from the
old country. Here in America they had no such clocks. Here everything
ran by electricity, and when you touched it there was a shock, which was
unnatural.

The old clock told the time: nine-thirty. Appointment hour was
approaching. Mrs. Wladek did not want to leave the house. She did not
want to face this new case worker.

But, all the same, one had to have money to live.

That they should force an old woman to travel across the city and to
speak with a girl, by appointment, solely in order to get the money
which should have been hers by right!

Cossacks! Monsters!

_Name:_ GIRONDE, JOSE R.

_Address:_ 1440 Hamilton Street

_Borough:_ New York

_Phone:_ None

_Complaint:_ Client is over fifty, without work for eight months--last
worked in October--due to recurrent difficulty regarding back. Sole
support wife and wife's sister. One child (Ramon, 27), living on West
Coast. Preliminary inquiries fail to locate child.

_Remarks:_ NPH. Examination needed. Is back injury chronic?

There was a great deal of paper work needed, Gloria realized. At first
she hadn't liked the paper work at all, but she could see now how
necessary it was. After all, everybody wasn't like her; the other
workers, she knew, didn't have her particular talent, and they had to
write things down for fear they'd forget.

Sometimes Gloria felt very sorry for the other case workers. But she
knew they were doing their very best, and they were, after all, helping
people. That was the only important thing: to help people, to make them
better members of society.

Now, Jose Gironde's back injury was certainly chronic. Gloria tried to
remember the medical term for it: it was something to do with a
lordosis. She'd paid no attention to that, since she had been trying to
fix up the back instead.

But now a doctor had to be called, and a thorough examination had to be
given, all so that the records would show what Gloria knew already. A
case worker couldn't fill out a medical report; you had to be a doctor
to do that.

And it didn't matter, Gloria knew, if you had all the information at
your fingertips, and even knew more than the doctor. (Gloria could have
cured Jose Gironde's back easily; a doctor couldn't do that.)
Examination was the doctor's job.

It was like being a member of a team, Gloria thought.

That felt good.

She got out the list of doctors which all the case workers used, and
followed it down with her finger. Dr. Willm