"I washed the dishes and scrubbed the floor
Taught the baby how to count to four
I made the beds and cut the grass
I'm glad that school is in at last." - School is In - Gary U.S. Bonds (Gary U.S. Bonds & Gene Barge)

Like I said before, school was starting the next day. My office was ready and I'd already talked to the counselors at the junior highs that fed my school to know what incoming freshmen I needed to keep an eye on.

"Morning Florence," I said as I grabbed a cup of coffee.

"Morning Jim," she said, nodding to my door where there was already someone waiting.

"Well, that don't bode well for the year," I said. "I'll catch up with you in a little while."

Florence smiled as I headed to see what Peggy needed. Yeah I knew the girl. She was kind of a regular. Not as bad off as some kids but if she was waiting for me the first day of school before she even went to homeroom, something was up for sure.

"Welcome back, Peggy," I said as I unlocked my office and ushered her in.

"Hi Jim," she said softly. Her voice was shaking and I figured she was about to start crying. I quick went back to the outer office and got her a cup of water from the water cooler. If she didn't already need it, she would.

I sat the water on my desk right in front of where she was sitting and then settled into my seat behind my desk.

"What's wrong?" I asked. There was no real need to try for small talk and no asking if she was alright. She wasn't.

"I got married," she said before the tears overtook her. I should note that Peggy was a senior and I'm pretty sure she was eighteen or close to it so the fact she got married wasn't usual but it was legal.

"I don't think I've seen a sadder bride. I thought you and Denny were the real deal. Trouble already?"

She took a sip of the water and collected herself a little.

"We got married once his number came up. He's over there."

Denny graduated the year before and his number coming up meant his draft number.

"I'm sorry, Peggy. Have you heard from him?"

She nodded.

"Couple letters so far."

"How's Vic doing?"

Vic was her older brother. He and Denny were really tight friends. That's how she and Denny had met. I got Vic into an apprenticeship to be an electrician.

"He'll be shipping out next month," she said and her tears renewed.

I stood up and wasn't quite sure what to do. I leaned out my door.

"Florence, could you come in here, please?"

She looked confused. It's not that she'd never been in my office but I think she knew this was a different sort of situation. By the time Florence got into my office, I was in the chair next to Peggy and was hugging her to me while she cried. I could see Florence's heart break even without knowing the full story.

"I don't think Peggy's going to make it to any classes today. We'll try again tomorrow."

Florence nodded.

"I'll make sure to mark down all absences as 'excused', Jim. Is there anything else I can do?"

"Would you take her to the ladies room and help her collect herself? I'll be in the staff parking lot. She's got an aunt she's close to. I'll drive her there."

We got Peggy calmed a little and I got her to her aunt's place and I made sure her teachers knew what was going on. A couple were kind of heartless and didn't really care what she was going through. I'd run interference for her with them. The others were very sympathetic so I knew I wouldn't have to be looking out for her all on my own. Damn, I hated that war.

I got back to the main office and there was already another kid outside my office door.

"Please tell me this ain't some sort of sign," I said to Florence as I passed her desk.

"Heaven help us if it is," she said.

I went to my office and unlocked it, ushering in the young man who was waiting.

"James Hickok," I said, extending my hand to him. He looked at me in utter confusion. I was pretty sure he was a freshman and wasn't probably used to adults treating him like a peer.

"Shane Dover," he replied as he shook my hand tentatively.

"Can I get you something? Water? Coffee?"

He just looked at me like he was confused.

"I need everyone who comes in here to be at ease," I explained. "It helps if we ditch some formality and get on some even footing. Outside this office we're Mr. Hickok and Mr. Dover. On the other side of the door we have to have some formal relationship. Inside this office, we're Jim and Shane. Just two guys talking. I have an open door policy. If I'm here and not already talking to another student, the door is open and you can walk in. If the door is closed, I'm either out or someone else beat you here. You with me so far?"

Shane nodded.

"Good. Now, most social workers are like doctors, there's confidentiality. I try to keep that as much as I can here. I ain't going to go blabbing your personal business in the teacher's lounge. I work for the school and I have to keep some records to protect the school from liability. My wife's a lawyer and she helps me walk that line protecting you and the school as best I can. But if it comes down to it, my loyalty is to you. I grew up pretty rough and there weren't many people to look out for me. I do this job to try to make it easier on kids that maybe need someone in their corner. Do you understand?"

