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TENET 88:
Keep an open mind.
- Dr. H.VynFleet, 132 Tenets of Childcare & Maintenance
YASMINE
Yasmine Hall stretched for the sun, her eyes dipping to view her students with satisfaction as her own muscles rejoiced in the movement.
Despite being quite a bit older than she was, some of the students were following her stretch without any trouble, their arms reaching for the heavens in a near-perfect imitation of hers. Others wobbled and worked on their balance with expressions of intense concentration. Two in the back were mostly just giggling, but they definitely looked happier than before class began.
Yasmine had taken the job at the Helios Eldercare Community as a personal care assistant almost a year ago. Without a nursing degree, she was basically a glorified changer of sheets, comforter of sad patients, and runner of errands for the band of highly qualified nurses who ran the facility with military precision.
But when she offered to teach a free Tai Chi class on Saturday mornings, the nurses surprised her by arguing passionately on her behalf with the director until she agreed to allow it.
Now Yasmine was helping the seniors to relax and strengthen their changing minds and bodies just as she had been helped by Tai Chi when she was recovering from combat.
The practice space was large and well-lit with a view over the patient-tended garden and its overflowing hydroponic containers of tomatoes and ärta-pods. Students of all skill levels and motivations smiled up at her, as Yasmine soaked in the happiest and most peaceful hour of her week.
When her comms went off just as they finished the first stretch of the morning, she swiped her bracelet to deactivate and silence it, surprised that she had forgotten to turn her comms off before class began.
But when they rang a second time, she realized someone must have paid for a priority interruption. Two of them now. What could be that important?
Nothing good.
Terror squeezed icy fingers around her heart, and she gestured to the class to stretch and move freely for a minute while she took the call.
“Hello,” she murmured, slipping out the glass doors and onto the patio overlooking the vegetable garden.
“Is this Yasmine Hall?” a woman’s businesslike voice asked.
“Yes,” Yasmine replied, desperately trying to interpret the woman’s tone, searching for tragedy before it could be conveyed officially.
“Excellent,” the woman replied. “I’m reaching out about an employment opportunity.”
“Thank you,” Yasmine said, relieved. “But I told the agency I found something months ago.”
Her work at the nursing home was not paid well. As a matter of fact, it was paid so poorly she often found herself deciding between eating dinner and using electricity in the evening.
But she was doing good things for people who needed her. And the Tai Chi class was a dream come true. She couldn’t change the past, but this future felt like a chance to give back for some of what she had taken.
“This is something special,” the woman on the other end of the comm was saying. “Whatever you’re doing now doesn’t compare.”
That was a little insulting, but Yasmine prided herself on being polite.
“I’m not interested in changing jobs,” she said firmly. “But thank you.”
Zanfredd, one of her favorite residents stepped outside. She playfully referred to him as her “boyfriend,” and honestly, he was about as close as she wanted to get to a real one at this point in her life. She had too much stuff to figure out about herself to even think about dealing with someone else. He lifted his shaggy eyebrows at her in question.
One of the nicest things about her elderly charges was that they completely understood her feeling that tragedy was always about to strike.
“Job offer,” she murmured, shaking her head and rolling her eyes.
He nodded, looking impressed.
“I’m calling from the Alien Nanny Agency,” the caller said.
“A nanny agency?” Yasmine echoed. “I have no experience with children.”
