by J Hoffman
She tried to keep the invasive questions to a minimum but realized quickly that these moms weren’t very interested in pouring out their personal lives to a lady walking feverishly back and forth on the same block. Natalee gathered the information she did receive and she headed home until it was time to pick up Jonah.
While going through all the answers she had jotted down in quick succession, she began to find a pattern. The women who did offer to speak with her, didn’t have kids eating the white cardboard lunches, they confidently stated their kids ate dinner every night and a few even mentioned that in bad weather conditions, they had a vehicle to transport their children to and from school, but prefer the exercise on nicer days.
This left Natalee with nearly nothing. She couldn’t use this information to get ahead in the schools if she didn’t have any solid proof that the kids dealing with negativity outside of the school were being treated differently than kids who had everything they needed. This caused Natalee to start navigating a different route to find solutions to issues.
She got on her computer and wrote up a questionnaire with simply worded questions. She asked about bullying, lunches, transportation… Anything she could think of that a young child would have the ability to answer coherently. Within a few minutes, she had the questionnaire completed and edited. She printed out one copy and examined it for a moment before she jumped in the car to go to the library to make copies.
At the library, Natalee requested seven hundred copies of the questionnaire and paid seventy dollars to get them printed. The librarian looked at her like she was insane, but she waited patiently while every single one landed in her hand, warm to the touch. She piled the stacks of warm papers into her backseat and headed to the school.
She probably looked incredibly ridiculous, hauling a stack of paper up to the door. She left most of them in the car but was willing to make multiple trips for it. Once in the secretary’s office, she asked to see the principal. She was quickly ushered into that office, with the door shut quietly behind her. She dropped the stack of papers on his desk and sat down across from him proudly.
“I have a request,” she stated.
He looked at her over the top of his glasses and eyed the stack of papers in front of him, “And what might that be?”
“I would like these to be distributed to every student. Tell them they can either fill it out and give it back, or they can throw it away. It’s not all that important, but in the greater scheme of things, it’ll help tremendously.”
The principal picked up one sheet and read through the questions. He dropped it back onto the pile. “Mrs. Denver, what is this about?”
“I think there could be some really great things done with this school and I would like to be the one to start the rally to change those things.”
“What kind of… things? I mean, based on these questions, Mrs. Denver, it appears that you are targeting our… less than privileged students. We try our best to ensure they feel included like everyone else.”
She nodded slowly, “Which is why I want them handed to every student.”
“And at the cost of the school?” He lifted the pile, examining its weight. “There’s probably just enough here for those underprivileged children. If you want it to go to every student, you’d need three times this.”
“Yeah, I had a question about that. How many students are enrolled here?”
“Six hundred and ninety-two.”
“Perfect! I made seven hundred copies at the library.”
His mouth dropped open. “Se-seven hundred?” He over-enunciated.
“Yes,” She grinned from her seat in front of him. “I wanted to ensure everyone got one. If you said something above that number, I would’ve just gone back to the library.”
“How much did that cost you?”
“Seventy dollars, but it’s not a big deal.”
“Mrs. Denver, that money could have been used extensively in this school, instead of some vague questionnaire.”
“This vague questionnaire was uniquely designed for children. While it may seem vague to you, I can convert their answers into major solutions for this school and this district. They didn’t cost you anything, and they won’t cost you anything to collect them and give me a call when you get them back. I’d like as many of them back as possible, but I don’t expect seven hundred. When they get passed out, give them two days to return it. After that, kids have usually lost it.”
The principal stared at her in shock and nodded slowly. “Okay, Mrs. Denver. Two days.”
She nodded happily and left the stack on his desk as she went out to her car to grab another. She had all of them in the office in four trips. Her legs and arms were burning from the exercise, but she was feeling fantastic. So far, everything was falling into place for her to help these kids, and that’s all she could focus on.
She picked Jonah up that afternoon and took him out to get some ice cream. As they were sitting at the brazier, enjoying an ice cream cone apiece, Jonah started shuffling through his backpack.
He pulled out the questionnaire and slid it to his mom, “I think this is for you.”
Natalee peered at it as if she had never seen it before and she slid it back to him, “I don’t think so.”
“They said to fill it out and turn it back in.”
“They told you to fill it out?”
“I guess,” he shrugged. “But I don’t know how to answer those questions.”
“Well, why not?” Natalee immediately began to panic, thinking she didn’t make it simple enough for him to understand.
“It says, ‘If you walk home, do you walk home in the snow or rain, too?’ and even though I don’t walk home, wouldn’t I walk home in the rain if I did?”
Natalee smirked, “It’s not a quiz or a trick question, baby. They just want to know how many kids have to walk home in bad weather. Maybe if there are enough kids walking home in the rain or snow, the school can arrange some alternative transportation option for them.”
Jonah scrunched his eyebrows together, “How do you know all of that?”
She shrugged nonchalantly, “It’s just an educated guess.”
