"Oh babe, Im so sorry, I don't think I can. I am broken. Im off on secondment in the early hours of tomorrow." I tilt my head and push my champagne glass around. She does the same. Most of the of the other mentees have left the event but we try for some hasty quality time
"Thats ok!" she says "another time".
"Yes. Get your clerkship applications to me by Wednesday so I can review them!"
Earlier in the day I had seen my own mentor, squeezed in between the madness of breaking it dow to leave town.
"What will you be doing up there?"
"I don't actually know. A bit of crime. Tenancy, family, employment law maybe"
"You'll be doing lots of bail applications. Any good at bail applications?"
"Um, Ive never done one"
"Well. they get easier the more you do. I used to be really good at bail applications when I was a young pup. If you run into any trouble give me a call."
At home, the lover falls into bed and I hastily pack. It is after midnight and by the time I come to bed his chest is rising and falling smoothly in gentle undulations, his face peaceful and beautiful. I crawl in and tangle up to his warm body. He nuzzles, shifts and in the blink of an eye it is morning and i must leave. I stay in bed till the very last moment and then go. He kisses me goodbye gently outside the house, wearing stripy colourful undies. Never has a boy looked so beautiful. He stands there as i throw stuff in the taxi. As I am about to leave i have to run back and kiss him once more. Something tells me that it is the last time we will stand here like this, even though it is the first.
I arrive cranky after a comedy of errors and discomfort. Two smiling faces await me.
"Hi, are you caitlin?"
"Yes. How did you guess?"
"Ah, just a guess" says the woman, looking at the giant sunglasses, the earphones, the Minor Works contract and red pen I am clutching.
We head to the office and swing by some place for the lady to pick up cigarettes. We go straight past the office and to their hotel instead. "We can do the induction in my room" says the chap.
"Um, ok" I say.
He walks in, turns on the television, sits on the bed and shuffles papers.
"Want a coffee?" I say, shifting awkwardly.
"That would be great!"
Finally I must sit on the bed next to him for The Induction. There is no predatory vibe, so I try to relax. It is still odd to sit in a man's hotel room on the bed, in a professional situation which he "inducts me".
"If you get injured you have to tell us. We have HEAPS of insurance. So if you get injured make sure you say something." The induction finishes. He looks like Julian Assange. I am not entirely comfortable but it is more because I am confused,
We stay seated on the bed. I am not sure what is supposed to happen. It is lovely and sunny outside. I want to go outside. I don't want to be in a dark hotel room with a strange, albeit lovely man. I finally stand up and say something banal, like "how about that sunshine, lets go outside!"
We go and meet the big smily lady and she prevaricates. They whinge about something political but I agree with the sentiment, vaugly, but its all pretty f*cking banal and I am looking at the time. We head to the office and sit in the waiting room, as Dave, current acting lawyer, is on the phone. We go into the office. A large sunburnt man with blonde shaggy hair greets me. He speaks in generalities, is shuffling bits of paper.
"Sorry for being obtuse David, but how do you fit into all of this?" I ask. "Are you GRC?"
"Nah, Im on the indigenous wills project" says Dave. "Your mob pay for me."
"Oh! Thats your project! You travel around writing wills for indigenous people! That is so cool! Whats it like? I imagine it could be challenging because the client comes from a different perspective with respect to private property and assets. Do they have many assets?"
"Some of them, yeah." he says. "Considerable. But its more about what happens to their body. Who gets it, where they will be buried. They have extremely strong views about that stuff. Much stronger than you and me."
"I see. So, its Monday morning and someone walks in and sits there" I point to the client seat across from he desk. "What do I do?" I ask.
"Well, get their name, do a conflicts check and then find out what the problem is. Just, like, the general nature of the problem. You don't want the whole thing. But It sort of inevitably rolls out. But if you can encourage them to just keep it general, thats better. Also, try not to give advice on their specific problem, Like, i try to start sentences with "In situations like this I have seen…" If you give advice you have to fill in an advice form. This is an advice form. Look. Its three times longer than an information form. But information forms are good! Always fill in an information form! The data, the numbers, they're important, You do billable hours yeah? In community legal, number equals funding. Numbers matter. They count the Information forms. Someone does anyway."
