Lori slants a look at Richard and then another look out the window over the sink. That Boy is sitting in the hammock again, eating another pizza, and staring at the sky. It's not fair to call him a boy -- he's at least Richard's age, maybe even slightly older. But Lori always thinks of him as That Boy, that boy who is constantly on the verge of breaking up her marriage, that boy who is shaking the foundation of her world -- Jim -- that boy who won't let well enough be good enough.
And today, on the grass, sitting next to him, a little under him, is a girl.
He's brought a girl.
**
Garett gestures with the pizza Pattie brought with her.
"And that," he says triumphantly, "is what I am eventually going to do with Moonridge!"
Pattie is gazing adoringly at him when he glances over, so he looks back at the sky and swallows his pizza. She's kind of weird.
"That sounds wonderful," she says dreamily.
"Well, you know, I have a deep commitment to the animals." His phone buzzes with quiet music and a vibration, but Garett ignores it. He always ignores it when it's the Wiseguy theme song -- that's just Ken.
"Garett, you're amazing. I feel like we have this connection." Garett looks over at Pattie again.
"You can help if you want," he tells her. "You can make photocopies of the babies and hang the pictures all around for our festival. Maybe people will come."
"I'll do that now! But don't forget to call me if you're going to leave here, okay?" She scrambles up, and Garett breathes a sigh of relief when she's gone. Having someone follow him around all the time and tell him how wonderful he is sounded cool when he had been taking intern applications, but now? Now it's kind of annoying.
**
Ken throws his phone against the wall. Stupid Garett. He never answers the phone. He must be at Richard's house.
It's only three in the afternoon. Ken could get to Richard's. Lori gets mad when Garett and Ken are in the hammock, but she gets mad about everything. She even gets mad when Garett is in the hammock by himself.
When Ken gets to Richard's house, he realizes three things: one, it's about to start raining, and he didn't even notice. Two, Garett totally ordered pizza and didn't call Ken to share it.
And three, there's a creepy girl watching through the bushes, taking pictures with her camera phone, wearing a nametag that says, "Hello, I am Garett's Intern! Ask me about Moonridge!"
https://members.tripod.com/happyfriendbox/lalegarett.html