Page 101 of The End of Summer

“No. They seem to all have a good rapport.”

“Thank you, Brady, for telling me this.”

“Of course, sir.”

“How was your interview?”

Eager to give him any sort of good news, I said, “It went really well. I got the job.”

He gave me a pat on the back. “Congratulations, son. That’s nice for you.”

“Please don’t tell Gretchen. She doesn’t know yet.”

“I won’t. I’ll leave the news to you. But I need to tell you one more thing.”

“What’s that, sir?”

“Annie and I think Gretchen is going to need to move back home for a little while. We are concerned about her decisions, and we think she might need a little reset.”

“But she’s got lots going on, sir. She has an interview coming up, and her student teaching. Some digital something-or-other class, too. Summer’s almost over.”

“I don’t think you understand the gravity of what just happened here, Brady.”

I shook my head, exhausted and confused. “What’s that?”

“Gretchen will never be a teacher on Cape Cod.”

“What? Why not?”

“Because she just got arrested, for one thing. And there are three reasons thatemployedteachers are ever dismissed here: insubordination, incompetence, or immorality. My daughter was just arrested for operating an illegal strip club. Bad news travels fast in Cape Cod, and whether or not the judge only slaps her with a fine, no self-respecting local school is going to look the other way and hire a pole dancer to teach their kindergarten babies how to read.”

“I mean, I wouldn’t put it likethat,exactly.”

“Brady, maybe you wouldn’t – but a school administrator certainly would. Also, please keep in mind that this is happening right now. It’s not like she did this ten years ago and is looking for work. This isfresh.”

I nodded my head, realizing that he was probably right. Dread filled my throat.

“So Gretchen is going to need to take some time, you understand. To figure her life out.”

“And you don’t think she can do that in her own apartment?” I asked.

“I don’t know, Brady. This is the first time I’ve ever had to navigate my only child doing something so ridiculously stupid. Not to mention illegal.”

He was getting worked up. I could see that. “I think that if you were to look at it from her perspective, it might make a little more sense to you.” EvenIcould tell there would be no rationalizing at this point, though.

Then, bad turned to worse.

“Tell me something, Brady,” he said. “You bailed out another person tonight. Michael Evans, right?”

“Yeah.”

“How do you know him?”

“We’re friends. We go way back.”

“So you knew he was in this line of work?”

“Oh, sir. Mike’s a security guard. He’s not a stripper.”

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