Bridge of Scarlet Leaves. Kristina McMorris

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      10

      Lane wasn’t aware his mind had been wandering until something hit him in the forehead. He jolted back in his cushioned leather chair. A wad of notebook paper had landed on his leg. He could guess the culprit before looking up.

      “At least we know he’s alive.” Dewey Owens smirked at the other two guys in their study group before turning to Lane. “I was getting worried that punch had bruised more than your eye.”

      Lane pitched the crumpled ball right back. But with Dewey’s eagle eyes, a match to his beak-like nose, he ducked in plenty of time.

      “Have to be faster than that!”

      A student in the corner of the common room sent a curt, “Shhh,” to which Dewey retorted, “Relax, bookworm. Finals ain’t till next week.” No doubt, he’d thrown out the grammatical error just to grate on the stuffy kid’s nerves; Dewey had been born to a wealthy L.A. family, same as Lane. Both saddled with the tedium of properness.

      “So where were we?” Lane flipped forward in his economics book. Envisioning his rendezvous with Maddie wasn’t going to speed up the week. “Did we already cover the graph on page one-o-one?”

      Dewey reclined with feet on the coffee table and addressed the classmate beside him. “Gotta love my roommate. Almost four years now, he’s been pretending to cram just for my sake. Bastard aces his classes without even trying.”

      “That’s not true,” Lane said.

      “Oh?”

      “I try. A little.”

      Dewey laughed. “Imagine what you could do if you were actually interested in your major.”

      Lane had imagined it all too often, and to no point. Political Science wasn’t an option according to his family’s conditional funding. In contrast, Dewey’s Economics degree—using numbers merely to support the conceptual and theoretical—would serve as a small rebellion against his father, the owner of an accounting firm.

      “Lane Moritomo in here?” some guy called out.

      “Yeah, that’s me!”

      “Girl’s on the phone for you.”

      Fighting a grin, Lane set aside his book. He had been hoping all afternoon that Maddie would ring him back once her brother left the house. “That’s gotta be my sister,” he told his study pals.

      “Pass along my thanks,” Dewey said, “for making those paper birds.” The origami cranes were what he meant, folded by Emma’s tiny hands to bring them luck on their exams.

      “Sure thing.” It drove Lane crazy not being straight with his roommate.

      Soon that would change.

      At the phone in the hall, Lane brought the handset to his ear. A pair of athletes in Cardinal sweatshirts strolled into the dorm. For privacy, he spoke just above a whisper. “Maddie?”

      “Am I speaking with Lane Moritomo?” It was indeed a woman, but he didn’t recognize the voice.

      “Uh, yes. This is Lane.”

      “Mr. Moritomo, this is Congressman Egan’s office.”

      “Yes?” he said again, thrown off guard.

      “Sir, I’m phoning to inform you that you’ve been chosen for an internship.”

      Her sentence lit a fuse. It traveled through him, gaining potency and speed, until he exploded with excitement. “I can’t believe it! My God—I mean, my gosh.” A small circle of students glanced over. Lane cranked his volume down. “I . . . don’t know what to say.”

      “How about, you accept the offer?” A smile broke through her businesslike tone.

      “Of course. I definitely accept.”

      “Congressman Egan will be delighted to hear that. Your enthusiasm and fresh ideas made quite an impression.” Lane strove to listen, despite his yearning to scream while sprinting through every corner of the Quad, around Lake Lagunita and back. “You’ll receive more details by post, but feel free to contact us with any concerns. Otherwise, we look forward to seeing you in June.”

      “Details. In June.” Thoughts tumbling, he barely remembered to add, “Thank you, ma’am. For letting me know.”

      “My pleasure.”

      The line went dead, but Lane was afraid to release the handset, as though the phone were his sole link to the internship.

      Among all the politicians in the region, Egan most closely shared his visions of equality and civil rights, community outreach. Of immigration and landowning laws needing to be reformed. Ongoing peace talks between Japan and the U.S. were dandy, but why stop there? Increasing American commerce in the East would benefit everyone.

      To each of Lane’s points, the congressman had listened, and concurred. Egan maintained that the government existed to serve the public, not the other way around. He was a doer, not a talker. And somehow, Lane’s foot had managed to wedge into that esteemed man’s door.

      Granted, it was only an internship and the pay wouldn’t be much, but it was a stepping-stone toward a brighter future. A future he couldn’t wait to share with Maddie.

      Maddie. She was the first person he wanted to tell.

      The operator connected the call. He started tapping his thumb on the phone after the first ring. By the fourth, it felt like forty.

      “Kern’s Tailoring.”

      He was so thankful Maddie had answered he plunged straight in. “The internship. At the congressman’s office. Sweetheart, I got it. I got it!”

      “Wow, that’s wonderful,” she said. “I’m so proud of you.”

      “I thought I had a good shot, after the interview, but . . . there were so many applicants—” He heard Maddie talking to someone, her voice muffled from covering the mouthpiece. “Maddie?” He waited. “Honey?”

      “Sorry, I’m here. And I do want to hear more, but there’s a whole wedding party being fitted.”

      He squelched a budding of disappointment. “No problem.”