“A hypothesis,” he suggested.
Natalee nodded, “A hypothesis, exactly.” She decided to change the subject, “Did you see what I left on the dining room table for you this morning?”
He shook his head, “No, what is it?”
“Oh, if you didn’t see it, I’m not telling you,” she smirked.
“Come on, Mom! You can’t just say that and then not tell me!”
She chuckled, “Tough luck, buttercup.”
He rolled his eyes, “I don’t care. I won’t even go in there when we get home.”
“Oh, you won’t? What about for dinner?”
He held up his cone, “This is my dinner now.”
She cackled, “Okay, I see what you’re doing here.”
He laughed with her, “That was a good one.”
She laughed again, louder, “It sure was, buddy.”
Twenty
Natalee knew what to expect before it even happened. Jonah burst through the garage door, and bolted straight for the dining room, hoping to get there before Natalee noticed he went that way. She chuckled as she walked in behind him, shutting the door gently and locking it.
She stepped into the dining room and saw him sitting in front of the robot, his jaw nearly hit the floor. She smiled, watching him examine every little piece connected to the next. She leaned against the door frame, “I soldered the connections on the circuit board so they wouldn’t come loose. As long as you change the batteries, I think he should last pretty long.”
“Mom! You did this? Really?” His eyes glistened with excitement.
She smiled, “Yeah, last night. I went to put everything away and just ended up… Building it.”
“That’s so cool! My mom can build robots!”
She giggled, “I wouldn’t say that. This was pretty easy.”
/> He shrugged, “Looked pretty hard to me.”
“Well, you’re twelve. Of course, it’s not going to be easy.”
“But they literally made it for kids to build.”
“Yeah, but they were setting you up for failure, honestly. You would never get it to work properly with the connections they put in there. If you did get it to work properly, it’d only work a couple times, if that. And then it’d shut down. You’d change the batteries a couple times, hoping it would work that time or the next time, but it wouldn’t and you’d never figure out why and you’d hate that stupid toy your parents spent so much money on and you had the pride to build but it just never worked right,” she took a deep breath, wondering why that sent her into such a serious rant.
Jonah stared at her for a moment before nodding, “Okay, well… Thanks, Mom.”
She smirked and turned toward the kitchen, “You’re welcome.”
After they had finished dinner, Natalee cleaned up the kitchen and met Jonah up in his room. She had overheard him complaining about something, rather ferociously, so she decided to drop in and check out what was going on.
“What are you doing in here?”
Jonah was propped up at the edge of his bed with a large headset over his ears, and a microphone sticking in front of his face. He was holding the controller to his game console and he held it up to Natalee in response.
“Well, what are you playing?”
“Football.”
“Is it hard?”
“It’s not easy. Especially when the guy you’re playing bought all of his players.”
“What does that mean?”
Jonah rolled his eyes, “It means he has all the best guys because he used real money to buy them.”
“That’s pretty dumb.”
“Yeah, I’m about to quit.”
“Can I play?” She sat down on the bed next to him.
Jonah shrugged and handed her the controller but kept the headset over his ears. He was losing already so it wasn’t like anything worse could possibly happen. Down by a touchdown and a field goal, with only one quarter left in the game, he had been getting intercepted every time he threw the ball.
He moved over to give his mom some room to get comfortable. He started pointing to buttons, explaining what each one did. She nodded and assessed the screen on the TV, which had a long list of plays for her next move. She chose carefully, and the game was back in action.
The other player snapped the ball and before she knew it, her player was in front of it, catching it a few feet in front of the guy it was intended for. She maneuvered her player down the field as fast as she could.
“Run, run!” Jonah yelled.
She smiled as she flicked the stick on her controller and her player did a front flip into the end zone.
“Touchdown!” Jonah yelled and threw his hands in the air, signaling the way the referees did. Natalee timed the kick perfectly and put up an extra point on the board. Now they were only down by one field goal.
“That was awesome, Mom!”
“Beginner’s luck,” she shrugged.
“Nah, that’s not possible in this game.”
Natalee looked down at the controller in her hand and she went over all the buttons in her mind again. Her team got the ball back for the interception and she threw it. Her player caught it but immediately fell to the ground, just a few yards short of a first down.
She chose a rushing play and handed the ball off to a player who bolted through the wall of men trying to stop him. He fell just a few inches away from the line that would give them a first down.
“Third down, Mom. If you miss this, you’ll have to punt.”
She went through all the suggested plays and chose one that could give them a touchdown if it played out correctly. She snapped the ball, took a few steps back, and waited. She watched the players ahead of her, to ensure no one was coming toward her quarterback. Natalee watched as one of her players drifted away from the other players’ teammate who was supposed to be blocking him and she threw the ball. Her player caught it, turned and bolted down the field.
Jonah was screaming again, and Natalee was enjoying every moment. She got the touchdown, went for a two-point conversion, and put Jonah’s team on top by five points. It wasn’t enough to guarantee a win, but she gave him a fighting chance.
