Date: Thu, 13 Jul 2006 06:07:07 -0700 From: fritz@nehalemtel.net Subject: I Love Corey, Chapter Eighty-Three Ah hah, you are once again lurking here and reading this silly warning and disclaimer. Don't you have better things to do? I suppose it is only fair to ask me the reverse of that question, and that is don't I have better things to do than write one? Since I have no good answer, then I shouldn't expect you to have one and so please just disregard the question. It was silly and should never have been asked. But then, I am frequently accused of being silly, so you will just have to bear with me. Once again we come to the subject of any minors who might be reading this story. The law protects you from reading stories like this, and if you chose to read it you are throwing away all such protection. I cannot save you from yourself, so the decision is yours. On the other hand, if you don't feel you need to be saved go ahead and read. On occasion I throw in some descriptions which some people might consider pornographic. It is well known that some people become extremely offended when encountering such descriptions, so if you feel you might be one of those people who become offended, then I advise you to leave as it will probably help your blood pressure. Should you choose not to do so, do not try to hold me responsible for your lack of tolerance. It is your decision to continue reading and you need to accept responsibility for it. I have never understood why there are people who seem to feel that they are better judges of what people should read and think than the people doing the reading and thinking. That seems more than somewhat arrogant to me. It is like they are saying you are far too stupid to make any decisions for yourself, and therefore we will make them for you. Those people are the ones who have made it against the law to read this story in certain areas of the world. For people living in those areas, I recommend either leaving this site, or being extremely careful so you are not discovered reading this story. The story is nothing more than a tale dreamed up by me. Should you think it is based on actual happenings or real people, you would be wrong. Feel free to read and hopefully enjoy the story. I would request that you grant me the usual privileges of an author and attribute any quotes properly and share any monies derived from the story. Should you fail to do so, I promise to attempt to haunt you throughout eternity. Now that is scary. I mean think about it. Do you really want me intruding in your dreams and bothering you? I think not. In other words, the risk is simply not worth the reward. As usual I owe many thanks to Don. In fact I owe many thanks to many people who have made a difference throughout my life. Don is one of many and I have not the words to tell him or the others how much I truly appreciate them and their efforts. All have made my life much better. I am left with the simple words, Thank you. I just wish I had the words to say it better. As usual, feel free to send complaints, comments, questions, or suggestions to the same old address of "fritz@nehalemtel.net" Although I try to answer all of them, sometimes it takes me a while. Please be sure to put "I Love Corey" in the subject line on at least the first email or I will delete you. I would hate to do that by accident, but with the amount of spam I find I don't have time to check each email and so I only check those I think deserve it. So please help me by giving me a reason to read your email by using the subject of "I Love Corey," or even "ILC". Fritz ****************************************************************** I Love Corey, Chapter Eighty-three Yesterday afternoon had gone reasonably well, but that isn't the way the morning went today. The news media grabbed me before I made it into the hearing room. I had my hands full trying to keep from making a fool of myself, and was actually looking forward to the hearing getting under way so I could escape them. I shouldn't have felt that way since as soon as the hearing started, things went downhill. It started pretty simply when the subject of money for schools came up. After everyone at the table had made their usual speeches on the subject, I was asked to comment and I made few friends at the table when I said that while more money would be helpful and there were some places that schools were really short, but that mainly what was needed was some changes in attitude and rules. I then proceeded to attempt to give a few examples such as taking a better look at some of the demands of political correctness and recognizing that many were foolish and gave one example which was some of the current demands about the way the subject of slavery is covered. I had others to give, but never got that far. From the reaction that statement got you would have thought I had come out in favor of Hitler and against the Flag. I spent the next hour trying to explain that while I was more than willing to agree that we need to be conscious of the feelings of others that does not mean that we need to rewrite history and leave things out simply because some happenings in the past are offensive to some people. I must have hit a hot button issue as the best I can figure they would not even listen. All I was trying to say is while there are many things that have happened throughout the history of the human race which many disapprove of, it does no good to ignore them just because we think they are wrong today. What we need to do is understand why they were allowed to happen at the time so we will not make the same mistakes and repeat them, and that it does no good to spin them to satisfy the demands of a few. Yes there was slavery, and we finally abolished it. Now the thing to do is study why it happened and make sure it doesn't happen again. Blaming people today for what happened a hundred years ago is silly and helps no one. Instead we need to work together and make sure it never happens again. Only when we deal with such subjects honestly can we truly understand them and be able to see the wrongs they did and stop such things from happening again. It was wrong to make blacks slaves and equally wrong to discriminate against them, but doing the same to whites now and saying it is to repay blacks for the wrongs done to them is just as wrong. Racial discrimination is wrong no matter what reason is given for it. I can offer no explanation for how religion came into the discussion as I certainly didn't bring it up, but my statement that religion didn't belong in the curriculum except as something to be addressed with regards to an explanation of what helped cause some events in history was another place where some seemed to take it wrong. In fact the only reason I said that was in response to a rather silly statement concerning religion. Some of the