A Table for Two (11 page)

"Are some of the students HIV positive?" Dana asked.

"Yes, I'm sorry to say and I only know that because Erin told me, but I wouldn't know who they were unless they told me themselves. Erin said it's against the law for her to share that kind of information with anyone and she said that if a student told me, it would be against the law for me to tell anyone else."

"Jesus..." Dana drank some of her iced tea.

"I know. It's awful, isn't it?"

"Maybe you do reach some of them, but you just don't know it. I watched you with the students today and I saw how much they liked and respected you. You're calm and patient with them and you're a good role model."

"Teenagers are difficult to understand, but I happen to like them." Ridley shrugged and smiled as she remembered her mother's reply when she told her she liked teaching teenagers more than younger children. "My mother says I know how to relate to them because I'm still a teenager at heart. She's only teasing me, I hope."

"That sounds like something my mother would say." Dana drank some more of her iced tea and continued, "I admire you. You're an inspiration for the rest of us and I think it takes a special person to do the kind of work you do."

"I don't know about that. It's just..."

"I mean it, Ridley. People like you make the world a better place."

"It's just something I've always wanted to do--to make a difference."

"So why did you choose to teach in the city schools? Wouldn't it have been easier and safer to teach in the suburbs?"

"Yes, but these are the kids who need the most help and I don't want it to be easy. I know it would be better for me in the suburbs, but it's more challenging and interesting to teach in the city schools." Ridley got up and went out onto the patio to check on the chicken while she kept on talking. "The Catholic schools are better, but they should hand out tickets to heaven as a perk, because the salary and benefits stink. I get paid well in the city and I have excellent benefits." She came inside with the platter of grilled chicken and set it down on the table. "My mother's always asking me why I don't get a job in a nicer school district and if she knew what the city schools were really like, she'd have a conniption fit."

"Most people don't know what they're like. I know I don't," Dana admitted.

"Most people don't want to know."

"You're right, but I'd like to hear more about it."

"You will if you hang around with Laurie and me. Now that the chicken's done, why don't we move into the living room while it cools?" She poured Dana some more iced tea. "We'll be more comfortable in there and I want to wait a while before I put the salad together."

Dana followed Ridley into the living room. She settled on the sofa and stretched her legs out in front of her, her feet crossed at the ankles. "Nice living room."

"My mother helped me pick out the furniture and decorate." Ridley sat in a chair next to the sofa, tossed a throw pillow on the coffee table and put her feet up. "There, that's better. Tell me something? What made you want to move back to Philly?"

"This area feels like home to me and I've always loved South Street. That's where I wanted to open my restaurant." Dana had a far away look in her eyes.

"You could have opened one in Chicago," Ridley said.

"Yeah, I know, but I wanted to come back here," Dana explained. "Tell me more about your family? Where does your mother live?"

"She lives in Bucks County, near Newtown Square. That's where I grew up. My father died a few years ago so she's alone except for me and her sister my..."

"Don't tell me, your aunt Jean?"

"Yeah, that's right. You're paying attention," Ridley replied with a hint of teasing.

"Of course I am. I'm all ears and I'm sorry I interrupted you. Go on."

"We have a house on the Jersey shore in Long Beach Island and my mother spends a lot of time there. Her parents left it to her."

"I used to go to Long Beach Island. Where's the house?"

"It's in Loveladies. That's in the less populated North end of the Island."

"I think I remember where that is. I wish somebody would leave me a house on Long Beach Island. I used to love going there. It's a lot less crowded than other parts of the shore."

"You love it there?" Ridley was struck with a brilliant idea. "Then I've got a suggestion. Karen and Laurie and I go down every year over Columbus Day weekend. Why don't you join us? All we do is hang around, eat and drink and have a good time and I know I can speak for them when I say we'd all love it if you'd come along."

"I don't know. Are you sure I wouldn't be a fifth wheel?" Dana asked.

"A fifth wheel? What do you mean?"

"I just assumed that you--that you must have a girlfriend."

