My Word-of-the-Day Challenge

Directions: Use the Word of the Day from Merriam-Webster.com from the month of August in a scene; each day’s post must be a continuation of the previous day’s post.

Word count limit: 150 words

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August 12, 2021, Merriam-Webster Word of the Day: callow (adj.)

Definition:

: lacking adult sophistication : immature

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Tucked into a desk against the wall outside the police chief’s office, Bjorn was bent over a stack of on-boarding paperwork, scribbling his initials after every block of text. The lights were doused in the captain’s office and dimmed in select areas over the desks of detectives who had already gone home. 

Senior Detective Dufort alone fussed about his desk in the semi-darkness, organizing files and notes for the morning. He was a small, cheerful man in his early 50’s with a cherub’s face and thesaurus’ vocabulary whose intelligence and curious nature made his fellow policemen seem callow.

With triumphant finality, Bjorn scrawled his signature along the last line of the last page.

Thank God. 

Relieved, he sat back and spotted a stapled packet of 20 pages on the floor that he’d dropped.

“Damn.” 

“Bjorn!” Dufort called with genuine surprise, an open file in his hand. “You’re still here?”

word count: 149