Worth the Weight

by Eileen Palma

  “Thanks buddy.”

  Jack turned back to face Lauren. “Lauren, I’m sorry. I really have to close this deal.”

  “You said we were leaving on Friday right after school!”

  “I know, and I meant it when I said it. But Matt needs my help this weekend.”

  “My dad needs me too!”

  “I know he does. And I wish I could take you there tonight. But I just can’t get you there till Monday.”

  “I’m never gonna see my dad.”

  “You are. I promise we’ll go as soon as I can get this work shit straightened out.”

  “Whatever.”

  “KidFit ratings have skyrocketed since news of Ali-Kat came out. Everyone wants to find out how to be in shape, get rich and snag a man half their age.”

  thebottomline.com

  Chapter Thirty-Four

  “I know things are awkward with us, but that doesn’t have to affect Lauren’s filming.” Kate spoke quietly into the phone, in case that nosy boys’ coach was lurking.

  “What’re you talking about?”

  “You guys were supposed to be here twenty minutes ago.”

  “I’m stuck in a meeting on the East side, so Lauren’s taking a cab from school with Madison and her mother.”

  “Madison’s that girl who’s even smaller than Lauren with the super curly hair, right?”

  “Yeah. The one Lauren’s always hanging out with.”

  “I saw Madison come in the gym a good half an hour ago with no sign of Lauren.”

  “Check the locker room. She has to be there.” Jack sounded like he was trying to convince himself just as much as Kate.

  “I’ll go check right now. Stay on the phone, okay?” Kate cut through the ballet studio into the gymnastics area and made a beeline for the team locker room.

  “I should’ve rescheduled my meeting. But I’m trying to wrap things up so I can take her to California…” Jack’s voice trailed off when Kate burst through the team locker room door. The sound of hyped up pre-teen girls was hard to miss.

  “Hang on. I’m going in.”

  A group of girls wearing unnaturally hued leotards squeezed around the hairspray coated mirror with brushes and rubber bands. But the majority of them were still in their untucked school uniforms hanging out on the bench watching a YouTube video on someone’s iPad. As soon as one of the girls recognized Kate, a contagious hush moved through the crowd.

  “Have any of you girls seen Lauren?”

  One of the older gymnasts stopped wrapping her ankle, her roll of Ace bandage hanging off the edge of the bench. “Not today.”

  Kate looked through the crowded room until she spotted a swollen poof of tightly coiled curls trying to break free from an elastic. The girl was leaning into her locker and taking a lot of care organizing her pile of clothes. Kate gently tapped her on the back.

  “You’re Madison, right?”

  “Uh, yeah,” the girl answered with her head still in the locker.

  Jack yelled into the phone resting on Kate’s ear. “Is that Madison? Let me talk to her!”

  “Relax, I got this covered.” Kate rested the phone on the locker room bench.

  “Madison, I know you’re really busy organizing your locker. But could you take a little break?” Kate kept her voice low and friendly.

  The girls on the bench abandoned the iPad in favor of the action right in front of them. Madison slowly pulled her head from the locker but kept her eyes averted.

  “Lauren told Jack that you and your mom were taking Lauren to the gym today. Why did Lauren lie?”

  “Maybe she mixed up the days or something. Lauren isn’t good with that stuff.” She kept her eyes fixed on the faded Gabby Douglas poster hanging over the lockers.

  “You know what I think? Lauren wanted to go somewhere today and she used you as her alibi. Do you know what that means?”

  Madison shook her head very slowly while keeping her eyes fixed on the poster.

  “That means if something bad happens to her it will be all your fault! So forget about whatever BFF code the two of you have and tell me where she is before she gets hurt.”

  The older girl put down her ankle wrap and said, “Madison, you better speak up if you know something.”

  Madison’s lower lip started to tremble. “I tried to talk her out of it but she wouldn’t listen!”

  “It’s okay, Madison. Just tell me where Lauren is and I’ll make sure she’s okay.” Kate’s stomach tied up in knots and she tried not to think about child porn rings and the other dangers lurking in the city.