questions and comments then directed at me got pretty nasty and I finally resorted to asking them how they could honestly say that religion played no part in history. They then accused me of trying to teach religion. So I asked why people had come to this country to start with if it wasn't in part for religious reasons, and how about the Salem witch trials, or the celebration of Thanksgiving? I had lots more points I could have brought up, but that was more than enough to allow some to present a series of the most ludicrous arguments I've ever heard. Listening to some of them you would have thought that the witch trials were only an example of jealousy, and the Pilgrims came to educate the Native Americans or something like that. I was having a hard time following some of the arguments so I wasn't always sure just what it was they were trying to say. I was left trying to get them to see how silly some of their arguments were without making them angry. My comments on vouchers were equally well received by some. All I can say is they likely would have lynched me had they thought they could get away with it. What I said was that I was not against vouchers in principle, and that if public education could not compete against private education in a level playing field, then maybe there was something wrong with public education, but you would have thought I was advocating a theocracy from some of the reactions that produced. I never did get a chance to say what I considered a level playing field before I was almost attacked. Not all the problems stemmed from the others at the table; they had plenty of help from some in the committee, especially on any subject that could be in any way construed to touch upon religion. I was left wondering how people can so willfully ignore facts and instead base arguments on emotion. It seemed that no matter what I said, one side or the other was against me and sometimes both. The thing that puzzled me the most was why I was here. There were eleven other people setting at the table, yet I seemed to be the one drawing all the attention from both the table and the committee members, and I was only one teacher and a minor one at that while the others at the table ranged from the State Department of Education to high up in the Teacher's Union. There were some on the committee who appeared to want to turn the public schools into parochial schools teaching their own brand of religion only, and there were some who appeared to refuse to recognize that many events in history were trigged by religion or religious leaders. Yet no matter how many times I told them that I was not in favor of teaching religion, those unwilling to even allow history to be taught in a way that acknowledged the role religion played in events seemed to think I was trying to set up a state religion. The others were mad at me for not wanting to do so. All I wanted was for history to be taught in a manner that was willing to acknowledge facts like one of the reasons the Pilgrims had come to this country was religious freedom. While there were still texts that mentioned such a reason, more of them were starting to leave such information out due to the sometimes-overreaching demands of political correctness making it hard to understand why events took place. As I saw it, we were headed towards a time when the mere mention of religion in schools would be against the rules no matter that it was necessary to do so in order to explain why something like the Crusades took place. I wasn't advocating teaching religion, only that it be permissible to mention it when it had a major impact on some of the events in history. I was even more surprised that I was forced to try to talk about history which wasn't the subject I taught. Yet everyone seemed to want me to comment on the subject. Instead of reasoned arguments I got statements like we shouldn't mention religion because it might offend atheists or members of another religion. Those making such statements were unwilling to explain how an atheist would be offended by hearing such things. It seemed to make no difference when I said that surely atheists recognize that some people believe in some religions and that as long as there was no attempt made to try to teach any religion there was no reason for them to be offended. This part had all started over such a simple thing, that being the thought that we could perhaps save a little money on textbooks and do a better job of teaching if we quit worrying so much about political correctness and worried more about doing a good job of teaching. It just got so out of hand and so far away from what I said that I was left wondering how anyone could think I meant some of the things they seemed to feel I was saying. After a little over two hours of that type of thing, several members of the committee whispered back and forth a little and then Cm. Philson thanked us all for attending and contributing to the committees understanding of the problems. He then announced the hearing was adjourned. I was more than happy with that announcement and was gathering up my stuff so I could leave when members of the committee started coming down from their seats and personally thanking all of us who had testified. All I wanted to do was escape and get home and go back to worrying about the boys and teaching. However, that was not to be, at least not as soon as I had hoped. I won't say I was shanghaied, but pretty close. It was once again necessary to attend a luncheon and what really surprised me was that this time there were to be four of us who had testified in attendance at the luncheon, along with three committee members from each political side of the committee, making a total of ten. I was taken to Rep. Philson's office for a few minutes before we left for the luncheon. "Well, what'd you think of the hearing?" he asked as we walked into his office, a big grin on his face. I was sort of stuck. I really didn't wish to tell him what I thought, so I tried to be somewhat diplomatic. "It wasn't quite what I expected," I answered. When he just kept looking at me with a grin I decided I needed to add a little more. "There seemed to be some rather extreme views presented." I was really stuck. I was trying to figure out a way to say the whole thing was a waste of time and that I'd like to wring his neck for getting me involved in it without actually wringing his neck. "Sam, you don't understand the system." He was certainly right on that. The whole thing appeared to be a waste of time, both his and mine. For almost a day and a half I had only encountered extreme views from people who appeared unwilling to listen and only wanted to demagogue about their own views. I must have had a somewhat surprised look on my face because he continued. "Sam, you have to look at it right. All the committee members have to