He nodded again.

"Good, now you want to tell me the story behind that shiner?"

I dragged myself into the house that evening feeling like I'd been run over by a truck. The whole day was like that first couple hours. Some were my regulars touching base with updates on their crappy lives and some were like Shane–new to the school and to me. I had gotten a chance to fill Florence in on the baby news. I didn't go into the fact that we were in San Francisco when we found out why Joanie was miscarrying and that meant I didn't have to go into why we were in San Francisco. Florence was so happy for us and with a day starting and even continuing like it had, it felt good to share some good news.

Joanie was standing in the kitchen when I came in from the garage.

"Rough day?"

I just nodded and wrapped my arms around her.

"Let's go upstairs," she said gently. "You can get out of your work clothes and tell me all about it."

We got to our room and Joanie was on me that quick. I'd taken off my tie on the way upstairs but she had my shirt off before I even knew what was going on. I quick took a look at her to get a better idea of the situation. This wasn't some desperate act like after Stan and this wasn't her insecurity either. What was in her eyes right then was lust, pure and simple. I didn't know what sparked that but I wasn't about to question it. I was exhausted but Joanie seemed perfectly happy to take charge.

I've since learned that it's fairly common for pregnant women to have an increased libido. Somewhere between the hormones and increased blood volume, they just can't help it.

Well, I was just laying across our bed trying to catch my breath with Joanie curled around me.

"I really did mean to ask you about your day," Joanie said sheepishly. "I just suddenly really needed you."

"I ain't gonna complain about that ever."

Joanie got up and started getting dressed.

"Tell me about it, my love. You're hardly ever that drained looking when you come home. Especially not on the first day back."

So I filled her in on everything as she dressed and got clothes for me to wear.

"Is one social worker really enough for that school?"

I laughed.

"Most days…though maybe not. If this keeps up it's going to be a really long year."

"At least the Tigers are still in first place," she said with a smile.

"It is nice they're giving us something to be happy about," I agreed.

We headed downstairs to see about some dinner.

"So how was your day? You must have gotten out early."

"I'm on top of my current cases and didn't have any appointments so I came home. I did a little work here. I think Daddy, Uncle Eli and Uncle Saul still feel bad about how over our heads we were after the riots."

That made something occur to me.

"Can I ask you something about that, Joanie?"

She just looked at me in question.

"When you came up missing and Judy and I went out to find you, we met up with a marshal that Sam knows and he asked a lot of questions. I didn't mind because I just wanted to find you and bring you home. He asked if you used drugs. I said I didn't think so but then I asked Judy…"

I hadn't looked at Joanie the whole time I'd been talking but I dared it then. She had tears standing in her eyes.

"She told the truth."

It wasn't an accusation and she didn't sound angry with her sister. It was more a statement of fact. I nodded to her.

"I only did it for a short while. Just until we got some new lawyers at the firm to help out. I just…Noah was gone and the city was in a shambles and I had so many open cases…there weren't enough hours in the day. That doesn't make it right. I know that. You must be so disappointed in me."

Joanie started to turn away from me but I put my hands on her shoulders and pulled her to me.

"No, sweetheart. I wasn't trying to make you feel bad again. I'm not disappointed in you. I don't think I ever could be."

"You should be," she sobbed. "I'm the most terrible wife."

"I don't think so. I just wanted the whole truth in the open and maybe to talk a little about it. I know you were frantic and trying to process so much tragedy and not let anyone down. I know you did the best you could and I know I wasn't as helpful as I could have been. But I think if we talk a bit about it, maybe I can learn how to be more helpful and you can learn how to ask for help."

"I am so much trouble, James. I think my biggest fear is the day you realize I'm not worth it."

"You don't ever need to worry about that because you are worth it. You are a treasure and one I ain't always sure I'm worthy of, but you are everything to me and nothing is too much trouble if it means you're in my life."

Joanie pushed away from me and leaned against the counter.

"How do you not see this, James? I did drugs. I cheated on you. I even gave you a black eye once. And what's the worst you've done? Oh, that's right. You returned the kiss of that shiksa whore. One that I should have warned you about. When are you going to get sick of it?"

"Never."

"You still don't think highly enough of yourself, do you? You think you deserve this?"

