The People Around Our Kids

by Jackie Harris

Shannon hated going to these things, but she did it, because that’s what moms do. Back when she was a kid, her mom would drop her off at a birthday party and pick her up hours later. But in today’s age, it was an unspoken judgement if you didn’t stay for the duration of another child’s birthday party. She couldn’t count how many weekends she had spent at the trampoline park, watching kids jump into a multi-colored foam pit while she ate cheese pizza. At least today was a little different; this would be the first time they’d gone to the bowling alley.

Shannon held her son’s hand while carrying the birthday gift in the other as they walked into Bread-and-Gutter-Bowling. They’d run to the store beforehand to pick out a gift – a jewelry making kit - and she’d put together the gift bag in the parking lot. Maybe one day she’d be better prepared for these things. She scanned the room to see who else was there and saw a group of the moms with their kids already gathered at a lane in the middle.

“Come on, Sam, let’s go get your shoes and I’ll help you pick out a ball,” she said, making their way to the counter. A man was spraying shoes with disinfectant, but turned to them as soon as they walked up. Shannon felt she recognized him from somewhere, but couldn’t place it. He was tall and muscular with blond hair pulled back into a low ponytail. She noticed tattoos under his sleeves, but couldn’t make out what they were. He was too shy to meet Shannon’s eye when he spoke to her.

“How can I help you today?” he said softly.

“Hi. We’re here for that birthday party down there,” Shannon gestured toward the lane, “So we’ll need a kid’s size 13 for him,” she nodded down at Sam. Shannon set her purse up on the counter and started rummaging through it for her pocketbook; she could never find anything in there.

“Yes, ma’am. And what size for you?”

Shannon laughed a little and shook her head, “None for me. I’m spectating today.”

She could see the man become visibly uncomfortable, shifting his weight and tucking a nonexistent stalk of hair behind his ear.

“I’m sorry, ma’am. It’s a policy that everyone wears bowling shoes while in the building. It helps keep the floors clear of debris and makes it safer for everyone.” He did a quick look at Shannon’s face to see her reaction. 

Shannon already knew what had happened. One of the other moms had thrown a shit-fit about wearing them. She smiled at him. “Women’s 8.” She watched his shoulders relax slightly and she felt a kindness toward him. These women were difficult to deal with. It was like she was pledging for a sorority that she didn’t even want to get into.

As the man turned toward the shoes, Sam nudged her. “Mom, can I go down there now?” He pushed his new glasses up his nose. It had been a fight to get him to wear them. She’d been worried he might get made fun of or feel self-conscious, but he said he didn’t like them because they’d fall off his face when he would play.

“Hold on; we’ll go down together and I’ll help you with your shoes. Then we need to pick out a bowling ball for you.”

The man set their shoes on the counter. “Actually, the balls are already set up down there. They’ve got the ramp down there, too, so the size of the ball doesn’t really matter much.”

Shannon glanced down at the alley and saw what looked like a green dinosaur, its tail acting as a ramp to slide the bowling ball down. “Look at that. When I was a kid, my parents didn’t even let me use the bumpers!” she said jokingly, turning back to him, thinking he’d agree with her.

He seemed unsure how to respond. “I guess things are a lot easier now.” He hesitated for a moment. “A two-hour party package was booked today, so it’ll be $35.99 a person.”

Shannon didn’t say anything but handed him her credit card, thinking about the ridiculousness of how much these things ended up costing. She studied the man’s face as he entered the card into the chip reader. He was maybe thirty years old, but had the look of someone who had lived a lot of life already. His eyes seemed sad. His name tag read Ray.

She digitally signed and shoved her card back into her purse, feeling pressured to move more quickly by Sam. She smiled again, “Thanks, Ray,” she said, as she gathered her things and walked Sam down to the group.

“Shannon!” Ashley, the leader of the mom-group, was standing up to greet her. The other moms stood, as well. Shannon never knew how to greet these women. She could see Ashley opening her arms for a hug, so Shannon knew that meant all of the other moms would want to hug her, too. She wanted to roll her eyes, but she set her items down on the table with the other presents, almost knocking over another present, and walked to Ashley to give her a hug. She smelled of vanilla and hairspray.

