The Coat

Ages 15-18

Shua waits for the interview on a bench in the corridor, and he has taken his coat off.

It is a long, narrow bench, with a row of doors facing it. He has been there for twenty minutes. There is one other person, a man with a folder, who looks at the floor. The doors do not open.

He folds the coat in half, then in half again, and tucks the sleeves in, and lays it on the bench beside him. He sets his hands on his knees. He looks at the clock on the wall, and it moves.

A door opens, down the corridor. A woman in a gray jacket looks out, at a page in her hand.

"Shua," she says.

He stands. His knees have gone stiff from the sitting. He smooths down the front of his jacket, once, and takes a step, and then goes back, and picks up the coat. He puts it down again.

He leaves it. He walks down the corridor to the open door, and the woman steps back to let him pass.

The door shuts behind him, softly.

The man with the folder glances up, and at the bench, and at the coat folded on it, with the sleeves tucked in. He looks down again at the floor.