Doris was determined to balance her career and her marriage. She would start by accepting the fact that all of the changes she wanted to make in the  educational system would take years, and spending late nights at the office wouldn’t change the system any quicker.She did, however, continue to brainstorm with Lillian on the telephone. They spent hours compiling statistics on Superintendent Wainwright’s record and discussing the best avenue to take to get him dismissed. Finally, Doris and her supporters bolstered enough support to influence his dismissal. They got parents to picket, write letters, and speak openly about Wainwright and his incompetence. He had friends on the board, but Doris had garnered too much support and his friends began to distance themselves from him lest Doris zeroed in on them also. They would deal with her later.

     It was a victorious day for Doris. Wainwright got the news at the next board meeting. When his dismal record was recited and he was told of his firing, he immediately looked at Doris with undisguised hatred for her.

     “Black bitch!” he hissed as he walked past her on the way out of the boardroom. Doris smiled with satisfaction.

     Everyone looked in the direction Lillian was looking in with no discretion. The single ladies began to moan. The object of their lust was tall and muscular with rich, dark skin. He smiled and displayed the whitest teeth they had ever seen. He stood out and for a moment, even Doris was momentarily mesmerized. He didn’t come into the room immediately and the ladies were wondering why. Then they saw why, and all of their mouths dropped open.

     “Look what’s with him,” Doris groaned.

     “Well,” Doris said pragmatically, “we’ve been campaigning for equal rights, so I guess we’ve got to take the bitter with the sweet.”

     “Now I know that bothers you too, Doris; especially you!” Lillian said.

     “Of course it bothers me,” Doris answered. “All of us beautiful black women sitting up in here and he walks in with a white woman. That’s fucked up! But hey, what are we going to do?”

     “I bet he won’t take his black ass downtown with her,” Lillian pointe out. “They’ll come up here in our faces with them, but those white girls won’t take them where they live.

     Doris started laughing.  “The way you all are looking at him, I bet he won’t bring his black ass up in here any more either!”

     “Don’t be frontin’, Doris,” one of the former classmates spoke up. “He was looking good to you too!”

     “He still looks good,” Doris observed. “But I’m committed, and so is my man.”

     Lillian dropped her head. She was afraid that Doris would look into her eyes and see what she was thinking; that Doris had too much faith in Shaun, and that she might be setting herself up for a big fall. Lillian had been in settings where she had seen Shaun studying white women when he didn’t think anyone was watching. No doubt in her mind—Shaun was curious.