get elected in order to be here. That means we have to attract voters, and those voters have differing viewpoints. So that means we need to act like we are trying to represent those viewpoints in public hearings or we won't be elected next time. Then you have the union members. They face the same thing from their membership. Most of the time we work together fairly well, but in public hearings we have to act like we are trying to do what each of our constituencies wants us to do. When we put together a bill it has to have a bone or two for each viewpoint so each member can say that he got something for his constituency. "From what I've been told, before the days of all the coverage and open hearings it was better, but now we all have to play to our constituencies all the time. For an outsider, like you, that makes it hard to understand. Sometimes we're forced to make some statements that may seem pretty extreme, even stupid to others, but that's what gets us elected. The political fringes are where the money is, and it takes money to get elected. So we hold these hearings and then get together and talk about what came up. We then try to put together something that offers a little for both sides, and yet does some good. This luncheon is one of the places we get together and try to work things out. I think you might be surprised at how it goes." "But why was I asked to be here?" I blurted out. "I don't know anything about most of what was talked about. All I am is a teacher, and I'm not even all that experienced." Rep. Philson started chuckling. "I wanted you here. You're the first person I've met that didn't seem to have a political axe to grind when it comes to schools. You went after the union, the Education Dept, the Legislature, everyone, and it was all because you wanted things to be better, never for yourself, always for the students. I liked a lot of what you said at that dinner, and when I had you checked out I discovered you were towards the top of your class and that you don't have to teach because you inherited some money. You didn't know who I was, but you were willing to discuss education without appearing to have any viewpoint other than doing the best job you could for the students." He paused before continuing. "All the people I normally talk with have reasons they want certain things, and most of the time those things benefit the person asking or the group he represents. You don't appear to be after anything for yourself, only for improving education. That makes you a very rare person, at least from my perspective. I'm chairman of this committee and I have many people lobbying for bills covering everything from more money for teachers through buying different textbooks. You don't seem to give a damn about that and only want the system to do its best for every student. There are probably lots of people like you, but you're pretty articulate and are willing to take on most any subject where most people seem to be unwilling to say things people don't want to hear. Even when you learned who I was, you kept right on with what you were saying and didn't try to change just because I was listening." About that time he looked at his watch and said it was time to go to lunch. By the time we got to his car he had gathered up the other two members of his party and we were soon headed for lunch. This time the restaurant selected had set aside a section somewhat out of sight of the rest of the diners and soon everyone had arrived who was supposed to be there. Two tables had been pushed together so we could all be seated at the same table and everyone was talking. This time there were none of the outrageous statements that had been so prevalent in the hearing. Instead there were some pretty frank discussions about some of the problems and what might be done about them in light of political reality. I wasn't called on nearly as often, but when I was, they listened and if they had objection, those were more reasoned objections, and they pointed out a few places where some things couldn't be done owing to politics. I was very surprised that in some cases an individual member seemed to support ideas his party was frequently against. The same held true of the Teacher's Union representative, and those from the Department of Education. I was privileged to see how the government really worked and it was far different than I had thought it did. While there were a few positions that neither side would bend on, for most they seemed to disagree only slightly and with a little give and take they were soon agreeing on much of what they would present to the whole legislature. Yet I was left wondering how they were going to solve those differences which seemed to be main stumbling blocks to complete agreement. We even had a rational discussion on vouchers and I got to explain what I meant by level playing field. Basically I told them that meant that private schools and public schools would have to be equal in their ability to expel unruly students; that a private school could not pick and choose students any more than public one could; and all would have to meet any standards and be punished alike in any failing of their students to meet norms. When we kicked that around a little, I explained that as it now was, a private school could expel a student without many problems, but that it was almost impossible to expel certain kinds of students from public schools. That gave private schools an unfair advantage in that they could get rid of their problem students rather than deal with them, where public schools could not. The discussion would have gone on longer but one of the committee members said his staff was preparing a paper on that very subject and that what I was saying was confirmed in some studies and those studies said the rules, as they now were, did put an unfair burden on public schools just as I was pointing out. He promised to get copies to all the committee members and that was the end of that discussion. It was amazing how much was covered and how much agreement there was in the slightly over two hours that the luncheon lasted. On the way back Cm. Philson asked me to come to his office for a few more minutes so I did. When we got to his office he once again thanked me and I still couldn't understand why. It looked like I had only managed to bring out all the disagreements between the parties and had helped nothing, and I said so. That was when I got an explanation that made sense, in a twisted sort of way. "Well Sam, I don't know if I can explain it. What you did was convince everyone that all you wanted is what is best for the schools and the kids. You don't seem to care about yourself or anyone else, and that comes through loud and clear. When you argued for your beliefs, you forced everyone to listen because of that, and you gave everyone a chance to voice