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JOURNAL ENTRY 1

CHICAGO

Today we celebrate The foundation has finally approved the grant money to fund our study There are four of us, all with doctorates, but we’re acting like irresponsible teenagers laughing and carrying on Later, we’ll probably get as drunk as dropouts We’ve worked hard to get here

Our backgrounds are quite diverse Kirk has come to us froray wolves in Camp Ripley His expertise with the wolf pack’s family dynamic will be invaluable to us

Eric coo He is the youngest but has the rees He calls hi extensive research on two projects funded by the Kenton Pharist and a chey will compliment the other studies

Brandon, our director, has been in North Dakota for eleven years He observed and docudevices, radio-controlled collars, on two separate pairs of alpha males and females so that we can record their movements His focus is on behavioral habits

I’ist as well My personal quest is different from the others, but it’s my hope that there won’t be a conflict We ’re all interested in the dynamic within the pack, but I’m also interested in the effects of stress on the individual … extreme stress

A POLAR BEAR DID HIM IN THE BIGGEST DAMNED POLAR bear anyone had ever seen in or around Prudhoe Bay in the last twenty-five years, or so it was reported

Arrogance got hiton hadn’t been such a narcissist, he ht still be alive But he was a narcissist, and he was also a braggart

The only topic of conversation William was interested in was Willianificant in his twenty-eight years on earth, he was painfully boring

William lived off his inheritance, a hefty trust fund set up by his grandfather, Henry E of the lazy-ass gene he was passing down, because his son, Morris Eton, didn’t work a day in his life And William happily followed in his father’s footsteps

Like all the Harrington men before him, William was a handso women into his bed, but he could never lure any of them back for a repeat performance No wonder William treated sex like a race he had to win in order to prove that he was the best, and because he really was a narcissist, he didn’t care about satisfying his partner What he wanted was all that mattered

His past conquests had co was one Quick Trip was another But the one that was uttered most behind his back was The Minute Man All the woone to bed with him knew exactly what that meant

Besides self-gratification, Willia He’d ly fast In the past year he had accumulated twenty-four first-place prizes within a six-state area, and he was about to enter a 5K race in his hoo to collect his twenty-fifth Since he believed crossing the finish line first was going to be a o would want to read about, he called the Chicago Tribune and suggested they do a feature article about hiton also enic he was and how a full-color photo of him would enhance the article

One of the local news editors at the Tribune took the call and patiently listened to William’s pitch, then bounced him to one of the entertainment editors, who quickly bounced him to one of the sports columnists, who bounced him to one of the health and fitness editors, rote an entire article on the top-five allergens plaguing Chicago while he listened to the spiel None of them was impressed or interested The last editor to speak to Williaive him a call back when he had ninety-nine wins under his belt and was going for one hundred

Williao Sun Tiain

Willia to have to lower his expectations if he wanted to see his name in print, and so he contacted the Illinois Chronicle, a shborhood newspaper that focused primarily on local issues and entertainment

The editor in chief, Her seasoned veteran of the press with a pronounced Brooklyn accent For thirty years he had been on the foreign desk of The New York Ti the RFK Journalis son-in-law ran off with another woa instructor, for the love of God—Herman retired froo where she had grown up and where their daughter now lived with her four little girls

A news When the opportunity presented itself, he took the job at the Chronicle as a distraction fro in-laws

He liked Chicago He’d gone to Northwestern University, where he’d raduation, they had returned to his ho back to Chicago after decades in New York was a real adjustment He had lived in a cra that a two-story brownstone took so used to His only real co asleep to the soothing sounds of cars screeching, horns blaring, and sirens shrieking

With so et any work done To coht in an old television set froerator, and left it on all day with the volume turned up

When the call caton, Her up the phone While he ate his lunch—an Italian sausage and green pepper sandwich drenched in ketchup and washed doith an icy cold Kelly’s Root Beer—he listened to Harrington pitch his story idea

It took Bitterton The omaniac

“Red, huh? You alear red socks and a red T-shirt for every race And white shorts Yeah, that’s interesting Even when you run in the winter? Still wear the shorts?”

His question encouraged Harrington to ra Bitter of his root beer, then interrupted Harrington’s grandiose opinion of himself and said, “Yeah, sure We’ll do the story Why not?”

After scribbling down the particulars, Bitterman disconnected the call, then wadded up his brown lunch sack and tossed it into the trash can

He crossed the office to get t

o the door—a no s nearly every inch of the room was filled with crates of Kelly’s Old-Fashioned Root Beer stacked halfway to the ceiling Since his door wasn’t blocked, his office hadn’t been dee as left of Kelly’s Root Beer because, in his estimation, it was the best damned root beer he had ever tasted, and when he’d heard the co out of business, he had done what any root beer addict would do and rushed out to buy as et his hands on

“Blond Girl!” he shouted “I’ve got another story for you This one’s a huer”

Sophie Sunore Bitter touches on an article she was about to e-mail him

“Hey, Sophie, I think Bitter you”

Gary Warner, a brute of a man and the office snitch, leaned over her cubicle His smile reminded Sophie of a cartoon fox with his teeth bared He looked a bit like a fox, too His nose was long and pointy, and his coly hair Mullets had never really been in style, but Gary loved his and used so much hair spray on it, it looked starched

“Since you’re the only female here today and since you’re the only blonde in the entire office, I’h over what he considered a hilarious observation

Sophie didn’t respond No matter how obnoxious Gary becao, she refused to let him rile her She carefully pushed her chair back so she wouldn’t hit the file cabinet again It already had so many dents, it looked like someone had taken a baseball bat to it