"A girlfriend? Me?"

"Yeah, you, Ridley Jean Kelsen. You are a lesbian, aren't you?"

"Definitely. I was born one as far as I can tell." Ridley didn't want to reveal the fact that she'd questioned Laurie and had already ascertained Dana's sexual preference, so she posed the next question as nonchalantly as possible. "Are you a lesbian, too?"

"Uh-huh. Always have been, just like you. I almost made a comment about Loveladies being an appropriate place for you to have a shore house, but I didn't want to say it without making sure you were a lesbian. I didn't want to put my foot in my mouth."

"Well, I would have thought your comment was funny and as for the girlfriend part, I don't have one. I'll just be the four of us that weekend."

"In that case, maybe I will think about going. I'd love to spend time with Karen and Laurie and I'd love to go back to the shore." Dana appeared to be considering the possibility for a few moments. "I'll have to make sure Tracy doesn't mind if I go. We said we could take time off if we wanted to, but neither of us has done that yet. Are you all going down together?"

"No. I'm leaving on Friday after work, but I could wait until Saturday morning if you want to ride down with me." The idea of sharing a long ride with Dana and having her all to herself on Friday evening was very appealing, but she didn't want to apply any pressure. "Laurie and Karen are leaving Saturday morning and you could probably go with them if you wanted to or you could drive down by yourself. It's up to you. We're all staying until Monday. We usually come home in the late afternoon or early evening."

"Let me talk to Tracy first and I'll let you know."

"I'll call you later this week and you can let me know if you're going. If you decide you'd rather drive down alone I can give you directions then." Ridley got up. "Stay here while I make the salad. I'll call you when it's ready." Ridley no sooner left the living room when she poked her head back through the doorway and asked Dana, "Do you like avocadoes?"

"I love them."

"Excellent." Ridley disappeared again. A matter of seconds later, she stuck her head in the doorway again. "Do you mind a little red onion?"

"Not as long as we're both having it."

After setting the table with the salad set her mother had given her as a gift, Ridley made the salad dressing. Then she created a bed of Romaine lettuce in the large serving bowl and arranged slices of avocado, cherry tomatoes, black olives and a small amount of thinly sliced red onions on top of the lettuce leaves. After spreading the cubes of chicken around evenly, she sprinkled cheddar cheese and crushed tortilla chips over the entire salad. Satisfied with her creation, she drizzled the dressing all over it. She placed the pitcher of iced tea with lemon slices on the table, inspected everything one last time and called Dana.

Just for fun, Ridley stood next to the table with a folded dishtowel over her arm and when Dana walked in, she pulled Dana's chair out and bowed at the waist. "Table for two?"

"Why thank you." Dana smiled as she took her seat. "I see you believe in good service, like I do." She tilted her head up. "I think I like it."

"It's your turn to be fussed over for a change. Allow me to serve you some of my special salad."

With a flourish, Ridley used tongs to fill Dana's bowl and then she took her own seat and helped herself. "There's extra salad dressing if you need it."

Dana took a bite and chewed it thoughtfully. "This is really delicious. I'd like to have the recipe. Would you like to come and work for me--be my salad chef maybe?"

"Not unless you're planning on offering only one or two salads on the menu because that's all I know how to make. Well, three if you count plain old tossed salad. I'm afraid you'd live to regret it if you hired me because I'd crack under the pressure."

"We could teach you more salads and you'd get used to the pressure," Dana said.

"I wouldn't count on it. You've heard of two left feet? I've got two left hands. I'd ruin your shiny new kitchen or chop a few of my fingers off."

"That would be terrible. That kitchen means a lot to me."

"You're hilarious. I set myself up for that one, didn't I?"

"You did."

"I think I'd better keep my teaching job. My fingers mean a lot to me." Ridley dug into her salad and ate with gusto, a lingering smile on her face.

"Now I can ask you another question," Dana said. "How is it, being a lesbian in the school district? Are you out at work or do you have to be careful?"

