s parents, or have a planned itinerary of each day before it started including travel time.
When Emily’s phone rang that night at 8:30, Sandra didn’t feel the dejection as acutely. She heard Emily the same story of Emily’s day described to Drew, along with questions about India, where she assumed Drew was.
“Ga-nesh-ah, Dad, can you find a little statue of him? Livie said he has an elephant head and a human body.”
“Okay,” Emily responded to the phone. “let me get her for you.”
Emily walked into the kitchen, holding the phone out to Sandra. “Dad wants to talk to you.”
Sandra barely had time to feel nervous before she put the phone to her ear, “Hello Drew.”
“Sandra, have you lost your mind?” Drew was irritated and angry. “Have you really let Emily traipse all over San Francisco, with girl she just met, and without any thought for her safety? And why is she suddenly interested in Indian gods?”
Sandra felt pulled into her pattern of evasion; she could easily lie and get him off her back. Even custody of Emily wasn’t in jeopardy here. But, no, not now. Not this time. “Drew, you’re overreacting. They were traveling during the day through very populated parts of the city.”
“You think this is okay? You are neglecting our child, preoccupied with your new man…”
“Drew, that’s enough. At some point you will believe the truth. For the first time since Emily has moved here, she’s happy. She’s enthusiastic. She could even be happier than when we were in Folsom because I’ve trusted her with more freedom.”
“She doesn’t need freedom at fourteen.”
“Yes, Drew, she does.”
“I am sure you are misrepresenting the truth here, as usual.”
“I’m making the best out of this change, if that’s what you mean, but I’m not lying. Emily has been miserable since we arrived and today she was excited.”
“You started this, Sandra! Emily was happy in Folsom!” Drew raged.
“I suggested it, but you took my suggestion as an attack, grabbed the ball, and ran off the field into the next sport.” Why am I talking back to him now? Sandra wondered.
“Well, who is this girl, Livie, then? Do you know her parents?”
“Drew, I don’t. I’m going to trust Emily not to make friends with dangerous fourteen year old miscreants. I am not going to badger her with questions and demand details to drive her away further from me. You never asked me these questions at home. Why are you asking now?” But she knew why he was asking, after their years together: because he felt out of control and helpless on the other side of the planet.
“Whatever, Sandra, as Emily says,” Drew continued, “I’m done in India next week and I’m changing my flight to arrive in San Francisco. I want Emily packed for the weekend.”
“Wouldn’t you like to ask her first?” Sandra couldn’t help poking.
“I have the right to see my daughter.”
“I’ll give her back the phone and you can tell her.”
Drew must have calmed, because she heard Emily’s excitement. “Really? You’re coming to San Francisco? I have so much to show you!”
And then: “Oh, okay, we can go out of town if you want.” Pause. “I love you, too, Daddy.”
Sandra heard Emily shut the phone and walk with slow footsteps into the kitchen. “Thanks for defending me, Mom. Maybe Livie can come over so you can meet her.”
Chapter 38: Emily
The city was full of new, exciting things to see and she couldn’t wait to show her Dad. She loved the sea lions lounging on their sides, big bellies to the sky with their heavily whiskered face. They’d bark in turn, or together, and Emily wondered whether they were singing or chatting.
She had the third book in the trilogy to read, and planned to spend the day immersed in fantasy, but a couple hours later Emily was restless.
She could text Lauren, but something made her hesitate. She still didn’t want to hear about the perfect summer she’d left behind.
She opened the back door to let Orbit outside, who wandered around the small patio and climbed the fence to the neighbor’s yard. “Just come back, okay?” Emily called to her cat, with a pang of fear. “Maybe I need to get outside, too?”
She wondered about the long stretch of stone steps at the base of the park up the hill. She got dressed and opened the door, bright sun lighting up the doorway through the puffy clouds.
She headed out and up the hill. The brisk wind ignored her hoodie and made goosebumps rise on her arms.
Once she started climbing the stone steps, the cold was forgotten. She didn’t turn around to look backwards. She’d never been athletic, as much as her dad tried to interest her in all the sports. She liked hiking and riding her bike, but those weren’t sports, according to her dad. Anyone would have to be crazy to ride their bike in this city with all the hills, Emily thought, but climbing this hill is like hiking.
Emily stared at her feet as she walked, and she stomped down hard at the top, expecting another stair. “One hundred and one!” Emily said, louder than she expected to; but nobody was nearby to hear. In a playground just beyond the stairs, slides twisted, bridges stretched, and swings shuffled back and forth. A handful of toddlers ran around, constrained by a green chain link fence. The rubber U of a swing beckoned. Swings were a pleasure she and Lauren could never resist, where time disappeared as they rushed towards the sky and infinity.
Emily sat on the swing, feeling rubber tighten around her hips. She didn’t want to think about Lauren. She looked out from the playground and gasped. The city rolled before her, buildings undulating like waves.
She pushed forward in the swing, pumping higher as the metal loops groaned and creaked above her, letting her thoughts fall away.
Chapter 39: Sandra
The computer screen in front of Sandra displayed 30 unread email messages from the past 12 hours. Did her coworkers sleep? Three unopened laptop boxes sat on the floor to her left, waiting to be set up for new people that started next Tuesday. She rested the phone handset on her shoulder while listening to monotonous instrumental music for the school district office. She’d been on hold for ten minutes, and all she wanted to ask was how did she register at the charter high school; she didn’t think it was through the district or she hoped the lady she’d met with at the office would have mentioned it, but regardless, she read through her email while the hold music droned.
