Stump Logic

By Dale McMillan

James Allen is a high school chemistry teacher in the small East Texas town of Richie, Texas. With a master’s degree in Chemistry from Texas A&M University, he could have tripled his salary in industry but Jim's mother, an English teacher before leukemia took her life, had instilled a love of teaching in her son. He has chosen the family farm and a tranquil life fishing with his mentor and friend Jess Winters, a retired math teacher.
On the surface, Jim appears to be a clumsy, nerd, stumbling through life with his head in the sand, but content with the quiet life of a teacher. He does not date, even skipped his senior prom, but at the beginning of his fifth year as Richie High School’s Chemistry teacher, Jim happens to sit down beside new hire English teacher, Kay Adams.
Kay is an ex-Marine and a widow with a five-year-old daughter, whose husband, another Marine, was killed by a landmine in Iraq. After leaving the Marines because of the difficulty finding a safe place for her daughter when deployed on assignment, Kay has started a new life with a degree in English and a teaching certification. She lands in Richie, Texas, seeking a small-town environment for her daughter.
On that day, when he sits down beside Kay, sparks fly and Jim is smitten. Up ahead in their journey as a couple, there are many hills to climb in a gossipy, corrupt, little town but hopefully love is on their side.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: May 5, 2021
• ISBN: 9781664172289

Dale McMillan

Dale McMillan retired from a long career in the petrochemical industry. After building a home, shop, three barns, and restoring a log cabin built originally in 1854, he tried his hand at writing fiction at age 67. He has written 17 other books since that first release. He lives on a small sand hill farm just outside Henderson, Texas with his invalid wife, Janell and two dogs, Marcie and Sherlock.

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Copyright © 2021 by Dale McMillan.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to any actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.

Rev. date: 05/03/2021

Xlibris

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CONTENTS

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

Dedicated to all the staff of Hospice Of East Texas who so graciously serve and care for my wife, Janell

Chapter 1

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James Lynn Allen had been a schoolteacher for four years. He taught Chemistry in a small town in East Texas. James had a degree in Chemistry from Texas A&M University. He could have tripled his salary had he chosen to seek a job in Industry, but Jim’s mother had been a schoolteacher also, and he had seen her change lives. Being an idealistic young man, he wished to do the same.

Tom Allen, James’ dad worked in the oil patch. He was a driller and seldom at home. When James was a senior in college, his mother was diagnosed with acute Leukemia. She did not tell the family until the disease was far advanced. When James discovered his mother’s illness, he dropped out of school for a semester and came home to care for her. The disease took a fast track and she only lived two months after Jim came home, but during that two months, this mother imparted much of what she had learned about kids during her 30-year teaching career. The two spent two months of quality time together.

James was the youngest of three children in the Allen family. His mother was 41 when he was born and came as a surprise to the Allen family, but he was loved by all. His sister was 10 when Jim was born, and he became her doll. He grew up a spoiled child, but it did not ruin him. Julie Allen, Jim’s mother disciplined him and kept self-centeredness at bay.

The Allen kids were studious like their mother. John Wayne Allen, James’ brother, (named by his roughneck dad) graduated from the Naval Academy and he was now career Navy. Mary Lou, Jim’s sister was a Baylor graduate. She married a medical student, worked to put him through medical school, but as soon as he finished his residency, he divorced her and married a young nurse. Mary Lou and her husband had one child, Margaret Ann. Mary Lou recently got full custody and good child support for Margaret Ann.

Mary Lou was devastated by the divorce, but Jim, a very pragmatic person and close to his sister, was able to coach her through this troubled time. She bounced back quickly and moved on with her life and became an executive for a restaurant chain.

Both his sister and brother tried to steer Jim away from a teaching career, but with his idealistic ideas he wished to make a difference in the lives of kids. His brother teased that the periodic table had confused his mind, but secretly he admired baby brother for his sacrificial choice of careers.

Jim spent his summers going to summer school. He had finished a master’s degree program and he was now working toward a doctorate. He did not need a doctorate to teach high school Chemistry, but he was tuned in to learning and simply continued with his education. At some point in this quest, he may have to give up teaching for at least a year and spend that year on campus completing his research.

