6. Cecelia
“Greta?” I knocked on my supervisor’s open door as I stepped into her office.
The space was small, lined with bookshelves along one wall and filing cabinets along the other two. Everything was piled high with stacks of files that needed to be put away, but as I understood it, all the space we currently had was used up.
“Come on in, Cecelia. How was your first day?” Greta didn’t look up from the papers in front of her.
“Uh, that’s what I wanted to talk to you about,” I said. I picked up a smallish pile on the other office chair and set everything aside as neatly as I could before parking my butt in the chair. “My case is a bit of a mess.”
“How so?”
“From all appearances, Mr. Alexander had no warning that he was going to be responsible for a baby. Isn’t it customary to alert the guardian so they can prepare?”
“Mmm-hmm.” Greta made a positive, please continue type of sound.
“When I got there, the child was asleep on the floor. And there was no, well, anything for her. I went through the notes, and… Did we really just hand over a child and say, ‘Here, this is yours, take care of it until we find her father’?”
Greta looked up and me, her brow furrowed. “Let me see.” She sorted through one of the stacks on her desk. When she found the folder she was looking for, she opened it and started flipping through the pages. “Ah, I see. Yes. Okay.” She closed the folder and looked up, catching my gaze with her own.
“That’s exactly what happened.”
I gasped and prepared to have a rather indignant reaction. But Greta held my attention.
“It’s stipulated in the will that Sterling Alexander take care of the child unless the father comes forward to do so. And the deceased’s estate is being managed by lawyers making sure that’s exactly what’s happening.”
“He had no baby furniture. No bottle, and only one sippy cup, and we just dumped a baby on him? I thought we were supposed to make sure that children were taken care of?” I had the hardest time believing that we were acting in the best interests of the child.
“Was the child being mishandled?” Greta questioned.
“She was asleep on the floor,” I reminded her.
“Kids sleep on floors all the time. Was she injured?”
“She was distraught,” I answered.
“Was she being neglected?”
I opened my mouth and shut it again. I couldn’t tell her that when I got there the baby was asleep, and Sterling Alexander was standing there with a faux cocktail in his hands because his butler knew better than to serve him vodka while they were struggling to take care of a baby. I couldn’t tell her because there was nothing wrong in that situation.
Neither man seemed to know what to do, but she had been in clothes, and they had appropriate foods available for her.
“They’re totally clueless about taking care of a baby!” I blurted out.
Greta chuckled. “Most people are, especially when it’s unexpected. How did you handle the situation?”
I cast my gaze around her office, suddenly feeling as if maybe I hadn’t done enough. I tried to remember everything.
“I changed her, got her into some more comfortable clothes. I pointed out that babies and fashion don’t mix. She needs to be in comfortable, soft fabrics. I showed both of them how to hold her, um…”
“Both? Was there someone else there?”
“Yes, Sterling Alexander has a butler. He called me Miss Cecelia. Very high-brow, posh. He was doing all of the cooking, so I made sure he understood what foods to start her on.”
“That’s good. She has two adults looking after her, someone who knows how to prepare food. So, exactly what is your concern?” Greta looked at me like I was the clueless one and not Sterling Alexander.
I blinked a few times, trying to realign my expectations with reality.
“I should follow up with him tomorrow,” I said.
“Of course. We expect that of you.”
“I guess I need clarification of how often I am supposed to be there? They are my only client. Shouldn’t I have multiple clients?” I asked.
Greta nodded. “I see. Not in our group. You’ll do some serious handholding until you decide your client is ready. Clearly, you don’t find Mr. Alexander to be prepared for the task at hand. You’re to be available to teach him how to care for the baby. You’ll spend several hours a week based on his availability. Then, of course, you have all the reports you need to file. After that, we will have some other projects at the office for you to work on. But for now, we want you to focus on one family at a time.”
I was confused. “I thought I’d have several cases to handle at a time,” I admitted.
“Yes and no. I did mention the flood and losing our servers, right?”
I nodded. “Yes, you did.”
Greta looked up at the ceiling. “How do I say this and maintain professionalism?” She let out a heavy sign. “As you can see, everything is a bit of a mess. When I say a bit, I mean the polar opposite. It’s a cluster of intercourse.”
I snorted with laughter. I couldn’t help myself. “You mean a cluster fu?—”
Greta waved her hands around wildly, stopping me mid-word. “We never say the F-bomb here. And yes, that is precisely what I mean. I can’t assign you to other families at the moment because I can’t access the records.”
I felt my eyes go wide. What had I gotten myself into?
“It took us a week to get to where we are now. I expect that next week, we will be in better shape with the servers and having access to a functional database, except for the physical storage problem. That’s going to take longer. In the meantime, you get to focus on one case at a time.”
“Oh.” It was all I could think of to say. This was not anything like what I thought I was getting into. I had images of overworked caseworkers visiting family after family, almost like a door-to-door salesperson. But I guess that was the difference between public social services and privately funded agencies. At least I had a job. “So, I’ll actually be working with Sterling Alexander a bit more closely than I realized.”
Greta nodded. “I’m going to warn you now, don’t fall in love.”
“What?” Sterling Alexander was a good-looking guy, but he was also an overinflated ego on legs. I was completely immune to whatever charms he thought he possessed. I didn’t think there was any danger of falling in love with him.
“With the baby. It”s always so hard not to bond with the kids in situations like these. You are so invested in their wellbeing, and sometimes, you end up spending a lot of time with the family. You aren’t their friend. You’re there to make sure they know and can do what it is they need. You’re more like a life coach, but in a hands-on framework,” Greta continued.
I nodded. “Georgie is adorable. I get what you’re saying.” I could see the danger of bonding with the baby. I already felt so much empathy toward her situation. And she was a little cutie with big eyes and the loopy curls I’ve only ever seen on babies. “I will harden my resolve against her and her manipulative ways.”
“Babies aren’t manipulative,” Greta corrected me instantly.
“I know that,” I stammered. “I was just saying, like, she would be the one trying to get me to bond with her on purpose. Sorry, bad joke, worst joke teller. There’s a reason I’m not a comedian.”
Greta gave me a half smile. I was wasting her time, and it was time for me to realize that and leave.
I stood. “Thank you for clarifying a few things for me. I’ll go finish up the few reports I have and get them turned in.”
“Remember, triplicate, and in the labeled baskets in the copier room,” she said as waved me out of her office.
Triplicate? No, I’d be keeping a full set of those documents for myself. I needed to put together a filing system immediately at my desk. No one was in the room of desks when I returned. I sat and began sorting through what I needed.
There were a few office supplies not stored in the desk drawer that I wanted. I decided it was safe to rummage through the desks that were obviously just for stacking things on. I located a tape dispenser with tape and a staple remover.
I organized my folders in the drawer. I wasn’t going to need to carry all of them back and forth, only a few of them. I needed to get a tote bag or something. And pads of paper. I needed pads of paper to take notes on.
I left my desk and went to the copier room to see if I could dredge up any more office supplies. I opened another cabinet that was crammed full of copier paper but no notepads. “What was this place like before their epic flood?” I really hoped it had been more organized than this and that everything would return to order soon.