their views, and in many cases proceeded to shred those views. Political reality is that we can only move so far, but you pointed out some of the directions we should be heading, and you reminded us of what the goal is, that of doing right by the students. I know all the members on the committee and know their views well, and I can promise you that some of the things you saw at lunch would not have been possible if you had not convinced them of it. Hell, you even forced me to change my mind on a couple of things. You seem to be able to cut through all the rhetoric and make people see what the real issue is. I was against vouchers, but the way you explained them made me less against them, but also more cautious about implementing them because of the level playing ground you talked about. We made more progress today than we have in two months because you were not on one side or the other, only for the schools and the students. "So while you might not think you did much, by getting some of those topics out in the open you forced everyone to really look at them. For the most part you shredded arguments without making people angry. Instead you did it with reasoned logic. That made it more acceptable for people to compromise. "Government is a compromise. On most issues there are two or more viewpoints, and frequently those viewpoints are so at odds with each other that it is hard to compromise. Take this morning. You made us look at the whole picture instead of focusing on each little point. Where someone might make a good argument for having a textbook changed for a small reason, you put it in a different light and suddenly those small reasons no longer look as important when weighed against the whole picture. He sighed before continuing, "Frequently we get hung up on the details, fighting over the little things that each of our constituencies want. Since there isn't a clear consensus in the state about many of those items, they become important to each side in its battle for control. While my party has the majority right now, we don't have enough votes to force our will on the whole system, and that's a good thing. Government does best when there's a balance of ideas and each side needs to convince the other that their idea is better. "When you think about it, some of us have been here for a number of years and we've heard the same arguments many times. The Teacher's Union always wants more for the teachers, the Board of Education is a bureaucracy and they are interested in protecting their turf, and of course there are the two political sides, each trying to gain the upper hand. You fit none of those categories and brought a fresh perspective to the hearing and forced everyone to think rather than react in the usual manner. That's why you attracted so much attention from everyone. "Some of those things we covered and decided at lunch were things we've been battling over since the session started, but after listening to you enough people had enough movement to solve them. There's still a long way to go, but we solved some of it, and hopefully the rest will go a little better. It's easier to compromise after the first few details are worked out with each side getting part of what they wanted. That's what happened at lunch today and I think it will continue because you forced us to see it differently." All the time we had been talking, staff members had been coming in and handing Cm. Philson notes and folders. Every time the door was opened I could hear the phones in the background ringing and I suddenly realized I was taking up his time. Besides, I wanted to get home and check on the boys, so with that we said our goodbyes and I left. I found his explanations on how things worked fascinating, but didn't feel he should give up any more time for me. Cm. Philson had already given me a lot to think about. I was lucky enough to beat rush hour traffic, so I was soon headed up I-5 and thinking about what I'd learned. At least a lot of things now made more sense. Many times I had wondered why some politicians made statements that sounded really strange. Now at least I had some idea of why they did so, but still it seemed like a silly way to run a government. Yet one thing said during the luncheon kept ringing in my ears, and that was if I wanted things done a certain way, I needed to convince enough voters that my idea was right and then the politicians would respond to those voters and pass what those voters wanted. After all, politicians want to be re-elected and when voters want something, those elected will attempt to give it to them in order to get their votes. As long as there wasn't a clear consensus among the voters, there would be give and take on issues with neither side controlling what happened, but only managing to keep things going in much the present direction. Still that seemed wrong somehow. Our country is not a democracy, but rather a republic, and that meant that we elected people to represent us, and those people were supposed to do their best to run the country, state, city, or county government for the benefit of all and not just because of political whim. In a true democracy the political whims of the electorate rule, but in a republic those elected are supposed to use their best judgment based on information they have, some of which may not be available to the people. Even when the information is available it sometimes gets twisted to where one side might make it appear to say something it never did. Then there was the problem of people adopting viewpoints based not on logic or honest information, but instead on ideologies and then being unwilling to acknowledge anything that might conflict with their own viewpoint no matter how accurate or well proven it might be. Yet it appeared that many decisions were being based on political whim rather than on what might be best for the people those making the decisions were responsible for. As the miles rolled on I just kept kicking the problem around and kept coming up with no good answers. Somehow things weren't working like I thought the founding fathers had had in mind, but I wasn't sure what had gone wrong. Just north of Williams the coffee I'd consumed at lunch caught up with me and I pulled into the rest area. The stop for the pause that refreshes improved my outlook, and when once again on the highway heading north I decided I wasn't going to solve the problem on the way home. Instead I started thinking about how things had gone at practice and would the team be ready for our next game. Of course there was also JJ's birthday to think about and I was glad I'd found time to pick up a few gifts for him. In addition to the iPod I'd picked up a couple of shirts and hoped he would be pleased with them. I knew about the bracelet LT was getting for him, and had heard about a few video games and CD's