funnel
cakes and a clown twisting balloons into shapes. Kelly is humming, a sound so low that it almost sounds as if she’s purring.
I stretch my legs out, half close my eyes.
One of the fathers comes by, a guy I recognize from the athletic association. He tells me he’s starting a girls’ coach-pitch
team and he sure would like to see Tory at the conditioning camp. She’s fast, he says. He just watched her run the 440 and
thought to himself, “That little Bearden girl is fast.”
I must have slept funny last night because when I look up it feels like my whole head is getting ready to snap off. I shift
in my seat and tell him I’m confused. Isn’t softball in the spring? But he says if the girls want to be competitive they need
to start getting ready now, and then he says something about Tory’s “athletic career,” which makes me want to laugh. She’s
too young for coach-pitch at all, but it seems pointless to argue. This is the sort of thing that appeals to Phil’s ego. If
he gets wind of the fact that a coach is trying to recruit his daughter, he’ll drop anything to get her to those practices,
even if it means canceling every appointment in his books.
“Okay,” I say, “I’ll tell her daddy.” The coach makes a little tipping motion with his sun visor and walks away.
“Did you hear that?” I say, when he’s out of earshot. “He’s talking about a seven-year-old having an athletic career. These
people are crazy.”
“She really is fast,” Kelly says. “Sometimes I wonder if you even see it.”
“Just remember, Jeff wants to help,” Nancy says. “He blames himself for what happened between Lynn and Andy.”
“No one could have seen that coming,” Kelly says.
“That’s what I tell him,” Nancy says, sighing. “But now he feels like he has to…” She doesn’t need to finish the thought.
We all know that Jeff hired Lynn because she needed a job where she could get health benefits and still be able to meet the
bus when her kids get home from school. There wasn’t even a staff position called Director of Grounds and Maintenance until
he proposed it, and I doubt that anyone, including Jeff and Lynn, could tell you exactly what her duties are. But the session
agreed to fund the job and hired her on the spot. Feeling sorry for Lynn has been our collective smugness since the day her
husband walked out. I suspect that in the bag where Kelly has the rugby shirt for Tory there are two more shirts for Lynn’s
boys, whom she hardly knows. Their mother can’t come to Track and Field Day, so Kelly will bring them a gift.
“I’m sure Jeff’s a great counselor,” I say. “I just don’t want to talk to someone we know socially.”
“Yeah,” said Kelly. “In case the trouble turns out to be in the bedroom.” I’m glad I can’t see her eyes beneath the ball cap.
It’s all I can do to keep from bursting out laughing.
“Have you considered making it more… interesting?” Nancy scoots her chair a couple of inches closer to mine. “Because sometimes
you have to do that.”
“Phil doesn’t like it when things are interesting. Phil’s perfectly content with the way things are right now, you know that
as well as I do. The problem is me.”
“You could have an affair,” Kelly says.
My body jerks. I pretend to brush away a bug. Gerry’s business card has been in my purse for three weeks, in the side pocket
where I keep my keys, so that I see it and touch it several times a day. Sometimes I take it out and stare at it, run my finger
over the raised lettering. I’ve memorized the number, even though this is a number I’ll never call. I’m Working on My Marriage.
My husband I have an appointment with a counselor this Monday. Women who are Working on Their Marriages have no business daydreaming
about strangers they meet on airplanes.
“Why do you think people add on sunrooms whenever somebody’s having an affair?” Kelly
cakes and a clown twisting balloons into shapes. Kelly is humming, a sound so low that it almost sounds as if she’s purring.
I stretch my legs out, half close my eyes.
One of the fathers comes by, a guy I recognize from the athletic association. He tells me he’s starting a girls’ coach-pitch
team and he sure would like to see Tory at the conditioning camp. She’s fast, he says. He just watched her run the 440 and
thought to himself, “That little Bearden girl is fast.”
I must have slept funny last night because when I look up it feels like my whole head is getting ready to snap off. I shift
in my seat and tell him I’m confused. Isn’t softball in the spring? But he says if the girls want to be competitive they need
to start getting ready now, and then he says something about Tory’s “athletic career,” which makes me want to laugh. She’s
too young for coach-pitch at all, but it seems pointless to argue. This is the sort of thing that appeals to Phil’s ego. If
he gets wind of the fact that a coach is trying to recruit his daughter, he’ll drop anything to get her to those practices,
even if it means canceling every appointment in his books.
“Okay,” I say, “I’ll tell her daddy.” The coach makes a little tipping motion with his sun visor and walks away.
“Did you hear that?” I say, when he’s out of earshot. “He’s talking about a seven-year-old having an athletic career. These
people are crazy.”
“She really is fast,” Kelly says. “Sometimes I wonder if you even see it.”
“Just remember, Jeff wants to help,” Nancy says. “He blames himself for what happened between Lynn and Andy.”
“No one could have seen that coming,” Kelly says.
“That’s what I tell him,” Nancy says, sighing. “But now he feels like he has to…” She doesn’t need to finish the thought.
We all know that Jeff hired Lynn because she needed a job where she could get health benefits and still be able to meet the
bus when her kids get home from school. There wasn’t even a staff position called Director of Grounds and Maintenance until
he proposed it, and I doubt that anyone, including Jeff and Lynn, could tell you exactly what her duties are. But the session
agreed to fund the job and hired her on the spot. Feeling sorry for Lynn has been our collective smugness since the day her
husband walked out. I suspect that in the bag where Kelly has the rugby shirt for Tory there are two more shirts for Lynn’s
boys, whom she hardly knows. Their mother can’t come to Track and Field Day, so Kelly will bring them a gift.
“I’m sure Jeff’s a great counselor,” I say. “I just don’t want to talk to someone we know socially.”
“Yeah,” said Kelly. “In case the trouble turns out to be in the bedroom.” I’m glad I can’t see her eyes beneath the ball cap.
It’s all I can do to keep from bursting out laughing.
“Have you considered making it more… interesting?” Nancy scoots her chair a couple of inches closer to mine. “Because sometimes
you have to do that.”
“Phil doesn’t like it when things are interesting. Phil’s perfectly content with the way things are right now, you know that
as well as I do. The problem is me.”
“You could have an affair,” Kelly says.
My body jerks. I pretend to brush away a bug. Gerry’s business card has been in my purse for three weeks, in the side pocket
where I keep my keys, so that I see it and touch it several times a day. Sometimes I take it out and stare at it, run my finger
over the raised lettering. I’ve memorized the number, even though this is a number I’ll never call. I’m Working on My Marriage.
My husband I have an appointment with a counselor this Monday. Women who are Working on Their Marriages have no business daydreaming
about strangers they meet on airplanes.
“Why do you think people add on sunrooms whenever somebody’s having an affair?” Kelly
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