The Second Half Read Online Free

to the bookmarked page and skimmed until he found where he left off. Reading the latest O’Reilly book in the middle of the night was a retirement pleasure. He had a full day tomorrow and morning was coming much too soon.
    “Ken, are you okay?”
    He blinked open his eyes, confused for a moment. “Of course, why?” He stared up at her.
    “Because you never came back to bed, and the alarm kept on buzzing and I got worried. This is not like you.”
    Ken yawned and stretched. “What time is it?” He checked his watch. “Oh…I better get a move on.” Slamming his chair back to an upright position, he tried to stand. “Ouch.” His right leg felt like it was collapsing, pins and needles stabbed and restabbed.
    “Foot gone to sleep?”
    “Yes!” He sat back down and flexed his ankle, then toes. When the pain let up, he stood again. “Will you fix the coffee, please? I need to get a shower.”
    “You sure you’re all right?”
    “Yes! Ouch!”
      
    “You’re late.” Sandy Jensen stared at him over the rims of her glasses. “Are you all right? You look like ten miles of unpaved road.”
    He smiled a little. “Do you have that financial report ready that I asked for?”
    “On your desk, and you have half an hour until your meeting with the executive committee. Can you be ready in time? How can I help?”
    “Get me some coffee, please, and look up the graduation rate for scholarship recipients. I think they’re going to try to trim the aid budget, and we have a National Merit Scholar coming in this fall.” He’d planned on doing that himself first thing this morning. He who was always ready for meetings the day before was now fumbling to catch up.
    Sandy brought in several pages of graphs and text and laid them on his desk, setting the filled coffee mug down at the same time. “Anything else?”
    “Have we gotten any more applications?” He didn’t have to say “for my position.”
    “Three plus the in-house ones.”
    “Well, at least we meet the legal requirements then.” He read through the top page as he sipped coffee. “You have a file with all the résumés?”
    She nodded. “Be right back.” He finished the second page about the time she returned and set the file folder on his desk.
    “Any opinions?”
    She cocked an eyebrow. “Is there ever a time I have no opinion?” At his smile, she continued. “They are in order of my preference, but then we’ve not interviewed them yet. It could be someone who looks gold on paper is lead when you’re face-to-face. I can do the follow-up while you’re in the meeting.”
    “Good idea. Book as many of them into tomorrow as you can.”
    Ken hated leaving important things to the last minute. He also hated the idea of leaving this position with no one else ready to step in. It made him feel like he’d not finished his job. But he didn’t want to come back to work after his retirement celebration either. Unfortunately, applications were just starting to come in. On the other hand, when the notice of vacancy goes out late, as this one did, it appears that the candidate has already been chosen, and the vacancy announcement is simply a legal requirement. He would give extra points to those who had theirs in early.
    “Did you apply for this position?” he asked when she returned with more folders.
    “Nope, I’m not qualified, education-wise.”
    “A master’s degree without the PhD is legal, you know. Not done much, but legal.”
    “I have no real desire to get one, either. I like being the support crew, I don’t like being up in front.”
    “But you’d be so very good at it.”
    “You know that theory about being promoted beyond one’s strengths? That would be me.”
    “The Peter Principle. I heartily disagree with you, but I’ve tried to break down the Sandy stubborn wall before. Let’s find you someone you can work with and make them look as good as you make me look.”
    “Thank you.” She glanced at her watch. “You have fifteen