“Eli, let’s go. We’re going to camp out tonight,” Callie said, clearly uncomfortable with how many people were watching her. Her stutter was pronounced and nonstop.
“No way,” said Eli, retreating into the crowd of children, who shielded him from Callie. “Please, sweetie,” Callie said, nearly crying.
“I don’t want to leave my family; you guys hurt Ellen and I’m not leaving until she comes back,” Eli said, who had never fully given himself over to Callie after the formal introductions, who had always wanted Ellen more, and this made Jill stand up. “Let him stay here tonight, Callie.”
“Jeremy thinks we need to be together, just the three of us,” Callie said.
Jeremy now pushed his way past the other parents and walked into the classroom. “Eli, let’s go. Now,” he said sternly.
“No,” said Maxwell, who put himself between Jeremy and his son. Marnie took hold of Eli and the two of them held each other. Now Asean and Paul walked up behind Jeremy and put their hands on his shoulders. “C’mon, Jeremy,” Asean said, “don’t do this.”
Jeremy shoved his hands into the mass of children, as if reaching into a river to retrieve a fish, but the kids slapped at his arms, and Asean pulled Jeremy, nearly lifting the man off his feet, away from them. “That’s it,” Asean said, carrying Jeremy away from the children, Jeremy’s feet dragging soundlessly across the floor. Even in the tense atmosphere, Izzy was awestruck by how effortlessly Asean moved Jeremy toward the door.
Finally released, Jeremy pushed away from Asean. “I didn’t mean for this to happen,” he said.
“You should have thought about that before you fucked Ellen,” Paul said, anger blazing on his face.
Now Jill and Jeffrey were pushing all of the adults out of the room. “Out, now!” Jill shouted, and the children started to wail. The adults spilled into the hallway and Jill shut the door, the two fellows tending to the children. Jeremy, surrounded on all sides by people who suddenly hated him, backed away, Callie next to him. “This place,” Jeremy muttered, gesturing to the walls, the sky, all of the other parents, “it’s so confusing.” Then he and Callie turned and disappeared down the stairs. The hallway was crowded with all the parents, like the floor of the stock exchange, everyone revolving around and around, reminding themselves of what was left, of their new situation.
Just as the parents were about to return to their children, Jill stood in the doorway and then shushed the parents into silence.
“Okay, here’s the deal. They don’t want you guys around right now. The best way I can put it is that they feel betrayed. Some parents brought some real shit into their world and now they want all of you away from them for a while until they figure out what to do.”
“Well, I’m staying here,” Julie said, and Link agreed, as well as a few others.
“For now, guys,” Jill said, “let’s give them their space. I’ll let you know as soon as something changes.”
Izzy turned to head out of the hallway, and the others soon followed, Julie the last to leave. They holed up in the dining hall, each of them sitting around the table that now felt empty and pockmarked.
“They don’t want us,” Kenny said, shaking his head with disbelief.
“Can’t say I blame them,” Paul replied, his face red with embarrassment.
Finally, after 10 P.M., Jill came into the dining hall and faced the parents. “Okay, they’re leaving the room, but they want you guys to stay here for a while,” she said, but Julie and Link immediately ran out of the room and down the stairs. The other parents followed, over Jill’s protests. The parents stood in the courtyard and watched as each child went into their own house, Ally staying with Marnie, and returned with sleeping bags and pillows and flashlights, each one shining in the darkness of the courtyard. They marched past the parents, who were now stunned into silence, and walked back into the main building, up the stairs, the parents following them as if in a trance. The children opened the door to the room that had once been their communal bedroom, which had now been turned into a music room, due to the soundproofing of the walls. The parents hovered around the window that looked into the room and watched as the children moved all the chairs and tables and instruments to the outer edges and then laid down their sleeping bags in the middle. Cap came to the door and taped a sign that read KEEP OUT to the window. Then the children turned off the overhead light and lay in their sleeping bags, each one so close to the other that they seemed to be sleeping on top of each other.