Quietly, Jim had really been working on his dissertation ever since he began teaching school. He was trying all kinds of methods of teaching the periodic table to high school kids. He had tried gimmicks, songs, corny poems; just pure memorization and any other method that came to mind.

On several occasions Jim had discussed these different techniques with professors and subtly breached the subject of this being an acceptable dissertation topic. Up to this point, he had not found a professor who saw things as Jim saw them and offered any encouragement, however, Jim was tenacious. He had not given up and he kept plugging along.

There were no dissenting arguments in the little town, Richie, Texas, that Jim was a good teacher and there was never any argument that he had their kid’s interest at heart. Much of Jim’s overwhelming approval rating was transposed from his mother’s reputation as a teacher. He had only one fault; he thought all kids should be able to learn Chemistry and if they could not or would not, he thought it was his teaching that was not up to par, or the kids would be learning.

No one really understood James Allen. He was congenial and pleasant, but never intimate with anyone. He was a nice-looking young man, but not overly friendly. He spent no time in the teacher’s lounge or the principal’s office. He worked hard at teaching and as near as everyone knew, he was quite content with his life.

Almost every new hire single female teacher tried to capture his fancy, but to no avail. Naturally, the prevailing rumor was that he was gay; yet no one knew of any male companionship except with an elderly black man who was good friends with all the Allen family. The truth of the matter was that Jim just never learned social skills and he was uneasy around women and afraid he would make a gaff that would embarrass him. He was so shy around girls that he did not even attend his high school senior prom.

Jim Allen had few friends. One was the family friend, the elderly black man. Most in the small town called him Old Jess. Jim called him Mr. Winters, a carryover from his mother’s teaching. She taught her kids to respect elderly people, black, brown, or white. In fact, she taught them to respect all people who deserved respect. His measurement of deserving was, Are they honest and industrious. Jim learned his lesson well. Jim and Jess Winters fished together in a small creek just outside Richie. The stream ran through his maternal grandparents’ 260-acre farm, which joined the Allen farm.

What Jess did not know was that on these fishing excursions, Jim was slowly building a biography of Jess Winters. Jess was approaching 75 years old. He had lived through the difficult years of the civil rights movement led by Dr. Martin Luther King and others. Jess had attended an inferior segregated school, except for an outstanding English teacher. Mollie Sessions was a bright, vivacious young lady with lots of spunk when she started teaching in the Richie Black High School. She was a graduate of Prairie View A&M University.

Miss Mollie brought all the black students in the Richie High School into the white man’s world as far as speech was concerned. If she heard a student using incorrect English, she corrected them, always with a lecture that to rise above their circumstances they must learn to speak correctly. She stressed that so strongly that even the students themselves started correcting their peers. The Richie black High School had the highest percentage of student entering college of any black high school in the state. Jess Winters was one. He had also graduated from Prairie View A&M, thanks to Mollie Sessions, who had helped him obtain a scholarship. He returned to Richie and taught math for 38 years.

On one of these fishing excursions, Jess opened his heart and told Jim some of the frustrations he experienced during his years living in a segregated society. Jess revealed. "As a little boy growing up, my Mama always fretted that I get home before dark. We lived in constant fear of being out late at night. It wasn’t the good people we feared but the white trash.

I remember one time we took a vacation. Daddy worked for your granddaddy after he started up his feed mill. Mr. Grayson gave all his employees a two weeks paid vacation. That was unusual for a black man back in the late 40s. Things were changing, slightly, after WWII. We took a little trip. All of us wanted to see the ocean. Daddy had bought a good used car. We took a trip to Galveston. We couldn’t find a motel that would take black people. We had to search for places that would serve us food. Daddy was angry and hurt. His brother had been in the war and sent to fight in Europe and he was even wounded in battle over there. We wound up sleeping in our car on the beach.

