so small

I work behind a circular desk in an office doing what amounts to simple administrative work but has a much more hireable job title. Bless us for the small triumphs. I am the youngest of my "colleagues," though I can't help but feel they are all my direct supervisors. They have meetings at long boardroom tables right next to my desk. Sometimes I am invited, in which case I sit silent, nod and coo when appropriate, my face pained from the plastered on "engaged" face I have come to wear so often nowadays. Often I am not invited, and I sit behind my screen reading articles or taping barcodes on new books. Today I am not invited, the clacking of my keyboard is the only reminder I am here at all. "My goodness Alyse, I didn't even see you over there," a colleague says. "That's okay, I am so small," I reply.