As it happened, Ruby was at home for two full weeks recovering. By the time she was ready to return to third grade, there was less than a month left of school. But that was still almost thirty days, and Karen realized she couldn’t stomach even a single encounter with the Embroidered Tunic Moms. Surely Susan Bordwell had told all eight members of the Mather PTA executive board what Karen had done. Among Karen’s intimates, it was now only Matt—who was sleeping on the sofa until further notice—who didn’t know that part of the story. But she didn’t know how much longer she could stall.
When Matt got home from work one evening, Karen told him a version of the same tale she’d told Susan, admittedly playing up the redistribution angle. They were on opposite sides of the kitchen island. Matt had a bottle opener in hand and was busy prying off the top of a Corona Light. Ruby was in the other room doing the homework that, at Karen’s request, Ms. Millburn had e-mailed her. When Karen finished speaking, Matt was silent. Then he said, “So you’re telling me that, in addition to being a liar and a cheater, you’re also a thief.”
“If that’s how you want to put it,” mumbled Karen.
“If you’ve murdered someone too, now is the time to tell me,” said Matt.
“I’ve murdered no one.”
“Well, that’s something—I guess.”
“I was thinking that, maybe instead of sending Ruby back to Mather,” Karen went on, “she could start again at Betts. I’m not sure the administration even realizes she left.”
“Fine with me,” said Matt, shrugging. “But you better run it by Ruby.”
“I will,” she said.
And she did.
“Sweetie—there’s something I have to tell you,” Karen said as she was tucking in Ruby that night. “Daddy and I changed our minds and decided you’d get a better education at your old school.”
To Karen’s relief, Ruby seemed more perplexed than pissed. “I’m going back to Betts?” she asked, nose wrinkled.
“Yes,” said Karen.
“But why? I thought you said I’d get a better education at Mather.”
“I did,” said Karen, improvising, “but the truth is that I let fear steer us down a road we didn’t need to go down. But now we’re pointed in the right direction again.”
“But where were we going?” asked Ruby, her brow knit.
“That’s a very good question,” said Karen. “I haven’t quite figured that out myself. Until I do, I just want to say that I’m really proud of how you’ve handled everything. I know you haven’t had the easiest third grade.”
“Oh—thanks,” said Ruby, pausing as if she were trying to make sense of her mother’s words. But when she spoke again, it was on a new topic. “Well, I just hope that when Chahrazad sees my cast, she doesn’t try to write sexy on it,” she went on. “It’s her favorite word. That would be so embarrassing.”
“I agree, and I hope so too,” said Karen, thankful for Ruby’s digression.
If anyone at Betts should ask about Ruby’s absence, Karen had decided, she’d simply point to Ruby’s cast and say she’d had a bad accident. It wouldn’t even be a lie.
The only person whom Karen felt compelled to contact before Ruby reappeared in Room 303 was Lou. After Ruby was asleep, Karen called her on the phone. “It’s Karen,” she said.
“Oh—hey,” said Lou, neither warm nor cold.
“I just wanted to let you know that Ruby is coming back to Betts,” Karen said quickly. “It’s a long story, but the short version is that I realized I made a mistake.”
“So, it’s both long and short?” said Lou, still sounding the tiniest bit prickly. But at least the channels had been reopened.
“Something like that,” said Karen, who hoped that, over time, they could rebuild their friendship.
She sent an e-mail along the same lines to April Fishbach.
Welcome back to the front lines, Comrade Kipple, April responded.
An involuntary giggle escaped from Karen, who realized it was the first time she’d laughed in a week.
To Karen’s joy and relief, Ruby hadn’t been back at Betts for two days before she had a new best friend—Fatima, the Egyptian girl who’d arrived the same week that Maeve left. To Karen’s further joy, although she would never have admitted it out loud, Fatima’s parents turned out to be educated professionals. Fatima’s mother was a sociologist who had a fellowship at a state university branch nearby. Her father was some kind of engineer.
Meanwhile, it emerged in the subsequent weeks that Winners Circle hadn’t received as many applications as they’d expected. The result was that two projected kindergarten classrooms had been consolidated into one. After all that, it seemed that Betts’s school library would be left as is. What’s more, thanks to several anonymous donations made to the PTA, there was suddenly enough cash to purchase new books and even beanbag chairs. But there was still no money in the budget for a librarian, which seemed like a terrible shame to Karen, since the school couldn’t keep the library open without one.
Over the next month, Karen and her own NBF, April, hatched a plan to reopen the space with parent volunteers. April did the scheduling, and Karen wrote the e-mails asking for help—and was pleasantly surprised by the number of parents of all colors and creeds (though nearly all of them were female) who came forward to offer their time. A local construction company promised to do a free paint job over the summer. For once, Karen felt as if she was really making a difference. Though she continued to believe there was a place for the kind of fund-raising work she did at Hungry Kids. Maybe it wasn’t a pure form of philanthropy, but really, was there a pure form of anything?
The very last Friday in June, Karen was walking down the hall en route to the library, where she planned to help unpack and then shelve some of the new titles that had come in—she’d decided to donate her Friday mornings to Betts, after all—when she ran into Principal Chambers. In Karen’s nearly four years at the school, she’d never spoken to the woman directly. In fact, until that moment, Karen very much doubted that Regina Chambers even knew who she was or that her daughter had left and come back. “It’s Karen, isn’t it?” she said, stopping and pivoting.
Karen could have fallen over. “Yes, it is!” she said, stopping too.
“We’re happy to have you and your daughter back at the school,” said Principal Chambers.
“Oh, thank you!” said Karen. “We’re really happy to be here.”
“I understand you ran into a little trouble over at Mather Elementary?”
Karen blanched with embarrassment. Was it possible that Regina Chambers knew her secret? “Well, yes, a little,” Karen mumbled, then chuckled.
“Well, on behalf of the Constance C. Betts School, let me just say thank you for your generous donation. It was very much appreciated.” Principal Chambers offered Karen a toothy grin.