Eliza Starts a Rumor by Jane L. Rosen

Author:Jane L. Rosen [Rosen, Jane L.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group
Published: 2020-06-23T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 25

Amanda & Eliza

Oh my God! Oh my God! Oh my God!

Eliza read Mandy’s text and laughed out loud. She loved having Mandy back home. It was as if they had both regressed twenty years on impact.

What? What? What?

Why didn’t you tell me that Mr. Barr was still teaching drama at the high school?

Eliza laughed again.

Really? I kind of assumed you’d moved on.

Never!

Well, now’s your chance. I’m pretty sure he’s divorced.

Shut up! I’m coming over.

In what felt like seconds, Mandy was at the door. Eliza eyed her skinny frame. “Do you want a protein shake?”

“If by protein you mean tequila, then yes.” She followed Eliza to the kitchen while asking, “How do you know that Mr. Barr is divorced?”

“Do you not remember how small a town this is?”

Amanda stared out the kitchen window and focused on the willow tree where they had once stashed their first bottle of alcohol—a Concord grape Manischewitz that Eliza had swiped from her grandma’s Passover Seder.

“I do. This whole day is making me feel like I’ve stepped into a time warp.” She shook her head. “And Mr. Barr still looks amazing. I can’t believe it.”

“Why can’t you believe it? You still look amazing.”

She cozied up to the counter like it was her neighborhood barstool to watch the sensation that was Eliza in the kitchen. Always prepared, she pulled limeade and pineapple juice concentrate from her freezer as if tomorrow were Cinco de Mayo and began the show.

“Please, Eliza. When you look at me, you still see an eighteen-year-old.”

“What do you see when you look at me?” Eliza asked, not really wanting to hear the answer. She threw an extra shot of tequila in the blender.

“An eighteen-year-old.”

“You do know that I have mirrors in this house, right?”

“Ha, ha. You’re beautiful, Eliza.”

“It is hard to believe that we’re middle-aged.”

“We are not middle-aged!” Mandy protested.

“Do the math, honey. I don’t know how long you’re planning on living, but I am most definitely middle-aged.”

Mandy wasn’t buying it.

“Age is just a number.”

“A statement probably attributable to an underage kid trying to get into a bar.”

Mandy chuckled. “I guess it doesn’t matter how old Mr. Barr is, then. Not that I have any intention of going down that road.”

“Mr. Barr was probably just a few years out of college when he started at Hudson Valley. I bet he’s around Carson’s age.”

“Don’t say Carson.”

Eliza laughed.

“You really are handling this all so well, Mandy. You hardly even bring it up.”

“Please. I’m not handling it at all. I ignore it—though it’s hard. Another woman came forward yesterday followed by another denial by Carson. With each one I feel further implicated for my silence. And confused. If you don’t come forward, you’re weak; if you do, you’re doubted.”

Eliza understood that. She stood in awe of other women’s bravery and felt wrecked when watching them get shot down. The doubt surrounding so many brave women from the mattress girl at Columbia University to Christine Blasey Ford at the Kavanaugh hearings ran though her mind.

Amanda must have been thinking similarly.

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