  “P-p-p-Penn Station.” Madison finally looked up at Kate, her eyes wide and her lip trembled.

  “Penn Station! What the hell is she doing there?” shouted Jack from the bench.

  “Going to see her father,” stammered Madison.

  “How is she getting to California from Penn Station?”

  “Bus to JFK,” said Madison. “We Googled it last night.”

  “Thanks Madison. I’ll have her text you when I get to her.”

  Kate grabbed her phone off the bench.

  “Fuck!” yelled Jack.

  “It’s okay. Penn Station’s only ten blocks from here.”

  “It’s rush hour, it’s going to take me forever to get crosstown.”

  “I know. I’ll get there and keep her safe till you can come meet us.”

  “You won’t be able to catch a cab.”

  Kate knew he was right. “Good thing I’ve got my running shoes on.”

  Kate ran down the hall and luckily bumped into her key grip Louie. “Filming’s off today.

  “You still there?” she asked Jack.

  “Yeah. I’m running to the E train,” he puffed.

  Kate ran straight to the taxi stand, which of course was vacant. The few cabs in this neck of the woods always got snatched up right away.

  “No cabs. I’m hoofing it. Call me as soon as you’re in Penn. Try to find a spot with cell service.”

  Kate ran as fast as she could up the waterway bike path. She threaded her way in and out of the speed walkers and bicycles. The whole run over she prayed that Lauren hadn’t gotten on a bus yet.

  She made it uptown to 33rd Street in record time, and then crossed two avenues to 8th as quickly as she could. She went in through the Big Kmart entrance, a place she had taken Mrs. Fink shopping more than once.

  Kate ran to the first open cash register, hoping one of the cashiers could direct her to the bus terminal. Kate leaned up against the candy display to catch her breath.

  A young male cashier with a pierced eyebrow and lip said, “I wouldn’t do that if I were you.”

  Kate turned around and saw that the Reese’s Peanut Butter cups had rat sized bites taken from them.

  She shuddered and simultaneously tried to catch her breath. “Where do I catch a bus to JFK?”

  The boy returned a text before answering.

  “New York Airport Service. I think it’s on the ground floor by the Dunkin’ Donuts.”

  “Thanks,” Kate said and took off running through the Kmart exit that opened into Penn Station.

  She knew exactly where the Dunkin’ Donuts was since Mrs. Fink always needed to take a bathroom break there. She followed the large blue signs for the NYAS. The dark hallway winded up a bit and when she got to the NYAS terminal it was just a plexiglass enclosure with a few metal chairs. The digital sign above the entrance announced the next bus was in ten minutes. Kate spotted Lauren right away, her thick waves of hair cascading down her back, one brown UGG boot rested on the chair in front of her. She was playing what looked like Fruit Ninja, judging by the way she kept slashing her finger against her iTouch screen.

  Kate stayed out of Lauren’s sight and called Jack. It went straight to voicemail, which was good because that meant he was probably on the subway. So she shot him a quick text explaining that Lauren was okay and where they were.

&
nbsp; Kate walked up to Lauren’s chair.

  “Is this seat free?”

  Lauren looked up wide eyed, an ear bud falling out and getting tangled in her hair blasting Lady Gaga on the way down.

  “Madison is so dead!”

  “I forced it out of her. I practically tortured her.”

  “Pretend like you didn’t see me. I need to get on that bus.” Lauren shoved her iTouch in her bag and stood up.

  “You know I can’t do that. Besides, Jack is going to be here any minute.”

  Lauren slid down in her seat. “This sucks! I missed the last one by like thirty seconds.”

  “Do you really think you could’ve boarded a plane by yourself?”

  Lauren held up a computer print out. “I have an e-ticket and everything.”

  “I don’t even want to know how you paid for that thing.”

  “My mom’s emergency Visa. She keeps it in her underwear drawer under all the lacy stuff she never wears.”

  “You still don’t have ID.”

  Lauren pulled a laminated card out of her back pocket. “USA Gymnastics ID.”

