The Boy and the Bookstore

Chapter 8 - "Jerome Pead"

It was Thursday on the first week back of the second semester. Over the break with the campus being very quiet Sam had decided that he was going to make a donation to the school. The school’s budget for their newspaper program, which was being run mostly by the students, was being cut significantly and Sam didn’t like this. He remembered spending time in the building where they allowed the students to run the school’s newspaper. It was crowded and had outdated computers and equipment that the school gave them when they upgraded their own equipment. Sam had made a donation of $25,000 and wrote a letter to the Dean demanding that the money go towards the student’s newspaper. He wanted the students to have new equipment and even add onto the building two new rooms where students could have a conference room as well as a key office for whoever was running the paper. Of course with such a request the Dean, Jerome Pead, had attempted to reach out to Sam and had only managed to reach Sam through mail. Sam ended up calling into Dean Pead’s office and scheduled a meeting with him for Thursday.

Sam wasn’t sure how much Dean Pead knew of him and attempted to get some ammo against the Dean in case this meeting went bad but Sam couldn’t find anything. He was a married man with two kids in high school. He used to teach and had experience in the business field. Other than deciding his first budget cut would be the student’s newspaper Sam liked the guy but he knew better than to trust someone he never met. Sam made sure to clean up his act a little bit to leave a good impression. He trimmed up his hair a little bit and showed up to the meeting clean shaven and wearing a suit. Sam walked up to the lady at the front desk and told him Dean Pead’s eleven o’clock meeting was here. She smiled and dialed back to the Dean’s office. He soon walked out with a smile on his face and offered his hand. He was a white male with a tan. He had a full set of hair but was showing signs of his hair graying. Sam smiled back and shook his hand. They exchanged in the normal casualty conversations when one person meets another during their walk in the hallway. Sam took a seat in one of the seats opposite of Dean Pead’s desk as Dean Pead sat down behind his desk.

“I want to thank you for your donation and I want to also thank you for making time to come in and meet with me.”

“No problem. It’s hard to turn down an invite from the Dean of the school.”

“Just out of curiosity, why did you decide that you wanted to help aid our student newspaper?”

“I knew someone who used to work on that paper and dedicated a lot of time to it. When I found out that the school was planning on cutting budgets I knew I needed to do something.”

“That’s great. Usually we get donations for our athletics programs or some scholar does well and makes a donation to our library. I never really understand why teams think they need so many different types of jerseys. I guess they do wear out after time and they don’t understand all the other financial obligations we had to pay for.”

“A lot of people would rather remain ignorant to the facts and think they’re doing a good thing than to put themselves in a person of your shoes.”

“Very well put. You know you’re younger than I thought you’d be, a lot younger actually. How did you come across such a large amount of money? Most people in your shoes would buy a car for $25,000 and not be worried about a school’s newspaper.”

“A car is a horrible investment. It only goes down in value once you drive it off the lot. A good school program can change a kid’s life.” Sam said. He had the feeling like he was being set up for something and didn’t want to answer how he came across the money for the donation. He was already starting to second guess how much he donated and realized he should have sent less and not become a spec on the radar now.

“Did you not want to disclose how you came across the money? Most kids your age would be more than willing to brag about the amount of wealth they’ve come a crossed.” Dean Mead said. After the Dean had used the word “kid” Sam turned from liking the guy to finding him a subject of interest.