“So glad you and Sam could make it!” Ashley gushed. “You know that Ella just loves him; she talks about him all the time!” She looked at Ella, the birthday girl, a big pink bow at the top of her head. She seemed like a sweet girl. Sam said that she was the first one to ask him to play on the first day of school, so Shannon would always love her for that.  

“Yes, Sam is very fond of Ella. Thanks for inviting him, he’s been excited to come.” Shannon turned to see Sam was already talking to the other kids. “Come here, Sam, let’s get your shoes on real fast.” This was a good excuse not to have to hug all of the other women hovering there. Sam came over begrudgingly, but she had him sit down and take his shoes off. She helped slide each shoe on and tied them for him. She could feel the moms watching them, feeling awkward with an audience.

“Is Sam having trouble putting his shoes on by himself?” One of the moms, Britney, asked. “I’m so glad Mason is doing that on his own now, saves me time!” Shannon felt her blood pressure shoot up. She couldn’t stand this bitch.  

“Just some trouble telling the left from the right still. We have stickers in his shoes at home so he knows, but I figured I’d help him out today with these,” she said, wondering if her chipper tone sounded as forced as she thought. She’d never been a good actress, but she was glad that Sam seemed oblivious to the snide comment.

That was one thing about Sam; he never seemed to worry about much - so opposite from her when she was a child. She had worried about everything. She would’ve worried about coming to this party and whether or not she’d be good at bowling and if she’d look stupid in front of the other kids if she was bad at it. When she asked Sam how he felt about going, he had said he was excited to see his friends and eat cake. When she asked him what he thought about bowling, he had simply shrugged and said it sounded cool. She loved that he hadn’t inherited her anxiety. She was amazed by him all of the time; what a wonderful and curious creature he was. Watching him grow and seeing him experience new things and how he handled them was one of her favorite things about being a mom.

“Alright, buddy, all set,” she said, wanting to give him a kiss on the head, but he had asked her not to do that in front of his friends. As much as she enjoyed watching him grow, there were times it made her a little sad, too.

She began to take off her own shoes, wishing she’d worn another pair of socks; these ones looked threadbare.

“I don’t know why we have to wear the shoes, too. I already let them know how displeased I was about it,” Ashley said. Shannon felt a click of satisfaction, exactly as she’d called it.

For the next hour, the moms helped their children line up the dinosaur ramp whenever it was their turn and roll their bowling ball down the alley. It was long and tedious, and the adults all seemed relieved when the kids asked if they could go play the arcade games for a while.

“Did you see what Heather posted on Facebook about Sophia’s birthday next month?” Ashley said to the group conspiratorially as they sat around the gift table.

“I saw that!” Britney chimed in. Of all the moms, Britney was the one Shannon disliked the most. Britney was eternally in lululemon and she’d never seen her without a full face of makeup, even in the early mornings at school drop-off. Shannon found herself observing Britney often. She wondered if this went back to some sort of primal urge, a need to size people up. She was pretty sure she could take her in a fight.

“What’d Heather post? I’m not really on Facebook,” Shannon said. She liked Heather; it seemed like they had a similar parenting style and they’d gone to the same Pilates class a few times.

Ashley laughed a little at Shannon’s response and tossed her long, bleached hair. “I’ve noticed that you don’t really post any pictures of your kids, but that explains it if you’re not really on Facebook.”

Shannon wondered if your mandible could break from clenching it too hard. Her husband owed her for this shit. He was back at home with their nine-month-old, but Shannon felt he had the much easier job. 

“Well,” Ashley continued, “Heather made this huge, long post about how they want to focus on having an authentic,” Ashley used air quotes as she said authentic, “family-oriented birthday at home and didn’t want to throw a big party for Sophia this year.” Shannon found Facebook and posting about this kind of thing silly and performative, but she wasn’t sure what reaction Ashley was expecting from her. Not having a big birthday party was something Shannon had contemplated herself.

Britney interjected. “Please…it’s because they’re broke! I guarantee the reason they didn’t come today is because she didn’t want to buy a birthday gift. Do you know how much I spent on Sophia’s birthday present last year? I won’t say how much, but it certainly wasn’t cheap! And they couldn’t do the same for Ella.” The other moms clucked their tongues. “And Sophia will be the only kid who doesn’t have a birthday party? How will that make her feel? The children are the ones who get hurt with these kinds of things.” The other moms murmured in agreement.

