Chapter 3: Permanent HouseguestnnAn illicit proposal … nnI opened my eyes slowly, almost painfully. My mind was foggy, my memory hazy, but it only made sense that, for the ceiling of the bedroom to be awash with this much sunlight, it had to be morning. And not early morning.nnI rolled my head to the side and was jolted wide awake. For the first time since becoming a teacher at Summerset Community College, I wasn’t simply late for work; it was after 10:00 and I was severely late. My hand shot out for the phone; I had to call the school and come up with some plausible excuse for not being in class, and it damn sure couldn’t have anything to do with the truth; that I had been fucked into unconsciousness by three of my own students. And all three of them Black students on top of that! nnI was still fumbling for the phone when Chantel came into the room, dressed in apron and cradling a steaming mug a coffee in both hands. “I’ve already called school and told them we won’t be in today, Diane.”nn“You what?”nn“I called school a little after seven and told the attendance secretary that I had stopped by to pick you up, because you were taking your car in for a tune up, but found you throwing up in the toilet.” Chantel sat on the edge of the bed and handed me the coffee. “I told her that I was going to stay here and take care of you and assured her that, if you got any worse, I’d rush you straight to the hospital.”nnI inhaled the coffee in an attempt to clear my head. It worked. “And she bought that?”nn“I’ve never been caught in a lie,” Chantel answered indignantly. “And you haven’t missed a day since you came to Summerset, so why wouldn’t she believe me?”nn“You just answered that yourself, young lady; because you’ve never been caught lying.” I sipped the coffee.