Play
& Book Excerpts
Pretty
Little World
(Lake
Union Publishing)
© 2017 Elizabeth LaBan & Melissa DePino
“A commune.”
“A commune?” Celia and Hope said together.
“That’s right,” Stephanie said. “A commune or a co-op or a multiple-family
dwelling, whatever you want to call it.”
“You’ve gone off your rocker,” Celia said.
“Please, Stephanie, this is no time for jokes. Our best friends are abandoning
us. It’s crisis time,” Hope said.
“Exactly. And a crisis calls for action, right? This,” she said, sweeping her
arms along the wall. “Is the ultimate in taking action.
The way I see it, Mark wants more space. We all want the company and who
doesn’t want extra hands around to pick up the slack with the kids and the
housework? I propose taking down this wall, and then taking down the wall
between my house and Hope’s. We can leave our upstairs the way they are. We
would have one huge living area. Mark could do the plans.”
“Have you been reading your hippie books and listening to the Grateful Dead
again?” Hope asked.
“Maybe,” Stephanie said, smiling.
“Is something like that even possible?” Hope asked. “I mean, wouldn’t the whole
place collapse?”
“Not if you installed the right steel beams. Mark told me himself that he
thinks these houses might have been joined at one time because of the missing
firewall.”
“Stephanie, I love that you want us to stay so much you would be willing to
demolish part of your house, but I think you know as well as I do that there is
no way we would go ahead and even think about something like that,” Celia said.
“I’m sorry to say this guys, but I can’t imagine anything that would keep us
here at this point.”
Later that day word spread that a burglar had broken into Mary’s house.
Apparently someone had put a brick into her garden glove and threw it through
her back window, climbed in and stole her jewelry and silver. She had lived
there alone for 31 years without any problems, and rarely left her house, maybe
twice a week, but the person broke in during the short time she was out. Mary’s
house was on the other side of the street from Stephanie, Celia and Hope, and
backed onto a tiny alley that seemed a little creepy to them.
“I’ve always been grateful that we live on this side of the street,” Hope
whispered to Stephanie as they sat on Hope’s stoop watching the repair people
go in and out with new locks and windowpanes.
“Me too,” Stephanie whispered back.
The day had gotten away from them, and now all the dads and kids were at Mark
and Celia’s—the men watching the Eagles game and the kids casting and directing
a Harry Potter play. It was up to Hope and Stephanie to get food for the kids’
lunches tomorrow, and Celia had given Hope her list.
“Come on, if we’re going to go shopping we should get it over with,” Stephanie
said, lightly tapping Hope’s thigh as she got up.
They fell into a quiet rhythm as they walked to the small over-priced grocery
store two blocks away.
“I think I’m just going to get those prepackaged organic smoothie
drinks,” Stephanie said. “I’m tired of making lunches.”
“Me too. I think I’ll get the Lunchables. The kids like the make-your-own
pizza version,” Hope said. She took out Celia’s list and read it. “Listen to
this: bananas, apples, whole-grain bread, with a note to make sure the fiber
count is at least three grams, sliced turkey and sliced ham.”
“You know, Celia could make all the kids’ lunches.”
“What are you talking about? She’s too busy to do that.”
Stephanie turned slowly to face Hope. “She wouldn’t be if we lived in a
commune.”
“Do you hear yourself talking?” Hope asked. “People do not break walls down
between their homes no matter how much they like each other. It just isn’t
done.”
“It could be,” Stephanie said. “Mark can figure it out – whatever support it
needs, he can do that, come up with some plans.”
“Come on, you know it’s never going to happen. Besides, who in the world
would live in a commune?”
“We would! We practically do now! Can’t you picture it? It would be so
great, Hope.”
“I’m not saying that it wouldn’t be fun. I’m just saying that you need to be
realistic. Besides, what would Chris say about it?”
“He’s totally in. He thinks it’s a great idea. He loves having all the kids
around, and it’ll make it even easier for him to hang out with the guys and
watch games and stuff.”
They stopped at the corner across from the supermarket.
“And what about the break-in at Mary’s? Wouldn’t you feel safer if we were
together? Who’s going to break into a house where six adults live together?”
asked Stephanie.
“Let’s just say that you could talk me into it, and I’m not saying that you can
because I don’t think it is logistically possible, but I know you would never
be able to talk Celia and Mark into it. Celia would worry about what people
think. And if the walls are closing in on Mark now, would he really want two
more kids in his household? Besides, it’s just not normal. Everyone would make
fun of us—of the kids.”
“Normal,” Stephanie said. “I hate that word. What’s normal anyway?”
|
Elizabeth LaBan teaches fiction writing at the University of Pennsylvania
and is also the author of The Tragedy Paper, The Grandparents
Handbook and The Restaurant Critic's Wife. |
Melissa DePino is co-founder of Leapfrog Group, LLC, a firm
specializing in providing strategy, voice, and vision to advance the missions
of non-profit institutions. |
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