the other boys were going to give him. I suddenly realized that I had forgotten to order a cake and that I wasn't going to have time to make one. I needed to remember to ask Kath if she could do something about that oversight on my part. Hopefully she could find a cake which would be acceptable, even if it wasn't a birthday cake. Fifteen candles would make any cake into a birthday cake even if it hadn't been made specifically for birthdays. Glancing at my watch made me reconsider. I might have time to bake a cake tonight after all. JJ liked chocolate cakes and I had a good recipe for one and it was quick and easy. Some chocolate whipped-cream frosting would go well on it, particularly if I used some pie cherries for the filling between layers. I'd made it before and all the boys seemed to like it and it was so easy, being a one-bowl cake out of Mom's old "Joy of Cooking" cookbook. The cookbook had actually been my grandmother's cookbook and Mom had inherited it when Grandma died, and both had made that same cake for many years. You just put things in the mixer and mixed it up and then baked it. Well you did have to add the ingredients in the proper order, but still it was really easy. I could prepare the pans and mix the cake up in the time it took the oven to heat. The more I thought about that, the better it sounded. With that out of the way my mind drifted back to politics. The more I thought about the subject, the more I realized I was like so many others and simply didn't pay enough attention to the subject. Every election cycle I read up on the candidates and tried to vote for the ones that sounded the best, and I also checked to see those in office had voted the way they said they were going to vote. I'd never paid any attention to party simply because Mom and Dad had been so divided on the issue. Listening to them debate the issues had soon convinced me that neither side was always right and so I had tried not to take sides. Instead I looked for people who reflected my views and voted for them. I'd been simply amazed that in the last election I had voted for just as many Republicans as Democrats, or vice-versa because I'd thought I was more liberal leaning than that. The election before that I had favored the Democrats by only one. Politically I was about as middle of the road as possible although I tended to favor most of the Democrat's policies on social issues, and the Republican's on governmental issues, and I found the fringes of both parties offensive, yet Cm. Philson had said those fringes were necessary. No matter how hard I tried, I just couldn't agree with him on that. To me they seemed to cloud the issues by issuing outrageous statements. Add to that the fact that so many people seemed unwilling to think for themselves and instead ran around parroting those same silly statements. The news media were no help because they rarely did more than report what was said unless they were mad at one side and then would make sure and challenge anything that side said. I wished that the news media would challenge everyone making stupid statements so the people might have a better idea of what the actual facts were. The media claimed that was not their job, and that really baffled me. In some press conferences I'd seen on television, I had heard them challenging remarks, and in others not. In some stories they made it a point to present dissenting views, but in others not. They even allowed statements to continue to be presented even after they had long been proven wrong and never challenged them. Somehow I had thought the job of the media was to report accurately and honestly on events, and if they didn't feel that their readers or viewers would be able to understand the story without it, to supply an explanation for why the story was important and perhaps some background knowledge to give the reader a better understanding of the subject. In some cases there had been stories in the paper and on the TV that almost seemed as if the reporters were trying to advance an agenda rather than just report the news. In fact, I almost never saw fair coverage on anything relating to firearms, and rarely was it fair on environmental issues, but rather such stories were normally distorted to where they didn't come close be being true or accurate. I knew that reporters frequently worked under deadlines so that might account for some of it, but some stories were not under such deadlines and were still wrong. There were times I was forced to wonder if it was simply a matter of having made a mistake or if it was a deliberate attempt to influence opinion. Those in the news media always said no, that there was no agenda, but in the case of firearms the mistakes always were against firearms so it made me think there very well could be an agenda against them by at least the majority of those in the media. If there was no agenda, the mistakes should balance out over time, and so far that had not come close to happening. One of the really sad things was that even when a story had been proven wrong, those who favored the position such a story had supported went around still parroting it as if it were fact. I finally got tired of the whole subject and dug out a CD and leaned back and continued driving. It was kind of nice not to have the boys with me as I doubt they would have liked listening to Rachmaninoff's Second. Such problems would not be solved by worrying about them and for now I just needed to relax and get home. I had plenty of things I needed to do when I got there, like bake a cake. Home sure looked nice when I got there. I had finally forced the boys to park their bikes in the shop, thereby giving me room to park the pickup in the garage, so I punched the button for the garage door and was surprised to see the Gator missing. I debated about calling Corey on my cell phone but decided to go inside and see if there was a note or something. What I discovered was JJ and Dog. The rest had driven to Redding to pick up a few last minute gifts for JJ's birthday. I got a hug from JJ and a few tongue swipes from Dog. What more could I want in the line of a welcome? That still didn't solve the problem of the birthday cake so out came the cell phone and a few minutes later I was busy mixing up a cake. While I was heating the oven up and mixing the cake, JJ was chattering on a mile a minute, filling me in on what had happened for the last two days. When he got to the point of telling about seeing me on the TV news, he started to giggle, and then told me that the boys had all agreed I looked somewhat like a cornered rat. God I hoped not, but he could very well be right because that was much like I'd felt. I'd tried to be as non-committal as possible but you never know how it will look on the news. He assured me they had taped it so I'd be able to see it, and even wanted me to