Free With His Dying Breath by Nancy Hogue Page A

counselor to arrive in the morning and the last one to leave in the afternoon. She was JJ’s favorite of the three.
    She had been married and divorced twice. During her senior year in high school, she developed a crush on an intern, a college student who attended her Sociology class as a research project. He interviewed each of the twenty-five students in her class with various questions about consequences of behavior, emotional expression, social inequities and then asked the individual student opinion about these matters.               During her interview with him was when the personal aspect of these discussions led to some very private revelations. The talk turned to action, and she found herself pregnant. He married her, but then she lost the baby at eleven weeks. It was devastating to her. He completed college but she dropped out of high school to get a GED. The marriage ended in divorce fourteen months after they wed.
                  “Dr. Jacob, do you have a minute for me to talk to you about something?”
                  “What time is your first class, Miss Matthews?”
                  “Math at eight fifteen.”
                  “Will you give me about five minutes to send an email? You may sit and wait in the outer office if you’d like.
                  “Yes ma’am, thank you.”
    JJ heard the familiar sound of Windows starting up. “JJ, do you want a glass of orange juice?”
                  “No ma’am, thank you, I’m fine.” JJ was fascinated with Dr. Jacob. She just had a knack of understanding students’ concerns. She could discern what a student wanted to know when they didn’t even know. She never talked down or belittled a student. Even when one of the students had found her story on an Internet site, she didn’t hold a grudge. In fact, she told JJ and some of the female students about it as a caution of life’s disappointments.
                  “Okay, just give me a minute to get signed on to my email.”
                  “Yes ma’am”
                  While JJ waited in the outer office, she read postings on the bulletin board. After school help wanted in another counselor’s office, before school help wanted in the library, tutoring available in almost every subject at the college, a computer laptop for sale, a printer for sale, a photo of a litter of kittens to give away. “Oh how cute.” A part-time job available at Brockton Real Estate. Wonder if that’s still available? Although JJ wasn’t looking for a job.
                  “Come on in, Miss Matthews.”
                  “It’s bad about Mr. Brockton, don’t you think?”
                  “He was a fine man. He really cared for the students and the school. He volunteered his time and his money, but that fact is not well known. Is that what you wanted to talk to me about?”
                  “Oh, no ma’am, he was just very nice to me. He told me about my job, you know my after-school job at the beauty shop. He even helped me with transportation before I got my car. But, no, Dr. Jacob, I wanted to ask your advice about something.”
                  “Yes, JJ, I’m listening.”
                  “I’ll be a senior next year, and I think I know where I want to go to college, but I want to ask you about it.”
                  “JJ, I’m thrilled. What do you have in mind?”
                  “Do you know about the aviation college in Eastman? You know, it’s part of the University system.”
                  “Yes, I know about it. Do you have an interest in being a pilot or more of a position on the management side of aviation?”
                  “Dr. Jacob, I think I’d love to learn to fly and be a commercial pilot. But is it something, I could make a career of? Do