Executive Presence
By: Tom Dilworth My rotation with Steve started like the others. All nerves and no idea what to expect. I stood outside, heart racing, November biting through my coat, like I’d already failed at something. I rang the bell. The lock clicked. I passed through the door, feeling for the school ID badge I’d forgotten before. Not that day. He welcomed me like he didn’t expect much. I didn’t either. His rotation was a fluke. Someone got sick, and my other rotation fell through. Steve was somebody – his legend as an alumnus worried me. Pharmacy school had hollowed me out. I just wanted to make it through in one piece. *** The pharmacy distribution center was a secluded place. Somewhere no patients ever came. A large warehouse where they received shipments of meds, repackaged them, and sent them off across a health-system. No one talked much. No one needed to. Everything moved like it should. Steve directed the center for years. Through the pandemic and countless drug sh...
