Read Online Outside the Ordinary World by Dori Ostermiller - Free Book Online Page A

teacup on the table, hugged my bare arms. The café’s air was too conditioned and I longed to be out in the cleansing August rain. Tai refilled my cup, and we glanced around the room, as if searching for the nearest exit.
    He cleared his throat, asked about the summer art camps, whether or not I had a space for his son in the fall workshop. “I know he’s a pain in the ass, but I think he’s got something, you know? Just needs some guidance.”
    “He wasn’t any problem for me,” I said. “Maybe a bit stubborn.”
    “Won’t take anyone’s advice. Mine least of all.”
    “Well, that goes with the territory, doesn’t it? Isn’t he about seventeen?”
    “All of that. And going on forty, some days.”
    “And five on other days, right? Same with my daughter.”
    “The whole letting go thing stumps me.” His hand shot roughly through his hair again. “How much, how soon, how to do it without totally detaching, right? Just to protect yourself from heartbreak.” He laughed joylessly. “You’d think a Buddhist would be great at letting go.”
    “Eli doesn’t strike me as a kid who’s ready to be let go of.”
    “He likes you, Sylvia. There’s hardly anyone he likes now, over twenty. Not even his mom.” He pulled his lower lip into his mouth, let it out slowly. There was no getting around his rough beauty. I assured him Eli could come to my workshop, promised I’d save a space.
    “But you could have registered him online,” I teased, throwing him off. He laughed, splashing tea down his white shirt.
    “I’m always spilling stuff around you,” he said as I handed over my napkin. “Next time, I’ll dress all in black, like a Goth.”
    “ Next time?” I asked.
    He cocked an unruly brow.
    We were awkward then, chatting about the weather, the war—which seemed to be growing nastier rather than winding down.
    “So much slaughter,” I said.
    “I know, I know. Enough suffering to drown in.”
    We stared at each other, shaking our heads, our attraction already tired and sweet.
    “It’s a crazy planet,” I noted, at the same moment he was saying, “What a world.” Then both laughed as if we were outside all of it, momentarily, looking in.
    “Not that anyone has time to notice.” He crossed one leg over the other. “It’s rush rush, isn’t it? Everyone juggling.”
    “Well, it’s hard to find any balance, especially with kids.”
    “Right. But you have to. Because one day, I turn around and, holy shit —my son’s almost grown, my parents are gone. I’m telling you. Gone. It all happened so fast, while I was, I don’t know, sending faxes or something.”
    “But how?” I asked, as if really expecting him to have an answer. “Time will always win.”
    He uncrossed his legs, looked at me as if trying to memorize my features. I felt his eyes navigate my cheekbones, slide down the bridge of my nose to the uncomfortable mole beside my mouth. His hand moved to his own mouth, fingertips brushing his lips.
    “Take off your watch, Sylvia.”
    “Sorry?”
    “I dare you. You’ve been glancing at it every thirty seconds since you sat down.”
    “Have I really?” I looked away. There were too many people in the café. A student from one of my workshops smiled up from his notebook. A woman from the PTO bustled out carrying a tray of coffees, and my neighbor’s daughter worked the register. All of them, ticking staunchly through the requirements of a day—as real and solid as cows.
    As I unlatched my watch, slipped it into my black leather bag, I felt conspicuous. Had I done something wrong? Had I betrayed Nathan already, just by playing hooky, pulling into the parking lot when I knew better, following an impulse because it had been a shitty morning and it was my birthday, after all?
    Tai got up to refill our teapot and I thought about this birthday. Everything felt more treacherous and brittle, as if my joints were turning to slate. The night before, I’d noticed the faint but undeniable