Chapter 24: The Back Row

The first Friday class at the Fairmont library had forty folding chairs, and thirty-eight of them were full.

I stood at the front in a cardigan with a green marker in my hand.

The board behind me was blank.

Lindy had driven down for it and sat in the front row with a thermos.

She said she wanted to see me be a menace in a professional setting.

Cal stood at the back door with two cups of coffee.

Wylie stood beside the door in a plain gray sweater, holding it open for latecomers.

He had not worn the pressed shirt.

"Good evening," I said. "My name is Jo."

"I'm going to teach you how to say no to a stranger."

A woman in the second row, with white curls and a large handbag, raised her hand immediately.

"Do I have to say it politely?"

"No," I said. "You don't."

The room laughed.

I wrote three questions on the board in green.

Who is the seller?

Where does the money go?

Why is it in a hurry?

"Somebody once taught me these," I said, "and they're good."

"Nobody here is stupid. Anybody in this room can get fooled on a tired day."

"That is not a flaw. It is a Tuesday."

A man in the third row nodded gravely.

"Mine was a Thursday," he said. "A man called about my grandson. I sent four hundred dollars."

"Four hundred is a very common number," I said. "You are in good company."

"That's not comforting."

"It will be by the end of the hour."

I taught for fifty minutes.

I showed them a fake text message, and a fake bank email, and a fake prize letter on yellow paper.

They found the tell in each one faster than I expected.

The woman with the handbag found a typo in the prize letter and held it up for everyone.

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