How To Find Your Future

15 - A Little Bit of Everything Please

Charlie

I push the doors open and watch as Olivias face transforms. She goes from looking bored and unexcited one minute to her eyes getting this bright glow in them. Her frown of prepared disappointment turns into an o of surprise.

"There's so much," she comments.

"I told you it was big." I place my hand on her back and gently move her into the room. Her feet seem to glue her to the ground for a minute before one picks up the memo and takes a step forward.

"I didn't expect it to fit this many people in here."

I look up. There's about forty or so stalls placed up around the space. Some line the walls and some make aisles throughout the space. There's about another sixty or so people milling about and going from booth to booth. "Lots of people come to these things."

"It seems more popular than a farmers market on a saturday morning."

I laugh.

"So." She rubs her hands together before looking up at me with a nervous look. She bites her lip. "Where do we start?"

"Well, the best way to go is to zag zig up and down the aisles. So, m'lady, pick which way you'd like to start with."

She turns back and looks from the left side of the room to the right side of the room. I watch her as she seems to weigh the option of both ways. "Let's start with the right."

I nod. "If you say so." I pocket my hands as we make our way over to the first booth. It's nothing special. The booth just has a table and a few posters hung up on the dividers around it.

"What's this?" Olivia asks. She walks up to the table and takes one of the pamphlets sitting on it.

The guy sitting down smiles. "We work with the local rehab center."

Olivia nods and flips through the pamphlet. "What do you all do?"

"We help our patients focus on themselves," he says.

"And how do you do that?"

"Well we help them through their detox period. It can be a hard and difficult time. After that we help them find a sense of normalcy and make sure they're doing alright before we consider them for outpatients."

Olivia nods and hums. "Do you enjoy what you do?"

He nods. "My dad used to have an addiction and going to a clinic really helped him. So I always felt like I would end up doing something to help others like him."

My gut churns as he speaks. I look away and around the space at the other booths.

"That's really sweet." I look back when Olivia speaks again. She looks down at the pamphlet in her hands. "Can I take this with me?"

The man nods and holds out his hand. "Let me write my email down for you in case you'd like to learn more."

Olivia hands him the pamphlet and we watch as he takes a pen and writes his email on the back of it. He hands it back to Olivia. "Thank you," she says.

He smiles. "Thank you for your interest. Have a good rest of your day."

"You too." Then she turns and we walk away.

"So?" I ask.

She looks at me. "So what?"

"Do you think this would be something that interests you?" I gesture to the pamphlet and continue to ignore the plea in my head hoping it isn't.

She hums. "It's possible. I do like to help people, but I'm not sure this is how I'd want to go about it."

I sigh in relief. "Then maybe we should keep an eye out for more jobs that would let you help?"