The City of Rossford

Chad walked into the kitchen where Julian and Claire Lawden were already sitting and the refrigerator was open, the clear plastic crisper bins on the linoleum floor, while Radha, down on her knees, was soaking up water from the pan of the fridge.

“This won’t always be a ritual,” Radha said. “One day we’ll get up and get a refrigerator made before 1990.”

Groaning she rose with the soaking towel while Julian reached for it and took it to the sink.

“I didn’t even hear you come in,” Radha told Chad as he took off his coat.

Chad yawned and scratched his jaw.

“Rads, is there anyway I can convince you to turn that down?”

Sita ram

Sita ram

Sita ram

Sita

Sita ram!

“Oh…” Radha said vacantly. “I was just taking my mind off of stuff. Yes.”

She moved past Chad to the living room, and soon Krishna Das has gotten quieter.

“I like it,” Julian said from the sink where he had begun ringing out the towel that smelled of leftover, refrigerated food.

“I like it too,” Chad said, sitting down. “At a certain decible.”

Claire stood up, “I’ll get you a drink. It’s cold out there. What about coffee?”

Radha took the towel from Julian’s control and said, “I wish the two of you would sit down. I’m the host here. You’re supposed to be relaxing.”

“Isn’t it you who needs to relax?” Chad said. “And don’t worry, Claire. I’ll make my own coffee.” He rubbed his hands together and looked out of the window.

“This goddamned winter. I hate it.”

Claire had already made the cup of coffee and said, “I know what you mean. Here.”

She kissed Julian on the cheek.

“I have to go to the bathroom.”

“Again?”

“Yes, again.”

“What is it with you?” he said to Claire’s departing back.

“How are things coming with the case?” Chad said as he sipped the coffee. It was old, but it was hot and that was what he needed.

“Uh,” Radha began. She continued with the towel, and then she turned on the hot water and rinsed her hands.

“I can’t believe Russell was involved. I mean he was in it,” Radha said, sitting down.

“I was going to say Russell’s a good kid, but…” Radha grew thoughtful. The bathroom door opened and Claire was coming back down the hall.

“It takes more than not being bad to be good. Doesn’t it?”

Neither one of the men said anything and Claire just said, “It takes courage.”

She puckered her mouth as she said next to Julian.

“Things taste funny. My stomach’s funny.”

“You think it’s that flu?”

“Don’t wish that on me, Chad. And no, I don’t. By the way, what were we talking about that I put my two cents worth in?”

“Russell,” Radha said. “And I can’t say anything, because Mark won’t hear a word against his brother.”

“What do you think?” Claire said.

Radha shook her head while Krishna Das and his singers sang more ecstatically.

Sita ram sita sita ram!

“I think he’s a coward and a rapist.”

“I told Bryant we should get a house,” Chad said, more to change the tone of the conversation than anything else.

“Really?” Claire said. She looked at Julian.

“No. Not right now,” Julian said. “This isn’t the time.”

“Do you get the feeling?” Radha said to Chad, “that this is an old argument?”

“Well, what did Bryant say?” Julian said in a deeply interested voice that, again, reshifted the conversation.

“He didn’t say anything. He just… We talked about ways to make ourselves more interesting. Not be such an old couple.”

“You know….?” Claire said, slowly. “I was about to sympathize with that, but I just realized, me and Julian have been together longer than you and Bryant.”

“It seems like only yesterday,” Julian said so wistfully, both women looked at him to see if he was serious.

“It seems like eight years ago,” Claire said. “But they’re eight good years. I… Why are the two of you going on about keeping things fresh and all that?”

“You aren’t going to try to have a threesome or anything?” Radha said. “Cause that never works.”

They looked at her.

“I mean from what I’ve heard,” she said. “From what I’ve heard that never works.”

“No,” Chad told them. “And to be real, Bryant doesn’t see anything wrong with us.”

“You want to leave him?” Claire said.

“No,” Chad said so fiercely that he nearly banged his fist on the table top. “It’s not about Bryant. It’s really me.”

“You know what I think?” Julian said, turning to him.

“I think it’s about the affair.”

“I hate being back at school now,” Chay said over lunch.

“I thought you always hated it,” Meredith told him, and then taking Mathan’s hand she said, “Oooh baby, you need to cut your nails.”

Mathan blinked at them.

“Um.”

“I’ll cut em for you.”

“Young love,” Sheridan commented, giving a sickening smile.

Robin was sitting between him and Chay and Meredith said, “You hardly got anything to eat.”

She looked around.

“They’re not here,” Meredith reminded her. “City of Rossford schools might not be that much that often, but those guys are gone.”

“Janet Reasoner said I had it coming,” Robin said.

“Janet Reasoner needs her ass kicked,” Mathan returned.

“Well, you can’t do it,” Meredith said. “Let me.”

Robin snorted.

“What?” Meredith said.

“You’re serious.”

“Oh course I’m serious,” Meredith told her. “I can’t let some nasty little cunt fuck with my friends. She doesn’t know what she’s talking about. And I’m going to let her know.”

“For now,” Mathan said, putting up a hand while his girlfriend stood up, “Let’s just get through lunch.”

“Yes,” Meredith agreed. “Get through lunch. And then kick a bitch’s ass.”

Sheridan kept looking at Chay, and Chay said, “What?”

“Nothing,” Sheridan said. And then he amended. “Well, on our way to French I’ll tell you.”

“How is French?” Robin said, staring at Sheridan.

“Harder than Spanish. I’m sort of sorry for taking a new language junior year.”

Robin nodded. Then she said, “Sheridan, do you remember what I said?”

