The Scholarship

by Jaime Maddox

  “It’s been busy, mostly with meetings so I can get to know people at the school and become up to date on the current fund-raising campaigns. Your mom mentioned that you’re an alum.”

  “Yes. Class of ’97.”

  “Oh, so this will be your twentieth reunion. Did you get your postcard in the mail?”

  “I did note the date.”

  “It’s very exciting,” Ella said.

  “Is it?”

  “Well, of course. It’s a chance to catch up with old friends, people you haven’t seen in ages, find out how everyone’s doing, see pictures of their kids.”

  “It sounds dreadful.”

  “What? Don’t you have any friends?”

  Reese tried not to smile at the playful jab. “A few. But I don’t need a reunion to get together with them. I just buy some steaks and a few bottles of wine and send out a group text. They come like mice following the Pied Piper.”

  “Maybe so, but there’s all that cooking and cleanup. At a reunion, you just have fun, and someone else does all the work.”

  “All for only a thousand bucks, right?”

  Ella squinted at her. “For you, five hundred.”

  “Hmm. I may have to look into that, considering the cost of trash bags these days.” Reese did think it might be time for a party, though. Maybe for Cass’s fortieth birthday. Her group of friends consisted mostly of the kids from her high school student council, who’d traveled together to conferences and studied together at each other’s houses. For one reason or another, they’d all gone to a local college, and their friendships grew even stronger during those days. It might be months between phone calls, but she knew that at any time, they’d pick up the phone to chat or help her with whatever she needed. More than their allegiance to her, though, was their love for Cass. Even though it was just the two of them, Cass had half a dozen pseudo-siblings.

  “Your mom tells me you’re a doctor,” Ella said after a minute of comfortable silence.

  “She tells everyone that.”

  Ella turned to look at Reese, unsure what to make of her. She was attractive, in a very understated way, with no makeup and her shoulder-length hair pushed carelessly behind her ears. Her lashes were long, accenting the blue eyes that seemed a bit guarded now. She was friendly enough, but there was something edgy about her, as if she didn’t want anyone to get too close. She might have all the friends she talked about, but Ella sensed they’d had a hard time breaking into her inner sanctum. “Is it true? Or is she just fantasizing?”

  “It’s true.”

  “Well, then she has a right to brag.”

  “It used to be better, back in the days when drug companies gave out freebies. I’d get pens, notepads, bags, clocks—you name it. I’d give it all to my mom. Federal regulations changed, though, and now they can’t market the way they used to. My mother has to spend her hard-earned cash at Staples.”

  “I’m sure Congress didn’t consider that before they enacted such harsh laws.”

  “I have a friend who’s a senator. She’s spoken to him about it.”

  Ella nodded. “Is that Senator Nathan?”

  “Yes. Do you know him?”

  “No, but he’s all the buzz around campus. He’ll be honored next year. At your twentieth class reunion.”

  Reese ignored the barb. “That’s not surprising, considering how much he’s accomplished.”

  “You wouldn’t be interested in serving on the awards committee, would you?”

  Cass had stopped to let Bijou water a shrub, and Ella turned to face Reese. She looked up an inch or so into Reese’s eyes and saw them cloud over. “Definitely. Not.”

  “Oh. Okay. No problem.” Ella wasn’t surprised. Most people were too busy with their careers and families to get involved. At least they thought they were. With Reese, though, the rebuff was disappointing. It shouldn’t bother her, but it did nonetheless. “We’ll work it out.”

  “I’m sure you will.” She paused. “Maybe you should ask Jeremy, the senator’s brother. He was a year behind us at PMU, but I’m sure he’d like to be involved. He’s always been Josh’s biggest supporter.”

  Ella appreciated the suggestion. They had less than a year to prepare for the ceremony, where Josh Nathan would be given the Pollham Award for his accomplishments. In the interim, between her predecessor’s retirement and her hiring, little had been done. Most of the people she talked to thought it would be an easy feat, but Ella had her doubts.

  Bijou took off and they followed again in silence, this one not quite as comfortable as the last. After a few minutes, Ella tried again to find a common ground with Reese.

