Chapter 18 - Andrew Says NoAndrew Brooks learned to say no to Hailey.
It took embarrassingly long.
At twenty-two, Hailey called asking him to contact a landlord who rejected her apartment application after a credit mistake.
Andrew almost did.
He knew the landlord.
Then stopped.
“What are your options?”
Hailey went quiet.
“You’re not calling?”
“No.”
“You know him.”
“Yes.”
“You could fix it in five minutes.”
“Yes.”
Silence.
Hailey laughed.
“Wow.”
“What?”
“You finally learned.”
She handled the appeal herself.
The landlord still said no.
She found another apartment.
Nothing collapsed.
Andrew began recognizing how often rescue had been more about his discomfort than Hailey’s.
If he fixed her problem, he did not have to watch her struggle.
That looked like love.
Sometimes it was control.
Rachel enjoyed reminding him.
He tolerated it badly but increasingly honestly.
Katherine heard none of these details until a community event years later.
Andrew approached her cautiously.
“Can I say hello?”
“You just did.”
He smiled.
“Still terrifying.”
“Occupational hazard.”
He looked older.
Less polished.
“I wanted to thank you.”
Katherine’s expression hardened.
“For what?”
“For not letting me make restitution into absolution.”
“That was oddly specific.”
“I’ve had therapy.”
“Dangerous.”
He laughed.
Then:
“I used to think fixing things was the same as taking responsibility.”
Katherine nodded.
“It isn’t.”
“I know.”
He looked toward the event stage.
“Hailey taught me that too.”
Katherine considered.
“Then maybe everybody got some education.”
“No tuition discount?”
“Absolutely not.”
They separated.
No friendship.
No resentment dominating the encounter.
Ordinary civility.
Katherine liked ordinary civility.
At school, she eventually became assistant principal.
Sophie was horrified.
“You became administration.”
“Temporarily.”
“That’s what they all say.”
Katherine’s first difficult case involved a student whose mother donated heavily to athletics.
The student was accused of cheating.
The evidence was ambiguous.
Katherine recused herself because she had worked closely with the family through fundraising.
Another administrator handled it.
The student was cleared.
Some people accused the school of favoritism anyway.
Katherine publicly explained only the process.
Not confidential details.
She realized something.
Fair systems sometimes produce outcomes people dislike.
That did not automatically make them unfair.
The reverse was also true.
People needed reasons they could examine.
She understood Principal Morgan better now.
That irritated her.
Morgan, retired in Arizona, laughed over the phone.
“Welcome to administration.”
“I hate you.”
“Resilience in Action.”
May you like
Katherine hung up.
Some jokes deserved permanent life.
