The People in Your Neighborhood

            More than anything, Sean just wanted all of these assholes to quit clapping.  He rubbed his eyes and took a deep breath before locating Trevor, who was now scrambling up the blue netting to the second tier of the tower.  The father and son were in the back by the windows, away from the circle of singing parents surrounding the multi-colored parachute on the padded floor.

            “If you’re happy and you know it, clap your hands.”  The parents hovering over their children gleefully obliged as the song taunted him.

            His head pounded.  The whiskey after Melissa went to bed was unnecessary, but seemed needed at the time.  And today was his morning to go to Gymboree, forcing him to pay the price.  He looked away from the adults in the middle of the room to find Trevor now teetering at the top of the slide.  The toddler knelt down in his blue jeans and then threw his legs out in front.  Sean moved closer to his son in case any of the other parents were watching him.  He felt like he was being constantly judged in his childrearing during the handful of other times that he was sentenced to attend.  “Helicopter parenting” was a phrase foreign to him until coming here.  Parents never strayed more than a few inches from their kids as they climbed over the equipment, while he often remained a few steps away.  Sometimes, the distance provided was born out of a belief that when he was growing up, he fell down and it was okay for kids to pick up a bruise while playing.  Other times, he was just trying to sneak a glance at his texts.

            The little blonde boy pointed to the bottom of the blue slide.

            “Go for it,” his father nodded.

            The sixteen-month old scooted forward and then slid down to the padding below.

            With his hands in his jeans, Sean shuffled towards the giant purple mat. 

            “Great job.”  It felt like something he was supposed to say.  The other parents were constantly complimenting their kids for every little thing they did.  Billy crossed the bridge and got a high-five.  Maria walked the beam and received applause.  This shit was annoying to him, but he didn’t want to be labeled the bad dad so he tried to join in.

            The toddler in the blue sweater from Brooklyn Industries stood up and looked around.  Spotting a wooden ramp, he wobbled to the next challenge with his dad trailing behind.

            Sean looked back up to the center of the play area.  Now, the girl who was on duty was holding the hideous clown that looked like a prop from Poltergeist.  She leaned forward with the polka dotted mascot facing kids while the theme song played in the background. 

            “Gymbo the Clown goes up and down…”

            He scanned the sea of faces, mostly composed of women.  They always seemed to be smiling, which somehow annoyed him.  In his mind, he pictured all of them having the same job— pre-school teacher.  His eyes rested on the third one from the right, a brunette in grey yoga pants that he had seen here before.  If she wasn’t making the big-eyed, open-mouthed faces that parents here always made when talking to their kids, she’d be the best looking parent here.

            “It’s Trevor right?”

            The voice to his right brought his eyes back to the structure in front of him.  When they found his son stomping on the bridge, he answered.  “Yeah, Trevor.”

            He then turned his head to the right to face the woman in black sweats and a Wisconsin Badgers sweatshirt.  It looked as if she hadn’t even tried to make it look like she hadn’t just rolled out of bed.  He then glanced at her kid, a girl with curly black hair that looked about the same height as Trevor.  Height was the only tool he had to try and figure out kids’ ages.  He couldn’t guess the names of either the mother or daughter, but it irritated him that parents always defaulted to the kid’s name first.  It was like Trevor was the human being of interest while the accompanying adult just was along for the ride.  When they lived in Williamsburg, adults mattered.

            “Sarah’s the same age.  Sixteen months right?”  Her large, brown eyes looked up at him.  They both seemed Queens trashy.

            “Yeah,” he thought she seemed lonely. 

            She stood next to him for a few seconds as the pair watched their children maneuver through the obstacles.  Luckily, Trevor soon headed towards an inflatable tube while Sarah ran towards the rowboat.           

            Following his son, Sean looked back up at the room full of children shouting and singing while they played, with the parents providing the backdrop.  When Melissa had signed them up for a membership during the winter months, he hadn’t ever heard of Gymboree.  This was a world that had existed for years without him having any knowledge that parents paid to visit such places.  From the minute he stepped foot in here, he wanted to escape— just like how he felt about the move to Forest Hills. 

It hadn’t been his idea to relocate further away from the city.  Melissa had grown up near Long Island and knew about Queens.  In addition to saving on rent, she promised this neighborhood was more family friendly.  Somehow, the tide of a new life washed over him and within a month of hearing of this neighborhood, he was transplanted. 

            Thankfully, last night was the opposite of everything out here.  Although his head still throbbed, he was happy that he had the chance to go out for drinks with his friends after work.  And for three hours before heading home, he liked his life again.  Prohibition was a place for adults, and the speakeasy themed pub was packed.  Most importantly, it wasn’t filled with a bunch of pre-school teachers.  Instead, he actually learned shit from talking to the people who were there.  He now knew where the best restaurants had opened and already downloaded three new apps for his phone.  His friends were building things— they were creating things that people out here only knew about secondhand.

            “Five more minutes of open gym everyone, only five more minutes to play with your friends,” the heavyset woman in the orange company shirt called out.

            He scanned the mats trying to find where Trevor had wandered.  He was thankful that time was nearly up and couldn’t wait to leave. 

“Here we go round the mulberry bush …” the woman in the turquoise swim cap sang out as her clapping hands splashed water.  Like the others, Sean circled her with his child.  The little boy laughed as he thrashed in his father’s hands.  The girl to their right screamed and flailed.

            “…the mulberry bush…”

            The group continued to sing and Sean continued to participate.  He didn’t want to look like an asshole who was above everyone else.

            “Okay,” the circling stopped and the instructor waved the parents and their children forward.  “Now we’re going to sing the goodbye song.”

