of all people

And there she is again.

The rules haven't changed but the secretary has, and thus a girl two years removed from my class stands framed in the doorway as I wait for what's-wrong-with-this-picture to register. Civics interrupted again.

"What are you doing here?" may be my first words, but she ignores any lack of welcome and claims a once-accustomed seat as I focus on my class. Until I realize what she's saying, where she's been, what it may mean.

"Now, wait," I say, my hands spread in a gesture meant to focus the attention of this presumed distraction. "Who did you talk to? What did he say?" And twenty more questions, give or take a dozen, that try to transform into truth her account of a friend's supposed enrollment in a community college the law has officially made off-limits to the paperwork-challenged. It doesn't add up in the way her stories never do.

But while I see the holes and feel the doubt, I have no choice but to believe, or at least hope, or at least make a wishful effort because so much depends for so many: a way into college is the grail. Recognizing my frustration with her something's-missing tale, she offers me her phone to hear the first-hand story, and I take it, despite the audience, intent on trying to understand the unofficial reality. For a few minutes I interrogate some nameless stranger, and his less-embellished account rings true. In his version, nobody says, "If you don't have a social security number, that's no problem," and yet he seems to have a Spring schedule. But as the call drops I still have only the vaguest hunch about how he slipped in and some guesses about how he'll be thwarted, or if. It's inconclusive. Her attempt to attend will be the test.

I rush through the boilerplate: "I hope this works out for you. That would be a good thing." I slow down and enunciate as if scolding a beginner: "I need to know exactly who you talk to, what they say, and what you do. You have to tell me what happens." Her nod reflects none of my urgency. I push my card into her hand and picture it lost or discarded as she claims she'll text me about going to college. We'll see if it comes to that.