It was 0845 when there was a knock to the door. I answered with a "Yes, come on in."

The door opened just wide enough for the Dean to ask if I could step outside for a moment, she had something to ask me and preferred to do so privately. I instructed the class to be quiet and stepped out.

I closed the door and was shocked to see Tom standing there in the hall. Mrs. Phillips responded to my gasp.

"Tom, here, came into the office about 30 minutes ago. He explained that you liked to start class at 0830 and wanted permission to reenter the program after his absence. He is aware that the choice at this time will be yours. Tom, go ahead and say your piece."

"Mrs. Armstrong, it was wrong of me to snap at you the way I did. You did nothing to warrant my response. A couple of the guys caught up with me on the weekend and let me listen to what had been recorded when you were nice enough to answer their question about your back ground. It sure sounded as if you had your struggles every bit as much as we do. I will understand if you say 'no', but I would like another chance, please."

"Mrs. Armstrong, would you like a few moments? Again, the choice is yours." Mrs. Phillips asked.

"It is okay, I do not need extra time. I do have some stipulations that have to be met and if Tom is willing to do so, I do not foresee any problems."

Before I could continue, Tom eagerly comments, "Anything, I will do whatever is needed, get whatever and agree to whatever, right here, right now."

"First and foremost, you will need to catch up on what you missed on your time, not the classes. You will never, ever doubt your abilities again. In order to catch up, you will stay after class, this week for an hour for review and teaching. And lastly, there is absolutely no need for you to explain to anyone in the class, why you are back, why you decided to come back or the circumstances about being back. If you agree, we can shake on it and go back inside."

His hand was out before I could even extend mine. His smile made his face glow as if there was a 200 watt bulb facing him. Mrs. Phillips nodded and went down the hall to her office. Tom and I went into the classroom.

There was a brief pause of silence, then clapping and controlled whistles erupted. It was more than obvious that everyone was glad to see Tom. I gave them their few minutes to enjoy his return.

"Okay people, back to work. Now if I recall correctly, I was commenting on the test and the results. Again, I can not use the grades towards your final mark, but I think it will be a great review tool. Oh, and please do not let Tom see any of the papers, he will be honored with two tests this week." I smiled, and everyone chuckled.

"Now because of Tom's return, we cannot review the mistakes, but I want you to keep them and on Friday after this week test we will review these. Tom will be doing his on Thursday. I did speak to Mrs. Trenton over the weekend. She is pleased that everyone is doing well, and she is home. Her daughter is providing care and they both know to call me as needed."

There were a couple of questions regarding the severity of her break, of her surgery and of her recovery. I answered them all to the best of my ability. Roni knew they would ask and was okay with them knowing.

"Great, if everyone is ready, we shall get to the digestive system. First, however, I do believe I need a coffee, a little caffeine to enhance the anxiety of the day. Anyone else?"

Several scrambled to get coffee and then there was quiet.

After two sips, I started, "We have seen in the diagrams that when we breathe-- hopefully through our noses-- the air goes down the back of our throats into the trachea and then the bronchial tubes. When we eat or drink, it goes into our mouth and down the back of our throats but into our esophagus and to our stomach. If you can picture in your mind, a toilet seat that keeps the esophagus open when you are eating because it closes off the trachea. It is actually a sphincter of muscles that open when you eat and close when you breathe. We will talk about sphincters a little later. So, when you take a breath and try to swallow food or drinks, it goes the wrong way and into your trachea which makes you cough and sputter and usually blow stuff out your nose.

How many have had that happen?"

Every hand in the room went up and a few volunteered both hands.

"Okay, now that we can all admit to living through at least one of those embarrassing moment. The food or drink is squeezed down your esophagus to your stomach, where all sorts of acids and gases work to break it down to a mush consistency, from there is goes into the small intestines and the large intestines and finally out your rectum as a bowel movement. That my friends, is the short version. Who read chapter 6 over the weekend?"

Again, every hand but Tom's went up.

"Okay, let's start on the left side of the room and at the back, and you can use your books, I would like each of you to tell us about the flow of food or drink in its correct order. And the mouth, teeth, tongue and saliva count as one. So, Peter, will you start and explain what happens in the mouth, then Nancy will follow with the next part?"

We worked through the entire digestive system. I had several students involved when it came time to talk about the stomach and its acids. When they discussed the small intestine, I had another group talk about the gallbladder, the pancreas and liver. It took the full morning to learn about the system.

I jokingly reminded them to enjoy their lunches.