That got another laugh.
“Anyone else?” the woman asked her colleagues, but both men shook their heads. “I just want to mention one thing, Peter,” she said. “Do you know that we have places for only two hundred students in our program?”
“Yes, I do, and I appreciate how difficult that must make your decisions. I hope I’m accepted, but I certainly understand why I might not be.”
“Thank you for coming to see us, Peter,” she said. “We notify all our applicants at the same time, so you’ll get a letter in due course.”
Peter shook their hands and thanked them, then left the room.
When he had left, his inquisitors all chuckled.
“He’s lying, of course,” said the man who had not spoken during the interview.
“About what?” the woman asked, surprised.
“About his age,” the man replied. “He’s not eighteen; he’s at least thirty-five.”
They all had a good laugh.
Stone saw Peter coming down the hall and looked at his watch. He had been gone for only twenty minutes. The three of them got up and walked out to the parking lot. “That was quick, wasn’t it?”
Peter shrugged. “I don’t know.”
“I was in there twice as long,” Ben said. “How did it go?”
“They were all very nice,” Peter said.
“Had they seen your film?” Stone asked.
“Yes, all three of them. They promised not to discuss it with anyone.”
“Did they like it?”
“They didn’t say.”
They found a restaurant and had lunch. Stone thought the boys were unusually quiet.
33
W hen Stone got the boys home he went upstairs to the master suite and found Arrington in bed, reading a New Yorker. “How did it go for the boys?” she asked, putting down the magazine.
“I’m not sure there’s any way to tell,” Stone replied. “They were both asked a lot of questions, but Peter was in there only half the time that Ben was. We weren’t sure what to make of that. Peter extracted a promise from them that they’d return his screenplay and DVD and not mention his film to anyone.”
“That’s a relief,” she said.
Stone picked up the magazine. “Why are you reading a fifteenyear-old New Yorker?”
“I’m reading the profile of Vance I wrote for them.”
“Oh.”
“Did you ever read it?”
“No, I was jealous.”
“I”m sorry.”
“Why are you reading it now?”