The lady bustled into the gymnasium just as the applause was dying down. The kids were holding their recorders in front of them, their beaming smiles from the adulation fading into a “Where do we go now?” expression. A man that had been standing in the shoulder-to-shoulder clump of people which made up the audience turned and noticed the lady and said “You missed it,” speaking over and through myself and another person.
She made no attempt to get any closer to the guy, even though probably could have squeezed in if she had attempted. “I know,” she said back to him, in a manner that didn’t reveal one way or another how she felt about her late arrival.
“I got it all on here,” said the man, nodding to the phone which he still held above head level, despite the fact that the show (and one would assume the recording) had ended.
“How was it?” They were still speaking as if there was no one in between them (there was).
“Awesome.” I searched his face for irony, as I’m not sure anyone had ever described a gaggle of school kids tooting away on recorders as ‘awesome’ without sarcasm involved- but there was none. He had been there for the brief recital, and it appeared he was going to make sure his commitment would be appreciated.
“I’m just going to tell her I was there,” she said, judging by the crowed gym floor that she probably could have entered without having been spotted.
Not so quick to let her off the hook, he replied, “Oh she could see. She was looking around.” It was said in a congenial tone, but with context it dripped with Chekhovian subtext. And I was still very much in the middle of it all. Quite literally.
He turned back to the kids, phone still held aloft, although now I could clearly see it was no longer actively recording. She presumably caught her daughter’s eye, and gave a hearty thumbs up, beaming with manufactured pride. I looked down at my phone to see what time it was.