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Jerad works for Verizon as a systems analyst
he types data configurations into the networking system
only Verizon employees can do the typing
he’s very careful even a one-letter typo can
cause big problems for Verizon mobile phone users.

Jared shared his desktop on a video call
he’d entered everything correctly but there was a problem
we had asked for the meeting so that we could troubleshoot
we told him where to position his cursor and where to click
we asked him to copy the chat window
paste it into the ssh window
select the Discard Candidate Configuration button
things like that

Meetings are usually quiet when real-time troubleshooting
sometimes it’s muted waiting for a test result
with Jared it’s different
he talks into those spaces
he might be junk-food hyper or
squashing a chair with enormous weight
he might be nervous
thin as a bean
weeks unshaved
he might be sitting at a desk barefoot with love beads and bell-bottom jeans
we can’t see because the video is computer screens

Jared excused himself saying he had to go let out the dogs
when he returned he began talking more about our program
what works well
what he doesn’t like
he’s sure we’re doing the best we can
each time we had something to say we interrupted him
Jared was talking non-stop
I mean take-a-breath dude
he didn’t stop until we hung up.