Michele Jaffe - Minders

WEEK 5

Her ears were ringing, and there was a metallic taste in her mouth.

Where was she? What had happened?

Sadie glanced around the room, the uneven stacks of boxes looming like cliffs in the inadequate light from the high windows. The sounds of someone clipping their nails and watching a nature program came from inside the office up ahead, the announcer saying, “. . . but the natural habitat of these majestic creatures is succumbing to the drumbeat of civilization.”

He moved toward the office. As he walked Sadie felt his right hand tighten and realized he was holding something, something she couldn’t identify. His grip felt strange, less sensitive than usual.

Gloves , she realized as he brought his hands up and she saw them. He lifted the edge of the right one just past the scar on his wrist to glance at the Mickey Mouse watch, which showed nine thirty exactly. Why would he be wearing glo —

She saw it then. The object in his hand.

He was holding a gun.

Her mind reeled. No , she thought, then yelled, No! Whatever you are planning, stop. Don’t do this. It won’t get you what you want. But he’d perfected his ability to ignore her now. She felt as if he’d built a wall between them, impervious and reflective, so everything she said just reverberated back.

He took a step forward, then another. Dread filled her. She wanted to close her eyes, look away, but that wouldn’t change anything. He raised the gun, and as he stepped into the office she heard him think, Watch this, Sadie.

As if she had a choice.

FELLOWSHIP INTERVIEW

ROQUE MIND CORPS

CANDIDATE: SADIE AMES

INTERVIEWER: CURTIS PINTER

LOCATION: DETROIT UNION CLUB

DATE: APRIL 25

OFFICIAL TRANSCRIPT

CURTIS PINTER: Please sit down, Miss Ames.

SADIE AMES: Thank you.

CP: My name is Curtis Pinter. I am legally bound to inform you that this interview is being recorded with an Enhanced Veracity Evaluation system. Essentially a lie detector. Are you comfortable with that?

SA: I see no reason to object.

CP: Good. We’ll begin with simple questions to get some baseline readings. What is your full name?

SA: Sophia Adelaide Ames. But I prefer to be called Sadie.

CP: What are your parents’ names?

SA: Grace and Hector Ames.

CP: Do you have any siblings?

SA: No, I’m an only child.

CP: Where were you born?

SA: Here in Detroit.

CP: What is your favorite book?

SA: Descartes, Discourse on the Method.

CP: Would you say you’re an introvert or an extrovert?

SA: Introvert.

CP: Do you have a best friend?

SA: Yes. Her name is Decca.

CP: A boyfriend.

SA: Yes. Pete.

CP: You know why you are here?

SA: Because I am a finalist for the Mind Corps Fellowship.

CP: Exactly. Very prestigious. There are seventy-five finalists out of a pool of over a thousand. Fewer than half of those will be made Mind Corps Fellows. So, it is exciting company.

SA: I feel lucky to have made the cut.

CP: I doubt very much that you believe in luck, Miss Ames. Unless you think all your achievements are simply your good fortune?

SA: I wouldn’t say that. I work very hard. But I was lucky to be born into the kind of family that can encourage and support my hard work.

CP: What are the first three words you think your friends would use to describe you?

SA: Loyal. Driven. Analytical.

CP: What sorts of things do you enjoy doing with them?

SA: The same things everyone does. Watching movies or going out for dinner or to events.

CP: What kinds of events?

SA: At our country club.

CP: Have you ever rebelled against your parents or done anything to test your relationship?

SA: When I was five I shoplifted a Snickers bar.

CP: What happened?

SA: I got caught.

CP: How were you punished?

SA: I was so upset about having broken the rules, my parents thought that was punishment enough, so they didn’t bother.

CP: That’s an interesting way to put it. “Didn’t bother.” Do you wish they would have?

SA: That was a figure of speech. They were right. It taught me to be self-disciplined. I never stole anything again.

CP: Do you spend a lot of time together?

SA: As much as we can. We’re all busy, and they go out most weeknights.

CP: They don’t take you?

SA: Their events are almost always work related—dinners with my father’s clients or fund-raisers for my mother’s charities—so there would be no place for me.

CP: Who do you have dinner with when they’re out?

SA: My homework, generally.

CP: It doesn’t bother you to be abandoned?

SA: I don’t feel abandoned. I’m very proud of my parents and the work they do.

CP: What kind of work is that?

SA: My father has a holistic investment practice, and my mother is on the board of several not-for-profit agencies that focus on improving conditions for children living at or below the poverty line.

CP: Here in Detroit?

SA: Yes. Mainly in City Center but wherever the need is greatest.

CP: Does she spend time in City Center?

SA: No, her work is more at the fund-raising and oversight level.

CP: You live in Lower Long Lake. That’s, what, twenty-five minutes from City Center?

SA: I suppose, on the Zipway. I think it’s about thirty miles. On regular streets it would probably take an hour.

CP: Have you ever been there?

SA: A busload of us went on a school photography trip this year to take pictures of the abandoned Barrington Building.

CP: What did you think?

SA: It was an excellent subject for the class.

CP: I meant what did you think of City Center?

SA: Oh. We only drove through. We didn’t really spend time there.

CP: You must have had some observations, even from the window of the bus?

SA: I noticed the street names because my mother is on the mayor’s steering committee for the Road Sponsorship program, so when I saw Fitness Zone Boulevard and CouponCouponCoupon.com Way, I felt like I was seeing her work.

CP: If you are accepted as a Mind Corps Fellow, you will likely to end up in an environment with a stronger resemblance to City Center than your community. It will be chaotic. You will see things that make you uneasy. Do you think you would be able to maintain your composure and objectivity?

SA: Yes. Especially if I can help change that and improve the lives of those who live there.

CP: You are finishing your junior year of high school. Where do you see yourself in five years?

SA: Spending the summer between college and medical school doing an internship at a clinic or health center in an underserved neighborhood.

CP: You’re quite an overachiever.