Chapter 1. The Opportunity and Setup.

Chapter 1. The Opportunity and Setup.
My wife and I decided to get out of the fast lane of the high tech world. We had an opportunity to take jobs that were offered to us by a friend who knew we were a little burned out. He was on the board of a private school that dealt with children or young adults who were trying to get their lives together. It was for those who had made the tough decision to try to get a high school diploma after run-ins with the law. It was a kind of boarding school for miscreants. Since we both had advanced degrees and plenty of experience, he got us a chance to interview for the positions and we were accepted.
We would be taking over as the “Headmaster” and “Dean” of the school. I would be the headmaster based on my experience in the military and as a leader and manager. My wife, who has the English degree and writing experience, would be the dean.
After we moved into the house reserved for the headmaster of the school, which was directly adjacent to the school property, we settled in to what appeared to be a normal academic situation, albeit with youngsters who had had problems and were trying to do the right thing. Most were between the ages of 17 and 22.
When we moved into the offices, we found that our two offices were adjacent with a connecting door and we each had an administrative assistant outside on opposite sides of the two offices. The planning had not been perfect for this converted old public school, because our offices shared a common wall with the men’s and women’s bathrooms. If there was ever a backup in the sewage, it was going to be monstrous in the offices, but so far so good.
My wife and I have always had an excellent physical relationship, and we had discussed several times moving to another level, but stress, jobs, and everything else in life interfered. This would turn out to be our first opportunity.
The layout of the offices was rectangular with a storage closet in my left corner and my wife’s right hand corner. They were next to each other with the wall of our offices between them. They were recessed right next to where the men’s and women’s bathroom stalls were. One day, while in my closet getting something, I neglected to turn the light on and was retrieving something quickly, when I saw light coming from behind a stack of boxes that was nothing but a bunch of old files.