waiting?”
“Of course, thanks for the tour.”
“Sure, good luck,” she says before hustling inside, leaving me staring at Mathilde Krim, who’s staring back at me while holding her microscope.
“Isn’t it fantastic?” a man calls out as he approaches from the opposite end of the hall. “We’re trying to up the Harry Potter factor. Gene DeSanto, headmaster. How’s it going?” He strides over and pumps my hand.
“Nan Hutchinson, hello! There’s a Harry Potter factor?”
“Well, Rowling set the bar high, you know, in terms of kids’ expectations. Kids expect a lot of excitement these days.”
Feeling my face doing what Ryan calls my Twitches of Disbelief, I pivot it back to the holograms. “I expected a stallion to save me from a shipwreck, but Chapin never seemed to care.” He laughs as I recover my composure. “It’s a pleasure to meet you, Gene. I’m delighted to be here, delighted by your school’s consideration.”
“You, too, you, too. Philip Traphagen raved about your work. Shari really left us in the lurch, you know.” He’s younger than I expected, forty-five, tops. And with a slight Long Island accent I wouldn’t have thought to be well received in these parts. I’d have assumed they’d hold out for a little Yankee lockjaw, someone who says “yar.”
“Yes, I’m sorry to hear that. But from what Philip shared I think my business training makes me a strong fit for Jarndyce.”
“Yes, our board has a real interest in applying the efficiency of the for-profit sector to education.”
“Oh, interesting. That sounds like exactly the vacuum that drove me from non-profit to business consulting in the first place. And while I do currently have another client, I am confident I can coordinate—”
“Great, because we just don’t have the bandwidth to launch a full-scale search at this point in the year.” He scratches at the back of his neck.
“So you’re not meeting with other candidates?”
His cheeks redden. “Well, I mean, Philip was happy with you—and the trustees don’t want to cut the position altogether. They definitely prefer a cushion between themselves and the faculty.”
Three-hundred-dollar cushion, reporting for duty. “I’m delighted to step in, Gene.” I put my palm on his arm reassuringly. “Perhaps you could tell me a bit more about what the role requires?”
“Absolutely. As you can see, our facility is on its way to being state of the art. State of the art .” His enthusiasm tips him slightly forward. “We had a team prospect across the country, going from MIT to Stanford, reporting back on the cutting edge of education technology. And we are implementing it all right here .” He points down between his Docksiders. “And, of course, with that come a few organizational tweaks. Shari had been interfacing between the board and the faculty to roll those changes out.” He purses his lips, his expression souring. “You know, we both started on the same day and I thought she was just great, but jumping ship like this really blew my socks off. Apparently she’s just really loving being home with the baby. Anyway …the point is we’re pretty much done tweaking, but we’d want you to be on call for any staff development needs that may arise. And, of course, we’ll keep you on retainer,” he adds, as if this is customary. Wow. Who’s bankrolling this place?
“I’m sure we can work something out. This seems like a truly exciting time to join your team. What was your capital campaign, if you don’t mind my asking?”
“Not at all! Fifty million,” he proudly declares, his chest lifting his navy blazer so that the crests on his brass buttons glint in the light. “Of course, things have gone a hair over budget.” He clears his throat. “But under the direction of our new chair, Cliff Ashburn, we just invested our endowment with X Wealth Management, plus I’m ramping up our fund-raising this fall—we’re on the short track to becoming