Jim recorded all his information in his notes when he arrived home. He and Jess both loved the creek. They could sit all afternoon watching the water from the creek lazily making its way to the Angelina River where it would join up and add its part to the Angelina which would eventually join the Neches river. That water would wind up in the Gulf of Mexico. Jim never lost his little boy wanderlust to follow that water and often wondering if he would ever see it again. Once as a little boy he had posed that question to Jess, and Jess never forgot. Perhaps the reason Jim and Jess were so close was rooted in their love of nature and their love of this creek. It was a quiet place, a peaceful place away from the hustle and bustle of the rest of society. Conversation was not necessary for them to commune with each other.

Generally, Jim gave the fish he caught to Jess. He did not like to kill the fish to dress them. Jess suspected that was the reason because he did not like to kill them either, but he also liked to eat them. That desire won out.

Jim often brooded over what Jim told him about living in a segregated society. He had a hard time understanding how black people could have been treated so shabbily. Jess explained, "Jim, I suspect that it was caused by the south being forced into freeing the slaves. If you study history, you will learn that slavery was on its way out in the south. Laws were already being passed where families could not be broken up. Slavery was wrong; the church was too slow to speak out against it, thus much blame falls at the feet of the church.

As late as the 1970s the pastor of the largest church in Dallas, Texas stood on the steps of that church proclaiming that the races should stay separate. He later tearfully recanted that statement, but the damage was already done.

Jim was angered and asked Jess to tell him who the pastor was, but Jess admonished. Just let it go, Jim. What is done is done and there is no use looking back. The year was 1999 and a new school year was just beginning. The whole country was talking about the calendar clicking over to a new century. Doom and gloom was being predicted. Many people were already planning to draw all their money out of banks thinking that when the new millennium began that the whole banking system was going to collapse due to the record keeping computer clocks that were going to cause the computers to crash. That simply did not happen.

There were three new teachers in the high school system this year. One male and two females. Jim, at their first orientation meeting just happened to be seated by one of the female teachers. She introduced herself as Kay Adams. She was trim and neat, filled out in all the right places, but somewhat skinny and looked a bit overworked. She had sad, but sparkly brown eyes and when Jim looked into those eyes briefly, he felt he had gotten lost in them momentarily.

For the first time since grammar school, Jim’s heart was a flutter because of the nearness of this woman. He noticed right away that she did not wear a wedding ring. What he did not know was that Kay Adams had also looked at Jim’s finger as well.

The first order of business was to introduce new teachers. Kay was introduced as the new English teacher for the district. Miss Kathryn Westbrook had moved on to a new and larger district after 20 years in Richie. Kay had a tough road ahead of her, following Miss Kathryn, who had been well established and loved in this district. She had simply felt that she needed a change and she and the High School principle had clashed.

The morning was dull and boring. All the teachers were anxious to get to their rooms so they could continue to prepare for their incoming students. Kay was a new teacher. She had just finished college. She was a twenty-six-year-old widow. She and Jim were the same age in years, but miles apart in worldly experience. She had grown up in inner city Houston in a single parent home, the oldest of three children. Since her mother was the bread winner in their family, she was a latchkey kid who took over the responsibility of the two younger kids each afternoon after school.

When Kay finished high school, a Marine recruiter enticed her to join the Marines. She went through the rigorous Basic Training and because of her tenacious nature she did better than most of her male counterparts, although she had to stretch to measure 5 ft. She even qualified as Expert on the rifle range. She had to fight off male suitors, but soon became known as a cold fish. This view was far from the truth, but it served her well in her present environment. Kay did well on all her military aptitude tests and essentially had her choice of MOS (Military Occupational Specialty). She chose Military Intelligence. When Kay finished her MOS training at Virginia Beach, Virginia, she was sent to Camp Lejeune, North Carolina. There, she met and married a young Marine corporal.

Military intelligence was a good choice for Kay. It placed her in proximity with educated military officers who depended on the job she did to enhance their own career. Kay was an intelligent woman, and she took advantage of every learning experience in her path. After two years in the military, she met corporal Robert Adams and they began dating. After dating for six months, they were married. Three months later she was pregnant.

