The Mentor, Part 1

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The Mentor
by HONGKONGSMOKE

1. Meet the Mentor

Carina Lau had recently graduated from Hong Kong University at the top of 
her class. She was always a bright student every since she was young. In 
Form 5 (grade 11) she won the academic prize for the best student in Hong 
Kong. In form 7 (Grade 13) she won the economics prize given to the high 
school student with the best economics paper. She was given the award at 
Hong Kong city hall, but the most exciting thing for Carina was that the 
award was presented by her mentor, Emily Chan, the most famous Chinese 
economist in Hong Kong and one of the most famous in the world. This was 
Carina's best day of her life up until that point!

Emily had been Carina's mentor ever since grade 10, when her interest in 
economics grew and she began to read articles and books on the subject. Her 
heroes were all economists. Keynes, Emily, all of them. After receiving the 
award she began to write Emily and the company she worked for about possible 
summer employment. She ever offered to throw away the trash just so that she 
could work there, but she never received a response.

Carina never gave up and was persistent. She even faxed her University marks 
along with a request to work there for every year she was in school, but 
still no reply. By her last year, she was the top student in the class. She 
had offers from many companies, but she turned each one down. She kept 
writing Emily.

One day at a conference just after graduation, Carina was invited to speak 
there, being the top student at the Hong Kong University. Her speech on 
supply-side economics was a hit to everyone, including Emily who was there 
in attendance. Emily had remembered giving Carina an award just 2 years 
earlier at her high school. She went over to talk with Carina.

"Carina Lau. We meet again, I'm Emily." Emily said

"I know who you are, you're Emily Chan. CFO of Bank of China, published 
author, world renowned economist, you're my." Carina said, in absolute shock 
that Emily was there, talking to her. Wow!

"Stop it Carina. Enough already!! So, you're the girl who's been writing me 
all the time, eh?" Emily asked.

"Yes, miss Emily. It's me. The reason I wrote you is that I would really 
like to work in your company, for you, anything at all!!" Carina said with 
this huge smile on her face.

"Please, call me Emily. I heard your speech. That was quite good, actually 
reminded me of myself when I was your age."

"Oh, you are too kind!! Coming from you makes me feel so good!!" Carina 
remarked

"Actually Carina, I've been asking your University about you." Emily added.

"huh!"

"I met your professors. they say you are the best student. You have the best 
marks too. I heard you speak today. I would like to offer you a job with our 
company as soon as you graduate." Emily offered.

"Are you kidding!!! YEAH!! I'd love to work in your company. I've been 
wanting to for 4 years. You're not joking right? Oh my God, I can't believe 
this. What will I do?" Carina shouted

"No, I'm not kidding about the job. I am really offering it to you. I have 
been looking for a young assistant to work with me. All others I've talked 
to are incompetent. Would you like to work as my assistant?" Emily said

"ME, work with. YOU? ahhh!!!! Sure!! of course!! " Carina yelled. She jumped 
up and down. She gave a quick hug to Emily and kept jumping up and down like 
a young schoolgirl.

"Calm down, Carina, its not easy work, there is a lot of overtime needed." 
Emily added

"I don't care!! I'll take it, when do I start?" Carina shouted

"How about next Monday?. You can meet me in my office. I've got to go now, 
I'm flying to Tokyo in a few hours. Come to our HR dept later this week. Ask 
for Simon. Call him at this number." Emily said as she gave Carina her 
business card. It had the phone number and address there.

"Thank you, thank you so much. You don't know how much this means to me!! 
You really don't. I am the happiest person on earth right now!! I just want 
to scream or something. You won't regret this. I'll work hard! I really 
will. I think we'll get along great!! Oh Wow!! I really like your dress,  
Emily. Oh God, I don't know what I am saying anymore. I have to tell my mom, 
and my boyfriend. This is so great!" Carina shouted. She was on cloud nine!!

Carina went home after the conference. She was walking twice as fast as 
usual.. When she got home, she told her mom and called her boyfriend. They 
were happy for her too. They know how long she had been following Emily's 
career.