"Joanie, I didn't have a future before you. I didn't know anything. I'd never been to a museum. I didn't even have a library card. You know, taking me to get that library card is the reason I decided to go back to school. I would read all these different things and then think how great it would be to learn even more. You gave me that. Hell, you gave me my religion. That's all you just being yourself. Look at me now, Joanie. I help kids like I was. I was in a position to save Jesse. I'm here in a nice house and deserving of the love of my son. I get to see him. If you hadn't been there, she'd've taken me for everything I had and I'd probably hardly ever see him. Neither one of us ever had good enough self esteem. But you are worth everything, Joanie. You always will be. I'm kind of grateful that you make mistakes sometimes because then I know I don't have to be perfect."

Joanie was crying pretty hard about then but so was I. People might be surprised that I said stuff like that because I think sometimes I didn't come off as the guy who'd bare his soul or anything. But there's times when it's really important for the people you care about to know how you feel and speaking from your heart is the only way to accomplish that. I loved that woman with every fiber of my being and nothing anyone said or did, her included, could ever change that.

I pulled her into my arms and we cried against each other for a few minutes.

"So what does the little tadpole want for dinner tonight?" I asked as I pulled back and kissed the top of her head.

"Tuna sandwich and a root beer float," she said sheepishly. "Doesn't sound like much of a dinner after the day you had…"

"It sounds just fine."

I will say that thankfully the rest of the week was a lot mellower than that first day. I don't think I could have handled it if every day was wall to wall kids with wall to wall problems. I actually even had time to get paperwork done and by the time the final bell rang on Friday, I was as ready to get out of the office as my kids were.

Just as I was grabbing my suit jacket and heading out the office door, the phone on my desk rang. I kind of had to pick it up.

"Mr. Hickok?"

It was the secretary at Dean's school. There'd been some sort of fight and they couldn't get a hold of Sarah. I told them I was just heading out of my office and would be right there.

Honestly, that moment was the first time I really felt like I couldn't do the whole dad thing. Here's a note for anyone who's not a parent yet. Every parent is unprepared for things like this. We might have thought of every eventuality and planned how we'd respond and you still aren't prepared. I didn't know if Dean started the fight or ended it and I hadn't ever talked to him about fighting at all. I think we all know well enough by now that I wasn't no choir boy when I grew up and I got into plenty of fights. And then what if he was hurt or what if he hurt someone else really bad? Al never looked rattled when he stepped in to help us guys but he must've been putting on one hell of a performance to keep his composure.

Now maybe you think that after getting called to the police station to handle Jesse when he was just a little snot-nosed punk would've helped. But that…well, I didn't know the particular situation until I got to the police station and he wasn't my own son and really, I kind of expected Jesse to get into trouble.

I hadn't known Dean a whole year but he wasn't a naughty kid. He never got into it with the neighbor kids and his conferences the school year before were all glowing.

I got to the office of Dean's school and found him quickly. He was on a bench outside the principal's office holding an ice pack to his eye. I went right over to him and sat down next to him.

"Are you okay?"

"I'm sorry, Daddy," he whispered.

"Are you okay?" I repeated.

"I think so."

I signed in relief and then turned to him and lifted the ice pack to see how bad the damage was to his face. I winced when I saw the color spreading around his eye.

"You got a good shiner going."

"Mr. Hickok?"

Looking up I saw the principal. He looked about as ready to flee the building as I had felt. Must've been a tough week on everyone in the school district. I stood and shook the man's hand.

"Roger Liken, it's good to meet you."

I just nodded. The jury was still out on if it was good to meet him or not.

"Can I speak to you privately?"

I nodded again. I think I would rather have talked to Dean first and gotten his side of things but I didn't run things in this office.

"Sit tight, okay buddy?" I said looking at Dean. He nodded and looked absolutely heartbroken. Man, I really didn't want to go into that office. I wanted to stay and make sure my son was alright. But being a grown up means that sometimes you have to do the things you don't want to do. After a while you get a feel for when to go along and when to stand your ground on things like this. I was nowhere near that point.

I sat down in the chair opposite the desk while Mr. Liken sat behind his desk.

"You're being very patient," he observed.

"I'm trying."

"Dean's not in a great amount of trouble. The other boy is a bit of a bully and he must have pushed just the right buttons."

"He never told me he was getting bullied."

Mr. Liken smiled a bit at that.

