Chapter 9 - Not a Clerical Error
The officer reviewing Ward’s evaluation offered Nia a way to make the correction less conspicuous.
“We could describe your initials as an administrative oversight. That would let us reopen the assessment without prejudging anyone’s conduct.”
Nia sat with the proposed wording in front of her.
It would repair part of Ward’s record. It might also keep Nia’s own judgment from becoming another question in her delayed nomination.
For several seconds, she wanted it.
“What exactly would ‘administrative oversight’ mean here?” she asked.
“That your review didn’t capture all the circumstances.”
“But I accepted Reyes’s description without hearing her. That wasn’t a filing mistake.”
The officer leaned back.
“You’re entitled to explain the limits of your role.”
“I have. I don’t want the correction to make it sound like my initials landed there by accident.”
They rewrote the paragraph.
The amendment distinguished Ward’s interrupted exercise from a demonstrated inability to perform the task. It stated that Nia’s original review had not independently established the reason she stopped.
The original evaluation remained attached, along with the correction.
Nia signed the amendment.
It was harder than refusing Hale’s inspection form. Nobody was shouting. There was no obvious villain across the table. There was only a comfortable phrase she could have used to move on.
Ward received notice later that afternoon.
She found Nia at the water fountain.
“They’re arranging another assessment.”
“Good.”
“With different evaluators.”
“Good.”
Ward held out the amended page.
“You left your name on it.”
“It was mine.”
Ward read the correction again. Her expression didn’t become warm, but something guarded in it eased.
“I still don’t want you grading me.”
“That’s reasonable.”
“I don’t mean forever. I mean right now.”
“Right now is enough.”
Ward folded the paper and went back toward her classroom.
Nia remained by the fountain until its motor stopped.
That evening, the course coordinator confirmed that her seat could no longer be held. She could apply in a later cycle when her status was resolved and the prerequisites remained current.
She put the phone down, then picked it up and checked the message again, as though a different reading might uncover an exception.
There wasn’t one.
Andre arrived to find her packing the study guides into a drawer.
“Throwing them away?”
“No.”
“Good.”
He didn’t tell her there would be a better opportunity. He handed her the little stack she couldn’t reach without bending her sore shoulder.
She put the guides away carefully.
May you like
Not discarded.
Not available to her yet.
