She took a deep breath. “So,” she finally said. “Co-op.”
“Mmhmm.”
“We have sort of…an issue.”
I sighed. “Carol, I know no one wants to sign up for my class. It’s fine. I told you we can just cancel it. I’m not going to force anyone to spend time with me if they don’t want to.”
“Right,” she said. “Well, no. That’s not the issue.”
I wondered if they were worried that we’d start bringing dead bodies to class. “What’s the issue then?”
She sat down in the chair next to me, scooting it away just a bit. “Stella Bogard had to cancel her class about nutrition. Her husband was laid off and she had to go find a job.”
I frowned. “Oh, wow. I’m sorry to hear that.”
“And Violet Tumbledrag had to cancel her math class because she broke her ankle,” Carol said, wringing her hands slowly in her lap. “Shoveling her driveway, don’t ya know.”
“Oh, that’s rotten.” At least she hadn’t ended up like poor Sally in the mortuary.
“For sure, yeah,” Carol said. “So we’re down two classes, unfortunately. We’re supposed to offer a minimum of ten. Losing those two, plus yours? Well, that puts us at nine. If we’re under ten we can’t run the co-op because we won’t have enough registration money to cover the building rental.”
“Well, I didn’t exactly pull mine, Carol,” I said. “It seemed pretty clear that no one wanted to take it. You yourself indicated that your kids weren’t interested. After you said they were,” I added.
Carol winced and clasped her hands together. “Right. Right. Well, here’s the thing. I have another mother who is willing to teach a class. On Minnesota history. That would give us ten if she’s able to.”
I nodded, unsure where she was going. “Okay. Well, then it sounds like the problem is solved.”
She started wringing her hands again. “Not exactly. The woman who has offered to teach?” She hesitated and then, in a small voice, said, “She’ll only do it if your kids aren’t in her class.”
I waited a moment. “Excuse me?”
“She’s worried about, I don’t know, I guess the drama that might be involved,” Carol said quickly. “With the investigation and all. She thinks it might be a distraction if your kids are in her class. So she wanted an assurance that they wouldn’t sign up.”
I looked away from her for a moment to compose myself. The anger I’d felt toward Thornton was nothing compared to what I was feeling now. Carol was sitting next to me, calmly telling me that my kids were being blackballed from a class they hadn’t signed up for because of a crime they had nothing to do with. It was the most cowardly thing I’d ever heard.
I stood and spotted Will on the other side of the room. I called out to him. “Will. Grab the girls. We’re leaving.”
“I know this is hard,” Carol said, standing. “I know it doesn’t seem fair.”
“That’s because it’s not,” I said. I turned to her and the expression on my face made her shrink away. “You all are acting like morons.”
She cast her eyes downward but not before I saw a look of guilt blossom there. “Well, I don’t know if—”
“I do, Carol. I absolutely know that you all are behaving like morons. And you’re being unbelievably unfair to my kids.” I stared at her. “And I’m not gonna take that.”
Her neck flushed red, the color quickly traveling to her cheeks. “Daisy, you’re taking this all the wrong way.”
I swallowed hard. “How exactly should I take it then? Tell me.”
Her lips pursed and she didn’t offer anything.
“You tell whoever your replacement teacher is that she has nothing to worry about,” I said. “My kids won’t set foot near her class.”
Carol’s hand rested over her heart. “Oh, well. Thank you for being so understanding. You know how much we all value your—”
I cut her off. “My kids won’t be setting foot in any of the classes.”
She blinked at me. “What?”
“We quit,” I said. “All of us.”
Her eyes widened. “But Daisy. You can’t. We need you. You know that. You handle our finances. And our master calendar. No one else knows how to do those things because you’ve done them for so long.”
“We quit,” I repeated, enunciating each word. “You don’t want us around, we won’t come around.” I shrugged. “Easy as that.”
She started to say something else, but I held up my hand to stop her.
“Not another word, Carol,” I said, shaking my head. “You can just shove all your issues. Right up your big, fat butt.”
THIRTY THREE
“Jake!” Grace yelled when he walked through the door. “Carol has a big fat butt!”
Jake set his keys on the table. “Well, that’s excellent to know. Thank you for sharing.”
Grace bounded off the couch and headed for the stairs. “Mommy told her she had one!”
I was checking on the casserole in the oven and turned back around to find him staring at me.
“So,” he said. “How was your day?”
I closed the oven door. I didn’t believe in obscene gestures but at that moment my middle finger twitched in his direction. “Fine.”
He raised an eyebrow. “And why exactly were you informing Carol about the size of her ass?”
“Because she is an ass,” I snapped.
He kicked off his boots. “Should I go ask Will for his interpretation of what happened or are you going to tell me?”
I pulled the plates from the cabinet and set them on the counter without smashing them. Then I recounted my run-in with Carol.
“So you quit?” Jake asked, when I was done. “You really quit?”
“Yes!” I said. “What else could I have done? They’re blackballing us!”
He frowned.
“What?” I asked, watching him. “You disagree?”
He pulled a diet soda from the fridge and leaned against the closed door. “I think people are overreacting.”
“Oh, you think?”
He held up a hand. “Don’t get mad at me. But, yeah. I think all of the people there are overreacting to something they know nothing about.” He paused. “And I think that rather than creating enemies, it would be better to just sort of ignore them.”
I pulled cups down from the cabinet and let the door slam shut. “They banned the kids from the class.”
“No,” he said, his tone measured. “One idiotic mother doesn’t want them in her class. Which is, very stupid. But would they want to be in that class anyway?”
“I have no idea,” I said. I pulled on the fridge door handle and Jake slid out of the way. “And neither will they since they aren’t allowed to take it,” I added bitterly.
He shifted so he was against the counter instead. “Did you ask them if they wanted to quit the co-op?”
“No, of course not. When Carol told me, I freaked out.”
He raised an eyebrow. “Are there other classes they want to take?”
“Probably,” I admitted. “But that’s not the point.”
He held up his hand again. “Hold on. Listen to me.”
I made a face and filled the water pitcher at the sink.
“If there are other classes they want to take…and that they are welcome in…is it worth yanking them out of the co-op completely because of one lunatic?” he asked.
I watched the water drip into the plastic pitcher. I hated it when he was so calm and rational. And made too much sense. It completely countered my superpowers of freaking out and irrationalness.
“If you want to take them out, I’m cool with it,” he said. He brought the can to his mouth and took a long drink. “But I think if it’s going to be something they’ll really miss, then we need to think about just rolling our eyes at the nutjobs and tolerate them for awhile.”
“Thornton has a girlfriend,” I blurted out.
“And we are changing the subject ever so smoothly,” Jake said, smiling. “Thornton has a girlfriend. Excellent. Or is it?”