I walked over, trying not to look angry. “Ellie, is that my iPod?”
She looked up. “You’re not supposedta BE HERE!”
“Well, hello to you, too.” I sat down on the floor beside her and held out my hand. “You know the rules. You don’t just take other people’s things. You need to ask first.” She threw the iPod at me. It hit me just above my left eyebrow and fell to the floor.
“Ellie! What was that for?”
“Jade and Summer and Willow all have THEIR OWN iPODS!” She widened her eyes into a look suggesting she could barely bring herself to contemplate such unfairness.
“Ellie, we do not throw things,” I said, struggling not to yell. Ellie ignored me.
“And they’re the new touch ones, not STUPID TINY BABY ONES like YOU HAVE!”
“We don’t throw,” I repeated. “And you shouldn’t have taken Mommy’s things without permission.”
Ellie stuck out her lower lip. “I didn’t even WANT TO COME to this STUPID BABY PARTY! Why can’t everyone just LEAVE ME ALONE!”
I sighed as she started to cry. Maybe—probably—this place was just too bright and noisy for Eloise. As if to confirm my thought, she leaned against me, resting her head on my shoulder. “I’m sorry I taked your thing and threw it at your head.”
“It’s okay,” I told her. “Just next time, ask first.”
At the sound of sniffling, I looked up to see Hank. “Will you do the slide?” he asked.
Ellie shook her head. “Too scary,” she proclaimed.
“What if we went down together?” I asked. “You could sit on my lap.”
Ellie narrowed her eyes, judging the steep angle of the slide, watching the kids zip down, hands raised, mouths open, squealing with glee. Most slid on their own, but a few made the descent seated on parents’ laps.
“You want to try it?”
She sighed, as though she was granting me an enormous favor. “Oooh-kay.”
“How about you, Hank?”
He shook his head. “I’m allergic to burlap.”
But of course. I got to my feet—not half as gracefully as one of the yoga moms would have managed—and held out my hand. Ellie and I were walking toward the line at the back of the slide when Dave intercepted us.
“Hey, Al. You want to check on your dad?”
“What’s wrong?” I peered toward the benches where I’d left him, and saw him sitting there, staring into space the same way he stared at CNBC.
“He seems kind of uncomfortable.”
I gave him a patient, beatific Mary Poppins kind of smile, and hoped I didn’t look drugged. “Ellie and I are going to try the slide. Just sit with him. I’ll be there in two minutes.”
“I don’t wanna,” Ellie said as soon as she realized she’d have to climb a ladder built into the back of the slide to get to the top.
“Honey, I’ll be right here. Just put your hands like this . . .” I bent down and lifted, putting her feet on the bottom rung and her hands on the one above it. “Now just take a step . . .”
“I don’t WANT TO DO THIS. I’m SCARED!”
“Hurry up!” shouted the little boy—Hayden? Holden?—behind us. I scooped Ellie into one arm and hauled us both up the ladder.
“Come on! You’ll love it! I used to love slides when I was a little girl!”
“I WILL NOT LOVE SLIDES!” said Ellie, but she let me carry her to the top of the slide. Red-faced, panting, with sweat dribbling down my back, I grabbed a sack, marveling at the lack of progress—in these days of satellite radios and wireless Internet, why were kids still sliding on actual burlap sacks? I hoisted Ellie in my arms and got us in position.
“One . . . two . . . three!”
I kicked off with my heels. I could hear my daughter screaming—from fear or delight, I wasn’t sure. Nor was there time to figure it out, because the instant we got to the bottom of the slide, someone grabbed my shoulders and started shaking me.
“What are you doing with my daughter?”
I tried to wriggle away, but my father’s hands were clamped down tight, his fingers curling into the flesh of my upper arms. His shirt was untucked, his tie had been yanked askew, and the Velcro closure of one of his shoes had come undone and was flapping.
“How could you be so irresponsible?” he asked.
“Dad. Dad! It’s me, Allison!”
“You put her down right this minute, Ronnie! Don’t you ever, ever do that again!”
Oh, God. Eloise was wailing as another mother-child duo came hurtling down the slide and slammed into my back, knocking Ellie out of my arms and onto the floor . . . where, unsurprisingly, she started to scream.