Wednesday, 8/13/08 (c)

Tierney had never felt the need to have department chairs at Clover Valley. Ultimately, he believed that between the curriculum and the individual styles of his teachers, a department chair would have little influence. After the fact he rationalized his decision by concluding that little actual harm could be done ... plus it was late in the summer to be looking for English teachers who would come all the way out to Mercer County. The challenge would be smoothing realtionships with the other English teachers, discreetly letting them know that their participation in this new arrangement was totally voluntary.

As he headed out of the office for a four day weekend, Tierney strongly suspected he had made a mistake. He struggled internally as to whether to chalk it up to simple expediency, or perhaps something more malignant.

His desk phone interrupted that thought.

"Gene? Sean. Didn't think you'd still be there. Thinking about the chairmanship. It's gonna take a lot of my time. A lot of my time. I'm going to have to give up the cross-country gig. At a minimum, I gotta drop that. I'd've called J.T., but who knows where he disappears to this time of year. Sorry about that, but I gotta make sure I don't get burnt out with this chair thing. It's gonna be great, but it's gonna take a lot of time. Good? Good. See ya in a couple weeks Genie."

Dr. Gene Tierney locked up the doors feeling another year older and amazed that the first of the unhappy consequences of his decision was so fast in coming.

"Ahhhhh. I'll call J.T on Monday."