Chapter 18

Monday, a non-day. Nothing happened. Well, not nothing. I did go over to my lawyer's office and sign papers for the settlement. I signed his documents that went to the other guys and their documents that came to us. Once it was all done Craig told me that sometime this week the money would be transferred to my bank account from his escrow account and everything would be done. I would be a very rich man and wouldn't have to worry about this subject ever again.

I thanked him and before I walked out his office I asked him if he did wills, trusts, power of attorneys and stuff like that. He said he did and could get one put together for me very quickly. I went on to tell him of my plan to travel the world and to check a few things off of my bucket list. He liked that idea and wished me well.

I also asked him about gun laws. I have loved guns for a long time. I don't own a lot of them; never had very much money to go out and buy them, but that doesn't take away from me loving them. He told me that he doesn't do that per se, but he would be willing to do some looking into it. He wanted to know what about it I was interested in. This took me to an explanation of one of the items that have been sitting in the back of my head for some time. I wanted to own a fully automatic rifle. He got a weird look on his face and finally asked me why.

"Well it is like this. I have always wanted one and this is the first opportunity I have had to make this dream to come true. Also, now that I have money, I would like to protect myself from people who may want to come and take it away from me. That would suck."

He sat back in his chair, looked me over some more and said that he would be happy to start the paperwork and help me get it. A few more things popped into my head, is there a license for silencers? Could you also point me in the right direction to get my passport? I am going to spend time in Europe and need the paperwork to get there and back.

Craig finally pulled out a tablet of paper and started writing down the list of items he had been asked to do. A will, a trust fund to be funded at the time of my death, medical power of attorney, paperwork with the ATF to get my a license for own fully auto weapons, silencers and be a dealer since what is one more license. He said that he could do it but it would take a few days to pull everything together but it shouldn't be a problem. I thanked him again and then was able to get out of the office and return home. I did pass through the post office and get a passport application. I grabbed a second one just in case I had a companion coming with me.

I immediately thought of Tessa coming with me. Since she is only 17 that did make it a bit different. Bringing a minor on a worldwide trip creates its own special set of difficulties. I may have to wait until she is 18 to leave. Now all I have to do is remember when her birthday is. Save that for another day.

While I was eating dinner at home, I started thinking about all of the things that I wanted to do for John and Krystal. How was I going to get that done? I know so very little about project management and even less about home improvement projects. I am going to have to bring in someone else to help me out with this. I can't do this alone. That will have to wait until another day.

And so end a Monday that I thought was going to be dull but turned out to be quite full.

Tuesday was going to be interesting, hopefully in a good way.

I arrived at school and everything was pretty normal. I taught, students learned and when I was about to leave I swung by Diana's office to talk to her.

"Diana, do you have a minute for me?"

"Sure, come on in. How are you doing?"

She came around the desk and greeted me with a handshake, but stopped short of giving me a hug. She wasn't that sort of person.

"I'm fine. Doing much better now than couple of weeks ago. My parents and in-laws gave me a swift kick in the attitude which sent me off into a direction away from depression and moping for what I had lost. I have plans now. Plans that I didn't think would ever exist and plans that I need to talk to you about."

She sat back in her chair and the smile that was on her face melted away. "I don't like the sound of that. How bad is this going to be?"

"I don't know. For me, it is going to be a great change, and for you just more work."

Slowly she said "okay."

I tried to steady myself; I don't like giving bad news to people, not a fan of making people sad. "I need a leave of absence to take care of a few things. The sudden loss of Samantha and my boys got me to thinking about the dreams that I have and how badly I would love to make some of those dreams come true."

"Are you talking about a bucket list?" she interrupted.

"Yes I am." I said nodding my head. "I have a bunch of items on that list that I would like to accomplish since I could meet my maker at any instance and there are a few things that I have always wanted to do."

"Ok, how long are you going to be gone?"

"I think that it is going to take me about a year, maybe a year and a half."

