Iron Fist

There’s a downside to being the most reliable person you know, and it’s this: not being able to turn off your phone, as your friends may pick any odd time of the day to call you with their latest problem.

Sometimes it’s a 6:30 in the morning. Can you give me a call when you’re up? she sends via text message. So I do. What’s up?

I’m not going to have enough money to go on my trip to Japan, she says. The agency wants the money by the end of this week. The bank doesn’t want to loan me enough to cover the balance. And we found out this morning that my grandfather died.

Okay, I say. Okay. It’s early yet, let me brainstorm on this. I’ll think of something. I’m sorry to hear about your dadushka.

Othertimes it’s after eleven at night. I can’t figure out what to do about her, he says. And I want to go somewhere else, get a clean start. Maybe California, he says.

Dude, I say. We need to talk this out. We’ll grab some beers this weekend and figure things out.

I don’t need to go to school here, she says. But I don’t have any choice if I want to stay in the country. I don’t have the money for the visa I would need to work here, and I don’t have a company willing to sponsor me or provide a job. And I can’t legally work with just a student visa.

There’s a way, I say. I’ll find it. There’s a solution to all this.

I know my friends don’t really expect me to solve their problems. In my head, where reason lives, I know this.

At the same time, I’d hate to let them down.

Comments(6)