I did not find this encouraging. Maybe it was just me, my brain, turning words into slop. But no, I was meant to develop my critical thinking skills. I was pretty sure it was slop to begin with.

Doug came back from his phone call. “What do you think?”

“It’s very handsome.”

“It better be. We pay enough for glossy cover stock. All right, let’s get you started on something.” I followed him to another table, where Jonathan was already staring into a computer screen. “That was the Spring/Summer issue. Winter’s next.”

It was only July. I said, “I guess it takes a long time to get an issue to the finish line.”

“Time. Also blood, toil, tears, and sweat.” He pulled out a chair for me. “Jonathan’s going to show you what to do, I have to go out.” To Jonathan he said, “She can help you pull pages.”

As soon as Doug had disappeared into the elevator, Jonathan got up and turned the music off. “There’s only so much Spanish screaming I can stand, if that’s okay with you.”

He showed me what he was doing, opening different files on the computer screen, then making a note of certain pages, which I was to print out using a separate computer. These pages had problems or questions, he explained, and Doug would need to go over them. Doug handled all the edits himself. He insisted on actual pages, he made his notes in actual ink. He was a real old-school editor. Which wasn’t a bad thing, Jonathan added loyally.

“What does an editor do, exactly?”

“They’re the guiding intelligence. The one that shapes the vision of the magazine. Doug picks the poems for the issues, and then he works on the poems to make them better.”

“And the writers are okay with that?” It was hard to imagine they would be.

“If they want to be in the magazine. And everybody wants to be in Compass Points.”

Did they. I stored this information away to revisit later. “Are you a big poetry fan?” I asked. Testing the waters.

“Not really. More of a film guy. Doug knows a lot of people in film. He’s going to help me get a foot in the door. Learn the business.”

“What kind of film, exactly?”

“I’m working on some script ideas. That’s all I better say right now.”

“You want to be a film editor, I guess.”

“No, I want to be the director. Film is different.”