Chapter 27: Day Eighty-Nine

On the eighty-ninth day of the term, Jasper's assistant put a gray folder on his desk.

It was the same folder he had put there eighteen times before.

"The closing sheet, sir," she said. "The last payment, the car, the key card to the suite, and the letter."

"What letter?"

"The one that thanks her for her time." She did not look up. "You've always had it sent on the ninetieth morning."

Jasper opened the folder.

The letter was one paragraph long, typed, with his signature at the bottom.

It said nothing at all.

He read it to the end.

"Who wrote this?"

"You did, in your first year. I've only changed the date."

"Did any of them answer it?"

"No, sir. They signed for the payment and left."

He shut the folder.

"There won't be a payment," he said. "Or a letter."

The assistant's pen stopped.

"Shall I draw up a renewal?"

"No."

"Sir?"

"I said no."

She took the folder back and did not ask the question that sat in her face.

At the door she paused.

"In eleven years you've never once sat in on a closing," she said. "Will you tomorrow?"

"She'll come to the suite herself."

"Yes, sir. I thought she might."

When the door shut, Jasper stood at the window and looked down at the harbor.

His own ships lay in a row at the docks.

He had made the rule at twenty-two and kept it for eleven years, because it worked.

A woman came and a woman went, and neither of them was ever owed anything.

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