"I'm the gym teacher. I'm supposed to be a lesbian," Ridley said, her smile getting broader. "Even if I wasn't, most everyone would automatically assume I was."

"I see your point, but in your case it's not all that obvious."

"Not to the untrained eye you mean. I'm new so I'm not out to that many people yet, but I will tell the ones who matter to me as I get to know them better. Some people will probably suspect it, but I've found most people won't ask or bring it up. At any rate, it's not something I have to worry about in this school district."

"What do you mean?" Dana asked.

"They have policies protecting students and staff from being harassed due to their sexual orientation and they're serious about it. An organization in the city helped them to develop the policies and train the staff to do sensitivity trainings in all the schools. Karen was involved in that process and I volunteered to be one of the trainers at my last high school."

"Wow, I didn't know that about Karen. You guys are something and I'm impressed that the school district would do that. It makes me think things are actually changing."

"They are changing," Ridley said. "I respect the school district for having those policies although I know they were motivated in part by some successful, multi-million dollar lawsuits against other school districts for failing to protect gay students. And get this, they named October gay and lesbian month on the school calendar. There it was in black and white, or green and gold to be exact. Some parents raised a stink about it."

"That doesn't surprise me. What happened?"

"Essentially, the school district said it was too bad if they didn't like it. Not in those words, of course. I'm sure they said it more diplomatically."

"Things really are changing," Dana said.

"I'm starting a gay-straight alliance at my school. I did it in the last three years and I loved it. Erin said she'd do it with me and we talked one of the guidance counselors into helping us. We invite gay and straight students to come together hoping they'll learn to respect each other and understand each other's issues."

"Now I admire you even more than I did a minute ago. People like you change the way people think and the way they feel about other people. Your principal supports that?"

"Absolutely. A couple of homophobic staff members were quite upset about it. They said the students were too young to talk about such things and one even said she thought it might make some of them 'turn gay', if you can believe that."

"I believe it--as if that could happen."

"I know. One of the teachers told me they went to the principal and complained so I went and talked to her myself to ask her what she thought I should do-- if I should do it or not."

"What did she say?" Dana asked.

"She said she told them they could work someplace else if they didn't like it."

"Wow! Good for her," Dana said, stabbing a piece of chicken.

"I think she was sincere, but I also know she would hear it from administration if she stood in the way of having it because those are the kinds of thing the district wants the schools to do." It had been some time since Ridley felt this at ease talking to someone other than her mother or her close friends. Everything about being with Dana was comfortable and easy except for the physical attraction that never left her alone.

When they finished, Dana put her fork and knife on her plate and wiped her mouth with her napkin. "That was a great salad. Do you need help cleaning up?"

"No, there's not much to do. I'll clean up later."

"Would you mind taking me back? I've got some things I need to do."

"I said I'd take you home whenever you wanted me to." Although she hated to let Dana go, Ridley remembered her promise. "I had a good time and I enjoyed talking to you. Not that many people show an interest in my work."

"I enjoyed hearing about it. In fact, I enjoyed the entire day." Dana threw her a wink. "I think we're becoming good friends, Ridley Jean Kelsen."

"I believe you're right, Dana De Marco."

Being friends and nothing more wasn't what Ridley had in mind when it came to Dana. Given the attraction she felt for Dana, she knew friendship would ever be enough not unless her feelings changed dramatically. Just knowing they both existed on the same planet was enough to drive Ridley crazy. It was all too intense and way too soon, she thought. "Let me get you home. I have tests to grade and lesson plans to prepare."

Dana stood. "Tomorrow, I'll talk to Tracy about going to the shore."

"You do that. I'd really love it if you joined us."

THE NEXT DAY, while they worked together in the restaurant kitchen, Dana talked to Tracy about Ridley's invitation to join her, Karen and Laurie at the shore the next weekend.

"I think you should go, Dana, I really do. All you've done is work since you moved here." Tracy pressed the pulse button on the food processor four or five times until the pastry dough formed itself into a ball.