Hey, gentle followers,
This is the third to last chapter of Tales Told Out Of School. O’Shea is on medical leave. He dreads leaving casework up to his overworked peers to finish. Cantrell has come back. Jaycee now comes back. You’ll soon see what happens to Mr. Fred. The peak of O’Shea’s sojourn takes place here, alone in the rafters of Roy Wilkins auditorium, thumb pecking at his phone, gazing down among squalling and vaping families at their North End High School kids walking the graduation stage. And they walk it whether they have graduated or not, there to receive the same empty black diploma frame as their peers, after which only some receive the paper emblem in the back room.
Two more to go. I gotta move it, and move on from this arduous, overwrought, work novel about a career, a story I began writing about waiting tables, and ended up hanging and dwelling upon the teaching life. As I told Jane Resh Thomas, doesn’t everything start out fun, and end up starched and bloated beyond belief?
Till next time! Your faithful scribe,
Hotspvrre
Jaycee comes back