the Introduction from
'The Complete Short
 Works of Daniel Pagoda

The scholarship came and went. “Swindled,” with the aid of Professor Mark’s recommendation, made an almost clean sweep of the judges. Even if she hadn’t mentioned a word about it, I’m convinced it probably would have won. Fate is all knowing and all seeing. Fate would have found a way.

There was a tiny flare-up in the school press about my win. The English department tacked a few posters in the hallways announcing my story. It certainly made hiding out a difficult task, as any other criminal would agree.

But all flare-ups eventually quell, as did mine, and I was able to forget about “Swindled” for a while. There still was the matter of it being published in the annual, but that was an entire semester away. Plenty of time for me to make a name for myself with other writings.

Eventually, there were other stories. Most of them were finished and sent to prospective schools in great bundles with transfer applications, suggestive cover sheets, and a phone number.

Sometimes I’d think about a girl I dated for a laugh during this time. It ended after a couple weeks and we parted company. Sometimes that’s how things happen.

A few weeks before finals, I received a call from a woman who represented a university I had a hard time distinguishing. I scratched my head and we spent a few minutes in confused banter until she finally blurted out the reason for her call.

“We recently received some of your work, and it’s good,” she said. “Very good, frankly.”

I thanked her. My heart danced a little quicker.

“We award a grant each year to a student with a promising writing talent. We’re considering you for our selection. However, we’ll need to see a few more samples of your work first.”

I raised an eyebrow. “More?”

“Yes, at the moment, the only thing we have is a piece a professor of yours sent us called ‘Swindled.’ It’s remarkably well-written, but we’d like to see a few more samples before we make our decision.”

“Absolutely,” I said, my voice crumbling. “I’ll send them off immediately. By chance, do you know who sent you the one you already have?”

There was a shuffling of papers. “A Professor Margaret Mark sent it to us. Do you know her?”

“Certainly,” I said and hung up.