He wondered if Ryan's wife liked casinos, concluded she didn't, and decided that not only was he being wasted on Deerhorn but Vegas was being wasted on Ryan. Except, of course, for the kindergarteners who don't have an older brother or sister.”Īdam scribbled a note to get rid of the drive, and wondered if Ryan Jennings was getting a chance to spend a few hours at any of the casinos. “By the way, we're not from the cityâkids walk home. “But there's somethin' missing,” the mayor declared when Adam produced the charcoal sketch of the school with an asphalt circular drive for dropping off pupils. That works out to two hours on a bus every day.”Īdam nodded solemnly and wondered if Vegas was hideously hot this June.

“So my little granddaughter gets bussed forty miles to Geneva to go to fourth grade. “They haven't got enough room for all the kids in the one-room school,” the Village Council president said. Sitting around a long conference table in the mayor's office, the six men and women oohed and aaahed over the scale model for the new elementary school, insisted on telling Adam about the original one-room schoolhouse that had served Deerhorn into this century, took apart the scale model into pieces that couldn't be rejoined and brought out pictures of grandchildren who would be going to the school that Adam would build. Lefty's colleagues on the Village Council weren't any less expressive. It's just, couldn't this wall be taller and that wall shorter? Couldn't Adam put this door there and that door here? And wouldn't the whole building look better if the gymnasium was on the west side instead of the east side and the principal's office was on the first floor instead of the second? And what about a little area for the teachers to give classes outside?Īfter all, one of his favorite memories was when his own teacher would take the children outside to listen to her read stories on the grassy knoll.Īdam took notes, nodded his head and figured Mayor Pincham could show the Brazilian government officials a thing or two about being difficult. Not that he was hostile to any of the elements of Adam's presentationâquite the contrary, since, as he had devoured the eclair with a suitably pained look on his face and in two bites, nodding at Adam's wishes for a happy birthday, Lefty considered himself Adam's newest best friend. Reminisced about his personal experiences. Offered an anecdote related to him by one of his town's many citizens. The honorable Eugene “Lefty” Pincham had traded the boxing ring for the campaign trail and his renowned left hook for the tools of the political trade. Deerhorn's mayor was known to his constituents by a nickname acquired during his reign as Wisconsin's Featherweight Golden Gloves champion a quarter century ago.

One Sexy Daddy by Vivian Leiber