[Ed. Note: While this was written on the date indicated, it’s refering to events much earlier.]

Dr. Berry made it quite clear at the beginning, “late outlines will not be
accepted.” (We used to have to outline each chapter of, freak…what was the
name of that textbook?… So one day, I had Snow White and the Seven Dwarves
in the morning, so I didn’t go to class that day. I still had to turn in the
outline, however, which I had yet to type up. So I went home, typed it up
real quick, and sped to school to try to get it there before 5 pm. I was
stopped at the light at Shelton Beach Rd… CRAIGIE! that’s it. anyway, I
was at Shelton Beach and 45, waiting for the light to turn when all of the
sudden I felt the car lurch and the (ouch) sound of metal crunching. I spun
around to see a truck that had backed into the side of my car. Ouch again.
The black guy who was driving it, stopped and got out to look at the damage
he’d created. “Well,” I said to him after getting out of my own vehicle, “I
wasn’t expecting to bump into you today.” He laughed. He thought it was so
funny that he told it to the cop who finally showed up and my dad who was
nice enough to drive up and be there with me. Hmm.. I just remembered that I
had a wreck on the way home from Cinderella this last year too. My track
record of accidents and plays hasn’t been too good. Anyway, I’ve had so many
accidents that another one didn’t do too much to shake me. It was nice
having dad there, though. The black guy offered to take the car up the road
to “a friend” of his to get it fixed right away. The cop was like, well, if
y’all are going to settle it yourselves, _I_ don’t need to be here. And
left. So we drove up the road, but the place had closed. Dad found out that
this black guy was going to seminary on the side, so he said for the guy not
to worry about it and that he’d pay for the damages and write it off as a
contribution to this guy’s education. So when that was all squared away, I
FINALLY continued on to the school to drop off my outline. But Dr. Berry’s
door was shut and locked.

I appealed to him the next class period. He was quite forgiving. He only
talks tough.