Little Children Page #4

half an hour to go three blocks,

unless I carry her.

- Daddy, I'm finished.

- Are you sure? We just got here.

I'm finished right now.

Okay. All right,

here we go.

Ready?

One, two, three.

- Oops.

- Oh, hold on for a second.

- There, thank you.

- Are you okay?

No problem.

It was then while watching Brad

kneel down at his son's feet

that Sarah found herself gripped by

an unexpected pang of sadness.

"Don't go," she thought.

"Don't leave me here

with the others."

- It was nice talking to you.

- Same here.

Wait! Um...

Come here. Just...

come here.

You see those women

over there?

Just, yeah, don't--

don't look.

You know what

they call you?

What?

The prom king.

Oh God, really?

Yeah, they mean it

as a compliment.

You're a big character

in their fantasy lives.

Wow.

Um, so one of them bet me $5

I couldn't get your phone number.

Five bucks, huh?

Yeah.

Could we split

it 50-50?

It could be

arranged.

It doesn't have to be

your real number.

Oh, well, you know, in that case, sure.

You got a pen?

Great. Oh sh*t, no I--

um, no I don't.

- Uh...

- Well...

No wait, just--

wait.

You know what'd

really be funny?

If you gave me a hug.

- You think?

- Yeah.

- Yeah.

- All right, come here.

Oh my God.

Do you want to really

freak them out?

Yeah.

Who's gonna talk in there?

- Oh my God!

- Troy!

- Lucy!

- Isabelle!

Isabelle! Come here, Isabelle.

Okay, we have to go.

- Isabelle!

- Troy!

- I think that worked.

- Yeah, I think so.

- Um, well, it was nice meeting you.

- Yeah.

It's okay, yeah.

We're gonna go.

- It's all right.

- Lucy?

We're gonna go home.

Okay, here we go,

good girl.

Good girl.

I'm sure your daughter

found that very educational.

His name is Brad.

He's a lawyer

and he's really very nice.

For the past few days

Sarah hadn't been able

to concentrate on anything

but the prom king

and the curious thing

that had happened

between them

on the playground.

She didn't feel

shame or guilt,

only a sense of profound

disorientation,

as if she had been

kidnapped by aliens

then released unharmed

a few hours later.

As he had so often

in recent days,

Brad mentally reenacted

the kiss by the swing set.

He still couldn't believe

it had really happened.

And with all those women

and children watching.

Troy! Troy!

Aaron had been particularly

curious about what he'd seen.

Why you hugging

that lady?

Well, that's what

I'm trying to show you with Bozo.

Sometimes it's a game that adults play

to show that they're friends.

You say, "Hi,

I'm your friend."

Aaron was skeptical.

They returned to the playground

the following morning,

but no one was there.

Sarah hadn't shown up

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