stop mixing the cake so he could show me. I managed to convince him there would be plenty of time to see the tape when the cake was in the oven. From his description I really doubted that I wanted to see it. When the layers were in the oven I had a hard time convincing him that I was getting hungry and the only reason he just didn't drag me in to see the tape was that I agreed to fix him a sandwich while I fixed myself one. Soon I had some salami and ham slices, some various cheeses, along with some lettuce, tomato slices, and a few pickle slices between some French bread and he then dragged me in to see the tape. Well, it could have been worse. I wouldn't have used the term cornered rat; maybe uncomfortable would have been better. However the shirt and tie I'd bought looked nice. The editing could have been better, but at least I didn't sound like a total idiot. All in all it didn't present a distorted picture of what I had said so I guess I couldn't complain. I do wish I'd had a little more time to think of answers, but the reporters had been firing questions so fast I had only gotten part of them answered anyway. At least I didn't think there would be any lynch parties over my comments. The timer dinged and so I checked the cake and decided it needed a couple more minutes in the oven. It was almost done, but not quite. Sure enough, two more minutes and the toothpick I stuck in the middle came out almost clean and the center slightly springy. Setting the two pans aside to cool, I finished packing my suitcase into my room and put things away. So far things seemed pretty well under control. I was sitting in my chair checking JJ's homework, with Dog's head resting on my foot, when the rest of the crew got back. It sounded like a stampede as boys poured into the house. In just two days I'd forgotten how noisy they were. I must admit that the hugs felt really good, and even Danny shyly gave me one. He acted like he wasn't sure he should be doing it, but when I squeezed him back he really tightened his grasp. His hug was much stronger than all the others except for one, and that was the one I really wanted to feel. I wasn't disappointed. Corey didn't say anything, but his eyes were sparkling and he had a silly little grin on his face. In just an instant all that changed and suddenly I felt like the last guardian of the gate as I was in the kitchen bravely defending the cake from a mob of boys who seemed determined to pillage any food supplies. From what JJ had said, it had been well over two hours since they had eaten and it was showing. I wondered if I would last until they got a little older and no longer ate everything in sight. As long as I had to be in the kitchen I started the cherry filling for the cake. It was really simple, only a fifteen ounce can of sour or pie cherries, 3/4 cup of sugar, a generous ¼ teaspoon of almond extract, the juice of half a lemon, and three tablespoons of cornstarch, all of which I gave a quick trip through the food processor and then put in a sauce pan and started heating. That was quite a bit of cornstarch for one can, but I needed it a little thicker than it would be for a pie filling. For a cherry pie I used two cans of pie cherries, discarded the juice from one can, and didn't bother with the food processor. I didn't process the cherries to mush, only pulsed until they were what would be termed a medium chop. I had to stay close and stir the mixture frequently to keep it from scorching. Soon it was hot enough for the cornstarch to thicken and I set it aside to cool. Poor JJ. The rest of the boys were in Corey's room giggling and wrapping packages and he was locked out. I dipped out a little of the cherry filling and gave it to him and that brightened him up. One can made way more than I needed for the filling, but the cherries came in a fifteen-ounce can. I wasn't too worried though as the boys would use the rest on toast or something. I no longer had the leftover problems I once had. Now it was just the opposite as the boys devoured any and everything edible. All of them were shooting up like dandelions in the spring except for Kyle, and he seemed to have hit a pause in his growth. Still, if he finished growing to fit his hands and feet he was going to be a good-sized man. The information Judy had furnished said his father was almost six foot three and I saw no reason to think Kyle would not be as big when he finished growing. It was likely that all the boys would be taller than my five foot nine when they were grown. Kyle was about as tall as I was right now. Kath and I did manage to discuss tomorrow's dinner a little. Of all things, JJ wanted hamburgers and potato salad. Well, it was his birthday so he could have it if that's what he wanted. Kath volunteered to make the potato salad, and while that made me a little nervous, I agreed. I filled her in on asking for the proper patties at Downie's and to make sure and get lots of buns and garden for them. She looked a little surprised at the term garden, but soon understood what I was talking about. She even agreed to get some baked beans and we could add a little barbecue sauce to them. Boys came trooping out and I guess you can say the packages were wrapped. I mean they had wrapping paper around them, and there were some stick-on bows on the packages, but really, the boys could have been just a little neater in their efforts and the packages would have looked much better. The seams in the paper were not centered well, and the folds in the paper not very crisp, but they were well wrapped if you counted the tape. I suppose you could say they looked like a bunch of teenaged boys wrapped them and that would cover it. The way they looked made me wish I had not just handed my purchases to them and asked them to wrap them for me as I would have done a much neater job, but their hearts were in the right place so I thanked them for the help and they just beamed. It was now time for bed, and soon boys were headed that way. Even Dog was following JJ and LT towards their room and I was really happy to be in my own house and have Corey with me. Mainly I was happy to have Corey with me and probably would have been happy no matter where we were, but who cares, I was grinning as we headed for bed. We spent some time really enjoying each other and I guess the two days apart helped as when we finished we were both still grinning. A short time after our little fun and games he curled up in his usual place and we just relaxed and talked a little. I now had a chance to tell him how much I had missed him and how hard it had been to sleep without him, and he told me much the same. He also filled me in on some of the details of how the practices had gone and things that had happened at school during the two days I'd been away. The conversation drifted around covering many things and finally