Later that afternoon Carina went for her usual run. Carina was a runner too, 
she always kept in great shape and great health. She had been a runner since 
her early teens. She had been a vegetarian too for the last 3 years. She 
also liked to swim and competed and finished 2nd at the HK university (HKU) 
championships once. She also won some prizes as a runner. Her boyfriend Andy 
loved her. Truth is many men loved her. Carina was just about the most 
attractive girl at the University. Her picture was also on the cover of the 
HKU academic calendar. She was offered to do some modeling shoots, but she 
refused. She didn't like some comments other students made of her, calling 
her a "Sexy Chinese babe". Only bad girls did modeling and she wasn't 
involved in that kind of crowd.

She had everything going for her, she was smart, attractive, athletic. She 
believed in the Greek philosophy. 'Healthy mind, healthy body'. It won't 
come as a surprise that she never ate any junk food, she never smoked in her 
life nor was tempted to, no one in her family smoked and neither did her 
friends. The smell disgusted her always. She only had one drink in her life 
and that was at graduation last year when everyone was given a glass of 
champagne. She hated it, but she hated the smell of cigarette smoke even 
more.

Carina went to the Bank of China office the next day and signed the 
contract. She didn't read it over coz she was just too excited to work 
there. Her starting salary was $350.000 Hong Kong Dollars (about 50K US$). 
She was thrilled!!

That next Monday Carina went to work. She wore her best dark blue outfit. 
She got to work early to show Emily she was keen to work. She was taken by 
the secretary upstairs to the 56th floor of the Bank of China building. She 
went into Emily’s' office and to her surprise Emily was already there.

"Hi Carina, welcome...you're early!! I like that" Emily said "Have a seat, I 
will be with you in a minute. Go and hang up your jacket on the coat rack."

"Yes, miss Em...I mean. yes Emily." Carina replied. She walked over to the 
coat rack. Emily's coat was already on there. She went to put her coat right 
beside Emily's when she noticed a strong smell of cigarette smoke from 
Emily's coat. She was surprised and decided to put the coat on that rack as 
far away as possible from Emily's smelly coat. She sat down and waited for 
Emily to finish what she was doing. She looked around and saw the beautiful 
view on Hong Kong harbor from the 56th floor. It was breathtaking.

"Nice view, eh? Did you want Coffee?" Emily shouted.
"Umm. no thanks. I don't drink coffee." Carina replied.
"That’ll change soon." Emily answered with a grin on her face.

Carina wondered what Emily meant by that. Carina also wondered why Emily's 
coat smelled of cigarette smoke. It was awful. Carina thought that maybe 
someone in Emily's home smoked, she didn't know if Emily was married, had 
kids, or anything yet. Or maybe she was walking through a smoking area, or 
something.

"OK...Carina, come to my desk now. I'll tell you a bit about your job, our 
job." Emily said

"Sure, I'm ready" Carina said and sat down across from Emily. She could 
still smell the smoke from Emily's coat. .It seemed to be around the office 
too. Maybe some co-workers smoked in Emily's office and stank it up for her, 
but Carina thought it was a non-smoking building. She couldn't see any 
ashtrays lying around either.

"Carina, this is our office. It's 500 square feet. Your desk, which should 
have been here by now, will be over there. We will share an office together. 
You are my assistant. I will show you an tell you what to do." Emily said

"I'm going to work, in here, with you!! Oh that's great!!" Carina said. 
Emily kept explaining to Carina about her department and what they did. 
Carina seemed a little distracted because of that yucky smell of smoke from 
Emily's coat. Emily picked up on it.

"Excuse me! Am I boring you ? What are you looking at." Emily asked

"Oh, it's nothing, it's just, well, it's nothing really." Carina replied

"Tell me Carina, you are my assistant. We are a team." Emily replied.

"Well, it's just..smells funny in here."  Carina interjected.

"Smells funny? what?" Emily replied with this funny look on her face

"Well, it's just your coat, Emily. It stinks of cigarette smoke." Carina 
said. This way she could find out who smoked in the building so that she 
could avoid them.

"I'm certain it does. Is there anything else?" Emily said with a serious 
tone in her voice.

"No..but..I don't like the smell. Can I bring some air freshener in tomorrow 
and spray?" Carina asked

"What, because of the smoke? Don't bother.." Emily said

"But I don't like the smell, you probably don't like it too, why can't we 
just spray?" Carina said.