During Kay’s pregnancy her husband was deployed to Iraq. He was there for four months and he was killed in a Jeep accident. According to the military report, he was killed when his Jeep ran over a land mine set off by an organization that was an extension of the Muslim Brotherhood, loyal to Sandam Hussein.

At the end of her enlistment, Kay decided to leave the military and use her college fund, as well as some of the insurance money from her husband’s military insurance, to attend college. Since she had grandparents who lived in Nacogdoches, Texas, who could help her with her little girl, now almost two years old, she chose Stephen F. Austin State University for her education.

For the first time in her life, Kay found her passion, and that passion was to teach. She looked forward, with enthusiasm, to teaching high school student how to write cohesively and speak correctly. She had learned much in the military that would help in this endeavor. Part of that was discipline.

After four years in the Marines, before college, Kay was now 26 years old. She had been a serious student in college and did not date. She devoted her time to her studies and her daughter.

Kay noticed the young man she sat down beside for the beginning of the new school new year and assumed that he was married, but she caught herself looking at his finger to see if there was a wedding band. There wasn’t.

Although Jim knew that he would not have any concept of how to approach a woman who looked like this, he caught himself looking at her finger as well. His heart quickened when he saw no wedding ring. For the first time ever, he felt, as he would later describe this first meeting, My valence bonds were meshing with Kay’s trying to form a molecule.

During this orientation, Kay was madly taking notes and she dropped her pen. She and Jim both reached for the pen at the same time and wound-up butting heads. Both were embarrassed by this, but it would turn out to be the most important event that had ever occurred in their lives. Kay unconsciously reached over and placed her hand on Jim’s and said, I’m so sorry.

All Jim could muster was, No, no, it was my fault. Kay’s touch on Jim’s hand was like an electric shock. Kay could not have told you why she reached for Jim’s hand. It was almost a reflex action, but deep down she felt it was more than that. She looked at him and smiled a disarming smile. James Lynn Allen was smitten. He saw dark brown eyes that were like deep, deep pools where a man could simply lose himself. He smiled back at her. She was not as disarmed as he was, but she was interested.

The session finally ended. It had been a solid hour devoted to changes to Staar testing. Teachers were then dismissed for lunch. As soon as the session broke up, Jim introduced himself to Kay. He was ill at ease around women, but still functional. He asked straight out, Is it Miss or Mrs. Adams?

Kay had much experience warding off prospective suitors, but for some reason she could not explain, she did not feel that was what was needed here. She answered, I guess the answer to that question is Ms. I am an old widow woman, Jim; just staring a job as a new, first job out of college teacher, and very unsettled this morning.

"Well, I am just a bashful old bachelor, one very inexperienced with the opposite sex, but if I can help make your transition easier, please call on me for anything I can help you with. The only thing I can’t help with is an assessment of the people you will be working with. You will have to make your own judgement there and you do not need my bias.

Would you care to grab a quick lunch somewhere close by, so we can get back to our rooms? I haven’t done much with mine yet.

Yes, I would like that, Jim.

Jim and Kay went to his old, dilapidated Chevrolet truck. It had been one of his Dad’s cast offs. The seat was full of books; all kinds. Kay noticed a western novel among them, but also a couple of classics. She made a mental note of that. Jim just shoved them over so Kay would have a place to ride. She also noticed a rod and reel in the back seat. She was becoming more and more impressed with this guy by the minute. In many ways, she saw a person who was happy with who he was. She is thinking, That is something that is hard to find in our culture.

Jim drove to a little grocery store on the edge of town. He informed, These folks serve a good hamburger, along with decadent onion rings. They also make several kinds of poor boy sandwiches or salad if you prefer that. Will this be okay?

Perfect! My kind of place. Jim, there is nothing pretentious about me. You may as well learn up front, I am an ex-Marine. My husband was also a Marine who was killed in Iraq before our daughter was born. I am uneasy about starting this new career, so I imagine my many thorns and stickers will be sticking out. I grew up hard, with a single mom and a dead-beat dad. I have no idea where he is. Mom had two younger than me, so I had to accept responsibility at a young age. I am 26, going on 60.