got to Andrea and what might happen to her. The boys still thought that Kath should foster her and were wondering if there might be a house somewhere that might be acceptable even if it wasn't very close to ours. I was still somewhat surprised at their concern for her, but I suppose that all abused kids feel a sense of kinship with others who have suffered the same thing. After all, people consider themselves parts of groups for far less important reasons. Somewhere along in the conversation Corey fell asleep. It felt so good to have him tucked up against me that it took me a little longer and instead I just enjoyed the scent of his hair and the feel of his gentle breath on my chest. I still didn't understand how he found it comfortable to stick his shoulder in my armpit and sort of roll on me and then sleep, but I enjoyed it far too much to complain. I'm sure I was still smiling when I to joined him in sleep. Wednesday was one of those days. Unfortunately I didn't wake up before the alarm and so that put me on a tight schedule since I still had a cake to finish. So it was hurry through my shower and dash to the kitchen and start in on the cake while the coffee was still perking. I put the first layer on a plate and then put a nice layer of the now cool filling on it, and then placed the top layer on top. Then it was time to make the frosting. Since the coffee had just finished perking, I took time to pour myself a cup just as Kath showed up. You know about how it goes when you are only half awake and in a hurry. I poured a cup and a half of heavy cream in the mixer; added one and a quarter cups of powdered sugar, a third cup baking cocoa, a little vanilla, and whipped it up. It whipped right up and that wasn't the problem. The problem was that I forgotten that it made enough frosting to not only frost the cake, but also fill it. Needless to say, I had plenty. I could have cut the recipe by a third and still had plenty. Kath snickered at me as I was muttering to myself about not using my head. She went ahead and started breakfast while I finished up by shaving a little chocolate on the cake and then put it in the refrigerator. I wasn't very far behind schedule when I left for school. Jeez, being gone two days meant my inbox was stuffed. We could save many forests if only there was not so much useless paperwork in life. While I got a good start at weeding it out, other colleagues started coming in and of course they had to ask how the hearing had gone. Then Jerry showed up and I had to go over the whole thing again. What a morning. At least the students were much like normal, that is if you can ever call students normal. I only had to spend part of each period telling them all about my trip to Sacramento and the hearing and listen to them giggle about seeing me on the news. I got the impression that they considered my appearance on the news funny, but when asked they wouldn't say why. I finally threatened the class with extra homework and one of them came up with the cornered rat explanation. I should have quit while I was ahead and not insisted on knowing why they were giggling. Things were getting nicely smoothed out when suddenly JJ was asking me if he could invite a few friends to dinner. That took me by surprise, but I told him sure, go ahead. When he said eight, I could see I needed to check and make sure that would work so I told him to wait while I called Kath and told her of the change in plans, and warned her to get plenty because the plans might change again. She told me not to worry and I think she snickered at me, but the hallway was noisy and so I couldn't be sure of that. I gave JJ the go-ahead and away he went with a big grin on his face. The situation had pretty well calmed down by the time practice rolled around. The guests were now up to twelve, and I was simply amazed that so many parents were willing to allow changes in plans that quickly. At almost every break there had been a line of kids at the phones, and I could see JJ handing his cell phone to some. Still the willingness might have had something to do with the saving in food costs. At least with such late invitations there would be no gifts to furnish. I was somewhat puzzled since when I'd asked him, he hadn't wanted any guests. I was left wondering why he'd suddenly changed his mind. In the mean time he looked so happy I just let things continue. Practice went well. In fact it was the best practice we'd had all year. If tomorrow's game went as well we would be off and running. Who knows, maybe we would make the playoffs for the state titles. Now that would really be something to be proud of. After practice we rushed though getting things picked up and in the washer and then dashed for home. Bless Kath's heart. She not only had made the salad, she had also picked up gobs of such things as nuts and chips and all kinds of goodies. She had also put the candles on the cake and it looked pretty nice. I went out and fired up the big barbecue because the little gas one just wouldn't turn out enough patties at a time to satisfy the mob of kids. Most of a ten-pound bag of briquettes later the fire was started and in about a half hour I should be able to start cooking. Since I had a couple of free minutes, I decided to spice some nuts. While I was doing that, the first of the guests started showing up. What a mess. Only two adults to look after twenty-one kids and all the clutter they make put the adults at a real disadvantage. I never did figure out where the extra three kids came from, and I'm not even sure JJ knew, but things went pretty well. The kids consumed what can only be described as mass quantities of food. The only real problem was the slices of cake were very thin and it was a good thing there was lots of ice cream to go with it. I would have made another cake had I known how many I was going to feed, but the rest went well. I thought Kath had made enough potato salad for an army, but it was gone by the time kids were full. It was pretty good although somewhat different from mine. While Kath had picked up a ten-pound bag of three to the pound patties for the hamburgers, it was a good thing that I had most of a bag in the freezer because the mob of kids simply inhaled the burgers. Silly me, I'd thought when I got them out of the freezer and put them in the fridge to thaw that they would be plenty, and here I was looking at only a few left in the new bag. I could only get sixteen patties on the big barbecue at one time and I'd had to cook three rounds to fill everyone up although there were a few burgers left. JJ was thrilled with his iPod and the rest of the boys were jealous. You could just see them almost turn green with envy. The party was a success and I was really happy to see JJ finally coming clear out of the somewhat depressed state he had been in since his problems with