All About Mentoring Spring 2011 - SUNY Empire State College
All About Mentoring Spring 2011 - SUNY Empire State College
All About Mentoring Spring 2011 - SUNY Empire State College
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36<br />
dialed the number indicated on it. After<br />
several rings, a frail, old, frightened, female<br />
voice answered.<br />
“ … Yes”<br />
“Hello,” Daniel said. “You called early this<br />
morning, ma’am, and left a message”<br />
“Who are you”<br />
“The county housing agency. Are you in …<br />
New York”<br />
“Yes. Yes. Oh, God, thank you for calling<br />
me back.” The old, frightened voice<br />
abruptly sounded a bit relieved. “I’ve been<br />
calling everybody. Whoever I could find in<br />
the phone book.”<br />
Daniel was not surprised. “You should<br />
know, ma’am, this office is for counties<br />
north of you. You really should be calling<br />
authorities where you live.”<br />
That seemed to make her alarmed again and<br />
set her back.<br />
“But I’ve been calling everyone where I live.<br />
Nobody gets back to me, nobody helps me.<br />
I’ve been trying to get help for days. Please<br />
don’t hang up on me. I need someone to<br />
help me. Please help me.”<br />
At such urgency there was little else for him<br />
to say: “Don’t worry. I won’t hang up.”<br />
Daniel swung around in his seat and again<br />
looked out his office window down on the<br />
people, the stores and the buildings on the<br />
street across from him. “I’ll do everything<br />
I can.”<br />
Her voice was extraordinarily weak. “Thank<br />
God, thank God … .”<br />
The intensity of her need made him feel like<br />
a special mission had been assigned to him.<br />
“Tell me why you called. Please.”<br />
“I called because I don’t know what to do.”<br />
He thought he heard her crying.<br />
“I’m a very sick woman, you know.”<br />
“I … I’m sorry.”<br />
“I worked for the government, too. And<br />
got workers’ compensation. I was hurt on<br />
the job. That was several years ago.” She<br />
hardly paused. “And now I’m in my late<br />
70s, and I have diabetes, and I can hardly<br />
walk out of the house, and God knows<br />
what else I have.”<br />
“Again … I … I … I’m sorry.” It was all he<br />
could think of saying. Was his work even<br />
impoverishing his ability to think and speak<br />
“I’ll make it, though. I’m not pathetic,” the<br />
old woman proclaimed, suddenly affecting<br />
energy. “But they put me in a terrible<br />
building. Sir, you should see the building I<br />
live in. It’s so old and falling apart. And the<br />
neighborhood is very dangerous. I’ve never<br />
complained. But now … it was so cold this<br />
winter. You know how cold it was”<br />
“Yes, ma’am. I know. It was very cold.”<br />
Daniel thought to be a bit light-hearted. “I<br />
live north of you.”<br />
“Well, sir, it was so cold, I could hardly get<br />
out of bed.” She was not to be deterred. “I<br />
slept in the bed with my overcoat on. Can<br />
you believe that In this country Letting the<br />
landlord do that to American citizens. Not<br />
giving people any decent heat.” She would<br />
not stop. “Someone could have frozen to<br />
death. Probably did. What is this country<br />
coming to And it’s going to get worse<br />
and worse.”<br />
On this point, Daniel thought he could not<br />
have agreed more, though he kept his silence<br />
and continued to listen.<br />
“So the pipes burst. That’s what happened.<br />
The pipes in this house burst. There was no<br />
water for who knows how long. I couldn’t<br />
wash myself, or wash clothes. I heated water<br />
over the stove. And then inspectors came.<br />
And now the building is condemned and<br />
everybody has to get out.”<br />
Unable to resist the impulse, Daniel looked<br />
outside onto the street, this time spying<br />
young women leading a long line of small<br />
children farther downtown, toward City<br />
Hall. The children all held on to a rope to<br />
be orderly and for safety.<br />
“We have to get out.” The old woman was<br />
implacable in her fear. “And nobody knows<br />
where we’re going to go. We don’t have any<br />
money. We hardly get by. People are going<br />
to starve if things don’t get any better. I’ve<br />
got to leave in two weeks. I have to get out<br />
of my apartment and find another place to<br />
live in. How am I going to do that I can’t<br />
do that I don’t even know how to do that<br />
Young man, you’ve got to help me. I don’t<br />
know what to do. I don’t know who else<br />
to ask.”<br />
Daniel sighed deeply. His neck tightened up.<br />
It had been doing that for some time now,<br />
though it never used to.<br />
The old woman’s voice seemed to echo in<br />
his brain:<br />
“Please help me I have nowhere else to go.”<br />
When the call was over, Daniel was<br />
not exactly sure what to do, despite his<br />
experience. He had schooled himself in crisis<br />
situations to take his time, to see if there<br />
weren’t some kind of solution possible. But<br />
nothing came to him. Then, rather fancifully,<br />
though not unheard-of for him, he decided<br />
perhaps his unconscious or subconscious, or<br />
whatever his analytic friends called it, could<br />
work on the problem while he focused his<br />
attention elsewhere. The something else was<br />
easy. He would call his wife.<br />
Taking up his cell phone, Daniel punched in<br />
Emily’s code, and after a number of rings,<br />
she answered him, which was very relieving.<br />
Perhaps she was no longer angry with him.<br />
“Where are you” he asked her. He hoped<br />
she was alone.<br />
“I’m at the beach. We’re at the beach.”<br />
Of course – he had forgotten. The town<br />
beach on the shore. A very rich and<br />
private place.<br />
“How did the trip go No trouble Did<br />
the car perform all right” He hoped she’d<br />
say yes.<br />
“Mainly.”<br />
“Mainly”<br />
“That sound,” Emily explained. “That<br />
sound the mechanic you went to doesn’t<br />
understand. The car made that sound most<br />
of the trip. But I kept the windows closed,<br />
and the radio on. And talked to the kids.”<br />
“I see,” Daniel said. “How’s the visit<br />
going”<br />
At this question, Emily’s voice seemed to<br />
brighten a little, perhaps despite herself.<br />
“Good.”<br />
“What did you do Did your folks take<br />
you all out to eat”<br />
She really didn’t want to hurt him.<br />
“ … Yes.”<br />
suny empire state college • all about mentoring • issue 39 • spring <strong>2011</strong>