  “So, Reese is an unusual name.”

  “It’s short for Christine. When Cass was small she couldn’t say Chris. It sounded more like Reese, and it stuck. From the time I was about five, everyone’s called me Reese.”

  “I like it. It’s different.”

  “How about you? Is Ella all there is, or have you hacked off a nore or something?”

  Ella moved to the side as two boys on bikes came barreling down the pathway. “Elanore? No, nothing so predictable. It’s sort of abbreviated, or perhaps a nickname is a better descriptor. My given name is Elizabeth, after my grandmother, but I’ve always been Ella, since the day I was born.”

  A smile curled at the edges of Reese’s mouth. “Elizabeth. Ella. I like that. It’s clever. Creative.”

  “I wish I could take credit.” They walked on, keeping Cass in sight, every once in a while giving way to bikers and pedestrians, many with dogs of their own. Cass handled Bijou beautifully, reining in his lead when others approached, giving it back when the path was clear.

  It was a circuitous route, laid out with little creativity around the park’s perimeter, and not very scenic. Ella had walked it a dozen times since she’d arrived in Scranton, and it seemed she already knew the park by heart. The slight tension in the air since she’d asked Reese to join the Pollham committee didn’t make the stroll any more pleasant. But she was a people person, made her living by breaking through the tough outer shells of her donors to find the soft heart within. She kept trying.

  “Where’d you go to med school?”

  “Philly. Philadelphia Osteopathic.”

  Finally, common ground. Literally. “Oh, I know that area well. I lived in Manayunk for a while.”

  The tension between them eased as they talked about the neighborhoods where they’d lived, the museums they patronized, the restaurants they loved. And their sports.

  “It was my only hesitation in leaving the city. I’ll miss my teams.”

  “How often did you go to games? Because you can see everything on TV here. Phillies, Eagles, Flyers, and Sixers. And someone is always sponsoring a bus trip to the games, if you want to go for the day. And if you must drive yourself, well…it’s only two hours.”

  “It doesn’t seem so bad when you put it that way.” Reese didn’t seem so bad either, once she relaxed.

  They stopped walking and found a bench as Cass hopped onto an empty swing and pushed off, Bijou running back and forth chasing her feet.

  “She really loves that dog.”

  “Yes. My dad won’t get another one—the last one got hit by a car when she let him out the door. She thought it was funny, to see everyone running around trying to catch him.”

  “That’s awful. Did they ever think of a fence?”

  “We have one. She deliberately left the gate open. It wasn’t malicious. I really don’t think she understood what would happen. But no more dogs for them.”

  “Fortunately, she has Bijou.”

  “Yes, but we obviously have to watch her very closely with him.”

  Ella felt the need to fill the silence after that sad story. “I don’t have a dog, either. I have to travel a lot for my job, so it doesn’t work out. Having Bijou makes me miss it, though.”

  “You used to have one?”

  “Yes. Ironically, he got hit as well. He escaped from my ex when s
he opened the garage door.”

  “Oh, that’s rough.”

  “Yes, she was devastated.”

  “She?” Reese asked suddenly, turning only her head, the question as probing as her eyes when Ella turned and met her gaze. After she’d spotted Ella kissing the man on her stoop the day of her move, Reese had assumed Ella was straight. Suddenly, the new neighbor became much more interesting.

  The confession hadn’t been intentional, but Ella wasn’t hiding anything, either. She wondered if she’d just brought her friendship with Cass and family to a bitter end.

  “Yes, she,” Ella said at last, trying to remain cool, hoping it didn’t matter. Reese was her age, with no ring on her finger and no mention of a man in her life. Maybe Reese played on her team. Maybe not. But the Ryans were nice people, and she’d already come to adore Cass. Hopefully, her sexuality wasn’t an issue.

  Then Reese smiled, and Ella felt the weight of the world lift from her shoulders.

  “Good to know.”

  Chapter 8: Fun in the Sun

  “Faster, Reese!” Cass demanded, and Reese deliberately slowed the boat to a crawl.

