Such a Fun Age

Emira has only been working as a receptionist for the Green Party for five weeks when, at a fundraising event, she helps a little boy transfer some crackers from a flimsy plate to a paper cup. The boy turns out to be the child of Paula Christi, the regional director of the U.S. Census Bureau. Paula hires Emira as an administrative assistant. Emira spends the next two years working for her.

Just before her 28th birthday, Paula asks Emira if she has plans to leave soon—no other administrative assistant has stuck around so long without moving on to bigger things. But Emira has no plans to leave. She might not be as successful as her friends—Shaunie is engaged, Josefa is teaching at Drexel, and Zara is supporting herself and her sister—but she’s content. She was able to join her friends in Mexico, she has a savings account, and she makes her bed every day. And Paula is a supportive boss who isn’t threatened by Emira’s success. After she’s been working for Paula for four years, she’s making over $50,000.

After the news segment first aired, Emira had wondered if she’d hear from Kelley. She finally did, one week later. He texted her to say that he was proud of her and knew she could do it. But that’s all. Emira is disappointed, but she also knows that there’s no world in which she and Kelley will ever get back together.

Emira sees Kelley one more time, though he doesn’t see her. She’s at a farmer’s market with Shaunie, and they’ve gotten separated. As Emira browses the produce tables, she sees Kelley Copeland holding hands with a light-skinned Black woman. The woman asks Kelley to hold her smoothie while she checks out another table, and he replies, “Okay, miss.” If things were different, Emira would have texted Mrs. Chamberlain to tell her: “Because even though Kelley had been right about her, Alix had been right about him too.” She wonders if things could have been different if she’d called Mrs. Chamberlain by her first name. But things happened the way they did, and so Emira doesn’t reach out.

The same year that Emira sees Kelley, she also spots Mrs. Chamberlain, Briar, and Catherine. It’s only a few days before Halloween, and they’re at a carnival in Rittenhouse Square. Emira hides, not wanting them to see her. She watches as five-year-old Briar, who is wearing a hamburger costume, tries to reach a pumpkin propped up against a brick ledge. Briar turns around to two Black nannies and asks them to help her—Alix is preoccupied with Catherine. The nannies are amused by Briar, and they help her. Mrs. Chamberlain turns around, thanks the women, and apologizes.

Much later, in her thirties, Emira will still struggle to decide what her time working for the Chamberlains meant to her. Some days, she hopes that Briar has become independent and capable. Other days, she wonders if Briar will give up trying to find out who she is and the person she wants to be, and instead “just hire someone to do it for her.”