"I don't mean to overstep my boundaries but this isn't a typical situation, is it?"

I shook my head.

"I didn't know he existed until February. Threw me and my wife for a bit of a loop but he's a good thing in our lives. Gets complicated sometimes since his mom and I don't really get along. I do the best I can for him. He doesn't need to grow up hearing his parents being ugly to each other."

"You're a social worker, correct?"

I nodded.

"You're doing a fine job with him. I've overheard him bragging about his Dad to some of the other boys. Something about a motorcycle and being friends with that William Cody on the news. I think he'd always felt left out when the other children spoke of their fathers."

There didn't seem to be any comment needed from me so I stayed quiet and just took in that my boy bragged about me to his friends. That kind of felt good.

"I usually deal with his mother when things happen here," he continued. "She's not nearly as calm as you are."

I just nodded. I didn't want to say too much.

"Dean has a tendency to try to be a little too perfect," he said. "I think Ms. Downs is not always calm with him either. And with you…well, he's gone so long without a father and I think he might be somewhat afraid that if he's too much bother that…"

His voice trailed away and I nodded again as I tried to frame a response. I knew it was my turn to talk now but wasn't sure exactly what to say or maybe just how to say it.

"Do you have children of your own?"

"Three," he said, nodding.

"I guess then you already know that I couldn't turn my back on that boy for anything. I'm not perfect and I can't very well expect a child to be something I can't even manage. You're right though. He's still learning to be secure in this."

"I'll let you talk to him and try to assure him that things are alright. He was so excited this week because he said his name was going to change."

"We're working on it," I told him. "Now, you said he wasn't in a lot of trouble but I don't figure you can let his role in this just slide either."

"No, I can't. I think that on Monday Dean will be staying in from recess and will spend his time in the office here. We'll come up with something for him to do. Some little project or something. Coming down hard on him won't accomplish much. He's already very upset. I dare say he's punishing himself worse than I ever could. You'll take him home with you now?"

I nodded and stood and shook the man's hand again and then went out to collect my kid.

Once we were in the car, I turned to him and was struck by how afraid he looked. I know he didn't think I was going to hit him. I think the fear was that maybe he thought he didn't have a dad anymore.

"Dean, I need you to listen real close to what I am about to say."

He turned his head to look at me and I tried to not react to the terror in his eyes.

"I am not mad and you're not really in trouble. We never talked about fighting and how I felt about it or anything. I got into lots of fights when I was younger. I've learned a lot since then and I know better ways to handle things now. But I am not mad at you. Do you understand?"

"I'm so sorry, Daddy. They tried to get a hold of Mom and they couldn't and they said they were calling you and I didn't want them bothering you at work and making you come all the way over to my school. I'm so sorry."

He was curling in on himself as he spoke. I just pulled him into a hug and shushed him.

"No, it's alright. I said I'd always be there for you. I meant it. Everything's going to be alright."

I just let him cry into me for a while. Sometimes you just have to let people get things out of their system. Once he calmed down a little bit, I dared speak again.

"Are you up to talking about what happened?"

He opened his mouth up a few times and then ultimately shook his head.

"That's okay," I assured him. "We'll go home and maybe later we can talk this out a little. I'm interested to know what made you that mad. I've never seen you cross with anyone."

I got the two of us home and was relieved to see Joanie wasn't home yet. I asked if Dean had any homework and he said he didn't. I told him he could watch TV or play in his room until dinner. I didn't want Joanie to see his face until I'd had a chance to talk to her. She was probably going to freak out about his black eye.

I had just started to get things out to get dinner started so Joanie could eat when she got home when the phone rang. It was Sarah.

"How dare you just take him with you?"

"Hi Sarah," I said, trying to keep the anger at her out of my voice. "Dean's fine, I'll let him know you asked about him."

"This isn't your weekend."

"Well, I'd like to know exactly what else I was supposed to do. No one could get a hold of you so I went over–which is fine, by the way. Dean was pretty upset and he don't have a key to your place anyway. Was I supposed to leave my crying eight year old son sitting in the hallway outside your door or just sit in the car outside your building waiting on you?"

"You want him this weekend? Fine! Take him. My boss wanted me to pick up some more shifts anyway!"

"Do you at least want to talk to him?"

"I'll call him later."

Then she hung up. Well, more accurately, she slammed the phone down. That's something you can't do with cell phones. My ear was actually ringing for how hard she had slammed that phone.