  “Wow! You thought of everything. I have to admit I’m impressed.”

  “Doesn’t matter. I still won’t get to see my dad today.”

  Kate didn’t know what to say.

  “I’m sorry I bailed on you. I didn’t think you really still wanted to film with me.”

  “I rescheduled because of all this craziness, I didn’t cancel.”

  “Do you blame me for not believing everything that comes out grown ups’ mouths these days?”

  “I could see your point. I do still really want to film with you. But maybe we should wait till after you go see your dad.”

  “Ok. I can’t really like focus on anything else right now.”

  “I get that. But you know you can’t just run away.”

  “I wasn’t running away. I was trying to see my dad. I don’t care if he wants me there or not. I know he needs me.”

  “Your dad’s getting better. Everything else will be okay.”

  “Everything is a mess.”

  “You know I was at another bus station when I wasn’t much older than you. Only I wasn’t running to my dad, I was running away from him.”

  “Really?”

  “Yeah. My dad has a very bad gambling problem. He had just lost another big game and I found out I couldn’t go to the seventh grade formal because we had no money for a dress, or shoes or a ticket.”

  “That sucks!”

  “Tell me about it! So I went to the bus station and then I realized number one, I had no money and number two, I had no where to go anyway.”

  “So what did you do?”

  “What could I do? I went back home.” Kate shrugged her shoulders. “Just be glad that you have the kind of dad to run to. And know that he is going to be okay and so are you.”

  “Spotted: Jack Moskowitz, Super-sized stroller CEO running through Penn Station in a three-piece suit. He looked a bit like Seth Rogen on his way to a red carpet event. Is his nine-to-five look hotter than the ironic tee-shirt and jeans he usually sports? Vote now!”

  dirtylaundry.com

  Chapter Thirty-Five

  Jack ran back into the boardroom where the group of Harvard MBAs and Wharton grads was waiting for him. A PowerPoint projected from a sleek, silver MacBook Pro and hovered on the movie theater-sized screen. The men in their Brooks Brothers suits and the bone-thin women in their ankle-breaker high heels were all waiting for Jack to come back in the room. They had abandoned live conversation in favor of texts and emails on their Blackberries and iPhones.

  Jack grabbed his own laptop from the spot at the head of the large granite table. “Sorry, we’re going to have to do this another time.”

  One of the suits stood up. “If you just give us five more minutes…”

  “Email me the rest of the presentation.” Jack ran out the door without waiting for an answer.

  He had worn a three-piece suit and a pair of dress shoes that only saw the light of day for the thrice-yearly black tie meetings. Considering he had a black eye and a wrapped up ankle he had thought it was even more important than usual to break out the suit. His feet slid across the newly polished floor and Jack wished he had run sand paper across the bottoms of his shoes like his mother had done before his sixth grade graduation.

  Jack’s meeting was in the “Lipstick Building”, a pink oval office building literally shaped like a tube of lipstick, located right across the street from the underground tunnel to the E train. He half slipped, half ran through the lobby and booked across the street, almost getting hit by a cab on the way. His ankle throbbed as he ran down the subway steps, but Jack managed to block it out as made his way towards Lauren. Jack made an enemy out of virtually everyone on the steps down to the E train. He landed on the platform with a crowd of people all waiting for the slowest train on the NYC subway system.

  After listening to at least three sermons from the homeless religious fanatic and two songs from the guy who played Beethoven on an actual saw, the subway came and Jack quite guiltlessly pushed his way through the crowd onto the train and was thankful to find a seat so he could rest his ankle at least for the ride.

  Jack forced his way out of the E train door as soon as it opened. He shoved past a throng of college girls and their oversized handbags and overflowing shopping bags.

  He thanked the MTA Gods and the recent fare spike for the fact that he actually had cell service if he stood completely still on the platform as soon as he got off the subway.

  Kate Mobile: Lauren fine. At NYAS bus terminal. Next to DD.

