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Mrs. Horen didn't look back, but she did at least halt her typing for a moment to address me. "You may not care what I think, Mr. Canon, but for what it's worth, I do think you're an excellent teacher. We're lucky to have you."

It was a good thing she wasn't looking, because I completely failed to mask my surprise. "Um, thank you."

"But don't take that to mean that I think you're an innocent man."

I didn't know how to respond to that. She didn't elaborate, however, so I simply said, "Have a nice summer, Mrs. Horen."

"Mm."

The remainder of the morning was spent in the usual end-of-year activities. Reporting missing materials, organizing returned ones, tidying up so August would be one iota less of an ordeal. Amy was in and out, flitting between all the members of her department.

She leaned around my doorway; finding me in the midst of re-stacking heavy piles of textbooks, she let herself in. "Hey, you're back. While I have you, we had a couple updates to your fall schedule I want