  “No, silly. That’s slower.”

  “I don’t want you to throw up.”

  “I never throw up!”

  Reese looked to Sophie Gates sitting on the bench seat at the rear of the boat, facing Cass. It was her boat, and she was certainly accustomed to bouncing around in the back of it, but Reese still worried about her. She was pushing eighty, and no matter how low her blood pressure or how active she was, she seemed fragile. Reese saw her at least once a week, and for many years she’d seemed timeless. That was changing. Sophie was a little slower, mentally and physically. She moved more tentatively, repeated herself more often, and forgot little details she’d once easily recalled. Reese knew she wouldn’t live forever, but the idea of losing her was hard. Since Steph had died, Sophie had become like a grandmother to her.

  “You heard her,” Sophie said. “Let’s make some wake.”

  Reese shook her head and opened up the throttle. The boat responded beautifully, and in seconds they were bouncing across the surface of Lake Winola toward Sophie’s house. Her hair flew behind her, and she tucked her chin to prevent it from lifting the baseball cap from her head. It wouldn’t have been the first of her hats to drown in the lake, but it would still piss her off.

  After almost a mile, Reese saw Sophie’s place approaching, and she slowed the craft. Years of practice had paid off, and she floated the boat inside its house. When the prow had cleared the opening, Reese killed the engine and hopped off, then guided it the rest of the way in. After securing it, she climbed aboard again to help Sophie and Cass alight.

  “That was fun,” Sophie said as she led the way back toward her house. The stone path had been worn by a million footsteps, many of them Reese’s.

  “I’m hungry,” Cass said.

  “It’s a good thing I brought food,” Reese said. “Do you want to eat on the porch, Mrs. Gates? Or would you like to get out of the heat?”

  “The porch is fine.”

  When they reached the porch, Reese retrieved paper plates and cups, and a pitcher of lemonade from the kitchen she knew as well as her own. She’d stopped at Sophie’s favorite sandwich shop and procured sandwiches, salads, chips, and huge dill pickles. Since Sophie had sold her business, she had no excuse to visit the shop, so Reese made a habit of picking up her favorite treats to bring with her when she visited. After placing everything on the table, they all dug in.

  “Mmm. I’ll never tire of this pasta salad,” Sophie said.

  “Or the roast beef,” Reese added.

  “Or the chips,” Cass said. “They’re really good.”

  Reese sat back and watched her sister. Cass had more than her share of limitations, but her knack of saying just what everyone else thought was definitely in the plus column. Shoveling chips into her mouth while avoiding the sandwich, Cass eyed the bag. Reese knew what would come next.

  “I ran out of chips,” she said.

  “That’s because you ate them all.”

  “You didn’t give me enough.”

  “I’ll make a deal with you. One chip for every bite of sandwich.”

  Cass eyed the sandwich suspiciously and then looked at Sophie for support.

  “Don’t look at me, Cass. I’m not sharing my chips.”

  “Fine,” she said as she picked up her sandwich and took a bite.

  Sophie smiled at Reese. “Well done,” she said.

  “I like my hamburgers well done,” Cass said.

  “I do, too,” Sophie said. “How’s your turkey?”

  “Not as good as my chips,” she said as she bit into one, causing Reese to nearly choke on her lemonade.

  “So, what’s new?” Sophie asked as she handed Reese a spare napkin.

  “We have a new neighbor. Her name is Ella, and she’s very nice. She’s watching Bijou when Pip is at college.”

  “I actually know Ella. Her grandparents used to live right over there,” she said as she nodded toward the cottage next door. “But I didn’t realize Pip is going to college.”

  Reese shrugged. Pip was always doing something unusual. Film school was just the latest. “She’s in California, learning to make movies.”

  “How exciting!”

  “Do you remember Miles Jones? She’s staying with him.”

  “Of course I know who he is, but I don’t really know him.”

  “I guess his parents and Pip’s parents had some business interests together, so they know each other rather well. She’ll be gone for a few months and recruited Ella to watch the house and the dog while she’s away.”