Jim and Kay were still sitting in Jim’s old truck. He looked intently at Kay and steeled his backbone and commented, Well, Ms. Adams, I certainly do not see any stickers and thorns sticking out. Starting a new job is difficult for most. It sounds to me like you are well equipped for the job you hold. You are following a dynamic person, but I doubt that will matter much. You are also a dynamic person. Just let everyone know up front that you are not Miss Westbrook and do not intend to be.

That sound like good advice to me.

Smiling a sly smile, Jim said, That is all the advice you will get from me.

Then we can get along.

They each laughed at Kay’s last statement and this romance was off to a good start. Jim exited the truck. He intended to go around and open the door for Kay, but her Marine training was still in place, so she simply opened her own door and jumped out. She still worked out daily and she was in fantastic shape. Jim had his own fitness routine. He had a walking trail around the farm where he grew up and still lived. It was 260 acres of good farmland adjacent to his grandparents old homeplace of 260 acres.

There was one tenant on the grandparent farm. Jake Williams and his family had been there all Jim’s life. Jake’s wife was cafeteria manager for the school. They had two teenage kids. They lived in a good solid home on the farm. Jim’s mother had insisted that they add brick veneer to the house several years earlier. Jake kept it painted and looking good.

There was another tenant on his parent’s farm, the Tipton’s. The Tipton’s had two grown children and a 24-year-old retarded daughter that lived with them.

In this little eating place, you went to a counter and ordered. When your meal was ready it was delivered to the table you had selected. Jim ordered a fish sandwich with onion rings and a diet Coke. Kay said, That sounds good. I will have the same and a diet coke as well.

Yeah, hopefully the diet coke will offset the onion rings, Jim commented. I think the diet Coke has more fizz than the regular coke and I like the taste better. Kay agreed.

Fortunately, on this day, there were no other teachers in this little out of the way place. Jim learned much about Kay, but she learned little about him. She kept waiting to try to get a fix on why this guy was single. She felt there had to be some reason he was unattached. Guys with his looks, and self-sufficiency just weren’t running around loose in her book.

During their meal Jim, searching for some conversation topic that would steer conversation away from him and give him some insight into the life of this dynamic woman asked, You have a daughter; how old is she?

She will be six December 19th. Kay dug a picture out of her billfold. It was a picture of a blond-haired blue-eyed beauty.

Wow! Jim exclaimed. Where did she get those beautiful blue eyes?

Surprising isn’t it. My husband had blue eyes. My grandmother has blue eyes. Somehow those blue-eyed genes got together.

Well, I made it through Genetics, but it wasn’t my favorite class, Jim revealed. That is kind of amazing though isn’t it.

Yes. My grandmother is so proud of that. I lived with my grandparents while I attended college. They are lost now that we have moved. I will try to go back often.

Kay had just revealed her soft side. She seldom let it show, but that spoke volumes to James Allen. Win lose or draw, Jim Allen had found the woman he wanted to marry. For the first time ever, he had found the woman of his dreams. It did not matter one whit to him that she had a six-year-old child; in fact, he saw that as a plus. He had already fallen in love with the little girl in this picture and had not even met her.

The first thought that came to Jim’s mind was that he wanted Kay and her daughter to meet Jess. Jess was a surrogate grandparent to Jim. He asked, Do you by chance like to fish?

Oh, I have fished some. It is not my favorite thing to do, but Julie loves to fish. Granddaddy Bailey took her fishing often. She has already been whining about not being able to fish.

Well, that is one of your problem’s that I can solve for you. I have a fishing buddy I would like for you and Julie to meet.

Kay was an astute woman. She did not miss the fact that Jim was already using her daughter’s name. Although it chagrined her just a bit, she noticed that her pulse quickened. She kept telling herself, Keep your feet on the ground. You do not know anything about this guy, but it wasn’t working. She had no intention of becoming involved with a man at this stage. Starting a job as a new teacher was going to consume her. She also had a responsibility to her almost six-year-old daughter. She told herself that she did not have time for a relationship with a man at this stage of her life, but she discovered that self wasn’t listening.

