At the Gym

Bette had just finished her afternoon ritual of pumping weights at the gym after her lecture and was changing out of her work-out clothes. While her ‘handicap’ may have slowed her down, she had followed a tough workout regiment to compensate for the loss of movement. She still walked with the support of a cane occasionally, but every day, she tested her limits at the gym, taking her anger, frustration and bitterness out on the weight machines.

Now she observed herself in the mirror, taking in the chiseled arms, muscular shoulders and abs and let out a low whistle. “Not bad Porter, I would certainly hit that!” Bette said jokingly to her reflection in the mirror.

“So shut up Shut up Shut up Don’t wanna hear it Get out Get out Get out Get out of my way Step up Step up Step up…The Simple Plan lyrics broke Bette out of her reverence and she jumped, not expecting the loud echo of the already-loud song in the locker room. She glanced at her phone. It was Alice. Who else would bug her while she was working out?

Bette answered the phone: “Hello, you have reached the cellphone of Bette Porter. She doesn’t really want to talk to you. Please leave a message after the long beep. Beeeeeee….”

Alice rolled her eyes on the other end. “Bette…Bette…” she interjected a bit sharply, “please, I don’t have time for this. Listen up. Mrs. Evans has to unexpectedly fly out of state and she cannot pick up her son from school. She asked if I could possibly pick him up but I have meetings all afternoon. Ever since the Blackbeast scare, she is quite concerned about leaving Trevor attended and does not want him to travel by himself. Can you please pick Trevor up from school? It is quite near the gym and a walking distance to the Subway.”

“What am I? Some child escort or protection service?” Bette was simply exasperated from running small errands for people that she did not even associate with. And here Alice wanted her to escort this child from school to protect him from the maniacal Blackbeast!

“No, but maybe if you can do that without raising nerves, it would probably make for a decent living wage and lessen the financial burden I carry from being the sole breadwinner in this relationship,” Alice retorted harshly. And immediately regretted it.