She tried to hand him the controller and he shook his head, pushing it back toward her, “You’re kicking ass.”
She gasped, “Don’t swear!”
“That’s the best way to explain what you’re doing right now, though!”
“Say ‘butt’ or something, not ‘ass’.”
“Okay, I’m sorry, but really, you are doing so good. Do you play when I’m at school or something?”
“Please, Jonah. I don’t even come in this room unless I absolutely have to. It already smells like a stinky little boy and you haven’t even hit puberty yet.” She tousled his hair and kissed his forehead. She kept the controller and played through the rest of the final quarter. She managed to perfect the spin move, the diving catch and intercepting the ball from the other team.
Jonah turned on the mic and pretended like he was the one doing all the work. Natalee didn’t mind, though; she didn’t really want to draw attention to the fact that she was possibly good at such a ridiculous task. After Jonah made sure the other guy felt like he was an inch tall by losing to a kid, Natalee kissed him on his forehead, messed up his hair again and told him she loved him. He told her he loved her too and she shut the door behind her as she headed to her own room to sleep in her husband’s spot until he returned home.
Twenty-One
After Natalee dropped Jonah off at school, she went straight home. She tried to tell herself to take the day off an relax, but instead, she grabbed her phone and scrolled through the contacts. She pulled up Liz’s phone number and hit the tiny message icon next to her name.
Natalee: Want some wine?
She smirked, half expecting a response along the lines of ‘Fuck yeah’. She scrolled through her social media page for a few moments before getting a response, much faster than she had anticipated.
Liz: Day drinking already? Fuckin’ alchy. I’ll be over in ten.
Natalee smiled, she felt like Liz would be good for her. A little rough around the edges, loud, and seemingly has her shit together. Natalee propped the front door open and headed to the kitchen to pull down the wine glasses. As she was going through the wine cupboard, she heard Liz walk in, closing the door behind her.
“I’m here!”
“I know!” Natalee pulled a bottle of rosé out of the cupboard and grabbed the corkscrew just as she turned the corner.
“I brought some chardonnay,” Liz held the bottle up, proudly.
“Perfect, let’s finish that and then I’ll pop this one open.”
“Damn girl, you’re extra heavy today, aren’t you?”
Natalee paused, “Heavy?”
“Yeah, you know, like… Heavy hitting. Knocking the drinks back like water. Planning to get fuckin’ wasted.”
Natalee nodded, “Ahh, heavy. Yeah, you could say that I suppose.”
Liz pulled herself up onto the bar stool at the breakfast bar and slid the bottle to Natalee. She unscrewed the top and poured two glasses, sliding one back to Liz.
“So, what’s the occasion?”
Natalee shrugged, “I’m bored.”
“You’re bored so you decide to drink, bare minimum, two bottles of wine?”
“Yeah, why not? As long as Jonah gets home on time, I will have succeeded as a Mom today.”
Liz rolled her eyes, “Damn, I wish it was that easy for me. If I don’t appease to five other little souls, I’m the damned devil.”
Natalee smirked, “Sometimes I wonder if we should’ve had more, and then I see the bags under your eyes, and I know Jonah is plenty.”
Liz cackled, “You’re fucked up.”
She shrugged, “Maybe, but at least I’m honest
?”
“Yeah, yeah. Integrity goes far these days.”
The two sat and talked through the rest of the chardonnay. As Natalee was struggling to open the bottle of rosé, Liz walked over to her sink and examined the tiny busy on the window sill.
“What the fuck is this?”
“Korenchudo.”
“What is it, a Korean bamboo tree?”
Natalee snorted, her cheeks flushed. “No, Russian. It means miracle root or some shit like tha- Oh my GOD why can’t I open this thing?”
Liz spun around just as the seal broke and with a loud pop. Natalee spilled wine all over the counter, herself and the floor. Liz giggled, which quickly turned into full belly laughter the moment she saw Natalee’s face.
Natalee was mortified, and she tried to make it to the sink to set the bottle down, but slipped, and fell flat on her behind in the puddle of wine. At this point, Natalee burst into laughter too, after an elongated “Owwww”.
Liz cackled until tears burned her eyes and then she attempted to take a deep breath but just ended up howling with laughter even louder. She slid down the cupboards, and sat on the floor across from Natalee, rubbing her eyes, still laughing.
Once they had calmed down, Liz kindly helped Natalee clean up the kitchen and held down the fort while she changed into something dry. Natalee came back down from her room and they agreed they could hold off on a second bottle, so they collapsed in the living room together.
“What kind of miracles can your plant do?”
Natalee scrunched her eyebrows, “What?”
“The tiny bush in your kitchen. You said it was a miracle root.”
“Oh! I don’t know. My best friend lives in Russia and she brought it to me. I just eat it.”
Liz lifted her head to give Natalee the most confused look she could muster, “You eat it?”