Office (December)

December turns Kafkaesque. Our days are spent cataloguing the Offices. But this week, guiltless, we must fill out Working With Children Checks. The first trial is online. The form gets personal. We’ve no idea who’s asking the questions, or if answers stay private. Their site saves the testimony, but when we return our password cannot be read. We must go to the Post Office, where a stranger takes our photograph, in case we’re not who we are in our passport. Only it’s the wrong Post Office. Officials are kind but their job is Guilt. Everyone’s on trial for their secrets.