"Damn, I'm a slut!" She thought."I'm sorry," Madison said. "I know this is stupid, but - one of my friends went home today and her parents told her, h...r dog has been dead for six months and they never told her! I cried my eyes out, I'm sorry, I don't know why I reacted this way!" Oh, that's ok, sweetie, that's awful!" Her mother replied."Anyway, our food is here," her dad chimed in. Madison hadn't even noticed, and for good reason - she was still trying to figure out whether her parents were at. Only 34 years old, Tim had just gotten tenure at the prestigious Ivy League university where he worked. His book, The Civil War; A Slave's Perspective spent ten weeks as number one on the New York Times nonfiction bestseller list. His publisher was hounding him for a follow-up, dangling a $2 million advance as the carrot. Tim would write when he was ready.The last year had been a blur. Book signings, speaking engagements and photo opportunities with prestigious black leaders (they wanted to be. The partying slowed to a trickle and she began burning the midnight oil several days each week. She was actually becoming kind of hard to live with at times and so when I returned home from one of my frequent out of town trips to find her in good spirits I was pleasantly suprised.The professor from the class she was having the most problem with had called her into his office to go over her chances of passing his class with her. It seems that while he was not really interested in sports he had. It started before class, when another teacher stopped her in the hall and berated her for trivial and in some cases imaginary improprieties with her clothes and grooming. She recognized the setup, and merely accepted the criticism. As expected, the confrontation made her late for class. When she arrived, the teacher berated her for her tardiness. When she respectfully replied that another teacher had delayed her to discuss wardrobe issues, the teacher replied that it was her own fault for.