Jim had heard a pastor in a sermon once comment that when a person first accepted Jesus Christ in a personal manner that the first thing they wanted to do was share that with their best friends. That thought popped into Jim’s mind, because the first thing he wanted to do was introduce Kay and Julie to Jess Winters. He keeps trying to tell himself that he had no idea if Kay is interested in starting a relationship with him or not, but he sure was hoping that she was. Being the transparent person that he was, he simply came right out and asked, Kay, are you interested in dating me? I know nothing about trying to start a relationship. I have never had a girlfriend, but I feel comfortable with you.

Kay was shocked down to her toes. She was thinking, He is just like a little boy, honest to the core, or one of the smoothest charlatans I have ever met.

She looked intently at him and answered, "Jim, the one thing I did not intend to do was become involved with a man while I am trying to get my feet on the ground in this new job. My mind is telling me, No, no, no, but my heart is saying yes, yes, yes.

All I can promise is, yes, I will start a friendship with you, but that is all I can promise. You are different from every man I have ever met before. Don’t think for one moment that I will jump in bed with you. I know what people think about women who have been in the military. I have never slept with but one man and that was my husband and only then after we were married. If you can live with that, yes I will date you.

I would never ask any more of you, Kay. I am just a simple Chemistry teacher. I love to teach kids and try to help them learn and push them down the road toward a successful life. That had been enough until you sat down beside me this morning.

Kay looked at Jim. He looked like a little boy who had just given her a glimpse of his heart. She was right and she somehow knew that. She knew at that point that she had just met her future husband. She knew there could be a rocky road between where they were now and the point where they would become a family, but she was willing to take the risk.

Kay asked, How will this work, Jim? We will become the school gossip for a few days. The other teachers must know your background.

Well, I have been thinking on that subject. I think the best way to handle that is to simply tell a little white lie. We will just tell everyone that we are old friends. They don’t have to know that this friendship started this morning.

Kay smiled. That might work for a while. Oh boy. I hate to be the center of the gossip mill.

Me too, but it can’t be helped. Will you give me your phone number? They exchanged cell phone numbers, got up and left the little eatery after Jim had thanked the lady behind the counter and introduced her to Kay."

June Huntington was gracious and thanked Jim profusely. Jim knew everyone in the restaurant and waved and spoke to each one. He and Kay received lots of stares and they were much discussed after they exited the restaurant. June was quizzed about that good-looking woman with James Allen. She revealed that she was the new English teacher at the high school.

One crusty old character commented, Well, the boys won’t learn nuthin in her class just like the little gals won’t learn nuthin in his class. They will be too busy lusting.

June laughed. She figured Gus was probably right, but she didn’t comment.

Back at school, Kay went to her room and started adding garnish to the walls to make her room more inviting. Mrs. Westbrook had cleared everything out when she left so the new teacher could make it her room. Mrs. Westbrook was a class act, and she would be missed. Kay had a rough few weeks staring her in the face. Mrs. Westbrook’s legacy would die a slow death, but Kay Adams was a tough pragmatic person. She was aware that the former teacher had been much respected in this town. The school superintendent as well as the assistant principal both knew this and had forewarned Kay that this was likely to be a temporary problem.

Word was already out in Richie that the new English teacher was a former Marine Corporal and that her husband had also been a Marine and had been killed in Iraq. Fifteen minutes after she was seen getting into Jim Allen’s old worn-out pickup truck, that word had already spread all over town. The telephone wires and wireless phones were running white hot.

Both Jim and Kay knew that they must be discreet with their budding romance and both understood very well that their relationship had possibilities. They each felt the chemistry between them. Kay had not been interested in starting a romance. Jim was simply drifting along not knowing how to even approach a woman until he met Kay. Some inner prompt in his mind screamed, Seize the moment and he listened.

Kay spent the first hour working in her room trying to settle down from her encounter with Jim Allen. She is thinking all this time, There has to be some reason this guy is unattached. Jim had warned, You will be quizzed about our going to lunch together. It might be a good idea to simply tell folks that we are old friends.

