I liked working at this vanity publishing house over the Summer,
so when Winter break came around,
I asked if they’d have me back.

Vanity publishing is basically what small publishing is
at this point,
when people independently pay for their own book to come out.
Then, the rates were much higher,
print runs were a minimum one thousand,
and editing and layout were components of the package.
I was a general assistant.

The Summer experience was good. I’d found the job on my own,
they accepted me, and I worked throughout until the beginning of school.
I could work for the much shorter Winter period. Hooray!

Soon after I arrived, Eric handed me a piece of paper.
Looking at it, I saw it was one of my typed letters.
They still had typewriters hanging around the place,
so I would use them to practice accurate typing.
I had written a letter to someone, but apparently had left it in the roller.
It was filled with red. Apparently, Eric had edited it.
My face got red.
It got more red as I red the letter I’d written months before,
where I described what hot shit I was around the office.
Oh, the number of mistakes in the letter!
Oh, Eric read this!
Oh, shit, here I am coming in for a couple of weeks,
thinking this about myself – I got further red.

I don’t think I looked Eric in the eye for that Winter break.
I did come back for the Summer, though.
I was able to hold it together then.