We sit around for a while longer with strange people coming and going, my inductor setting up IT systems, random people popping in to catch up with my indictors, Dave losing and finding his glasses, complaining about this and that, writing file notes, cracking jokes.
"What is that advice about?" I ask.
"Its a secret. To do with fences."
"I see. And what was the advice before that about?"
"Also a secret. I advised that the guy needs to go and do a bunch of stuff. Now its up to him to do it. I remember private practice. The client goes "Can you do X?" and you go "Yes, i can do X, Im doing it right now, in fact, its already done." In this job its all about trying to get clients to do things for themselves. Harder than you would think!!"
"I see"
There is some prevaricating outside. Everyone is talking to everyone like they have not seen them for months. There is smoking, chatting, catching up. I am overtired. I am cranky. I have been up since 5am. I am get getting sick.
"So, I am very hungry, and I am going for lunch. You guys can come with me or not, up to you." i cannot help the pesky cranky child in me.
"Yes, yes we're all going for lunch" says my inductor and he herds the co inductor away from the scintillating conversation she is enjoying with a giant blonde woman in her early 50's sporting pink lipstick and an austere ponytail. She like she might have been a prison warden.
"Where shall we eat?
"that new cafe! Its supposed to be good!"
"Yes. Let's go."
"Let's go now" I say.
They get in the yellow car and we drive all of 25 meters down the road.
"The kitchen is closed" says the girl behind the counter to me. "Oh" I say and look at caramel slices behind a window. I come back to find the Inductors ordering. "I thought the kitchen was closed" I say.
"Is it?" says the girl behind the counter. "Oh yeah! It is." she says mid-order. The whole thing is a clusterf*ck, i have been up since 5 am and I have had enough. I excuse myself, mostly politely and retire.
At 6 pm I receive a message. "We're having dinner at the pub behind the office. We will pick you up"
"Its next door to my hotel I will meet you there."
I almost didn't go because I was so tired. I didn't feel like being my gregarious bubbly pretend self.
I find them both at the pub. They talk about the industry, the challenges, the personalities. I thought I was popping up to cover a community legal centre. But its so much bigger than that. Programs to assist people who are leaving prison, who have been homeless for over a year. "Theres usually a reason why" explains the Inductor. "Its a difficult job". A tenancy advocate who negotiates with real estate agents to settle leases for people with no rental history, no money and no stability.
How does she do it?" I ask. "I had enough trouble leasing a place in Perth as a single female lawyer with good references. I don't know how a family of 8 living below the poverty line does it,"
"Jo has really really good relationships with the agents. If she says they will keep it clean and pay the rent they take her word for it."
There is Laurie, who works in the emergency hamper place. He is a volunteer. When someone is down and out and has nothing to feed their family, they can ask for a voucher to the hamper place. They go to see Laurie who loads them up with a hamper of essentials. A family can only have a hamper every three months. If they are asking for one more often than that they are sent to the financial literacy program. "Because obviously there is a problem."
"So really, you're not a legal centre, you're a life fixing centre" I say.
"Yes, we are."
"It sounds like an elaborate web of interconnectedness, a living, breathing shape shifting organism."
We are in a country town pub and a cover band takes the reigns. They're not bad and we all wind up dancing the night away.
"You must come to GRC and see how we work!" says the manager, over the loud music. "You seem to get it! Its great!"
"Iw would love to" I shout back. "I want to be a life changer too."
It was a funny night. We all laughed and danced and told stories and enjoyed reality. I tried to leave several times but they kept me there.
"By the way, Alison said to tell you that you're in court at 9am on Monday. I hope thats's ok."
"Sure" I say. Because everything seems so positive here, and anything is possible.