That warning was weighing heavily on Kay’s mind, but she was a very resilient person, so she got busy arranging her room like she wanted it. The French teacher stopped in Kay’s room to not so subtly quiz Kay about her and Jim going out to eat at lunch. Kay was non-committal with information other than to comment that Jim was a nice and interesting person.

Alecia Nelson blustered, Well, he seems like a cold fish to me.

Kay responded, Well, I’m not fishing so I would not know about that.

That comment stung Alecia and she did not tarry after that encounter, but Kay had just made one enemy in this school. She was aware of that, but she had locked horns with jealous folks before and that had never bothered her very much. She had handled it before, and she figured she could handle it again. Jim Adams did not seem like a cold fish to her. He seemed to be a gentleman; a gentleman she was interested in knowing, but she certainly would not throw herself at him.

Jim considered going by Kay’s room before leaving school this first day but decided that would simply be too obvious. He walked out to the parking lot and there he found Kay with the hood up on her old Toyota Corolla. The assistant principal Ron Burkett was standing with her looking under the hood.

He walked over and asked, Problems?

Yes. I knew my battery was weak, but I was trying to wait until payday to replace it. Bad judgement.

Well, I can jump start you.

Oh, great. I have to pick up my daughter from daycare.

Jim drove his old truck over in front of her car, hooked up the jumper cables and Kay started her car. He informed, I will follow you to daycare and make sure you are okay. I suggest that you stop off at Walmart or an auto parts store and get a new battery. You probably need to just leave it running at the daycare or we will have to jump it off again. I will watch it for you.

Burkett is amused that Kay Adams had broken through Jim Allen’s shell. Ron really liked Jim. As Kay was driving off and Jim was preparing to follow, Ron commented to Jim, She is an attractive lady, Jim. You take good care of her.

Jim turned bright red, but with a sly grin on his face he answered, Oh, I suspect that she has ice water in her veins. You of course know that she is and ex-Marine.

Yes, I am aware of that, but I have heard the same comments about you. Perhaps it is time for a thaw. Go for it, Jim.

I do not want to be a stumbling block as she starts her new job. Following Miss Westbrook is going to be difficult for her. I had better get to that daycare so I can watch her car for her while she picks up her daughter.

The two waved and Jim climbed in his old truck and followed Kay. Ron was smiling, and thinking, Poor Jim. He is in love and don’t even know it yet. I wonder just how rocky this road is going to be for these two. I fear this is going to be the lamb trying to date the lion. I hope she takes pity on him.

What Ron and most of the town of Richie did not know was that James Lynn Allen was a lot more pragmatic and tougher than anyone realized. He would not rush Kay Adams, but he had already made up his mind that he was going after her. He was very much aware that his inexperience with women was going to be problematic. Kay had been married. She had also been in the Marines. She had a child. All those things were running through his mind as he drove to the day care center. He was aware of all his limitations. He simply concluded, I will just be me and not try to be something else. If she likes me, that will be okay. If she doesn’t, I will be crushed, but I will get over it.

Kay rushed in and picked up Julie. When they arrived back at her car, she introduced Julie to Jim. Jim got down on one knee and greeted Julie, and revealed, Julie, I am so happy to meet you. Julie is one of my favorite names. It was my mother’s name.

The little girl asked, Where is your mother?

My mother is in heaven now.

That is where my daddy is, but we can’t go there. That is reserved for when we die.

Yes, sweetheart. It is a special place.

Looking intently at Jim, Julie in her child’s innocence said, I like you. Are you going to marry my Mama? She don’t like men very much.

Julie, Kay gushed and turned bright red.

Jim just smiled and answered, Oh, we just met today. She hasn’t had time to dislike me yet. That may come later.

Well, I hope not. I like you.

Oh, and I like you too.

Kay interrupted, Julie, Mama has to go find a new battery for our car. The one we have won’t start the car. Mr. Allen had to jump start me at school today.

How did he do that?

He has some long wires that connected his battery to ours.

Wow.

Kay took Julie’s hand and led her around her car and placed her in a car seat.

She came back around the car and thanked Jim after she revealed, Oh, I am so embarrassed.

