by Glory Lennon

Created on: September 10, 2007   Last Updated: March 11, 2009

He kissed his wife until an insistent tugging on his arm pulled them apart. "Hey, Jason. Game starting?"he asked.

"Mr. Mills, you gotta come quick! We need a coach. Referee says if we have no coach we have to forfeit and that means we lose," he said earnestly.

"Where's Coach Harry?"

"Nobody knows. Please, come be coach."

Jerry grinned at Lena. "Duty calls. Maybe Harry will show up soon, and I can come see Abigail play for a while," he said not too convincingly.

She watched him run off to save the day. Her superman. She sat far removed from the other parents who were all lined up imperiously sitting in their folding field chairs. Lena was roughing it. She brought an old quilt to sit on. She watched Abigail and her teammates with delight. They looked adorable out there kicking furiously at the ball following it around in circles.

"We're in the same boat, you and I.," said a woman plopping down beside her on the bare grass.

So absorbed in the game, Lena didn't immediately register the woman. "I'm sorry. Were you talking to me?" she asked. The woman smiled and Lena recognized her as Jacob's mother.

"I said, we're in the same boat according to the rumor mill," she repeated with a wry twist to her mouth.

Lena sat staring at the kids on the field half startled, half embarrassed. Jerry told her about those fabricated stories circling town. Why was this person bringing that up? Wasn't that the ultimate social faux pas?

Lena cast a furtive glance at this woman who was shouting encouraging words to her son. "So...um, if you know what they say about me aren't you afraid I'll steal your husband?"

"Too late. My best friend beat you to it. I guess I should call her ex-best friend," she said thoughtfully.

"Your best friend? How could she do that?" Lena asked, dismayed.

"That's funny. Everyone blames me. I'm Lisa, Jacob's mother and you're Lena. Surely you must have heard about me," she said. Lena shook her head. "Well, it's almost the same thing they're saying about you only worse."

"Worse? How is that possible?" Lena asked despite herself.

"You really haven't heard?" she asked incredulously.

"I don't listen to trash," Lena retorted waspishly.

Lisa smiled. "Well, according to gossips I go out carousing with lowlife men, leave my kids unattended, come home stinking drunk ...oh, yes, and I do three ways whenever possible," she stated as if reciting a grocery list.

Lena's eyes nearly popped out of her head. Why was this stranger telling her this? "I'm sorry," she muttered.

Lisa laughed. "I know

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