In Book 28, Grand Rapids, Pawel finds himself living and teaching in Grand Rapids, Michigan. He's teaching at the Randall School of Art. Perhaps the most intellectually depressed school that he had ever experienced. The Board of Trustees would rather spend three-quarters of a million dollars fighting the Faculty Union for their personal rights and a pay raise, all of which would have cost the school less than $100,000. Michigan was an anti-union state, or what they preferred to call a 'Right to Work' state. The members of the Board would rather fight than negotiate with a union. Plus, one of the board members was the owner of the law firm that represented the school. And who knows if he made payoffs to any of the other board members, but it is more than likely. So, the faculty was grossly underpaid for the past 13 years and the board was successful in dividing the faculty by promoting those that bought into their way of thinking while the other languished in being assistant professors. There was one teacher named Ralph that spent nearly twenty years as an assistant professor. The atmosphere was oppressive with the constant threat of being fired. Art teachers were a dime a dozen in Grand Rapids and many of these poor, unfortunate people have lived nearly their entire adult lives in Grand Rapids and had nowhere else to go.

Generally, Pawel found the people of Michigan to be unfriendly to outsiders, especially people from New York. The
main population of Grand Rapids and Western Michigan were of Dutch Reformed backgrounds. They were the most self-righteous and racially bigoted people that he would meet outside of Mississippi. The "N" word was still used in everyday speech. They also looked down on people of Polish and catholic origins. It was hard to say which they looked more down on the Poles or the Dutch in return. However, there are exceptions to every rule, and Pav found a small group of people who were free thinking and open-minded. Most of who came from the eastern side of the state, leading Pav to think that perhaps that side of the state was more enlightened because of the University of Michigan and other universities in the surrounding Detroit area. However, the separation of the state's east and west portions was like that of the city of Berlin. Pawel realized he made a big mistake in taking this position. But here he was, and he would try to make the most of situation and perfect his teaching abilities and his art. Love would take a back seat for the first few years until he was looked upon as a good man and teacher. However, it would be an uphill fight all the way.