            There was a sense of relief in hearing those words.  For the first time today, he genuinely smiled.  Like the other parents splashing the water with their fingertips, he obeyed.  As the song finished, he brought the little boy in the whale swim bottom to the center of the ring.  The other children were dragged to the center with one Asian boy screaming with his open mouth taking in gulps of pool water.  He cringed at the ideas of how much pee was in this pool. 

As soon as the song ended with a final cheer, Sean waded to the ladder and exited.  Clutching Trevor, he hurried to the changing area where white diaper stations were perched atop the wooden tables.  He set his son down on the stained mat and grabbed the whale towel on the plastic chair to his left.  Unfortunately, the guy from class with the tattoos across his back pulled up next to him.

            “It’s Trevor right?”

            Nodding, “Yeah.”  He pulled off the wet bottom with one hand and grabbed a diaper with his right as his son smiled wrapped in the towel.

            “Same age as Mikey right?  Sixteen months.”
            “Yeah, he’s sixteen months.”  It was like when someone wanted to make small talk at the urinal.  He wasn’t here to chat as Trevor kicked his legs against Sean’s efforts to put his grey fleece pants on.

            “First time in this class?” 

            “No,” he was forced to look up.  The brawny guy with the shaved head next to him grinned.  For some reason, he pictured all of the men out here as working construction or selling insurance.  This guy seemed more construction with the thick Queens accent.  “We did last session too.”

            “How was it?”

            “It was good.  Laurie does a good job.”  He sped up his efforts to get his son dressed as he slipped the ribbed shirt with a monkey on the chest over the blond curls. 

            “Yeah.”  There was a long uncomfortable pause once Sean got Trevor’s shirt on.  “Do they all scream like that?  Mikey’s usually is pretty good…”           

            He picked up his son and grabbed the diaper bag.  “Yeah, I think they all scream.  First time’s tough.  But they get used to it.  We’ll see you next week.”

            “Yeah, see you next week.  Want to wave bye-bye to Trevor?”  The dad reached down to grab his son’s hand.  He made his little boy wave his hand.

            Sean managed to turn up the corners of his mouth to a forced grin.  “See you later Mikey.”  He knew what he had to say next.  There was an unwritten code among parents that he was starting to abide by.  “Say bye-bye to Mikey.”

            His son muttered something that began with the letter b.

            Close enough. 

He pivoted with his son in his arms and headed to the exit, thankful to get the fuck out of the pool area.

Pointing at the pigeon, the little boy in navy sweatpants and a grey hoodie squealed with delight.  Sean wanted to wave at the bird and drive it away, but instead replied as programmed, “Yes, it’s a birdie.”  The little boy took two cautious steps towards the creature.  A fucking rat with wings, he looked around to make sure no one was around.  “Trevor,” he whispered firmly, “leave that thing alone.”

            Luckily, the bird took flight and Trevor turned to equipment.  In his awkward toddler run, he headed for a set of red steps leading up to a slide. 

            The thin middle-aged man in the designer black jacket scanned the playground.  There were only two other families here.  It wasn’t that cold, but cool enough for a Saturday morning to keep most of the neighborhood away.  A little girl in pink boots and a pink coat held an orange piece of chalk and worked on a sun to accompany some flowers on the blacktop.  Her father in a black, puffy coat better suited for winter stood watch.  They were ten feet or so away, which provided safe distance for avoiding conversation.  Sean nodded and the guy nodded back.

            Sauntering towards the metal ramps, he watched his son grabbing the railing as he hoisted a leg up the first stair.  Gathering his balance by placing his hands on the step, he scoped out the next bar.  Sean arrived at the stairs and followed his son who clambered up the obstacle.  Nearing the top, he reached down and scooped up his son.  Crouching down, he climbed onto the slide with Trevor secure in his lap.  The pair slid down with the little boy laughing wildly the whole way.  At the bottom, Trevor scooted off his dad’s lap and went to the railing to examine the dogs at the dog park below.

            Looking around, Sean took stock of the apartment buildings that surrounded the small park.  The brown brick buildings formed a fortress penning him inside the playground.  The drab, tiny skyline saddened him, but he had not been duped.  Melissa was truthful about what the move entailed.  They were saving money, there were good schools, it was safe, and they were still near the city.  There was nothing to argue.  Instead, it was only that he hadn’t realized how much he would miss his old life.  Months had passed and the trips into Manhattan grew fewer.  In fact, he had come straight home from work for the last three weeks.  And other than a few comments from co-workers that they missed seeing him around, life at the office had not changed while the new world sprung up around him.

            “Duh,” Trevor pointed at the spotted French bulldog squatting to take a shit. 

            “Yes, it’s a dog,” Sean responded as an old woman in a grey overcoat shuffled over and shoveled the poop into the yellow bag.

            He reached into his pocket and saw that he had missed a couple of texts.  Melissa wanted to know what time he’d be home and one of his clients asked if they could move the video chat to Sunday.  He slid the phone back into his pocket without answering.  He was actually excited about the project he was working on.  He was the lead on redesigning the website for the semi-pro team that played out in Coney Island.  But here, no one really cared what he did and he found himself only fielding questions about the work from Melissa.  And those sessions seemed more like both of them were just going through the motions of the routine rather than having a conversation.

            The little girl in the pink boots was making her way towards them.  Her drawing now seemed to be a city full of orange buildings.  For the briefest of seconds, he wondered if her father did anything interesting for work— or maybe at least followed football.  Just before the other man arrived, Trevor set off for another round at the slide and Sean dutifully followed.

(part one)