Chapter 8: Uphill Signature

I did not knock on the study door.

I opened it, walked in, and put the petition on his desk with both hands.

Tobias looked up from a spreadsheet.

He read the first page. He read the signature. He put down his pen very carefully.

"Where did you get this?"

"A boy in a bike helmet. I signed for it."

"I didn't send it."

"It has your name."

"It has a name," Tobias said.

He opened his desk drawer, took out a ruler, and laid it along the signature.

I watched him do it. I did not understand why.

"Look at the baseline," he said. "It's dead straight. Mine climbs. I've signed my name uphill since I was nine."

He pulled a sheet of letterhead toward him and signed it, quickly.

The line went uphill. It went uphill so far it nearly left the page.

"That's my name," he said. "The other one was written by someone who was careful."

"Rosalind," I said.

"Probably."

"Then why are you not angry?"

"I am angry," he said. "I'm very good at it. It doesn't show."

I wanted to sit down, so I did, on the edge of the leather couch.

The comments were lined up along the bookshelves.

"tea_and_spoilers: He's not divorcing her?? That's not what the author wrote. (3,120 likes)"

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