“She won’t change her mind,” I said.

I picked up the stamped slips and turned my silver class ring around my thumb twice before stepping back into the corridor.

By eleven thirty, the heat in the parking lot behind the administration building sat heavy on the windshield of my sedan.

A fifty-dollar parking voucher lay unused on the passenger seat next to my notebook.

I dialed my brother Derek’s number and let it ring five times before he picked up.

“Make it quick, Sarah,” Derek said.