"I watched two and scanned the rest. I also notice that there's nothing said about the others being nasty to whites. I saw that in my first job in California. It's one reason I moved back here. There were quite a few minorities." She made quote marks by her head. "But the few white people in the office were picked on like crazy—as was I, the token Asian. I found out, when I quit, they only hired me because I was Chinese American. It was a shitty job."
"Sounds like it. I hope you reported them."
"To everyone who would listen. I'm so glad to be here. I love this place already. But I hate the videos."
"They are terrible. I'll talk to Maureen and see what she has to say. If you don't mind doing it as a side project, it would be great."
"I'll go talk to her. She and I really hit it off. Her husband is Asian."
"No kidding. I didn't know. Her last name is O'Neal."
"She uses her maiden name because his name is so hard for most people to pronounce. Qing." She pronounced it ching.
"Doesn't sound hard."
She spelled it for him.
"Okay, I would have trouble with that."
Xuan smiled. "You can imagine what I've put up with all my life. I can't begin to tell you the mispronunciations."
"Yes, I would. Believe it or not, people can't handle Colby either. They don't destroy it as much as your name, though. That FTPA kicks in, and they don't focus." He had to explain that acronym to her. "So, done with that."
"And the manuals. I'm a speed reader."
"I wish I had that talent. Would have made college a lot easier. Since you're finished, I'll take you around to the first calls of the week and introduce you. We have three doctors offices and a hair salon."
"Hair salon that needs computers?"
"For all their appointments and inventory. It's pretty simple, but they also use it for their cash register and it's been screwing up. Not our fault, it's their old system. The other company closed and left them dangling. My mom gets her hair done there, so when she found out their trouble, she gave them my card."
"Go Mom!"
Colby chuckled. "We'll be out of the office for a few hours, so forward your calls to your cell." He did that with his own while he was thinking of it.
"Bonnie, you're in charge while I'm out. Calls should go to my phone."
A pretty blonde in the front office nodded as he went by.
"Doesn't Trevor do this part of the job? I thought he'd be promoted to it."
"Trevor doesn't like dealing with people. His preference is to put the systems together, or do programming, and let someone else talk to people. Don't worry. He's in his happy place."
They got to Colby's car and he helped her get settled before getting in on the driver's side.
Xuan giggled, nodding. "I understand. I have a brother like that. In fact, that was me a few years ago. I had a class in college where we had to get up and give presentations every couple of weeks. One of them was a group project, but the rest were individual. I decided after the first one flopped, that I wasn't going to fail again. I went to the speech department that day and signed up for debate and extemporaneous speaking. The professor was really good, and coached me through the next speech. By the time I finished out the semester, I felt better and even had won a couple awards—little ones, like third place, but it was an ego boost. The next time, I did better."
"Good for you. I got thrown into this job. I had actually applied for Trevor's, before he got hired. But the other guy quit and Jonas needed someone immediately. He handed me the specs, shoved me out the door and said, Return with your shield or upon it."
"He seriously said that?"
"He did. And off I went. I didn't stutter—too much. Found I had a penchant for explaining the complex in basic terms and went from there."
"That's so cool. I think a person's journey is so interesting—how we come to where we are. Even homeless people. How did they get there? I speculate from time to time, making up back stories for people."
Colby chuckled. That was exactly what he and his friends had always done. Yes, Xuan was going to fit right in.
They got to their first appointment and, by some miracle, found a parking place near the door. He helped Xuan out of the car and walked her into the building. This doctor's office was one they'd dealt with for several years. An orthopedic office, the waiting room was full of unhappy people with walkers, crutches and wheelchairs. Colby skirted the obstacle course with ease, but Xuan got cut off by an angry man on crutches who thought she should be able to help him with something.
"I don't work here," she said politely.
It took a few moments to get her away from him, but Colby finally extricated her.
"Sorry about that. There's one in every office."
©2021 Dellani Oakes
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