Four years passed.

Timothy sat in the small kitchen eating his second stack of pancakes as he worked on his Econ 103 assignment for the virtual college he was attending. Vickie walked in, sat in the opposite chair, crossed her arms and glared at Timothy until he noticed her and gave her his full attention.

"What's wrong?" he asked.

"You know damn well what's wrong," she said as if he had just walked into the house with a stink on the bottom of his ...