We were a bunch of seventh graders visiting the campus of Brooklyn College, part of the City University of New York. I would attend that same school in five and half years’ time, although that was a distant prospect then.
We were lined up in the snow-covered quadrangle outside the science building, Ingersoll Hall, when a lanky young man—tall, floppy-haired, inadequately dressed for the weather in a thin army-style jacket—stalked up to the side of the building and rummaged for a short time through the snow-laden bushes before retrieving a battered khaki backpack.
Regarding the 20-odd 12- and 13-year-olds staring at him, he winked, said, “Double-O Seven,” and stalked away, the pack slung over his hunched shoulder. Without a word, we watched him leave.
College must be full of mysteries, I thought.
Bridget Goldschmidt received her MFA in creative writing, with a concentration in fiction, from Brooklyn College in 1991. Her work has been published by Coming Up Short, Every Day Fiction, Fieldwren, Flash Fiction Magazine, Friday Flash Fiction, Literally Stories, Luminaura, Oblivioni, The Plenitudes, The RavensPerch, Retrograde Review, Scribeworth (Pushcart Prize nomination) and Suisun Valley Review. One of her stories was shortlisted for the Edinburgh True Flash Awards, and another was a finalist for the London Independent Story Prize. She works as a trade magazine editor and lives by the ocean in New York.
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