There wasn't anything else I could do about Sarah. If she was pissed I guess she'd just have to be pissed. And if she was letting Dean stay then that was just fine with me. I was never going to complain about time with my son.

So I set to doing the only thing I could, which was get some dinner in the oven so that son could have a nutritious dinner. Once dinner was in the oven, I put some cookies on a plate and poured a glass of milk and headed up the stairs.

I found Dean just laying on his bed. He had a library book next to him but from the looks of his tear-stained face, he hadn't read much of it. I set the cookies and milk on his night stand and sat down on the edge of the bed. He was making himself look away from me.

With a heavy sigh, I wiped what tears I could from his little face. It was time to be the dad I needed when I was his age.

"I'm sorry, Dean," I said, brushing his hair away from his face. "I should've seen this sooner. When I brought you home, I thought you were scared of me…that I'd be mad or stop loving you. Maybe you were a little but the fight itself was scary. I forgot how it feels. It's scary to know you could get hurt and it's even scarier after–when you realize how out of control you were. That's it, isn't it?"

He nodded and cried harder. I picked him up and cradled him to me and just let the poor kid cry. After a while he calmed a little and I grabbed him a tissue so he could blow his nose.

"I brought you a snack. Joanie hasn't done much baking lately but we had some Oreos."

He took a few swallows of the milk while I went into the bathroom and wet down a washcloth with cool water to wipe off his face. He was just finishing his snack when I heard Joanie's car in the driveway. Dean tensed and looked at me in a panic.

"I'll talk to her. She's more likely to worry about your eye than be mad at you but I'll talk to her."

"She hates fighting," he whispered.

"Yeah, but she understands it sometimes too. I'll have to tell you about the only fight I was ever in after I met her. She was fine with it, mostly. You might as well learn this term. It's important to lawyers, especially ones like Joanie. Extenuating circumstances. I'll tell you what it means later but she understands that term and she'll be okay."

I kissed the side of his head and then grabbed his plate and glass before heading downstairs.

I met Joanie just as she was walking through the living room to the stairs so she could change out of her work clothes. She eyed the plate and glass in my hands.

"Couldn't wait for dinner?"

"Dean needed a snack," I said.

"Oh," she said and then it hit her. "Wait–Dean's here?"

"Yeah, let me put the dishes in the sink and I'll come up and explain it."

I got upstairs in time to see her pulling a t-shirt over her head and set to changing out of my suit and into something less formal. While I did, I explained the day to her.

"Oh the poor dear," she said and I knew it was taking all her self-control to not run down the hall to him. "You don't know what set him off?"

"He isn't ready to talk yet," I told her, shaking my head. "He will in time. We just need to give him some space where that's concerned."

I looked at her and she was dying to go and fuss over him.

"He'd probably like to see you. He was afraid you'd be mad 'cause he knows you don't like fighting."

She scurried off wringing her hands and muttering under her breath.

As I was tucking Dean in that night, I knew I had to try to get him talking.

"You know we gotta talk about this, right?"

He nodded.

"You know you'll feel better if you talk about it, right?"

"It's this kid, Rich," he said with a heavy sigh. "I tried to be friends. I tried ignoring him. He just won't stop."

Poor Dean looked so frustrated.

"I could tell you all the reasons that kids become bullies but it won't really help you make 'em stop. Did he swing first?"

Dean shook his head.

"Then he was running his mouth."

Dean nodded.

"What did he say?"

"He started talking about Mom. How she's a skank. I was gonna ignore him 'cause I don't even know what that means. Then he said that she probably didn't even know who my dad was and that you're not my real dad and I'll never know…"

"And that's when you socked him?"

"Uh-huh."

"Do you understand what he was saying?"

Dean shook his head. That wasn't good. I didn't know if he was really old enough for the talk and I certainly didn't feel qualified to give it.

"Do you know how babies are made?"

"Some of the guys at school say that if you rub up against a girl then she gets pregnant and a baby starts growing in her tummy."

"It's a little more than just rubbing but that's kind of how it is. Someday I'll give you the scoop on that but that's probably a good enough understanding for now."

"What's a skank?"

