Edited by Barney R. Adjusted further by me therefore all mistakes are mine.

Jonny introduced us, she captivated me, this is the story

I am Ralph Simkin 35, a widower, and living in a mid-Michigan city. I am something of a neighborhood enigma because I live in the house I grew up in and I could easily afford a much better class (in America that means people with more money) neighborhood. Most of my neighbors are either retired or newlyweds.

Jonny, my adopted son, introduced me to Miss Serena Carruthers, his second-grade teacher. He volunteered me for a field trip with his class.

Serena, as she wished to be called when away from her class, is a petite lady. She was 28 when we met, and had been teaching for 5 years. She was in love with her job, and even enjoyed the challenge of the disruptive kid or two that every class seemed to have.

I on the other hand was 35, and a widower. Jonny came to be my son when I stopped an abusive ASSHOLE from killing him after the bastard killed Jonny’s mother in a drunken rage.

Serena was Jonny’s teacher and we met when I volunteered to help with a class trip. We got along very well, and even exchanged phone numbers.

The trip was on Tuesday, and I called Serena on Wednesday evening and asked if she would go to dinner with me the coming Friday. She said yes, but wondered what I would do with Jonny.

I was surprised, and probably should not have been that she was worried about him. I told her that I would make arrangement for him with one of my renters. She said as long as he was with a good care giver, she would like to go to dinner.

I called my renters from the youngest couple first. I hit the Jackpot the first call Jerry and Samantha Stevens, a newlywed couple in their early twenties were happy to watch him and would use the cash to alleviate some of small bills that they had fallen behind with. They were my newest renters, and the most outgoing and friendly.

The date with Serena was wonderful, and we continued to add background about each other to fill in what we hadn’t spoke about on the class trip. I told her that I lived in the house that I grew up in and that I bought it from my parents who wanted to move south for the warmer weather. She told me she had grown up always wanting to be a teacher, and always an elementary school one. She said that in most cases the kids did not learn disrespect before they got to middle school.