Celeste could feel the pressure of Renata’s grip at the other end of the finishing tape, and she tried to match it with her own, except that she kept forgetting to concentrate on where she was and what she was doing.
“How’s Perry?” called out Renata. “In the country at the moment?”
Whenever Renata made an appearance at school or school events, she made an amusing point of not talking to Jane or Madeline (Madeline loved it, poor Jane not so much), but she always talked to Celeste, in a defensive, prickly way, as though Celeste were an old friend who had wronged her but she was choosing to be mature and rise above it.
“He’s great,” called back Celeste.
Last night it had been over Legos. The boys had left their Legos everywhere. She should have made them pick them up. Perry was right. It was just easier to do it herself after they were asleep, rather than do battle with them. The whining. The drama. She just didn’t have the resilience last night to go through it. Lazy parenting. She was a bad mother.
“You’re turning them into spoiled brats,” Perry had said.
“They’re only five,” Celeste had said. She was sitting on the couch folding laundry. “They get tired after school.”
“I don’t want to live in a pigsty,” said Perry. He kicked at the Legos on the floor.
“So pick them up yourself,” said Celeste tiredly.
There. Right there. She brought it on herself. Every time.
Perry just looked at her. Then he got down on his hands and knees and carefully picked up every piece of Lego from the carpet and put it in the big green box. She’d kept folding, watching him. Was he really going to just pick it all up?
He stood and carried the box over to where she sat. “It’s pretty simple. Either get the kids to pick it up, or pick it up yourself, or pay for a fucking housekeeper.”
In one swift move he up-ended the entire box of Legos over her head in a noisy, violent torrent.
The shock and humiliation made her gasp.
She stood up, grabbed a handful of Legos from her lap and threw them straight at his face.
See there? Again. Celeste at fault. She behaved like a child. It was almost laughable. Slapstick. Two grown-ups throwing things at each other.
He slapped her across the face with the back of his hand.
He never punched her. He would never do anything so uncouth. She staggered back, and her knee banged against the edge of the glass coffee table. She regained her balance and flew at him with her hands like claws. He shoved her away from him with disgust.
Well, why not? Her behavior was disgusting.
He went to bed then, and she cleaned up all the Legos and threw their uneaten dinner in the bin.
Her lip was bruised and tender this morning, like she was about to get a cold sore. It wasn’t enough for anyone to comment upon. Her knee had banged against the side of the coffee table, and it was stiff and painful. Not too bad. Not much at all, really.
This morning Perry had been cheerful, whistling while he boiled eggs for the boys.
“What happened to your neck, Daddy?” said Josh.
There was a long, thin, red scratch down the side of his neck where Celeste must have scratched him.
“My neck?” Perry had put his hand over the scratch and glanced over at Celeste with laughter in his eyes. It was the sort of humorous, secret look that parents share when their children say something innocent and cute about Santa Claus or sex. As if what happened last night were a normal part of married life.
“It’s nothing, mate,” he’d said to Josh. “I wasn’t looking where I was going and I walked into a tree.”
Celeste couldn’t get the expression on Perry’s face out of her mind. He thought it was funny. He genuinely thought it was funny, and of no particular consequence.
Celeste pressed a finger to her tender lip.
Was it normal?
Perry would say, “No, we’re not normal. We’re not Mr. and Mrs. Average, mediocre people in mediocre relationships. We’re different. We’re special. We love each other more. Everything is more intense for us. We have better sex.”
The starter gun cracked the air, startling her.
“Here they come!” said Renata.
Fourteen women ran straight at them as if they were chasing thieves, arms pumping, chests thrust forward, chins jutting, some of them laughing but most looking deadly serious. The children shouted and hollered. Celeste tried to look for the boys, but she couldn’t see them.
“I can’t run in the mothers race after all,” she’d told them this morning. “I fell down the stairs after you went to bed last night.”
“Awwww,” said Max, but it was an automatic whine. He didn’t seem to really care.
“You should be more careful,” Josh had said quietly, without looking at her.
“I should,” Celeste had agreed. She really should.
Bonnie and Madeline led the pack. They pulled in front. It was neck and neck. Go Madeline, thought Celeste. Go, go, go—YES! Their chests hit the finishing tape. Definitely Madeline.
• • •
Bonnie by a nose!” shouted Renata.
“No, no, I’m sure Madeline was first,” said Bonnie to Renata. Bonnie didn’t seem to have exerted herself at all. The color on her cheeks was just a little higher than usual.
“No, no, it was you, Bonnie,” said Madeline breathlessly, although she knew she’d won because she kept Bonnie in her peripheral vision. She bent over, hands on her knees, trying to catch her breath. There was a stinging sensation on her cheekbone where her necklace had whipped across it.
“I’m pretty sure it was Madeline,” said Celeste.
“Definitely Bonnie,” interrupted Renata, and Madeline nearly laughed out loud. So your vendetta has come to this now, Renata? Not letting me win the mothers race?
“I’m sure it was Madeline,” said Bonnie.
“I’m sure it was Bonnie,” countered Madeline.
“Oh, for heaven’s sake, let’s call it a tie,” said a Year 6 mother, a Blond Bob in charge of handing out the ribbons.
Madeline straightened. “Absolutely not. Bonnie is the winner.” She plucked the blue winner’s ribbon from the Year 6 mother’s hand and pressed it into Bonnie’s palm, folding her fingers over it, as if she were entrusting one of the children with a two-dollar coin. “You beat me, Bonnie.” She met Bonnie’s pale blue eyes and saw understanding register. “You beat me fair and square.”
Samantha: Madeline won. We were all killing ourselves laughing when Renata insisted it was Bonnie. But do I think that led to a murder? No, I do not.
Harper: I came in third, if anyone is interested.
Melissa: Technically, Juliette came third. You know, Renata’s nanny? But Harper was all, “A twenty-one-year-old nanny doesn’t count!” And then, of course, these days, we all like to pretend Juliette never existed.