The Class Menagerie

time— started school, lost baby teeth, gotten hormones. There would have been brief periods of absolute hell] but they’d have never been repeated with the next kid.
    It was a bright sunny day out when she headed toward school with Katie, and the early morning light was catching the tops of trees just starting to show hints of vivid fall coloration. “Oh, look at that one!“ Jane said, pointing toward an especially gorgeous scarlet ivy climbing a chimney. ‘ “
    “Don’t turn this way!“ Katie shrieked.
    “Why not? It’s the way to school,“ Jane asked.
    “Mom, Jenny lives on this street!“
    “Of course she does.“ Jenny was Katie’s best friend.
    Katie was scrunching down in the seat, squealing protests. “She’ll see me! Why couldn’t you go some other way?“
    “Katie, Jenny’s whole family has the flu; I doubt very much that Jenny’s been up since dawn peering out the window to see if we go by and what difference would it make if she had? Have you and Jenny had a tiff?“
    “Mom, don’t use words like that. They’re so lame.“
    “Tiff is a perfectly good word. So have you had a spat, quarrel, rumble, confrontation, take your choice.“ The silence that met this inquiry answered it. “What was it about, honey?“
    “You wouldn’t understand,“ Katie grumbled. She’d crawled back up to a vertical position and was craned around, looking back at Jenny’s house.
    “Try me,“ Jane said.
    Katie just sniffed pitifully, begging to be begged.
    Jane dutifully begged.
    Finally, just as they turned the last corner and the school loomed up in front of them, Katie relented. “Mom, she told Jason I liked him.“
    Jane tried to cast her mind back and appreciate the gravity of this treason. “Why would she do that?“
    “She’s mad at me. There’s this new girl at school she likes better than me and I said she was fat. Well, Mom, she is!“
    Jane sorted through the pronouns, assigning them, and came to the conclusion that the new girl was the fat one. Jenny herself was a bit plump, but Jane didn’t think Katie even noticed that anymore. There were a thousand true, sensible and “motherly“ things to say to her daughter, but Jane knew Katie didn’t want to hear them and it would slam the door on further confidences. “I think the best thing is to act like you don’t care,“ she ventured. “Jenny will remember pretty soon that you’re her best friend and she’ll be sorry she told Jason.“
    All her careful selection of words went for nothing. Katie wasn’t paying any attention. As Jane stopped the car in the circle drive in front of the school, Katie put the back of her hand to her forehead. “I think I’m getting sick. You better take me back home.“
    “No way, kiddo.“ But just the same, she felt Katie’s forehead. “They’d all think you were afraid to come to school if you stayed out today. Besides, I’m going to be gone all day.“
    It was the wrong thing to say... again. “Mom! Why do you have to treat me like such a baby. I could stay home by myself.“
    Jane remembered Staying Home By Myself from her own school days. “No deal. Hop out.“

    The phone was ringing when Jane came back in the door to her kitchen after delivering the grade schoolers. It was Detective Mel VanDyne, the man she was dating in an extremely sporadic fashion. “Jane? I’m glad 1 caught you. Listen, about Saturday night...“
    “You’re canceling.“
    “Sorry, but I’ve got to. It’s a follow-up to that drugs in the schools seminar I taught last week. It seems that...“
    “It’s all right,“ Jane said, even though it wasn’t. She’d bought a new outfit.
    “How about Sunday night instead?“
    “Sorry. I’m busy.“
    There was a silence Jane hoped wasn’t patently disbelieving. Well, she was busy on Sunday night. All Sunday nights, in fact. There was always at least one child who had to have help on a report that had been assigned a week earlier, another who couldn’t find a precious article of clothing he/she had to wear the next day, and one who decided to practice some musical instrument next to the phone that a sibling was speaking on. It was that way every school night, but for some mysterious reason Sundays were always the worst. Not that she had any intention of letting a sophisticated bachelor know what sort of things she was busy with. She’d been dating Mel off and on (more off than on, to her regret) for two months and he was still wary of her extraordinarily