“There’s no such thing as corporate leave.”

He reached into his brown coat and took out a blue folder held together with a heavy brass clip.

Next to it he set down a yellowed ledger envelope with my grandmother’s maiden name on it.

“This is the legal release for Grandmother’s savings trust,” he said, clearing his throat again and adjusting his shirt collar.

“The fourteen thousand dollars.”

“That trust was set aside for my graduate education,” I said.