Page 37 of Not My Problem

She hadn’t been the perfect mom, but she’d tried her best. I believed that.

“She never hit me,” I felt compelled to tell Jan. “She was neglectful but never abusive. And when I was older and some of her boyfriends showed interest in me, she put a stop to it immediately. She protected me in her own way.”

My grandmother reached across the table to squeeze my hand. “I’m sure she did her best, and so did you. It’s all we can do in this world.”

***

“Zoe, can I see you in my office when you have a few minutes?”

I looked up from making a bed in a room I was preparing for new guests to see my boss Julia standing in the doorway.

“Uh, sure.”

“It’s nothing bad,” she called over her shoulder, already rushing off to do something else.

I finished making the bed and made my way to her office. Julia was on the phone, but she gestured for me to join her at the small round conference table she’d shoved in the corner of her office. She’d told me on my first day here that she hated talking to people across her desk because it made people acutely aware of power dynamics.

“Thanks for coming,” she said as she joined me at the table.

I mean, she was the boss, I didn’t really have a choice, but I kept that thought to myself because I knew that Julia’s collegial management style was genuine. She could be a hard ass if she needed to be, but her general philosophy was to trust her team and never act like she was better than anyone. I loved that about her.

“You’ve been doing a great job here, Zoe. We’ve all been impressed with your work.”

Something warm bloomed in my chest. It felt a lot like pride.

“Thank you. This is the best job I’ve ever had, and I’ve learned so much here.”

“I can see you have a real affinity for this work, and Robbie told me that you were thinking about going to college to take some social work and psychology classes.”

“I have thought about it,” I admitted. “But I’m nervous if I can do it.”

“You’re a smart woman, you’d do great in college.”

“I’m dyslexic,” I said quietly, as if someone else was listening. “I mean, I was never officially diagnosed but my… someone pointed it out to me a few months ago and I’ve been watching videos and stuff and I’m pretty sure that I am. Dyslexic, I mean. So I’d struggle with all the classes. I’m a slow reader.”

“Thank you for sharing that,” Julia said, her face sympathetic but without any pity. “In case you didn’t know, under federal law every college has a designated disability services officer whose job it is to help find accommodations that will help students be more successful in school. They can help with things like getting you extra time to take tests, offering alternative formats like oral testing, or appointing someone who can help you navigate a learning disability.”

“Really?”

When I’d thought about taking classes I figured it would be like high school, and I’d just be the idiot who couldn’t keep up with all the reading. Suddenly I was more hopeful about college.

“Absolutely. I have a friend who works in the admissions office at Seattle Community College. If you want me to connect you so you can do an informational interview and ask about accommodations, just let me know.”

“I would love it if you can connect me, thank you so much Julia.”

“It’s no problem, I’m glad to help.”

I thought about the differences between Julia’s offer to help and Gretchen, who was practically filling out applications for me. Julia was definitely from the ‘teach a man to fish’ school of helping people. One of the things she always reminded our team was that our clients were resourceful and resilient and we shouldn’t work harder than them on their case plans. “Empower, don’t enable” was her motto.

“Anyway, I didn’t call you in here just to talk about college,” Julia continued. “We haven’t announced it yet so please keep this between us, but Amy was offered a promotion to fill the new services navigator position over in the Quality Assurance department.”

“That’s great.” I’d worked closely with Amy and liked her a lot. We’d even gone out for drinks after work one night.

“That means that Amy’s position is going to be open. Are you interested?”

I reared back in surprise. “You’re offering me a permanent job?”

Julia nodded. “Well, HR doesn’t allow us to say anyone is permanent, but yes I’m offering you a regular full-time job if you’re interested. With benefits. Since Amy works the swing shift, you’d still have time to attend classes in the morning before work if you wanted to. Do you want some time to think about it?”