his family started. When I thought about it, this was the first time I had seen him interact with other kids in the same manner he had before that time. Yes, he had opened up with all of us, but tonight he was acting like I used to see him in the halls and before classes. It had been a long slow struggle for him and I was so happy that he was starting to once again regain his normal attitude around other people. About the only one that didn't appear to have a good time was LT. I kept thinking about that and suddenly it came to me what the problem was. LT hadn't wanted any guests because he knew his father wouldn't let his sisters attend, so seeing JJ have fun with everyone reminded him of that. At least I thought that was the problem, but I would have to wait until we could talk about it a little before I was sure. Mark's eyes were sparkling and I could see Kyle sort of watching him and grinning. The boys were all starting to fit together pretty well and all look out for each other, but Kyle still seemed to feel it was his responsibility to watch over Mark. I wasn't worried about Mark because he was fitting in at school like he had always attended it. He had an infectious smile and made friends easily. Kyle was another matter. He never talked about friends and I hadn't heard of him making friends through any of the high school teachers. Maybe he would do better next year when JJ and LT joined him in high school, but still he worried me. Yet Kyle didn't appear unhappy. I really wished I had known him before so that I would have had some idea of what he was like before things got so bad for him. Kath looked tired and her leg was bothering her so Corey and I started trying to clean up the mess when most of the guests had left. Bless his heart; Kyle soon joined us, dragging Mark along with him. It was JJ's day so he got out of it, and LT sort of snuck off to be with him. Then Danny joined us and it really didn't take all that long to get the mess cleaned up. Another thing I had to be thankful for was Kath had thought to buy paper plates and that really helped. The big hug and grin I got from JJ made the whole thing worth it. He was almost glowing he looked so happy, and he told us it was the best birthday party he had ever had. I was glad to finally collapse in my chair. Dog just raised he head, and then dropped it. He must have cadged a couple of burgers worth the bites from everyone and he looked stuffed. He wasn't interested in belly rubs tonight; he just continued to lie close to his door. Had he wanted those rubs, tonight there was lots of it to rub. In fact, looking around all of us appeared to be in that condition, way too much belly to rub. When I mentioned homework, the whining was somewhat muted. I think everyone was just too bushed to complain much, but I didn't get much action. A little more nagging and boys started moving, but they moved slowly. I staggered off to my office/computer room to catch up on grading papers and lesson plans, and had even caught up when I started getting homework to check. I was surprised when boys started wandering off to bed without any nagging from me. In fact, I didn't even have to mention it. Corey got his homework done first so he headed for bed while I was looking at Kyle's homework. Mark was already in bed since he didn't have any homework, and the next thing I knew I had Danny, JJ, and LT standing there waiting to have theirs' checked. By the time I finished with LT's, he and I were the only ones still up. That condition didn't last long. Boy bed felt good to me. Twenty-one kids were more than I could handle. I have no idea if Corey squirmed into his usual position because I was asleep about the time my head hit the pillow. Sometimes I wonder about the way things work. Why I was wanted in court is beyond me because they spent the day trying to select a jury, during which time I got to sit around and twiddle my thumbs. I finally got a member of the DA's staff aside early in the afternoon and he agreed I could go coach the team since it was very apparent that there was no chance of any testimony taking place today. Even so I just barely made it in time to leave with the team. This would be our first road game and I hoped we were ready. Well we weren't. Oh the game started well with the team scoring two runs in the top of the first, but that was the last bright spot. This was a rematch of last week's game, and they were out to get even, and they did. We were down by three at the end of the first and it just got worse. No matter whom I put in to pitch, I should have tried someone else. We did last five innings before the mercy rule kicked in, but only barely. I was left stunned because the team had looked so good in practice yesterday. I mean the pitchers had been throwing strikes and the fielders catching balls. They must have used up their quota for the week because that wasn't the way the game went. The bottom of the second started out with four straight walks, and it only got worse. Had we not scored a bunch of runs we would not have made it into the fifth. I got dizzy watching kids run the bases and not nearly enough of them were ours. Sixteen to seven is not a nice score when you're on the seven end of it. The team was almost in shock. I spent the time they were getting cleaned up trying to cheer them up, and I think I succeeded somewhat. Kids are pretty resilient and I hoped a couple of practices would take their minds off the loss. This was one of our longest trips so the school had made arrangements with a restaurant where the team could eat. It was a pretty quiet dinner considering that there were twenty-six boys all in one place. Then it was head home. I had my boys in the Gator and we followed the bus and helped unload all the gear. Boy it was nice to get home and just collapse. I hadn't been in my chair long enough to even take a breath when Mark and Danny showed up with their homework for me to check. Having Kath had made it possible for Mark to come home rather than have to go with me to the game. His homework was pretty simple and I only spotted a couple of spelling errors and sent him off to correct them. Danny's was different. It was apparent that he didn't understand part of his math assignment and so I spent some time explaining it to him. Suddenly, he got a surprised look on his face and grabbed his homework and dashed off to work on it some more. When he brought it back he was blushing but his homework was now correct. I gave him a hug and he went off grinning. Poor Dog hadn't gotten his belly rub owing to Mark and Danny, but he now made up for it and by the time the rest of the boys showed up with their homework, he was rubbed out and dozing with his chin on my foot. There wasn't really much homework so it didn't take long to look it over and then we were then off to bed. To be continued...