7
“Hey, Gladys. How goes it?”
Jia ventured over to the community center to check in on Gladys, the office assistant and Mimi’s best friend. It had been
a week now since Jia had arrived back at Sunset Hills. She’d slept the first couple days for hours and hours on end. It was
as if she’d been clenching her entire body and it needed to rest off its trauma response of the days since her termination.
She woke up only for meals and to take Mimi on a walk each day.
When Jia suggested they invite some of the other neighbors to join them, Mimi mentioned moving the walks to the mornings and
possibly getting a better response. So they did. And thus started the Sunset Hills Walking Club.
When Jia saw Betty, one of her grandmother’s neighbors, reading the latest Kennedy Ryan book, she asked if she could buddy-read
with her and meet her for tea the next day to discuss. She invited two of her neighbors who were also reading it. And thus
started the Sunset Hills Spicy Book Club.
And when Jia peeked over their four-foot back fence to see Lynette repotting some of her succulents, Jia got curious and asked about the different types and how they grew in the heat.
Carla on the other side of Lynette’s fence peeked over to hear the answer.
And thus started the Sunset Hills Gardening Club.
She knew life still existed here. She just needed to wake it up. So when Jia woke up from her slumber, she got to work waking
the neighborhood up from its as well.
She’d told Mimi about all the ideas brewing in her head, and the first thing Mimi did was to enthusiastically tell Jia to
have at it, to do what made her happy, and if that meant rousing all the old folks, then she was all in. Having Mimi’s support
meant everything to Jia. It gave her confidence that she was on the right track.
“Cute outfit,” Gladys said.
Jia looked down at her ridiculous ensemble. It wasn’t her normal style. But she hadn’t received a call from the airline about
her luggage yet, at least not that she knew of. She actually hadn’t even looked at her phone in days. She also hadn’t gone
through all of Mimi’s closet yet. So she saw the scrubs in a drawer, and when Mimi had mentioned they were a designer collab
with Betsey Johnson from back in the day, she put them on. She decided to make a whole outfit around the most colorful things
she could find. She even included the decorative norigae from Mimi’s wedding hanbok. A homage to her grandmother’s life. And
truth be told, she loved it. It suited her mood here in the desert today.
“Thanks, it’s Mimi’s stuff. Fits perfectly,” Jia said.
“Sure does,” Gladys agreed. “I’m about to head out to lunch, sweetheart. Did you need anything from me?” Gladys asked.
“I was gonna ask about making a community events calendar. You know, since there are a bunch of new activities happening, and it might be nice having something visual to help people keep them straight.”
“I don’t think you need any permission for that. But if you need money to fund any of it, we’ll have to ask the HOA. We’ve
got a pretty good budget to do stuff. No one’s tapped into it for a while now. But everyone’s abuzz talking ’bout the things
you’ve been up to. It’s ’bout damn time. Thought we were all dead in the water once Ruth left us.”
Ruth had been one of the residents of Sunset Hills and the de facto community manager of sorts. Jia had heard from the others
that once Ruth had passed, no one had taken up the charge to keep planning things. It was like they all wanted to do stuff
but didn’t know how to get it done. Jia’s heart ached, considering that the residents here had gone for however long without
any activities to feed their bodies and their minds and their souls. She wanted to change that if she could. As long as she
was here, she might as well be of some use.
Jia wasn’t normally a go-getter; you could ask her former employers. But few things motivated her more than getting a chance
to see people happy.
“Oh gosh. They’re just some small weekly get-togethers for the residents. Nothing needs any funding.”
“Well, based on how much everyone’s been talking about that book club—” Gladys gave an exaggerated wink before continuing
“—I have a feeling you’re gonna have a lot of interest on your hands for whatever you cook up.”
“I hope it’s gonna be a lot of fun,” Jia said. “Can I use the computer and the copier to print up the calendars to distribute?
Oh, and can I post one here at the community center?”
“No problem. All yours. Watch the desk for me while I go and make my tuna sandwich at home, will ya?”
“Sure thing. Hey, do you have garlic powder?”
“I do. Do you need some?” Gladys asked.
“Nope. But if you sprinkle a little bit on that tuna sandwich, it adds a nice little punch,” Jia suggested.
“Oooh. I’ll give that a try. It should be slow while I’m gone. Just hang out for a bit,” Gladys said. “The guys will be coming
in to play bridge. If they cause a ruckus, threaten to kick them out with a loud voice so they can hear you. That should settle
them down.”
Jia smiled and nodded and sat down at Gladys’s desk to get to working on the calendar.
It was currently quiet in the community center, so Jia got up and decided to walk around and check out what was available,
get some ideas of what she could do to reach more of the residents.
From what she noticed with Mimi, she was in good health, but aging was hard. It was hard on her joints, her lungs, and her
attention span. Jia just wanted to help stimulate their minds, muscles, and need for community. It was a no-brainer. It just
took someone willing and with the time to organize.
And that was exactly what Jia had right now. Time.
The exercise room was spacious and clean.
There were no machines, which felt like the right call with the potential safety hazards.
But there were some mats and free weights.
Maybe Jia could organize some group movement classes.
She’d taught Zumba back in New York for a few months.
It was low impact and a lot of fun. She made a mental note to do some research about modifications of the dance moves for people with limited mobility.
She wanted to know what some of the nuances would be for teaching an older class.
She could also check in with Mimi and some of the neighbors about their favorite tunes and songs they’d loved from their past. She could imagine at least ten people showing up for something like this.
A retro Zumba class might just be a hit here.
Jia inspected some of the other rooms. There was a craft room and a library, a large kitchen, and changing rooms for the pool
area. So much to work with. Jia’s mind was working double time with all the possibilities.
She hadn’t felt this energized in a long time.
She would get to know the demographic of the neighbors and see what kinds of things interested them, what they liked to do
for fun. Jia might have had trouble keeping a stuffy corporate job, but fun—fun she knew how to do.
Jia went back to the office, sat down at the desk, and took some notes from her tour of the community center. Once the good
stuff was done, she decided to tackle the harder things on her to-do list. She took a deep breath and did the one thing she
really did not want to do: logged into her email. Please let there be a reply to one of my job applications. Please please please.
When the inbox loaded, there were a few spam messages, a message from Lizzy letting Jia know that they’d be getting some money
back from their security deposit (yay!), a note from Bakerson’s Group letting her know they’d removed twelve dollars from
her final paycheck for the box she forgot to return (shit!), and a formal-looking message from a fancy legal name which had
to be fake. Jia deleted it along with the other spam. That was it. No job offers. No possibilities.
She had three weeks left in her deal with her mother. Florida was looking more and more like an inevitability. Jia closed her eyes and tried to mentally push back the darkness that crept up on her. Okay, enough wallowing, she thought to herself. Get to work.
Jia spent the next ten minutes looking at job postings online. But her attention span kept shrinking the more she tried. Her
shoulders felt heavy with discouragement. Every job opening seemed to be looking for the same person: organized, strong attention
to detail, self-starter. But these weren’t words that people ever used to describe Jia. Overwhelmed, she closed out of the
search. Maybe she could find an Etsy witch to help direct her to the right opportunity. At this point, that could very well
be her only hope.