“Gotcha.” I pull into the street and calculate that with traffic I will have about fifteen minutes to glean as much information from her as possible, unless we get lucky and there’s a three-car pileup. Kit is sitting in Max’s car seat happily watching one of his movies with the headphones on.
“So…” I lead off, hoping JJ will pick up the ball.
She turns her whole body to me.
“You have to promise you’ll never tell anyone what I told you,” she begs.
“You’ve only told me that Miss Ward and Kim knew each other from New Jersey. I won’t say anything, but I think I’d have a hard time finding someone who cares.”
“It’s not that they know each other, it’s how they know each other.”
We’re at a stoplight, so I turn and give her my best “confused” look, which isn’t hard because I am still pretty confused.
JJ gives an exasperated sigh.
“Look, if I tell you, you can’t tell anyone.”
“I won’t.”
“Swear on Max’s life.”
Funny, I had just asked Nina to swear on her kid’s life, and she had refused. I’m not sure it’s wise to bet Max’s life on my ability to keep my yap shut, but I’m too damn curious not to.
“Okay. I swear.”
“On Max’s life.”
I grimace.
“On Max’s life.” Now I know I won’t tell anyone. I look at JJ expectantly.
“Well, from what I know, Kim moved here to get away from Peggy.”
I try to keep my eyes on the road but I have to look over to see if she’s serious.
“When I first met Kim at preschool, we hung out all the time because we had to be there to help the kids with separation. You weren’t there, were you?”
Am I that forgettable?
“I didn’t do preschool for Max.”
I want to slap the judgmental look she gives me right off her face.
“Kim told me back then that they’d moved for David’s job, but also because he’d had an affair and they needed a fresh start. They seemed to really be trying. They used to take these romantic weekends. We watched Nancy a few times.”
“How does Miss Ward fit in to all this?”
“When we first got the letter from the school telling us who the kindergarten teacher was, Kim totally wigged out.” JJ laughs humorlessly at the memory. “She told me this was the woman David had the affair with and she had obviously followed them here. She was really unhinged and I felt bad for her. She even went to Principal Jakowski and tried to have her fired before school started.”
“I’m surprised she didn’t manage to,” I say, thinking about how relentless Kim Fancy can be when she wants something.
“Turn left here,” JJ directs. We are now on Trail’s End, fairly close to our destination.
“She couldn’t, though. Have you ever seen Miss Ward’s résumé?”
I shake my head no.
“She has a doctorate in early childhood education from Columbia and she started her career pioneering a ‘Mandarin for toddlers’ program for the state of New Jersey. There was no way Jakowski was going to turn her away.”
“That’s crazy,” is all I can think of to say.
“That’s my house at the end of the block, with the blue mailbox,” JJ tells me. Shit! I’m not ready to let her go yet. I pull into her driveway and put the minivan in Park.
“So, is this like a stalking situation? She followed them here to boil a bunny on their stove?”
“What?” JJ clearly doesn’t get the reference to my favorite movie of all time, Fatal Attraction.
“Nothing. So she moves here supposedly to win David back, and what? Try to get him to leave Kim?”
“That’s what I thought, but it turns out it was Kim who had the affair, and Kim who she came here to win back.” She shakes her head in disbelief. “And now she has.”
“When did you find out all this?”
“Two weeks ago. Until then I thought David had had the affair with her, and I felt so bad for Kim to have to see this woman. She bad-mouthed her constantly, but then would go and have”—she makes air quotes—“‘meetings’ with her. I thought she was trying to save her marriage. But then I walked in on them making out in Kim’s backyard. I think it was just after that event at your husband’s store.”
We both sit in silence for a moment. Miss Ward moves to Kansas to follow her heart and ultimately wins the girl. Huh. It’s kind of romantic, in a crazy-bitch sort of way. Then I frown.
“So what’s going to happen to Nancy and David?”
JJ shrugs. “No idea. Do you think he would go back to New Jersey with them?”
“I can’t even pretend to know what these people would do.” I laugh. Boy, nothing like this ever happened when I was class mom for Vivs and Laura.
“God, it feels good to talk about this,” JJ admits. “I’ve been keeping a lot of secrets this year.” She starts gathering up her bags and tells Kit to get ready. “Thanks so much for the ride.”
“Any time.”
“It was nice to talk to you. I used to have a lot of friends, but after Kim moved here I became kind of obsessed with her and I lost most of them.” She opens the minivan door and gets out, but pauses before she closes it.
“Maybe I was a little in love with her, too.”
And with that slight overshare, she closes the door and heads up her front walkway with Kit.
“Remember,” she turns and yells, although I can barely hear her through my closed car windows. “You can’t tell anyone.”
24
* * *
To: The Soon-to-Be 1st Grade Parents
From: JDixon
Date: 6/8
Subject: HAGS! As the kids would say
Dear Formerly Miss Ward’s Class,
I just want to give a third and final reminder to everyone that tomorrow is the last day of school for our kindergarteners and everyone is invited to our field day/picnic, which takes place from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on the west side of the field behind the school.
Thanks to everyone who volunteered to bring food and drinks. I’m happy to report that we have a new winner in our speedy response category. Since Sasha Lewicki’s automated reply has left the class, Ravi Brown leads the pack with an impressive 58 seconds, but you should know that all responses came in at under ten minutes. I couldn’t be prouder.
I also want to thank everyone for pitching in these last two weeks and helping Principal Jakowski manage our class. Miss Ward’s untimely departure could have been a disaster, but we all pulled together and made it work. Special shout-out to Ali Gordon and Don Burgess. You guys are amazing with kids! You should be teachers.
Hope to see you tomorrow, but if I don’t, then HAGS (which I think is a truly horrible acronym for Have a Great Summer, but the kids seem to love it).
Over and out for good!
Jen (and Asami in spirit)
* * *
*
And there it is, my last official email as class mom. After tomorrow, I’m a free woman. Well, “free” is a relative term, I guess, since I’m still a mom and I now have an active little boy home with me all day, every day. Thank goodness for play dates. I already have Max scheduled through July Fourth weekend.