"Carina. I assume you don't smoke, right. Well, guess what. I do. I smoke. 
No more talking about the smell, OK?" Emily said.

You could see Carina's jaw fall to the ground. She was turning white. Emily. 
a smoker? She couldn't believe it. No! It was not possible. This great 
woman. Carina's mentor. Carina's hero. A Person Carina has been modeling 
herself after for 4 years. This gorgeous woman. This intelligent women. 
Smoking? Carina was without words. It was the shock of her life, almost like 
a family member dying.

"Is there something wrong, Carina? You don't look well." Emily asked

"I'm sorry Emily. it’s just..oh my God, I can't believe it!! I can't believe 
you smoke!!" Carina shouted.

"Is that what is bothering you? Lot's of people smoke, Carina. Lots of 
people who work here smoke. I'm not the only one. Why so shocked? Are you 
trying to quit or something?" Emily asked

"Who me!! Are you kidding, I would never smoke!! It's so unhealthy. It's 
like, I want to improve my chances to die! Smoking! Me! I'm not stupid!! Oh 
..but...I'm sorry, I didn't mean to say you're stupid, please forgive me!!" 
Carina said and started to cry.

"Don't cry, Carina, I know what you are saying about smoking. I know it's 
not healthy. But I like it, that's all" Emily said.

"Emily, if you just started or something, I know you can quit. My God, you 
are so amazing at everything, you should be able to quit easy!!" Carina 
said, hoping she could convince Emily to quit.

"Do you really want to hear why I smoke?" Emily said as Carina nodded.

"OK then. When I was about, oh, 14 or 15, I was one of the top students of 
the class. The bad girls always made fun of me, like I was Ms. Goody two 
shoes. I wanted to show them I was as bad as they were, so when I saw them 
smoking I asked then for a cigarette once even if I had never tried it 
before. I tried smoking it, but coughed a lot. The girls laughed at me. I 
told myself I would show them and I bought cigarettes of my own and 
practiced. One day I saw the bad girls outside school and asked for another 
cigarette. This time I didn't cough and looked more like a true smoker. I 
became friends with them. I helped them with their homework. I hung out with 
them. Pretty soon I was smoking more and more and could not give it up. I 
can't believe it's over 20 years ago already! Maybe I made a bad decision to 
smoke, but I can't quit anymore. Trust me, Carina. You will be able to live 
with the smell. I don't smoke much anyways. Now, don't bug me about smoking 
anymore!!" Emily said

Carina listened to her story and thought maybe Emily was right. She was 
addicted already and could not quit. But with all the advantages of working 
with her, this one little thing shouldn't become a bother. It was a 
non-smoking building, so she could live with it.

They started working together. At least Carina didn't smell the smoke on 
Emily's clothes, so that was a bonus, until around 10:45 when Emily went out 
for a smoke. When she returned, the office really stank!! But by Lunch time 
the smell must have blended in so she forgot about it.

"Carina, it's lunch time now. Let's eat together, OK, I know this great 
place. We can take my car. My treat." Emily asked

"You chose to eat, with me? Sure..." Carina said. She was all excited again. 
Carina saw Emily's car. It was a top-of-the-line Jaguar, with leather 
interior. As soon as Carina got in she was overwhelmed with the strong smell 
of cigarette smoke. She had forgotten about that part. As soon as Emily got 
into the car, she lit a cigarette. Boy was that smell strong!! Carina opened 
the window and stuck her head out.

"I'm sorry Carina, I have to smoke now. I will finish it before we eat." 
Emily said.

"That's OK, I guess" Carina replied, not wanting to offend her and 
jeopardize her employment working at her dream job. She watched Emily take 
deep drag after deep drag on the cigarette. She was kind enough to blow the 
smoke out of her window. Carina noticed that it almost looked like a sexual 
experience to her. She saw her repeatedly inhale smoke into her lungs.

"Wow, you must really enjoy smoking!" Carina remarked, she was still 
bothered by the smell.

"Yes I do, it keeps me alert, it keeps me awake. It keeps me on top of 
things." Emily replied

"It keeps your clothes smelling like an ashtray!!" Carina said to herself. 
She was always a cynical child.

