Back to Life

SIX

Zuri Keita

"Ugh," I groan as soon as I finish another call.

It feels like my brain is going into overdrive. The last thing I feel like doing right now is answering calls from rude customers who know shit about how things work in the back offices.

One would think that Customer Support is quite an easy job. It would be if customers realised how limited the support techs are. People still have the nerve to phone the lines yelling and offending us as if we were to blame for their package not arriving on the scheduled day...

I honestly can't wait for the day I no longer need to work on this.

Blocking the system so no other calls are automatically accepted, I stand up and stretch my limbs, feeling a bigger relief than I should be feeling.

Every day feels like one step forward towards a cliff. I've been hanging on by a thread for weeks now and I am regretting returning to school so soon. It's too much.

"Ginny?" I call my team leader. "It's time for my fifteen-minute break."

She quickly looks at me and nods in acknowledgement before going back to her emails.

And due to the workload, no one pays attention as I grab my purse and go down two floors to the building's cafeteria. A much-deserved break after close to one hundred calls in just three hours.

When I first got the job, my parents were horrified, claiming this to be a dumb person's job, and that I needed to focus on my degree—after finally accepting what I wanted to study. To them, it was a win in comparison to my sister's refusal to have an abortion and continue beyond high school.

But if there is one thing I learned in all of the years I have been working here is that this is not a dumb person's job. This is intense and demanding. Toxic too, due to the high expectation of having us answer dozens of calls and emails in a day's worth of work.

After six months I seriously thought about quitting, but thinking about it made me feel like a failure so I endured it. And then when Amari got sick and I put school on pause, this was the only part of my day that felt...normal so I held onto it.

But now that Amari's gone? Without work, how will I maintain myself?

My sister left me money but I use it for Stella's needs only. The bills and my needs need to be met with work. Though, it is much harder now. Working and studying is bad enough, if you add an unpredictable fifteen-year-old to it, it's draining. To be honest, if I didn't need this work, I would have quit already.

It takes me around two minutes, to go down the soulless four flights of stairs. With plain white walls, grey tile floorings and no distractions, I'm able to quickly arrive at the cafeteria's sitting area. It's just as bustling as the working area, with the few dozen people here talking and laughing instead. Just as noisy, but way more relaxed.

The strong scent of freshly poured coffee and recently baked pastries fills my nostrils and my mouth instantaneously starts to water. The line is not long and scatters quickly as my coworkers pay for their food and go sit down.

Just when there's only one person ahead of me, my phone rings to an incoming call. Unknown number.

"Hello?"

"Hi, is this Zuri Keita?" A female voice greets me on the other side.

"It's her, yes."

"This is Helena, I am one of the High School Assistants where Stella studies. She's currently with me in the First Aid's office because she's not feeling great."