  “I hope it works out for her.”

  “Me, too. Ella seems really nice, so I’m sure it will be fine.” Reese had enjoyed their stroll through the park, even if she was disappointed in Ella’s chosen profession. And she was curious about her, too, even more than before they’d met. Reese made it a habit to study people, much like a detective, and she’d picked up a good deal of information during the forty-minute circuit at Nay Aug. Ella was beautiful, and she worked to stay that way. Her nails were manicured, her hair highlighted, her body toned. Even on the uphill portions of the walk, she seemed at ease. She was a seasoned professional, not allowing Reese to fluster her, even when Reese had been less than kind in her remarks. And she was unmarried. There was no ring, and though on numerous occasions during their conversation Ella might have referred to a significant other, she hadn’t.

  She’d referred to her ex-girlfriend, of course, so Reese knew if there was an S.O., it would have been a she. Not that that mattered to her, of course. Dating, especially someone who lived in the house beside her parents’, was not a high priority for her. If she did decide she wanted some female company, though, Ella wouldn’t be the worst choice in a date she’d ever made. That was a big if, though.

  It wasn’t that she had no interest in women. She still appreciated a beautiful face and curvy figure, but she didn’t seem to lust anymore. It made her feel like a total jerk, but she realized that hormones had totally driven most of her dating. Her head had never been filled with fantasies of coupling up and settling down, just having some fun and moving on. Much of that fun, she realized, was of a sexual nature. And for whatever reason, that had lost its appeal.

  Just past forty and all washed up. Smiling at the thought, she glanced up and saw Sophie studying her.

  “You look like you were off to someplace magnificent, my dear.”

  “Not so magnificent. I was thinking about how old I am.”

  “Can I kayak?” Cass asked.

  “Sure,” Sophie said. “If it’s all right with Reese. She’ll have to rescue you.”

  Abandoning the food for later, they walked back down toward the lake together, and Sophie headed up the stairs to the top of the boathouse, while Reese helped Cass. “Stay close to the dock, where I can see you, okay?” Reese asked as she walked into the water with Cass and
made sure her life jacket was properly secured. When Cass was settled in her favorite blue kayak, Reese pushed her off and joined Sophie. “Remember, if you can’t see me, I can’t see you.”

  After securing an umbrella for shade, Reese sat beside Sophie and looked out at the view of the water. She’d first started coming to the lake the summer she met Steph, when she was just fourteen. Even after she died, she’d still visited Steph’s parents, at first to just make sure they were okay, and then as they got older, with upkeep on the house and the dock. They really had no one else, and Reese worried about them.

  “Other than my daughter, I’ve never seen anyone who loved to float around in a boat the way your sister does,” Sophie said.

  Many years of conversations with Sophie told Reese that this was the prelude, the opening she sought to bring Steph into the conversation. Not that Reese minded. Who else did she have to talk to about her forgotten daughter?

  “I remember the first time I came out here. She had a sleepover, with about fifteen girls from Prep. She went around to all the neighbors and borrowed all their kayaks and canoes so we could have a regatta. Then we baked cookies and cupcakes as payment for the boat rentals.”

  “I remember that. Bucky’s grandfather called me and warned me that I needed a permit to hold such a large event on the lake.”

  Reese laughed. “The apple didn’t fall far from the tree, huh? Bucky is no fun at all.”

  “He’ll make a good DA. By the book and inscrutable.”

  “I have a picture of him drunk and nearly naked.”

  Sophie’s mouth dropped. “Where on earth did you get that?”

  “A college party. I think it’s the only time in his life he let loose. He’d just taken the law-school admission test, which coincided with medical-school admission tests, and all the Prep kids went out to celebrate. He had a good time.”

  “Sounds like it.”

  They were quiet for a moment, and Reese watched Cass trying to turn the kayak. Holding her breath, she held her tongue. If she told Cass what to do, it would probably just frustrate her, so she watched, helplessly, as her sister struggled. After a mighty tussle with the paddle, she finally managed to swing the craft around and make her way back toward the boathouse.