Something She Can Feel

While Evan’s inquisition about the “play” and my still-numb feet led to me being late to work and missing Ms. Lindsey’s morning coffee, I ended up finding her standing alone in an unusually empty and quiet main office. When I walked in, two of Angie Martin’s ghouls were walking out with stacks of paper in their arms. They were whispering and looking over their shoulders at Ms. Lindsey. In fact, when they saw me, they were so busy cackling that neither made enough time to roll their eyes and say something nasty.

Although Ms. Lindsey’s back was to me as she leaned over the copier, I knew it was her, and to my surprise, she’d actually taken time to go home to change clothes before she came to work to ruin my life. Then I thought maybe she’d already started to spread the word about the club and wondered if that was why the ghouls had been whispering.

“Karen,” I called softly, unsure of what I’d say when she turned around. “Excuse me?”

Without answering, Ms. Lindsey turned slowly, and when my eyes met her face, I found a deep purple shiner over her left eye.

“Ewww,” I said, bracing myself at the sight.

“I know—it’s awful,” she said. “Clyde put ice on it, but that only made it worse.”

“That’s from the purse?”

“What do you think?” she asked, annoyed.

“Oh, I’m so sorry,” I said. “I know she didn’t mean to do all of that.”

Ms. Lindsey stood there unmoved by my explanation.

“What do you want?” she asked coldly.

“Well, it’s about last night,” I started and trying not to look at her eye to figure out just what part of the bag slammed into it, I knew there was no way she’d ever agree to keep the night a secret. I was lucky she hadn’t pressed charges and held a news conference. It was the biggest shiner I’d ever seen and I could almost make out a Gucci symbol over her eyebrow.

“What about last night? You want to talk about how that crazy bitch assaulted me?”

“Really, I wasn’t coming to talk about Billie,” I said. “It’s about me.”

“You?” She turned and picked up her finished copies from the machine.

“I need you to ... I need you to—”

“Just come out with it,” she cut me off. “My left ear is ringing.”

“I was just wondering if you could not mention that you saw me at the club,” I said finally.

“Not mention?”

Ms. Newberry and another administrator walked into the office laughing loudly. They excused themselves when they noticed us at the copier and I saw Ms. Newberry look at Ms. Lindsey and say something to the other woman. They both nodded and separated as they went to their desks with their eyes still on Ms. Lindsey.

“As in, not ever tell anyone I was there,” I whispered, pulling her to the side of the copier where there was a little wall separating us from the pool of desks where the assistants sat.

“And why would I do that?” Ms. Lindsey asked.

“Because I don’t want people to know. I was just there trying to support Dame, and you know how people are around here; they’ll try to make more of it than what it is.”

“Well, what is it?” she asked.

“It’s nothing.”

“It didn’t look like nothing.”

“Karen, could you please just help me,” I said, trying to find some sympathy in her. “I can’t have that kind of gossip going around about me. With Evan’s career and the church ... I just—”

“Stop it,” she said, rolling her eyes and pausing. “Look, I don’t have any beef with you, so I’m not running to tell everybody.”

“Thank you.”

“If anyone in this school knows what a bitch gossip can be, I do,” she said. “Ever since I walked in that door, people have been calling me a whore and a slut ... and for what? Because I’m dating a man who asked me out?”