"WHAT?!" She burst out. "A year? I was more than willing to help you for a few days, a couple of weeks, but a year? Who is going to teach your classes while you are gone? How am I going to find another teacher with your qualifications and the personality to teach?" She was on a roll. Not a happy camper at all.

I got up and moved to close her door. I am sure that she didn't want others in the hallway to hear her rant and rave at me for leaving for a year or more.

"I don't want to leave permanently but I really want to do this. We never got to go and do anything as a family and now I am going to go and do for them since they aren't here anymore to go and do. I'm doing it for them as much as I am doing it for myself." I started to get a little frustrated. My pulse rate was elevated and my voice had gotten a bit louder and when I stopped talking, we were both red faced and breathing heavily. In movies two opposites like us would crash into each other's arms and kiss furiously with the music coming up and everyone in the audience would get all mushy. The real world is not like that. We did not start kissing. We didn't crash into each other's arms or anything of the sort. We just sat there looking at each other. Diana finally broke the silence and said, "I'll talk to Lindsay in HR about this and I'll start looking for someone to take over your classes. At least tell me that that today isn't your last day here. Do that for me at least."

I held eye contact with her, staring her down. "Today is not my last day. I'll finish out the classes I have now and then I'll leave. I need the time to plan my trips and to get my passport at the very least. You know how slow the government runs. That may take a while." I tried to lighten the mood with that joke, but she is not amused.

We sat for another minute; she finally turned to her computer, and began typing. When she was done, a document printed off from her printer and then she came around her desk and sat down next to me and handed me the document. I read it over. It was a letter of resignation explaining that I was leaving the school due to family trauma and that I was planning on returning to school after recovering from my tragedy. Of course there was a bunch of legalese about not guaranteeing a position for me when I return to school and that I would be losing my benefits and that any accrued time off would be paid me at the normal rate and finally that any hardware owned by the school had to be returned to the school along with all keys to the classrooms or building.

I looked at her. I couldn't believe this, I was leaving the school to take care of my bucket list and they were asking me to sign away my career and not even going to say that my job would be here when I got back. I would have to reapply for it after I got back. "This is pretty drastic Diana. I was hoping to be able to come back and resume teaching after being gone, this makes it sound like I would have to reapply for my job and start over. Am I reading this correctly?"

"Yes, you are. I am sorry to say. We don't allow sabbaticals and the state will give us hell if we hold a position open for someone who is leaving for an extended length of time like you are. We have students to teach and licenses to maintain with the state so I am sorry, but this is the best way to protect us and you from anything coming back on either of us."

She explained it pretty well. I was leaving them high and dry in terms of teachers of who teach the subjects I do. So, after reading it a second time, I signed the document and handed it back to her.

"When did you say would be the last day here?" She asked me.

"When does my 15 week lab class end?"

She checked her calendar and said "June 13th is the end of your lab class. The next week it begins again so shall I make your last day June 13th?"

"Yes, that is fine. Thanks." I felt rejected for being told that I would not have a job waiting for me when I got back. Kind of bad.

"Paul, I can tell this is not what you wanted, but please understand from my end, I need teachers and if I hold your position open, I can't hire new people to fill that spot while you are gone. You are an amazing person and teacher and I don't think I have ever seen a bad review from any of your students. That right there is impressive."

"That's good to know. So let me throw this out at you." She nodded her head, ready for what was next. "Let's say that I return to KC, and you don't have anything open that I can take, will you give me a recommendation that will help me find something else somewhere else?"

It was an honest request. I was leaving under good terms so the least they could do for me was to give me a recommendation.

"Sure." she said without even thinking about it. "I'll write it up and give to Lindsay who will keep it in your file so that when you return it'll be waiting for you."

I relaxed, that was a huge weight off my shoulders. A good recommendation from a former employer was very valuable. I had one in the bag and that was very important.

"Ok, thank you very much Diana, that is awesome of you. I'll finish out my time here and make sure that everything is done and turned in before I give you my keys and hardware. Thank you for your time."