They arrived at the complex, and the children immediately ejected themselves from their booster seats, climbing over the seats to burst onto the pavement, running toward the doors of Main 1. Izzy walked slowly, hanging back with the adults. She had been given the night off from kitchen duty, and she enjoyed listening to the other parents talk about the bookstore and how well Julie had read from the novel. Suddenly, Izzy looked down and realized that she had left her copy of Julie’s novel back at the Donut Den. And, once again proof of her ease in this world that had been constructed for her, she did not begrudge the loss for even a second.
It was controlled chaos in the dining hall, the children who had stayed at the complex now listening to the children from the excursion describe the pink frosting on the doughnuts as if bringing back stories of strange beasts from an undiscovered country. Ellen walked up to the parents from the field trip, her face smiling so hard it looked as if a device had been implanted in her mouth. “Jeremy and Callie are making dinner,” she said, her voice high and quavery. “Just the two of them.” The parents, except for Izzy, simply smiled and nodded, and, when no one spoke, Ellen shrugged and then said, “They look so damn happy in there!” She then walked away, moving through the children as if they were currents of warm and cold air. Izzy immediately searched the room for Harris, who was sitting at the table, alone, drinking a beer. She watched him for a few seconds and noticed the way he kept scanning the room for Ellen, his eyes narrowing before he took another swig from the bottle of beer. Ellen then walked back toward the kitchen, peeked in, and exclaimed, “How’s it going in there? Smells good!”
Izzy found Carmen and took her aside. “Does Ellen seem like she’s acting strangely?” she asked. Carmen looked around the room until she finally saw Ellen, who was now standing behind Harris, though neither acknowledged the other one. “No,” Carmen said. “Why? Is she acting strangely?”
Izzy shook her head. “I don’t know,” she lied. “I guess not.”
Carmen looked at Izzy, cocked her eyebrow. “You seem to be acting a little strangely,” Carmen said.
Izzy laughed as authentically as she could manage. “I ate a doughnut,” she said. “I think it had a lot of sugar in it.”
“You didn’t bring any for the rest of us?” Carmen asked, and Izzy simply smiled and walked back to the children, not composed enough to actually interact with them. They were playing a makeshift game of kickball, and Izzy gave them enough distance to stay out of harm’s way. She wanted so badly to pull the fire alarm and evacuate the entire building. She wanted to go to Dr. Grind and tell him that there was a bomb in the dining hall that was going to go off. But she realized that she had lost the opportunity to share her secret. It was too late. And nobody else, save the two couples caught up in the affair, knew what was coming.
“Dinner’s served,” Jeremy shouted as he and Callie emerged from the kitchen, holding up a baked ham as if it was going to be baptized. The children and parents all clapped as Jeremy carried the ham to the table. Callie awkwardly held three baskets of fresh-baked bread, and, as soon as Jeremy had placed the ham on the table, he retrieved two of the baskets from Callie and kissed her forehead. Watching closely, Izzy noticed that Callie did not smile at this affection, only nodded in assent. Izzy, as if watching a tennis match, then swung around to see how Ellen would respond to Jeremy’s action. Ellen, still smiling in such a painful way that Izzy wanted to rub her own cheeks, slowly backed out of the room, taking tiny steps, as if practicing a dance she’d only heard about secondhand. Just as she reached the doorway, Harris stood up and gestured for Ellen to join him at the table, but she shook her head and disappeared. Izzy waited for someone to retrieve her, but Harris merely sat down next to Marnie, helping her order her silverware, and Jeremy and Callie helped serve the rest of the dishes that they brought from the kitchen. “Sit down, Mom!” Cap shouted, and Izzy smiled. She tried several times to make eye contact with Harris, but he would not meet her gaze, though Izzy had no idea if this was intentional or not. She sat between Cap and Gilberto, the two boys each demanding that she butter a slice of bread for them, and soon she was caught up in the activities of the meal, food being passed around, the garbled happiness of the children’s nonsense.