She comes to you

Thirty minutes later a knock on your door startles you as are working through a rough syllabus for the Computer Science class you intend to teach.

"Enter." you call out without leaving your seat as you try to determine how much emphasis you want to place on syntax and algorithms and how much on higher level concepts and applications.

"Mr. Hawkfeather?" Diana's voice jerks from your seat like you've been slapped. She is watching you with undisguised interest as you climb to your feet awkwardly.

"Ms. Naylor, I wasn't expecting you." You had been keeping an eye on your email, but it had never even occurred to you that she might show up in person. "Is there something wrong?"

"No Dean Hawkfeather, I have to come back and change for before the faculty meeting so I thought I'd bring this for you to sign." She opens the leather folder that she had been holding at her side and hands you a crisp sheet of paper. "I hope you don't mind, I changed one of the commas to a semi-colon and deleted another in the last paragraph."

Even the paper feels expensive, the Pink Rose letterhead is printed along the left-hand margin and an elegant water-mark is embossed under the text and you wonder how much this institution spends on stationary each year. The words, as promised, are identical to the text of your email - honestly you can't even find the punctuation changes that Diana had made.

You open the draw looking for a pen, and Ms. Naylor is by your side with a custom silver pen with Diana May Naylor engraved in a flowery italic script along its side. As you'd expect with a pen of that quality, the black ink flows smoothly as you sign your name under the salutation.

For a couple seconds Diana stands by your side like she wants to say something, but after a pause that was surprisingly comfortable, she nods her head and tucks the letter back into her folder.

"The meeting is at 7:00 sharp in the Clifton building, across from my office. I will of course introduce you and the other new teachers." Diana tucks a loose strand of hair behind her ear and then adds almost as an afterthought, "will you explain your intentions to the staff and answer any questions that they have?"

"Yes of course, Ms. Naylor."

"Good." After another tiny hesitation she opens the door. It almost seems like there is something that Diana wants to say, but this is a hard woman to read and you can't be sure.