Her journey had taken her so far, geographically and emotionally; her home state seemed like a foreign country when she returned to it. She walked into the offices of the Twin Forks Press at 7:30 a.m. Tuesday, passed the empty receptionist desk, and proceeded down the hall. Seeing a light under the door to Sol’s office, she knocked gently and opened the door. “Hello, kiddo,” Sol said. “Welcome. Let’s sit at the round table.” Sol pulled up a chair to join her. “Are you ready to go?” “I am,” Katherine said, taking out a pad and her Cross pen, which, given the way things had been going, she now viewed not only necessary but a good luck charm. “Let’s go over expectations, Katherine. And then you can meet the rest of the staff when they come in later in the day.” Her new boss ran down the routine. “You should be producing at least seven to ten stories of local interest every week—some short, two to three hundred words, others five times that.
