Dear Keith,
Come spend a semester in Washington, DC and open doors for a successful career after you graduate!
As one of Washington's top academic internship programs, Capital Semester (CS), provides our undergraduates with
Keith stopped reading and hit "delete." This was definitely not on his list of things to do. He went back to his inbox and clicked on an e-mail from the University librarian, Lori Jackson.
Keith,
Please come to the sixth floor circulation desk today for access to the books you reserved. I should be at the desk any time between 3:00 and 5:00. After five I'll be in my office, room 611C.
Hope to see you soon,
Lori
The clock read 4:41.
"Shit," Keith said. Any hope of catching her at her desk rather than having to find her office and seek her out was now gone. He threw a shirt on and picked up his list of books. Keith was a college student, and was forced to ask for reserve books for his semester research project, which meant that he had to go to the library to use them, his window of opportunity for which was rapidly diminishing.
He left his apartment and strode the five blocks to the library. He walked in the door and found the usual sight for a Sunday afternoon, only a handful of people in an otherwise quite large building. He made his way up the stairs to the sixth floor where his books were being held, and saw fewer and fewer people as he went higher into the building.
As he had predicted, the circulation desk was deserted on floor six. He hadn't been able to make it on time, and had no choice but to find the librarian's office and ask for her help. He went around the corner where the offices were, and saw light coming from under only one door. He walked down the hall and stopped at the one that said Lori Jackson, room 611C. He saw that the door was slightly ajar, and since the light was on, he pushed the door open and went in.
"Knocking also works, you know." She was sitting there in her desk, which was facing the door, and all of a sudden Keith didn't know if it was the small size of the room or the tone that she addressed him with that shocked him and rendered him momentarily speechless.
"Sorry, I saw it was open," said Keith, relatively indifferent as to what was really happening, but still mildly startled by the forward and direct nature of this woman.
She was really remarkable. Not to look at as much as in her posture and attitude. She looked sharp and devilish, despite the office setting that Keith had stumbled into, with her sitting behind a desk. All he could see was her red button-down shirt, which exemplified her medium-sized but shapely breasts.
"Keith, is it?" she asked, looking down at her desk and shuffling her papers around.
"I'm the one with the three documents from the political science department," he said as he sat down opposite her at her large wooden desk.
"Yes, you are, it looks like I have two of them here...it seems like one got left next door. Excuse me a minute."
She stood up and revealed to Keith that she was wearing a short denim skirt that only came down to about mid-thigh. He tried not to stare as she walked past him toward the door. She was commanding when she walked, and Keith felt slightly intimidated by her presence.
When she put her hand on the door to open it, she turned to Keith and said, "After I leave push this file cabinet against the door, please."
"Why?" I blurted out. I didn't realize what I was saying until she replied, "You'll be glad you did."
With that she turned and walked out the door, closing it behind her. How strange of a request, Keith thought. Why would she want me to move it against the door? It was as if she wanted me to barricade her door so she couldn't come back in. Regardless, Keith decided he would move the cabinet and then wait for something else to happen. The last thing he needed was to get stuck here during the time he so desperately needed for his assignment.
He pushed the cabinet, which probably weighed around sixty pounds, from its position in the center of the wall all the way to the door, placing it in the corner as to wedge the door shut. No one could open the door, he thought to himself, except him. He started to walk back towards the chair he'd been sitting in when he noticed something about the wall where the cabinet had been. The file cabinet had been hiding a hole in the wall, about four inches in diameter that strangely enough, as Keith looked at it, opened into the next room.