“My evaluation last spring was excellent.”

“The board still has to review the filing,” Superintendent Miller said.

He slipped the papers into a thick manila folder and shut it with a soft thump.

“What happens to my third-grade classroom in the fall?” I asked.

“A substitute will handle room assignments until the hearing on August twenty-first,” Superintendent Miller said.

He picked up his pen and kept his eyes on his desk as I stood to go.

I walked out to my white Buick LeSabre with its hundred ninety thousand miles and pulled out into the midmorning traffic on Rochester Road.