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But when Ms. Carmichael comes around the corner and heads for the teachers’ lounge, he smiles politely—though closemouthed—and holds the door open for her as Dixie continues on down the hall.
    Pepper Carmichael, having just come from one of thoseimpossible classes on grammatical clauses, returns Mr. Tanner’s smile and gives a respectful nod as she goes through the doorway. She never knows what to say to that man—he always seems angry. But she gives him little thought as soon as she’s inside the teachers’ lounge with the door closed behind her. She collapses onto the couch and leans back, closing her eyes.
    A moment later the din of the hallway rises again as the door opens and someone else comes in.
    “Pepper, good morning.” It’s Walter.
    “Good morning, Walter.” She doesn’t open her eyes. Walter has trouble talking to women, though this doesn’t keep him from trying. Around Pepper, he inevitably adopts formal and old-fashioned gestures, the gentleman’s code.
    “And how are you today?” he asks.
    She opens her eye a crack and sees him standing there with his hands behind his back. He looks like a butler.
    “I’m great, Walter. How are you?” She likes to imagine what he’s like when he’s not around women. She pictures him in the men’s bathroom, farting and spitting and talking about how these filthy dames are ruining everything. It makes her chuckle.
    “I couldn’t be better,” he says. Every exchange with Walter has to be played out to the very end. He then goes on to hope that she had a pleasant weekend. She did. Then he wonders if the sky, which is darkening, will open up with showers by the afternoon. She hopes not.
    Pepper has begun to sit up and rub her eyes when Lonnie Abramson bursts into the room and points to the two computers set up against the wall.
    “I have to get on that computer. Is anyone on that computer? I just have to get on it.”
    “I don’t think—” Walter begins.
    “Is there any coffee made?”
    Both Pepper and Walter look simultaneously from the empty seats in front of the computers to the full pot of coffee hissing away on the coffeemaker. Lonnie specializes in questions that she could answer herself by simply looking.
    Between classes, the teachers’ lounge fills up quickly. Sibyl and Binhammer come into the room one right after the other.
    Walter looks deflated at the entrance of Binhammer. His gentlemanly performance withers up when another man comes into the picture. He gives the women a quick smile and then sits down at the round table in the corner to work on his lesson plans.
    Binhammer goes to the window and glances out over the trees of the park. He taps at the glass as though trying to communicate with something out there.
    “So,” Sibyl says, leaning her hip against the edge of the table where Walter is working. She looks mischievous. “Has anyone seen the new guy?”
    Binhammer looks at her for a second and then goes back to looking out the window.
    “I caught a glimpse of him in the hallway this morning,” Lonnie says. She seems to have forgotten her immediate need for a computer. “At least, I think it was him. Tall guy? Nice hair? Wide jaw?”
    “That’s him,” Sibyl says. “He’s got a nice look. Did you see him, Pepper?”
    Pepper is a single mom, and she has accepted the fact that any single man who makes an appearance on the grounds of the school is immediately tested for potential pairing with her.
    “Very nice,” Pepper admits. She has a fondness for Sibyl—the woman is a bit calculating, but Pepper likes the fact that she doesn’t always seem to know why she’s doing what she’s doing. Pepper frequently has the fleeting desire to put her arm around Sibyl, like an older sister with a sibling who is about to get into trouble. “Is he single?”
    Sibyl holds up her hand and wiggles her fingers. “No ring. I checked.”
    Binhammer gazes out the window with narrowed eyes.
    The door opens again and two other teachers