Page 30 of A Better World

“I’m not elitist and I resent the implication,” Anouk said. “I’m one-sixty-fourth Lakota and one-sixteenth Brazilian. I’m a firm believer in healthy genetic variation.”

“Just throwing it out there,” Rachel said. “In case you’re taking notes on which people’s abilities you question and which you trust. For, say, a statistical analysis at a later time.”

“Should we write this not-elitist letter?” Daniella asked.

As was their clear intention, Gal had stopped listening. Though it was a brisk night, she wore no coat, just Omnium track pants and a short, tight T-shirt, and had bobbed black hair. She’d given up getting ActHollow’s attention and was now focusing solely on Linda, whose nose and cheeks—her whole profile—felt hot under the scrutiny.

Unable to endure it, Linda asked, “Are my teeth red?”

Gal’s brown eyes stared through Linda.

“Gal,” Linda said, to snap her out of it. “I’m Linda. I’m wondering if my teeth are red.”

“Can you hear what they’re saying?” Gal asked in that breathy, baby voice. “I can’t hear. I can’t even hear whatyou’resaying.”

Linda scooted her seat closer. “Better?”

She nodded, her big eyes widening.

Linda gritted her teeth and pointed. “Are they red? I’ve just met these people. I don’t want to make a bad impression.”

Gal shook her head very slightly. As she spoke, she became less spacey and more present. “No. A little. But you’re fine. That’s what everybody here does,” she said, regaining that cutesy, high-pitched voice.

“What?”

“They drink themselves shit-faced. Then they hug and fake-bond and pretend they’re one big family. But none of it’s real. Trish puked all night the first time she met these guys.”

By now, Linda was three-plus glasses deep, which meant she was 80 percent shit-faced. There was no way to time-travel fix it now. “Their tolerance is that high?”

Gal nodded.

“They like wine because it’s low calorie. Except for Anouk, who doesn’t have to run, they don’t want anything weighing them down at the big Thanksgiving race. They act like it’s just for fun but it’s not. Everything here’s serious, except ActHollow. Even Trish knew, the clinic’s a joke.” Her face tightened, eyes squinting as if trying to hold back tears. “Charity. Starts. At. Home.”

Linda felt the attention from ActHollow turning toward them. She tried to steer the conversation away. “Are you from here originally?”

“They’re gonna eat you alive.”

“What?” Linda asked.

Gal smiled, still sweet but also vacant, like Linda could have been anyone, including a cardboard cutout of a person. “I was lying. I’m not getting takeout. I knew they’d be here.” Gal blew her nose with her cloth napkin, a meaty sound.

Linda looked over at the rest of them, who were pretending that Gal didn’t exist but also listening, and she understood that the beef between them was big and ugly and the only reason they hadn’t kicked her out was because they didn’t want to deal with the wreckage of a screaming argument in the middle of the nicest restaurant in town.There was something unstable about Gal. Something dangerous that couldn’t be contained. “I’m not sure your sneak-attack approach is working,” Linda said.

Gal kept going, hearing nothing but her own pain. “My wife left. Our kids are sick, so she gave up on them. She doesn’t consider them hers because it was just my eggs.” She volunteered this as if Linda had asked.

“That’s awful if it’s true,” Linda said.

Gal let out a breath. “I’m a second marriage. I met Trish when I was sixteen, the cradle robber. I used to be friends with these guys. I lived in a big house. Now I have to leave Plymouth Valley. Because I wasn’t the one with the job. When a breakup happens, the one without the job gets expelled. They’re not even giving me the full year to figure it out. They’re making me leave early because I’m trouble. I’m not trouble—they’re trouble!” she said, her voice raised a few decibels.

Linda scanned the table. The rest were all watching.

Gal puckered her lips. Probably,babyish girl-womanhad once been an effective life tactic for Gal Parker. But age and drink had tipped the parody scale from cute to obscene. “I’m okay about losing Trish. She stopped going down on me, so whatever. But I’m not okay about everything else.”

“That’s enough, Gal,” Daniella said. “Get your food and go.”

Though she heard, Gal spoke only to Linda, like the rest of them didn’t exist. “They have so much. They’re not the ones who have to sacrifice.”

Linda had no words. It was all so bewildering.

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