  Right past Dunkin Donuts was a bus terminal that like most things in the city remains hidden in plain sight unless you actually need it for something that relates to you personally. Jack heard them before he saw them.

  “That’s a mushroom, not a cupcake.”

  “That brown one gets me every time.”

  “Look out for the white spots. Only the mushrooms have them.”

  Jack walked around the plexiglass. Kate and Lauren were facing the opposite way. Kate was playing a game on Lauren’s iTouch that sounded like Scoops. She twisted her body to the right and left while she moved the iTouch. As Jack took another step closer, his dress shoes echoed in the small area.

  Lauren turned around, one long curl falling in her face.

  Jack dropped his laptop bag and ran over to her and picked up all sixty-six pounds of rock solid muscle. She wrapped her legs around Jack’s torso and rested her head on his chest.

  Jack looked up at Kate and mouthed “thank you”. She smiled and backed away and gave them the illusion of privacy.

  Jack squeezed Lauren tight one more time before setting her on the floor. “Now that the mushy stuff is over. You are in deep shit, little girl.”

  Lauren looked up at Jack. “I know. Kate, can I have my iTouch back?”

  Kate handed Lauren the iTouch and Lauren passed it right over to Jack.

  He kept his hand out and raised one eyebrow at her.

  She sighed and pulled her cell phone out of her bag and handed it to him too.

  “Do you know what could’ve happened to you if Kate didn’t get here when she did?” Jack reached up and loosened his tie and unbuttoned the top button.

  “Child porn rings, muggers, pick pockets, kidnappers.” Lauren ticked off each item on her fingers. “I know, Kate told me.”

  “She did, huh?” Jack looked at Kate, who was pretending to be reading a poster on identity theft taped to the scratched plexiglass wall.

  “Yeah.” Lauren rubbed the edge of her UGG on the ground.

  “I told you I was taking you to see your Dad.”

  “You also told me that Mom was in California filming a commercial.”

  “Have I ever let you down before? Have I ever left you stranded at school or the gym when your Mom couldn’t come?”

  La
uren sighed. “No.”

  “You know you can count on me. One lie doesn’t change who I am. I have always been there for you and I always will be.”

  “I’m sorry.”

  “We’ll talk about it more later. In the mean time, go tell Kate thank you for saving your sorry ass.”

  Lauren walked over to Kate. Jack stood there and ran his fingers through his hair, loosening up the curls from the gel.

  Lauren walked over to Kate. “Thanks for saving my so…”

  “Watch it, Lauren.” That kid made it impossible for Jack not to smile, even when he wanted to wring her neck.

  “Any time.” Kate leaned down to Lauren’s level. “Remember what I said to you before. You’re so lucky to have an uncle like Jack who drops everything anytime you need him and a mom and dad who care so much about you that they didn’t want you to worry.”

  Lauren looked at Kate and nodded. “I know.”

  “I would give anything for a family like yours. When you have people in your life who love you like that, everything else will always work itself out.” Kate wrapped Lauren in a hug and held on. “I’m a hugger.”

  When Lauren broke away, Jack pointed at the beaten up chair and said, “Sit and don’t move.”

  He stared Lauren down till she was sitting in the chair before he approached Kate.

  “I don’t know how to thank you.” Kate filled the small vestibule with her vanilla apple scent and it took everything in Jack not to grab her and kiss her. She looked like his Kate, the old Kate, not the one who had been gracing the cover of every gossip rag with her orange hulk of a fiancé and her pin-straight hair.

  “It was worth it to see you wearing something other than a retro tee-shirt and jeans.” Kate smiled at him the way someone does when they’re uncertain you will laugh at their joke.

  “I clean up pretty good, don’t I?” Jack pressed down the front of his suit. “Seriously, thanks.”

  “I was glad to help.” Kate tucked a curl behind her ear. “Your eye looks a little better.” Kate moved her hand to Jack’s cheek and then froze for a second before dropping her hand.

  “I hope I didn’t drag you away from shooting any more magazine covers.” Jack’s skin ached where she almost touched him.