I came home this evening, after making a fool of myself at the forum, to find
two envelopes waiting for me on the stairs, where my mom places my “real”
mail. One was from US Air. A promotion, no doubt. The other bore the words
“The Heritage Foundation” in the upper left hand corner. “A letter of
rejection,” I predicted as I, nontheless, ran excitedly up the stairs and
dumped the other things I was carrying on my bed. “Don’t think,” I told
myself in the time it took me to rip open the envelope, unfold the paper
inside, and read, “I regret to inform you that The Heritage Foundation is
unable to offer you an internship for the summer of 1996…” The rest of the
letter was more of the same.

But another sheet of paper in the same envelope caught my attention. I
turned it over and was suddenly surprised to see a copy of a memo “From- Sara
J. Fitzgerald.” I almost jumped. Across the top was the logo for Americans
For Tax Reform. It was about internship oportunities at ATR. I guess
Heritage included the memo in all their rejection letters? It said for
interested applicants to send resumes to their address. I’d already done
that.

Amazed at this, I took the letter downstairs to show mom. “Sara Fitzgerald,”
she said, “She called today. I told her you would be home this afternoon.
She asked you to call her to set up a phone interview.”

“Today?” I blinked.

“Yes. If you’d call home sometimes, you’d find out these things!” mom
answered, somewhat irritably.

So I’m going to call her in the morning. I dunno. This much coincidence in
one day…

Perhaps, as my favorite quote from the movie _Close Encounters of the Third
Kind_ says, “This means something.”