Run-in

Yesterday, my mother and I went to Walmart. I'm recovering from a respiratory flu, so I got tired before the shopping was done. I took my girls, Elise and Sabrina, to the little arcade area where I could rest while Elise looked at all the big games. Elise found another little girl to play with who looked just a little younger than her. They were pretty cute, looking at all the arcade games and pushing buttons like something would happen without inserting money. The other little girl even asked Elise to hold her teddy bear while she explored a game.

The mother of that girl was sitting a few feet away from me. I would have guessed that she was my age. She was blonde and pretty.

She said, "You're Pruett's wife, right?"

I nodded. I was thrown off by the question. What a weird way to identify a person. I was about to ask how we knew each other when she said, "He was my teacher."

"Oh." That was all I could say. Then she got up and left.

She seemed so genuinely friendly. I couldn't decide if she knew about all the drama. Some people don't, you know? They don't read the paper and they run in different enough circles that they have completely missed everything. It messes with my sense of reality to the point that I've considered carrying the newspaper clipping of his sentencing around to show people like that. I know that sounds somewhat disturbed, which is why I don't do it.

After she left, I continued to sit there, thinking of things I could have said to her, like, "Did he ever hit on you? Did you know he was having inappropriate relations with students? Did he ever ask you to come over while I was out of town?" Or even just simply, "Was he a good teacher?"