Free The Blueprint by Jeannette Barron Page A

tell them about how Ms. Sweaney runs this place.  I want you to know that I won’t stop sending letters until Ms. Sweaney is investigated and fired.  If you hear from your sister, tell her what I said and what I’m trying to do.”
    She tilted my chin up so I was looking into her wet eyes. “Lily, will you promise me something?”
    Shedding new tears , I answered, “Yes.”
    “The state offers college scholarships for girls with good grades who graduate from high school and live at the children’s home.  Promise me that you’ll win one of those scholarships, go to c ollege, and never return.  When you get out of here, make a new life for yourself and never look back.”
    “Yes ma’am, I promise.”

 
     
    5
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
    12 years later
    “ Lily, that was Simon that called and he needs you to pick him up again."  Kim scanned her scribbled message.  "He said he’s waiting for you at the McDonalds where the two of you had lunch thirteen days ago.  He said it's the McDonalds where Ronald needs rhynoplasty and you spilled orange soda on your pleated maroon slacks.”  She crumpled the note and joined Lily who was busy alphabetizing documents and placing them on a cart.  Kim massaged her temples. “Talking to him always gives me a headache.  And how he can remember all that, but can’t find his way back to work makes no sense.”
    “Maybe he can’t remember for the same reason you can’t remember that Tuesdays are you r night to do dishes,” Lily teased.
    “And what reason might that be?”  Kim crossed her arms, preparing herself for this familiar battle.
    “Selective memory, l ook it up.  I’m sure it’s in one of those psychology books of yours.”  Lily left her work unfinished and headed for the back office where she kept her purse and car keys locked in her boss’s desk drawer.
    T railing along, Kim leaned on the door jamb of what she believed to be the most disorganized office on campus.  She watched Lily step over and around numerous knee high stacks of books and papers, finally leaping to a bare spot closest to the desk.  Kim continued, “I realize he's super smart, but if he’s so prone to getting lost, he should run the track.”
    “I told him that once, and he said he can’t think while running in circles.  He prefers running in more of rhombus pattern.”   Lily smiled.  She enjoyed Simon's eccentricities.  Kim did not and rolled her eyes. 
    After unlocking the drawer and grabbing her stuff, Lily negotiated her way back through the obstacle course.  “Anyway, going to pick him up when he gets lost jogging isn’t a big deal.  He’s a good boss.  He did me a big favor hiring me on after graduation.  There were lots of applicants with more experience.”
    “He hired you because you’ve always taken such good care of him.  Even as a student, you were the one running this place.”  Kim plopped in the desk chair and paged through her lecture notes.
    “Simon’s the boss.  You might want to remember that since he’s your boss too.  While I’m gone, I need you to reshelf those documents on the cart and watch the desk.  If someone shows up with a question you can’t handle, ask them to wait.  I should be back in about 15 minutes.”    
     
    Lily was officially hired on as Simon’s full time assistant in the Government Documents department of the university library right after graduation.  She’d started working there her freshman year after discovering that the scholarship she’d won provided room and board, but not spending money.  Although she had stumbled into the position, it turned out to be the perfect job and Simon's preoccupation with his darting thoughts made him the perfect boss.  He was the stereotypical absent minded professor and that suited Lily just fine.  It never occurred to him to press Lily for personal information in hopes of building a less formal working relationship and Lily had a preference for invisibility.