"It's a not very nice name for a woman who rubs against a lot of guys and lets them rub against her. For some reason a lot of people seem to think that it's okay for a guy to be rubbing against a lot of girls but that it says something bad about the girl if she lets too many guys be near her like that. Some will say she shouldn't be rubbing against anyone at all until she's married. I don't think it's okay to judge people like that. Your mom was with a good number of guys back when we was together. Maybe she still is. I don't know and it ain't my business. I'm not going to use a word like that on her. We may not get along but a word like that is harmful and keeps men and women from being equal like they should be. Do you understand?"

"Yeah, it makes me even madder that he said it."

"He's not a good guy. You're probably best not to be friends with that sort. Anyway, I think there might be something to what he said though…not about calling her that name, mind you. But I think she might not have known which guy was your father until you got old enough for her to tell. You look just like me. There's no way you're not my son."

"I'm glad I hit him," Dean said. "Is that bad?"

"Not necessarily," I told him. "In fact I think I promised you a story about a fight I got into."

"Is this once you knew Mamaleh?"

"Yeah, so I was a grown up and in college and everything. I knew better than to get in fights like that. But sometimes…well, sometimes there doesn't seem to be much of a choice. See, when Joanie was in high school, she didn't think she was very pretty. She still sometimes thinks that about herself. Anyway, she didn't have a lot of guys wanting to date her and it made her feel even worse about herself. She knows in her head that her worth isn't from a relationship but it's hard in high school when it seems like everyone is pairing off and you get left out of that."

"But she's pretty and so nice–why didn't the guys want to spend time with her?"

"Because high school boys are dumb as stumps most of the time," I said, patting his arm. "Now there was a guy who asked her out and since no one else did, she said yes and went out with him and they ended up going steady for a bit. But he wasn't a good guy. He told her mean things like she was so ugly no other guy would ever want her. He was the kind of guy that thinks he can just rub against a woman whether she wants him too or not. No one should ever be touched without their consent. You need to know that. And I don't just mean boys touching girls. No one should touch anyone unless it's okay with the person being touched. There's a story there too and I'll tell you sometime but not tonight."

Yeah, I wasn't looking forward to that story time but it was something that ought to be told. But for that night, the Stan Saga was quite enough.

"Eventually he broke up with her because she wouldn't let him do what he wanted with her. She didn't see him again for a long time and she got to feeling a little better about herself. Her friend Aaron saw to that. He was Uncle Eli's oldest boy. He's gone from us now but he was a really good friend to Joanie. Well, Joanie and I met and started dating and she went off to U of M and I started taking classes at the community college and one night when Joanie and I went out to dinner we ran into this guy. He was really sleazy. A lot went on around that time but the upshot was that one night when Joanie was going to the library to study, he grabbed her and hurt her pretty bad. He came up to me on the street a few days later and I wasn't going to fight him. Joanie didn't want me to because she was worried I'd get in trouble with the law so I tried to just keep walking but then he said some really bad and mean stuff about Joanie and I couldn't help it. I beat the snot out of him. Remember that law term I told you earlier, extenuating circumstances?"

He nodded and his eyes were big as saucers.

"That means there's things about your situation that makes it understandable that you did what you did even if it was wrong and you knew better. In a lot of talks where people try to figure out morals and what's right, they bring up the question of someone whose child is starving or sick and if stealing is alright in that situation. There are folks on both sides of that argument but most folks think it excuses the person a little if they're in such a jam."

"So I had extending circumstances?"

I chuckled a little.

"Extenuating. And yeah. As much as I did anyway and I had the whole law firm ready to go to bat for me if that slimy creep decided to press charges."

Well, this chapter got way out of control. But that just happens sometimes. You should see how much I cut (and pasted into a "notes" file-we do not discard things until we are certain they will not be needed). Let's see...um, war sucks and so do bullies. I think Jimmy is starting to understand a few things about Dean's life with Sarah. Not sure how that plays out. I guess I just have to wait for Jimmy to tell me. He knows the story-I sure don't.

In other news, I am still dealing with the facial paralysis from Bell's Palsy. It is miserable. It's been 8 weeks. Supposedly most cases resolve in 1-3 months. I'm hoping. I kind of want my face back. I'm no raving beauty but smiling helps and I don't really have a smile right now.

Let's see...um...well, the Lions seem to have done well in the draft. The Wings just barely missed the playoffs and the Tigers are back in action.

So, let me know what you think. I've been writing without an editor since my triumphant return so I get a little nervous. -J