Hope and Other Luxuries by Clare B. Dunkle

Author:Clare B. Dunkle [Dunkle B. Clare]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Chronicle Books LLC
Published: 2015-10-10T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

Joe took the morning off, and we met Elena at a pancake place to talk it over. I felt so stressed and jittery that I almost wanted to wring my hands and cry, “What do we do? What do we do?” like a mother in a Victorian melodrama. But Elena, in spite of her horrible morning, was matter-of-fact. Her good sense calmed me down.

“Your manager fired you?” Joe asked. “The same one who just hired you?”

“No, it was the dorm managers who hired me, but it’s their new boss who did the firing,” Elena said. “She just got here on the first day of RA Orientation.”

“Did she give you a reason?”

“No. She said that by law, she didn’t have to give a reason.”

I couldn’t help thinking back to the hysterical call we’d received. “Maybe somebody saw you having your night fright after all.”

“No, that didn’t happen,” Elena said. “I didn’t see anybody. And even if somebody heard me, they’d ask first what was wrong.”

We ordered pancakes, and Elena filled us in on her theory. The boss was new, so she didn’t know Elena personally, and Elena had reported yesterday evening that another RA had been planning a suicide attempt.

“That RA’s got a vindictive streak,” Elena said. “None of the other RAs will have anything to do with him. I’ve only been nice to him because I’ve felt sorry for him, so he’s got to know it’s me who told. If the boss talked to him, I’ll bet he told her a bunch of lies.”

“Wouldn’t she talk to the dorm managers and learn the truth?” Joe asked.

“I don’t know about that,” Elena said. “This woman looks pretty insecure to me. She might not have wanted to ask for anyone’s opinion. I’m not sure she’s into the whole power-sharing thing.”

While I drank my coffee, I tried to take heart from Joe and Elena. They were both being reasonable. But my nerves were shot. They were just shot. I couldn’t think of anything to say.

“The weird thing,” Elena said, “is that the boss didn’t just fire me, she also threw me out of the dorms. Ordered out of the dorms—that never happens! Even students who break laws are given a second chance. I’ve known underage RAs who were caught with alcohol in their rooms, and they got a second chance. I’ve seen RAs falling-down drunk, right in front of their manager, and they got counseled, but they kept their job. I don’t know of a single RA who got denied permission to live on campus. That’s really strange.”

The coffee and calm conversation worked on my shattered nerves. A plan. We needed a plan.

“Is there an appeals process?” I asked.

“I’m way ahead of you, Mom,” Elena said. “I’ve already looked it up.”

So Joe went to work while Elena and I went to the library, and I helped Elena write an appeal letter. It was sober and tactful, and it apologized for any offense Elena might have caused inadvertently.

“That’s in case you’re right about the insecurity problem,” I said.

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