Shannon hated how much of this shit was pawned off as for the sake of the children instead of their egos. She looked at the children playing and thought about walking over and joining them instead. Right then, Ray crossed in front of her vision, pushing a mop toward the bathroom.

Ashley noticed Shannon looking at him. “If I had known he worked here, I never would have agreed to let Ella have her birthday party here. I didn’t even want to have her birthday here to begin with, but she saw something about bowling on some cartoon and hasn’t stopped talking about it,” she said, waving a manicured hand dismissively.

“Who is he?” Shannon asked.

Britney responded this time. “Don’t you recognize him? That’s the felon. He’s Bill and Judy’s son. He moved in with them when he got released from prison. I don’t know how they have a son like that; they seem so nice.”

Shannon recognized him now. “Yes, I have seen him. He does morning runs around our neighborhood very early.”

Ashley snorted. “I’ve noticed that, too, with his tattoos on display. They’re probably prison tattoos.”

“He seems alright; I didn’t see any tear drops,” Shannon joked. She looked at the other moms, but no one returned her smile. 

“This is serious, Shannon. Our kids could be in danger,” Britney said, her lips pursed.

“What was he in for? It couldn’t be something involving children if he’s working at a bowling alley,” Shannon retorted, but she felt slightly abashed.

The moms piled on:

“I heard he was involved in selling drugs. Hard drugs.”
“No, I’m pretty sure he stabbed someone! I don’t think they died, but, still.”
“I thought it had something to do with robbery? Like he robbed a liquor store or something?”

“Regardless,” Ashley said, “He’s not someone we want around our children.”

Shannon looked back at Ray, feeling uneasy. If he was someone with a violent history, maybe she should be a little more cautious…or was she letting these women get to her? She’d always considered herself a progressive and tolerant person, but does that change with kids?

“Quit, here he comes with the pizza for the kids,” Ashley said. The women fell silent as Ray walked over carrying a large pizza, keeping his gaze down. Shannon thought he seemed terrified of them; how scary of a man could he really be? When he approached, he waited for someone to clear the table of the presents. When none of them moved to help him, Shannon got up and began clearing space for him. He caught her eyes as he set the pizza down, a look of gratefulness. He left without a word and the children gathered for their food.

Shannon set up a plate for Sam, and he sat down with the other kids to start to eat. Shannon started getting her own plate ready when she heard Sam laughing and then make a guttural noise. She turned to see that he had his hands at his throat.

“He’s choking!” someone yelled.

Shannon felt herself start to panic. She raised Sam’s arms above his head, something she remembered her own mother doing when she was a child whenever she had trouble getting food down, something about lifting the ribcage to help the food go down easier. It didn’t seem to be working. She began pounding her hand on Sam’s back, her other holding onto his chest. “Get it out, Sam, get it out!” She could hear the hysteria in her own voice. The other children began crying and she heard someone scream, “Do something!”

Suddenly, Ray was there. He grabbed Sam and stood him up, kneeling behind him. He placed his fists into Sam’s stomach and began giving quick thrusts. On the fifth thrust, a chunk of food came out onto the table and Sam sputtered. Shannon pulled him from Ray and grabbed his shoulders, resisting the urge to bury him into her chest while he was still trying to catch his breath. She looked into his face and saw his eyes wide with fear. He began crying and Shannon held him to her, her own body shaking. She lost complete awareness of her surroundings, only aware of the rise and fall of her son’s shoulders as he cried into her. She pulled him away to look into his face again. “You’re okay, Sam. You’re okay,”

She felt a touch on her shoulder, and saw Ray handing her Sam’s glasses. “I’m sorry, they must have gotten broken when everything was happening.” She took the glasses from him, wanting to say thank you, but feeling as though that wasn’t enough. “You saved his life,” she finally said. 

Ray seemed embarrassed by everyone looking at him and unsure of what to do next. “Something I learned along the way. Is there anything else I can do for all of you?” Everyone shook their heads and he headed back to the shoe counter, the group watching after him.

Shannon announced to the group, “I guess he is someone we want around our kids.”