Chapter 2

Stan’s offer to Noah to write the “She Stirs the Pot” newspaper column was a shock and at the same time a pleasant surprise. Noah had the time to write this column since his lesson plans in teaching hadn’t changed much from what they were when he first started teaching. What Stan said Noah would get paid for writing the column would be a welcome addition to his savings. That was all well and good he thought, but now he needed to get down to the business of writing this column.

The first thing he did was make a list of topics he could comment on. It didn’t take him long to write down a number of those topics he had an opinion on. He counted the items on the list which totaled twenty-six. He thought that if he scanned the news and some web pages, he could probably double that number with only a little effort.

Stan had told him his first column was due in two days. This had Noah pick one of the topics and note the points he wanted to make in doing his commenting. Having done that, he then practiced dictating the column. He quickly found out that it was not as easy as he thought it would be, but then again, it wasn’t that difficult either. The more he did this kind of dictation, he thought the easier it should become. Having now done the prep work, he dialed the phone number and dictated his first column.

This column was on gun control. He acknowledged there were senseless shootings and that there were politicians and celebrities who were pushing for gun control. Some of these politicians were making what Noah thought was talk just to get media exposure. One politician, who he named, said she wanted an assault weapons band because of a recent shooting. Noah pointed out that it was a pistol and not an assault weapon that was used in that shooting. He said that a number of these advocates for gun control were afforded either government security protection or had the funds to pay for their private protection, whereas the average citizen did not.

He mentioned that the majority of people who died from shootings were suicides. He finished by saying that an equal amount of citizens are killed by automobile accidents, yet no one is advocating that automobiles be banned. If people being killed is the concern, why then do we have a wide-open southern border which allows the illegal entry of drugs into our country that kill three times as many people as guns do?

In ending the phone call, he knew he spoke his mind and couldn’t help but wonder how that would look in print. As it turned out, he thought his comments looked pretty good in print.

Monday at school was a normal day of teaching for Noah. There wasn’t anything out of the ordinary that occurred. That also applied to the office hours that he had Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday. To his knowledge, he was the only teacher at this school having these regular after-school hours for students who were looking for extra help in understanding his class material. He had taken advantage of professors having office hours in college and thought it should be done in high school.

A number of the students who appeared voluntarily during his office hours he would classify as “regulars.” That was fine with Noah because if they wanted to learn, it was his job to teach.

Now and then Noah would be surprised when a parent would appear and express concern about their child’s progress in learning the subject. This usually resulted in Noah explaining how the parent could get involved and help the student, whether it be by studying and explaining what was in the textbook or by double-checking that the assigned homework was being done. He was not surprised to hear a parent who was a college graduate say that the subject was more in-depth than they had ever been required to learn. Noah thought that was just a sign of the changing times.

Noah had learned in his dealings with women, whether they be a parent, fellow teachers, or just someone he had met socially, it was important to listen to what they said as it could indicate if a relationship could develop between a woman and him. Things would be said in the normal course of conversation that would indicate if that could happen.

The big keyword he listened for was if the woman was currently married. Happily married or not, he didn’t care, as he wasn’t going to get involved with anyone who was married. It wasn’t that he had strict moral principles. It was that if the word got out that he was involved with a married woman, he would be out of a teaching job. If the word got out that the woman he was involved with was single or divorced, this was normal and his teaching position was safe.

In having these conversations with women, he listened for words like lonely, boring, routine, or that they craved some excitement in their life. When he heard words said like that, and if he was attracted to this woman, he asked the woman if they would like to go out to dinner? In the majority of the time, they accepted his invitation, and that led a few times to the start of what he would describe as “an enjoyable intimate relationship.”

Right now, he was looking forward to having his third date with Jessie Ryback. Jessie was a teacher at a different high school in the district who he had met at a district teacher’s conference. The relationship he had with this attractive and divorced lady in his opinion, was progressing well. He could only hope that this relationship shortly would get even better and unless he was reading the signals wrong, he thought it would.

The evening before his date he dictated a column. This one was on the politicians in Washington who when asked about the wide-open southern border, avoided saying what they would do to fix it. They just talked about our immigration system needing to be reformed. Most of these politicians started their response by saying, “We are a nation of immigrants...” Noah pointed out that they conveniently omit a word and should be saying, “We are a nation of legal immigrants.”

He continued saying, “Nothing is being said about the five hundred thousand illegal immigrants who are estimated to have snuck into our country, some of whom have criminal records. Also coming in through our open southern border are illegal drugs that are estimated to kill one hundred thousand citizens a year that are mostly young people. Shouldn’t our politicians do something about that? They have or have put up walls or fences around the White House, Congress, or their own homes to protect themselves. Shouldn’t they build a wall on the southern border to protect the citizens of this country who elected them?”

Jessie looked very nice when she opened her condo door. She was dressed in a straight skirt that was tight enough and tailored to show the fine curve of her butt. In Noah’s opinion, a tailored straight skirt ending about four inches above the knees was the best way a woman could dress to show her attractiveness. The blouse Jessie was wearing didn’t need to be tailored as she was not short-changed in the breast department.

He laughed to himself in that he knew he couldn’t write a column on this manner of feminine dress, which assumes the woman has a slim figure. If she didn’t have a slim figure, then wearing a straight skirt was probably the worst way a woman could dress. Thinking more about that, he thought maybe he could write something about how women dress in the future.

Dinner with Jessie as he expected it to be was nice. She was intelligent and a good conversationalist. He enjoyed talking with her in that they talked about things going on at school and happenings in the news. Since she leaned to the left and Noah to the right, he knew better than to talk politics with her.

After dinner and having a drink in the lounge next door listening to the music, Noah brought Jessie back to her condo. She invited Noah in for a drink which he accepted.