Papers Please!!

I expect Mondays to be weird especially Mondays following national holidays. It’s like weirdos have all this pent up energy from having to go a day with being able to harass public servants. . Yesterday my days took a serious turn into Weirdville I got an Instant Message from the office Manager, FDB, saying she needed rescued from a “walk in” who had stopped talking as now just sitting in the reception area and would not leave.

I had been working on the newest edition of our on-line newsletter and the task was not well and I thought I needed a break but I was not prepared for what I was about to roll into. FDB is a professional and little rattles her—FDB has been through a lot and seen most everything. So, I was fairly interested in who had rattled the pro and there she sat, a middle aged with gray hair braided into one long pig tail which she wore over shoulder down to below her wait. This women was dressed nicely-she was not your run of the mill homeless/crazy person who often drift into out building. She had what appeared to be a large handbag/pouch and was studying one of the documents FDB had thrown at her in order to shut her up. I never did get the name of this person but I am going to call her Olga, which I feel is a fine Russian name for this women who would at least acknowledge she had at one time come from Russia.

Olga, with a heavy Russian accent, so deep that I was not able to follow her conversation and on top of her accent was her question understanding of the English language, which I think she felt she understood very well—which I don’t think she did as much as she thought. Olga had a round Slavic/European framed in gray hair all hidden behind a huge set of glasses which comically magnified her eyes—those washed out blue eyes which suspiciously, darted back and forth. Olga demanded information, she did not ask for information, like some one from the KGB version of the AARP never believing a single word told her. Olga was convinced that our agency kept files and records on the folk we served. She wanted to know how long we kept files and could not understand that we did not keep such documents since we really don’t service clients, parients or consumers or what ever. Then Olga demanded our cards “ sort of like having you “papers” demanded. She next demanded lists of agency and programs which services people with disabilities all the while speaking in a desperate Russian accent. I asked Olga back to my office but she refused to move. I know she thought I was going to kidnap her and sell her to the white slave trade; I could really tell Olga operated under major illusions of grandeur.

Olga finally left after an hour or so of word games and after she thought she had tripped me up by admitting that I was trying to increase the number of people with disabilities, she interrupted this to mean I was trying to make he world disabled—she truly believed I was maniacal—which I am sure that I am just not in the way Olga perceives. I thought sure Olga would be back today demanding more documents of one kind or another. I documented Olga as a “drop in” some one who physically enters our office looking for services one way or another. But I have not seen her yet and the day is not over yet. She could be lurking in the hall way in an over coat and sunglasses.