I wrote the report in the company's shared document system, so that I could link it to all the data.

I called it Why Our Rural Stores Are Losing Money – And How to Fix It.

It was thirty-four pages long. It showed that if we simply changed the order of the delivery routes, so small-town stores got fresh food early in the morning, the thirty stores on the list would start making money within a year. Lakeshore would save around forty million dollars. And thirty towns would keep their grocery stores.

On the front page, I typed: Prepared by Abby Turner, Summer Intern.

In the footnotes, I explained exactly where every number came from. Including footnote fourteen.

Morning customer counts taken by the author from the window of the Corner Cup café, Carver Falls, run by the author's grandmother, Dorothy Turner, from 5 a.m. on June 14 and 15.

I shared the document with Trevor and asked if we could talk about it.

He skimmed it on his phone for about forty seconds.

“Cute,” he said. “A lot of work, Indiana. But interns don't do strategy. Leave it with me. I'll take a look when I've got time.”

He never mentioned it again.

Two weeks later, the CEO sent her email.