I shouldn't feel proud of this, thought Step. But I also shouldn't feel ashamed. I should just feel glad that it's over. If it's over.
She drove away.
He got into his car, started it, pulled out, and headed home.
The song on the radio was the one by Hall and Oates that had been a big hit back in January when Step came to Steuben for interviews. "Maneater." That's what I saved Stevie from, a maneater. Mrs. Jaws. Doing all she could to chew up this child and spit him out. So why don't I feel better?
Because I'm not better. I just chewed her up and spit her out, and I don't like how it feels. I don't like being cruel. I don't have the stomach for it.
And yet I do, don't I, because I did it. Maybe that's a good thing and maybe it's not.
When he pulled into the driveway, he noticed that something was different about the lawn. Then he turned the engine off, and the radio stopped, and he heard the lawnmower. DeAnne was mowing the lawn.
But it wasn't DeAnne. When he got out of the car and went around to the back yard, there was an old man mowing the grass. One of the neighbors?
Suddenly DeAnne was beside him, slipping her arm around his waist. "How did it go?" she asked.
"Who's he?" he asked.
"Oh, he's Bappy. You know, I told you about him, the land lord's father. I called him to ask if he knew any neighbor kids who mowed lawns, and he said he'd do it."
"I can mow our lawn," said Step. "We can't afford to pay a grown man."
"When are you going to mow it, Step?" she asked. "You don't have time. And if you did have time the kids and I would much rather have you spend that time with us than mowing the stupid lawn. And besides, he's doing it for free. He says that living at the condo he never gets an excuse to get outside and have some exercise."
Step looked at Bappy. He waved. DeAnne waved back, and so did Step, halfheartedly.
"So come inside and tell me how it went."
As they headed for the house, he said, "She agreed to everything I said. The harassment stops. The last month at school should be better."
"But will she actually do it?" asked DeAnne.
"Oh, yes," said Step. "I think she will."
"Well tell me what you said, and what did she say? Was it as bad as Stevie said?"
"Every word that Stevie said to us was true," said Step.
"How could she? How could anyone?"
"I'll tell you what," said Step. "Tonight, I'll make sure you hear every word. Word for word."
"What, you memorized it?"
He pulled the tape recorder and the tape out of his pockets. She looked from one to the other and then whooped once with laughter and then got a frown on her forehead. "You did have the tape in the recorder, I hope!"
"You'll hear it all, Fish Lady," said Step. "The Junk Man really got the junk this time."
She threw her arms around him, as far as they would go, with her belly so large and solid in front of her.
And she kissed him. "Come on inside," she said. "Stevie's been so nervous, you need to tell him everything went well. This is great, you having the afternoon off work like this."
"What am I doing?" said Step. "I can't believe that I even came home. I'm on my lunch hour. I've got to go back."
"Oh, no!" she said. "It's four o'clock, there's only an hour left anyway."
"Yes, but Dicky and I had a run- in about me leaving, so I've got to show my face there, but I'll tell you what, I'll get home as early as I can, all right? Tell Stevie it went fine, tell him that his teacher will never pick on him again-and if she gives even one hint of it tomorrow, I'll get her fired, and I can do it."
DeAnne laughed. "I'll bet you can."
"And thanks for getting the lawn mowed," he said.
"I'll pass it along to Bappy."
But he couldn't go. "Aw, Fish Lady" he said, in his mock-sorry voice, "I gotta tell him myself."
"Oh, of course, you goof," said DeAnne. "He's in the family room playing computer games."
Step leaned through the doorway from the kitchen to the family room. Stevie was sitting at the Atari, playing some game with a pirate ship, talking at the screen. "Come on, Scotty!" Stevie said.
"Stevie ," said Step. "I've got to go back to work, but I wanted to tell you."
Stevie pushed the reset button on the computer, and the screen went blank and then blue.
"You didn't have to turn it off," said Step. "I was just telling you, everything went fine with Mrs. Jones. The tough days are behind you, I promise you."
Stevie nodded-glumly. Well, of course, Step thought. Even if I'm right, he knows that getting the teacher off his case won't instantly give him a whole bunch of friends at school. But at least maybe some of them will talk to him.
Step kissed DeAnne again, got back in the car, and headed back to work. When he got there, he saw three notes on his desk. All three were messages from Ray Keene. They all said the same thing: Ray called. Wants to know where you are.
Dicky was so low, so petty, so spiteful that after months of trying to make sure that Step never got a chance to talk to Ray Keene directly, he got Ray to attempt direct contact when he knew Step was gone in the middle of the afternoon.
Step immediately picked up the phone and punched in Ray's extension. As he had hoped, it was Ray's secretary who answered. "Hi," he said. "I'm returning Ray's call."
"Oh, I'm sorry, Ray's in a meeting right now," said the secretary.
"Isn't that the way it goes?" said Step. "I'll bet the meeting is with Dicky, isn't it?"
"Well, Dicky's one of the guys in there, anyway," she said.
"Isn't that the silliest thing?" said Step. "Ray was trying to call me, and yet Dicky was with him, and Dicky knew that I had taken a late lunch today so I could meet with my son's teacher. You'd think Dicky would have told Ray so Ray wouldn't waste his time trying to reach me."
"Oh, Dicky probably just forgot," said the secretary.
"I'm sure you're right," said Step. "Would you tell Ray that I'm sorry he called me during my late lunch today? And give Dicky a poke in the ribs for me, forgetting to tell Ray where I was like that!"
"I sure will," said the secretary. "Isn't that just the way things go?"
"Ain't it the truth," said Step, and hung up.
Maybe the scene would play right and maybe it wouldn't, thought Step, but at least Dicky might have an embarrassing moment or two, if the secretary actually relayed the message even halfway accurately, and if Ray just happened to be standing there when she did.
Because he hadn't been there for much of the afternoon, Step wasn't deeply involved with any projects and so he was able to get away by five-thirty. When he walked past the pit on his way to the door, Glass called to him. "Hey, Step!"
"Hey, Glass," said Step. He came a little way into the room. There were several programmers there, but they were goofing around, not working- he knew that, because he recognized the games that were on the screens, and none of them were published by Eight Bits Inc. They did that sometimes, staying after work and fooling around with other companies' games. They called it "industrial espionage" but the truth was that they loved computer games, and here were all these machines and all this software lying around, and most of them didn't have families anyway except maybe parents, and so why the hell not stay late and play?
"Heading for home?" asked Glass.
"Wish I had time to play" said Step. "But yeah, I'm going home."
"Ray was looking for you," said Glass.
"I got the messages. I was taking a late lunch."
"It sounded important."
"Well, when. I got back, I called in and so Ray knew that I was back and he didn't call again, so it can't have been too important."
Glass rolled his eyes. "Do you know what the term 'deep shit' means?"
"Glass," said Step, "Dicky knew where I was. Dicky didn't like where I was, but it was my lunch hour, and I wasn't cutting out on work. So if this is even a halfway rational universe, I'm not in deep shit."