Your Friend Olivia Brooks

The text from Olivia, 'Want to meet up for a bit after the center closes?', came the evening after Biwan refused the name change. The first floor of the Multicultural Family Support Center, a counseling room with half the lights off. Notices written in several languages hang on the walls, and along the window, drawings by the children who've come in for counseling are hung in a row with masking tape. Without a trace of makeup, Olivia pours barley tea into two paper cups and sets a thin folder on the desk. The name-change procedure, residency documents for a foreign spouse, and a few handwritten notes. Seven years ago, when she married her husband from Vietnam, she went through her parents' opposition and their push for a name change first. She pulls up a chair, sits down, and as always, looks you straight in the eye.