Eliza Starts a Rumor(36)
“Carson. I thought, considering the paparazzi swarming outside of our house, it was smart to take the kids to my dad’s for a bit. I’m sure you agree it’s what’s best for them.”
It was very early in LA, and between that and the fact that she wasn’t screaming at him, she found him to be quite docile. He almost sounded beaten. She knew better than to think it would last.
“What about school?” he asked.
She thought on her feet. “I’ll sign them up in Hudson Valley for a few weeks.”
“You can do that?”
“Sure. Why not?”
“OK, just until this blows over.”
The fact that he thought this was something to blow over enraged Amanda. But she kept her eye on the prize, strategically adding, “Can you email me a note for the school? Something like, I give permission for my children Sadie and Pippa Cole to enroll in the Hudson Valley school system?”
“Of course, I’ll do it when we hang up.”
“Perfect, thank you,” she said, ending the call before things could go south.
Kidnapping, my ass, she’d thought. It may have been the most civil conversation they ever had. The front door swung open. The girls were home.
It was Pippa who entered the kitchen first, doing her very best to suppress a smile. She lost the battle: a huge grin covered her face.
“There are auditions for the Shakespeare troupe after school tomorrow. They’re putting on Measure for Measure. Will we be here long enough?”
Amanda could not believe what she was hearing. Since birth, it was quite obvious that Pippa was a natural actress. They would marvel about how she could turn it on and off in an instant. She was the poster child for Drama Queen in a way that was instinctive, yet totally in her control. But anytime Amanda suggested she take an acting class or audition for something at school, Pippa had shut her down. Amanda was never sure if it was just typical daughter-mother defiance or a child not wanting to be in the family business, but Pippa would never even consider it. Amanda knew she should just answer the question, but that motherly need to know won out.
“Sure, we can be. But, I’m curious, why the change of heart about acting?” She wanted to grab the words back as soon as they left her lips, a reaction she was experiencing more and more now that Pippa was a teenager.
“I don’t know. It seemed so different from at home.” She looked at her grandpa to explain. “Back home everyone wants to be an actress. And even at school, if I tried out for something, I would be trying out as the big producer Carson Cole’s daughter. Here I’ll just be the new girl.”
She looked back at her mom. “It’s cool.” She placed a piece of paper on the table. “Here’s the permission slip and parent volunteer stuff. You can volunteer if you want. I don’t mind.”
Wow, Amanda thought, on so many levels.
Pippa grabbed a few cookies from the table, freshly baked by Eliza.
“I’m gonna go read the script.”
“Do you want me to come up and run lines with you for the audition?” Amanda asked, hopefully.
“Please, no,” Pippa replied with her usual disgust.
And she’s back, Amanda thought.
Her easy child, Sadie, piped in with a mouth full of cookie. “Mommy, did you make these? They are so delicious, thank you.”
Amanda just smiled, not wanting to lie, but not wanting to give up the admiration in her daughter’s eyes.
“You want some milk?”
“Yes, please.”
They sat together at the same kitchen table where Amanda had sat at Sadie’s age, telling tales of her day to her own mother and, later, to her father. He had tried his best to get home early enough to be both a mom and a dad to Amanda. She remembered the pain that she felt when her parents first separated. She looked for it in Sadie. So far, she only saw a spirited resilience.
“Can I go watch TV?” she blurted, little pieces of cookie spraying from her mouth. They both laughed.
“Of course. Go on, honey.” Sadie hugged her before she ran off, two more cookies in hand. Amanda picked up the volunteer form and glanced at it.
“I’m going to Eliza’s!” she shouted out to her dad, as she had a zillion times before.
* * *
—
Across the street, Eliza was sitting at her desk, trolling her site and eating her “breakfast.” Activity on the bulletin board had been growing in leaps and bounds since Eliza’s fictional post had stirred things up. In comparison, the Valley Girls posts seemed disingenuous. Eliza spent a lot of her not-so-precious time lately comparing the two, and although she knew she wasn’t completely objective, she enjoyed scrolling through her own site much more. Valley Girls seemed to be made up of lots of new mothers asking rookie questions of other new mothers. The greatest example being:
My son just fell and is bleeding profusely. What should I do?
Their responses were even more comedic, as if they believed that nearly every problem could be cured by squirting a little breast milk on it or rubbing on some coconut oil. And some of the anonymous posts felt more like posturing than sincerely engaging with the community:
My husband wants to try breastfeeding. Should I let him?
In contrast, the anonymous posts on the Hudson Valley Ladies’ Bulletin Board, which proved to be the key to catapulting the conversation out of the Dark Ages, were smart and often made her laugh out loud.