I had the day off, promising to go with my sister and her daughter to the mall. It was her daughter’s birthday and she had been promised as a gift to get her ears pierced.

According to Sis, Haley had been so excited, barely talking of anything else. Greg, her husband, had to use their car today for a business meeting so I was drafted to give them a ride and preserve peace in this part of the free world.

I was back home for the first time in two years, excluding some brief visits several times a year. This time I was here to stay, my schooling concluded. The last two years of college consuming that time, with my degree in business economics finally obtained. I finished junior college in my home town, but wanted my degree to have a little more clout than just a state university.