This is The Writer's Voice, new fiction from The New Yorker.

I'm Deborah Treasman, fiction editor at The New Yorker.

On this episode of The Writer's Voice, we'll hear Rivka Gowchin read her story,

How Can I Help, from the September 19th, 2016 issue of the magazine.

Galtzian's Story Collection American Innovations was published in 2014.

She's been writing fiction and nonfiction for the New Yorker since 2008,

and was included in the magazine's 20 Under 40 issue in 2010.

Now here's Rivka Galtzhan.

How can I help? Consider Haley, our hire of two months, a relative endurance run.

Haley is 24 years old, and she is earning $8.35 an hour.

Every morning she comes in with a large coffee from a retailer whose name I will not mention,

usually with skim latte indelible on the cup.

A latte of that size from that retailer costs $4.25, which is roughly 31 minutes of labor for Haley.

Pre-tax.

This chronic decision of Haley will translate into an annual expenditure of approximately $1,100

on an expected income of $16,500. All of which is fine. Someone may choose to spend that

proportion of her income that way. You never know what coffee or anything means to another person.

In a very non-directive manner, I remarked to Haley last Friday that the coffee provided for free by our center was from the retailer she chose to frequent, the same retailer.

I just mentioned it. I didn't press the point.

At no point did I make any open judgment about the value of the coffee per se, as I understand that it is about the value

of the coffee to her. Over the following week, however, I observed that this information had

no influence on Haley's coffee obtaining habits. I refrain from pointing out that the coffee

...