Gayle Tyler was working in her office at Legal Aid in Los Angeles. She was busy a lot, but really loved her work. She spent most of her time representing tenants who had problems with their landlord, or they were being sued by him. A lot of the time, however, involved representing youth in delinquency or persons in need of supervision proceedings.
Her office was small but she was no longer in a carrel space, so her clients could have more privacy, which, she felt, was not always a good thing. Sometimes their tone bordered on condescending to her. The present office had wooden floors and a small turquoise area rug. Her window looked out on another building, but it was not too close to the other property. She still had a sense of privacy. There was a plant and a law magazine on a small bookshelf. She preferred the law library there for her work. On the wall was a bright modern art poster advocating some local art project. Gayle had chosen it for its colors.
She looked up and saw one of the secretaries from the pool talking to Mrs. Jackson, her supervisor, along with Mr. Esposito. They looked in her direction, through the glass window in her office that gave a view of the secretaries’ area, and they laughed.
Gayle went back to her work. She had to get ready to have her lunch and head back to court.
The door opened, after some time, and one of the secretaries, Meghan, said,” Your request to attend the conference has been processed, and the supervisors have said yes. You’ll have to talk to Mrs. Jackson for all the details.”
“Thanks, Meghan. I am going to see her now if she is around.”
After speaking to Mrs. Jackson’s secretary, Gayle knocked on her door, and heard, “Come in.”
“Meghan says my request to go to the conference has been approved?”
“Yes, it is a worthwhile activity, and we like to encourage these kinds of things. We just had to be sure that you could get adjournments for a few days.”
“Thank you. When is my last day here, and when am I due back at work? I will get the adjournments, tell the clients, and hopefully, submit stipulations of adjournments.”
After going through the details, Anna Jackson added, “We can’t give you your full pay for the five working days you will miss, but you have been approved for half of that pay, and we will pay the conference expenses as we had said previously.”
Gayle knew she would have to put her brown and white Terrier, Mischief, in the vet, and she also knew that she would have to ask the receptionist at her building to hold her mail, check her apt., and ask the guard to check her car in the garage while she was away.
She then returned to her duties at the job and finally went home to walk her dog and have some dinner.
She’d miss her apartment, but she wouldn’t be gone that long. She lived on Wilshire Boulevard near parks with fountains. It was an intercultural area. Almost directly across the street from her was a former hotel where a famous politician had been assassinated. It was now occupied by many homeless families and some older and disabled homeless people.The residents were also intercultural, and everyone seemed to go about their way in the neighborhood.
The building had been remodeled. There was a gated swimming pool on the first floor, as well as a kitchen, dining room, and several lounges with pay phone closets.