She also hoped this charter school was free.
“Sandra, are you busy?”
She looked up and saw Cesco, the CEO of her company, standing in front of her desk. “Um, no.” Oh great, now she was responding in monosyllables like her daughter. She heard a live voice on the phone line, which she regretfully hung up on.
“How’s the analysis of the help desk system going?”
Since she’d volunteered to help Dana, and now Tad, she’d had more work than she imagined. Every night she left, guiltily, at 5:30, while everyone in the office sat at their desks staring into their laptops. Was she about to be fired, now that she stopped obsessing about it? “Sorry, Cesco, I haven’t made progress on that yet.”
Cesco frowned and looked at the stack of laptop boxes near her feet. “What are those?”
“Laptops for new hires.”
“And they’re at your desk, and not Tad’s because…”
“I’m getting them ready for the new hires that start next week.”
“I see.” At that moment, Tad got up from his desk at the far back of the room, heading towards the kitchen nearby.
“Tad, a moment.”
“What’s up?” Tad walked over to Sandra’s desk.
“Why is Sandra setting up laptops for you?”
“She wanted to help, was whining that when she started it took her too long to get going as she had to set up her computer herself.”
“Cesco, I …” Sandra started.
“Just a moment, Sandra,” Cesco interrupted, “So, Tad, when someone new starts, which I understand we have many at this point, what has been done for them?”
Tad stammered, “Uh, their laptop has been ordered, email and other accounts are account set up.”
Sandra wanted to shrink underneath her desk. “Sandra, what are you doing for this setup?”
“I’m powering on the laptop, installing apps they needs, setting up the computer accounts, now I have access to the hosted email system, I’m setting up that account too,” Sandra pulled a paper from her desk, “Dana and I created a checklist of IT and office tasks so the new hire is ready to go.”
Cesco was silent, tapping his index finger lightly against his chin. “Tad, if Sandra is doing this for you, what are you doing?”
Oh boy, she’d gotten Tad in trouble. Not that he wasn’t a thoughtless jerk, but she didn’t want to make an enemy out of him.
“I’m doing what you hired me for, Ces, not new hire setup. I’m getting the development environment ready and creating the design for the production environment. Sure, I said I’d handle the office IT stuff, but that was before you were hiring like crazy. It’s too much, and I need to get production ready if we’re going to launch on time.”
Sandra had always hated conflict, and wanted to run crying and screaming. I’m a grown woman, she chided herself, get a grip.
“Understood,” Cesco said. “That is important. But my Customer Service Manager wasn’t hired to be your assistant,” he turned back to Sandra, “How much time does it take for you to set up each new hire?”
Sandra calculated, “Two to three hours including the phone.”
Cesco looked back at Tad, “You have approval to hire a part time contractor for up to 20 hours a week to do office IT, and Sandra can help you with the job description, weed through resumes, and interviewing. She’ll be doing enough of that soon for her department.”
He looked at Sandra, “I appreciate you helping out, I thought you were exaggerating when you said it took you a couple days to figure out your computer.” He glared at Tad, who looked right back at him. “But I better not hear a word from the developers that they’re waiting on you for something. Sandra, you can help until that person is on board, but we’re planning to launch in 3 months, so we need to know about the help desk system by the end of next week.”
“Help desk system?” Tad questioned.
“Yes, for the customer service department.”
“I had evaluate those at my last gig.”
“Well then, you can help Sandra, which is fair considering how much she’s helped you.”
Cesco walked away, Tad stayed behind.
“Listen, I appreciate your help, I’m going to be slammed getting the production environment ready.”
“What’s the production environment?”
“How much do you know about web companies?”
“Not much.”
“Behind big company websites that sell stuff are powerful computers called servers that do the processing for every web click, every transaction, store the user and purchase information so that when you go back to purchase something else, you enter your email address and Voila! All of your information is retrieved. I need to set up all that on the back end, which is more than enough work for just me, probably too much.”
“Okay,” Sandra said, understanding nothing.
“Anyway, I had to choose a help desk ticketing system at my last gig for IT. Does Cesco want it in house or hosted?”
“Hosted.”
“There’s a company that’s dominating this market, and hosted means less work for me, eventually.”
“As long as it will do what we need.” Although Sandra didn’t know what was needed.
“Here’s what I do for product evals. I find one vendor, make a list of their core features that they advertise on their website, then check out a couple more and compare. Cesco likes those kinds of comparisons, just be sure to include the costs. I’ll give you names of a couple vendors I looked at just six months back.” Tad wrote down a name on a sticky note and handed it to her. “This is the one I chose before, you can start there. I’ll have the other names to you by tomorrow morning.”
As Tad walked away towards the kitchen, Sandra absorbed what didn’t happen. She wasn’t fired. Tad wasn’t fired. Tad got approval to hire a part time person to help him and take the setup tasks off her plate. Tad, who had always been abrupt and a jerk, offered to help her.
She looked at the pile of laptop boxes thinking she should get started as three people started next Tuesday, because for now the part-time IT assistant was still her.
Thanks for reading! Good karma given in exchange for 💚’s!
Up next: Chapters 40–42