Don’t be. She is just a precious little girl. She is beautiful, Kay.

Kay’s eyes dilated and misted. She said, Thanks for all you have done for me today. You have made this day much easier for me.

Well, let’s go get you a battery. This is not over yet. I need to know that you and Julie are safe.

We will be okay now, Jim. You have done enough.

I will have done enough when I hear this car start with a new battery.

Looking into his eyes, Kay revealed. No one has ever worried about me before, Jim. I do not know how to take this.

Jim reached down and took her hand and said, Well, it is about time for that to change.

For the first time ever, Kay Adams felt that she was drawing strength from another human being. Jim reached and opened the door for her. She got in and said, I think I will just go to Walmart.

Well, drive around to the Automotive Service area and I will take this battery off so you can exchange it.

Okay.

At the store, Jim removed Kay’s old battery, grabbed a basket, and carted the old battery inside, after he had checked to make sure the alternator was charging. He cautioned Kay that she should pick one of their better batteries.

She wanted to know why, and he explained that their cheaper batteries were simply no good and would not hold up, but their premium batteries would. He seemed to know what he was talking about, and being the chemistry teacher, she deemed that he probably knew battery chemistry. She purchased their best battery suitable for her car.

Jim got the battery installed and sent Kay and Julie on their way. They were not out of the Walmart parking lot before Julie asked, Mama are you going to marry Mr. Jim?

I don’t know sweetheart. I just met him.

I like him, Mama.

He seems nice, sweetheart.

He is nice, Mama. Why don’t you ask him to marry you and then I will have a daddy?

It doesn’t work that way, sweetheart. He has to ask me.

Why?

I don’t know sweetheart. That is just the way it works.

Well, if I find a boy I want to marry, I’ll ask him.

You do that sweetheart.

Kay was anxious to get to their house. This had been an incredibly stressful day. The one thing she had not expected was to become romantically involved with a man on this first day as a new teacher. She felt that this was sheer lunacy, but for the life of her, she could not get Jim Allen out of her mind. She felt comfortable with him. She felt a measure of safety in his presence. She had never felt like she really needed a man before in her life, even her husband, but now she wanted to be in Jim Allen’s arms. She was disgusted with herself.

Jim Allen was having similar thoughts. His tranquil life had just been turned upside down.

Chapter 2

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The rumor mill at school was just about in overload state. Rumors were running from ridiculous to sublime. Someone started the rumor that Jim and Kay had been secretly dating for years. One rumor was that her child was really Jim’s. That one was squashed right away by sheer logic. She was in the Marines when her little girl was born and in North Carolina. Someone tried to start a rumor using reverse logic claiming that Jim really had not been going to summer school at A&M to work on a master’s degree, but he had secretly been spending his time in North Carolina.

Alecia Nelson tried to repeat that rumor to Ron Burkett. Ron essentially laughed in her face and revealed, "Miss Nelson, we have a copy of his diploma in our office. We did a background check on Kay Adams and she has a stellar reputation as a Marine and advanced to the rank of Corporal serving in the intelligence branch. Her husband was killed in Iraq before her child was born. He was also a Marine serving this country. If one more person repeats the vicious rumors circulating around this campus to me about these two people, I will do everything within my power to see that their contract is not renewed.

Mrs. Adams and Mr. Allen have conducted themselves appropriately on this campus. As near as I can tell, the only contact I am aware of off campus is that he helped her start her car, saw that she got to daycare to pick up her daughter, and saw that she was able to get a new battery on her car. That appears very gentlemanly to me. I am proud that one of our staff is that gracious.

Alecia left Ron Burkett’s presence licking her wounds. She understood she had just antagonized a powerful potential enemy. Ron was a good administrator. He should have been principal; he simply wasn’t politically connected enough to have that roll. The principal was the bank president’s daughter. Those are strong credentials in a small town. She was a bit inept but had the potential to be a good principal, but Ron ran the school. Ron understood the sheer goodness of Jim Allen. He was thoroughly disgusted with Alecia Nelson and he had left little doubt in her mind of that fact. She went back to her room on rubber legs and shut her door. That quelled 90%