Mathan looked so sharply at the both of them that Sheridan wondered if he could possibly know. He stuffed more ravioli into his mouth and wiped his lips.

“Yup,” he said. “I remember.”

Janet Reasoner blinked at Meredith’s sudden presence at her locker.

“Can I help you?”

“I’m sure you can’t,” Meredith said quickly. “Look, I heard you said something about my friend, Robin Netteson.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“You don’t? Because… I heard that you said she deserved to get raped.”

Janet seemed to be deciding something, and then she said, “Look. You wouldn’t have been there. The only girl in a bunch of boys. You know where to go and where not to. And most of those boys are decent. Like that one Russell. Stays with his brother. And Kip Danley.”

“Kip Danley?”

“Yes. He’s a good guy, like my boyfriend was. Kip’s the only one who’s not been suspended, but he’s going to end up in court with the rest of them just because your bitch of a friend—”

“You need to stop,” Meredith said, calmly. “Before we have a fight, you really just need to sort of shut the fuck up.”

She took a breath.

“Thank you for your time. I’ve gotta go now.”

She was ten paces off when Janet said, “Where are you going?”

“I gotta find Kip Danley.”

“So?”

“So what?”

“So I dropped you off last night,” Sheridan said to the shorter boy. “At that Casey’s house.”

“Yeah. Sometimes I stay there.”

“Okay?”

“Okay and what?”

“That’s my question,” Sheridan said.

“You sound worried.”

“I am worried. He’s a nice guy and everything. But he does porn.”

“He’s like my uncle. Nothing’s happening that I can’t handle.”

“Now what the fuck does that mean?”

Sheridan was so loud that several people turned from talking at the lockers and looked at the two of them.

Chay blinked and then, shifting his book bag and jamming his hands in his pockets he said, “Where did you go after you dropped me off?”

“Home.”

“Straight home.”

“I hung out with Shelley.”

“You were hanging out?”

“I know what I’m doing,” Sheridan said.

“Well, I do too.”

“Chay, I’m sure with you it’s completely different.”

As they walked into Mr. Adler’s class, Chay said, “No, Sher. It isn’t.”

Robin tugged on Meredith’s sleeve.

Meredith looked at her in the middle of class.

“I have to go,” Robin whispered.

Meredith raised an eyebrow.

“Go home,” Robin elaborated. “I have to get out of here.”

Meredith said nothing more; she just raised her hand.

“Yes?” Mr. Crawford said.

Meredith was already putting her bag over her shoulder and putting Robin’s books in her friend’s bookbag.

“We have to go, Mr. Crawford. I’m sorry.”

She didn’t wait for him to give ascent. She just had to manage the situation. She directed Robin out of the classroom, ahead of her, not looking at anyone. You couldn’t look at anyone when you were doing these things.

“I just can’t take it,” Robin said as Meredith closed the door to room 307. “I thought I could, but I just can’t.”

“I understand,” Meredith said, squeezing her friend’s shoulder and stroking her back. “And we don’t have to. Come on. Let’s go.”

Meredith drove her home thinking about Kip Danley. She had an almost irrational fear that if she didn’t keep repeating his name, she would forget she had to go see him. She didn’t know what she would say. Really, she didn’t know why she was going to him.

“You alright?” Meredith said, laying a hand on Robin, but this was because she didn’t know what else to say.

Robin looked out of the dirty window as they went down Nelson Street. The light flashed through the blue sky and the bare trees. The car rumbled over train tracks and there was the cemetery, and then there was the train yard and the old convenience store where her father bought lottery tickets.

“I never really thought about it,” she said in a small voice. “But it’s all so beautiful. It really is.”

Robin just wanted to be home. She didn’t tell Meredith to leave, but Meredith wasn’t simple and she realized Robin didn’t want her. She wanted to be supremely alone right now, not fawned over. She kissed Robin on the head and left the old two storey with the large yard covered in old brown winter time grass. She got in the car and dialed on her cell phone. A moment later Mathan picked up.

“I don’t know what to do,” she said. “I just want to… I don’t even really know what I want to do, but I do know I don’t want to be powerless.”

“We’re all her friends,” Mathan said. And then he said, “I really don’t know what to say. I really feel just like you.”

“Mate, there is something I want to do.”

“Alright.”

“You won’t approve of it.”

“Is it legal?”

“It’s legal. But… it’s me. You know?”

“Is it going to get you hurt?”

“No, but I might end up hurting someone else.”

Mathan was quiet for a long time. She could sense him shaking his head.

“You know what?” he said, at last. “Don’t tell me. Just let me know when it’s done.”

“Alright. Love you,” she said, and hung up. When she got to the light she looked around, and then did a U turn. Meredith was heading back toward school.

Sheridan and Chay saw her as she was getting out of her car.

“Go check on her, she looks dangerous,” Chay said, walking ahead of his taller friend.

She saw them and Sheridan said, “What’s up, Mere?”

“Does either one of you know Kip Danley?”

“He’s in my geometry class,” Chay said. Then he confessed, “He’s kind of cute.”

“He raped Robin.”

Both boys looked at her.

“The only one who isn’t suspended. And I want to find him. And then I want to find out why he’s not in jail?”

“I think he’s on the soccer team?” Sheridan looked at Chay.

“That,” Chay said, “I don’t know.”

“Locker rooms then,” Meredith murmured.

“They use the locker rooms the swim team has,” Sheridan said. “I remember that.”

Meredith nodded and moved up the walk to the school.

“And Mere?”

She looked at Sheridan.

“Don’t do anything crazy.”

She smiled pleasantly.

“Of course not.”