"Smoking keeps you alert? How? " Carina asked

"It slows down my bloodstream. It makes me think clear. It gives me 
endurance to work longer. I come up with more idea's that way." Emily 
answered. She took another deep drag.

"It does?" Carina replied. She had never heard that about smoking before. 
All she knew if that the car smelled and her clothes would smell too. She 
stuck her head out of the window for some air.

"Didn't you know, Carina? All smokers know this. That's why the most 
successful people smoke. It makes them think better, more ideas, keeps them 
on top of the business world." Emily said

"Aren't you worried what it does to you? your health?" Carina asked. She was 
surprised to hear that people worked better, thought more clearly when they 
smoked. Since Emily was her mentor, she believed everything Emily as saying.

"Hey, I'm in good health. I'm 36 years old, my blood pressure is 115/75. I 
jog, 5 miles a week. I'm healthy. You know what the Greeks said about 
health." Emily said

"Yes, I do !! I follow the Greek teaching too, Healthy mind, healthy body, 
and I also jog too! Maybe we can jog together sometimes!!" Carina replied. 
She didn't believe Emily jogged since she smoked.

"Sounds like we have a lot in common" Emily said. Carina thought the same 
thing. They had everything in common, except for the smoking.

"But smoking does not make a healthy body." Carina interjected.

"Ah ha, this is where you are wrong, my dear. Smoking makes my mind 
healthier. Sure, smoking isn't healthy for my lungs, but that's why I 
compensate, jogging, swimming, tennis, I do all these things." Emily said

"And you can still do these things when you smoke? I always heard that 
smokers had a hard time catching their breath" Carina said. She was 
surprised to hear Emily did all these things while smoking.

"Nonsense. I don't smoke that much anyways. Only to keep my mind alert. Plus 
I love them too! There is nothing better than a good cigarette!! You should 
try one someday." Emily said

"I don't think I'll ever try smoking, Emily, I like my life the way it is 
now." Carina said. They pulled into the driveway of this fancy restaurant. 
Emily took one last drag from the cigarette. Seems she was dragging forever 
on it. It still looked like she was having a sexual experience, Carina 
thought. As they walked into the restaurant, Carina smelt her own Jacket. It 
reeked of cigarette smoke! Yuck!
Carina always hated the smell of smoke, ever since she was a child. Only 
stupid people smoked. But Emily was the first smart person she knew who 
smoked.

After they ate, Emily smoked a cigarette at the table. Carina looked around 
the restaurant. Other well-dressed rich people were smoking too. Mostly 
women!! They both found out they had lots in common. They both were 
approached to be models at one point in their lives. Emily was 36, she was 
gorgeous. She was still single, unmarried. Carina didn't know why Emily 
wasn't married. Carina was 23, but she one of those typical Chinese girls 
who looked like she was about 16 years old still. She had a very innocent 
look, but her mind was sharp, and she was a knockout!

When they went back to work, Emily smoked another cigarette in the car. 
Maybe it was because she smelled of smoke, or she was used to Emily's 
smoking, but the smell didn't bother her that much. After they returned to 
work, she noticed Emily went out 2 more times to smoke before that day was 
over.

"1, 2, 3...6. Emily had smoked 6 cigarette today" Carina thought to herself. 
That sounds like a lot!!'

Since it was 5:20pm (her work hours were from 8:30AM to 5PM), Carina decided 
to call it a day and go home.

"Are you leaving soon, Emily?" Carina asked

"No, not really, I'm usually here till, 7, 8, 9pm most nights. " Emily 
replied

"Oh...did you want me to stay late?" Carina asked

"Carina, it's your first day, go home!! Enjoy, maybe later on this week 
we'll have work to do. Can you stay late sometimes?" Emily asked

"Sure, anytime, I don't mind. It's a honour to work with you. I learned a 
lot on my first day already!!" Carina replied.

Carina went home. She lived with her mom. When she got home, her mom made a 
comment:

"Wow, Carina, you really stink!!.You smell like an ashtray!!" Her mom said.

"Do I ? (sniff, sniff) Yes, you're right. Oh mom, it's Emily, she smokes!! 
My coat was next to hers. I hate that smell!!" Carina replied

"I knew it wasn't you who smoked. You would be the last person in the world 
I know who smoked." her mom answered.

"No kidding!" Carina replied.

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