Graduation
Margaret smoothed the silk of her off-brand Gucci dress against her body as she attempted to mentally prepare for what was sure to be a stunningly uncomfortable evening. She flicked the visor down and reapplied her deep plum lipstick for a sixth time since pulling in, ensuring that she shaved off any excess pigment in the corners of her mouth with her pinky nail. She snapped the visor closed and fished for the little gold pillbox in the bottom of the bag on the seat next to her, before picking out a little yellow pill, breaking it in two with trembling fingers, and swallowing it dry.
Her heels click-clacked on the still-warm asphalt of the school parking lot as the almost-summer sun set back behind the treeline. She hadn’t been back at Park Ridge middle for almost 6 years now, since the last time she picked up Cameron from school before the divorce. Cameron wasn’t her kid, really, but she’d raised her from when she had just turned 2 and “Margie” often merged into “mommy” in Cameron’s tongue-tied toddler mouth. Pete hadn’t let her around much after the divorce, and this — Cameron’s middle school graduation — was the first event he’d invited her to in the years since they separated. At Cam’s request, of course.
She’d gone back and forth as to whether she should go or not. On the one hand, she had little desire to see her ex-husband and his newest wife — the skinnier, prettier, richer version of Margaret who was also a lawyer, but unlike Margaret, a public defender, she was a prosecutor, who was notorious for getting barely-legal young boys ridiculous time for petty theft and selling weed. But on the other hand, she missed Cameron terribly and wanted nothing more in the world than to make her happy. She was the closest thing she’d ever had to her own child. As she hesitated at the gymnasium doors, the little note that Cameron had written on the bottom corner of the invitation in purple sparkly gel pen popped into her head: “I’d really love for you to come, Margie. I miss you so much.” Margaret took a deep breath, smoothed her dress down again, and entered the fluorescent hall.
She soon found herself in the tight embrace of Katherine, a robust woman who was the mother of one of Cameron’s friends that she hadn’t seen for years. They’d never really been friends outside of the school environment, but she and Margaret had spent hours together back in the day waiting in the hookup line back in the day, feet on the dashboard as they waited for the girls. She looked the same as ever — wild red hair sticking out every-which-way from her headband and a too-thick cardigan over her long mumu style pink dress.
“I’m just so happy to see you, Margie,” she said, finally pulling away and holding Margaret by the shoulders, both of their eyes welling up with tears. “You’re so skinny, you bitch!” she blurted out a few seconds later, in an attempt to cut off the sentimentality before it started. “Let me show you to your table.”
Katherine led her by the hand to a long table of name tents, where she picked out her name written in that curly calligraphy font that you can barely read. The top corner had a number 9 circled, so Katherine pointed her towards the table in the backmost corner of the gym where she could see a few other people settling into their seats. Luckily, she didn’t recognize any of them.
After exchanging pleasantries with her tablemates, a pair of couples who were the aunts and uncles of some of the kids and a couple of stray grandmas, they settled in for dinner. Margaret’s eyes involuntarily darted across the hall to one of the top tables, where Cam was chatting excitedly with a friend next to her father, who had his arm draped across the shoulders of his fake-bronzed, leggy wife. The rock on her finger glinted as she rocked in her chair, flashing toothy, fake laughs. A shudder passed through Margaret’s body and she turned her head back to the grandma to her right, who was in the middle of explaining her latest knitting project.
Soon the ceremony started, and Margaret felt the hot tears of nostalgia and pride roll down her face as she watched Cam walk across the stage to receive her diploma and shake the principal’s hand, her little white teeth shining from camera flashes throughout the hall as she beamed with self pride. After some awards and speeches it was all over, the fluorescent lights were turned on again, and Margaret headed confidently over to the corner of the gym where the parents and families were all hugging and congratulating their children. Shoulders back, chin up. She wasn’t going to allow them to shame her into not being there for Cam when she wanted her there.
Margaret met Cameron’s eyes as she was hugging Katherine’s daughter. Margaret’s lips began to curl into a smile, but froze when she saw that Cameron’s face began to twist into a horrified grimace, before letting out a piercing scream. Then everything started to move in slow motion. Pete screaming in her face before pinning her to the ground, the children running and crying, the school security guards picking up her limp body from off the ground. And then everything went dark.
Margaret began to come to and felt the pinch of IV needles in the crease of each elbow. She kept her eyes closed, feeling the presence of two people at the end of her bed.
“Annie, Annie Baxter.” Said one doctor to the other, flipping through the chart. “Acute head trauma from a car accident 6 years ago. Almost killed herself and the kid she nannied. Seems it triggered some kind of dissociative identity disorder, she periodically convinces herself she’s the ex-wife of the father of this kid. Really wild stuff.”
Annie slowly opened her eyes and uncurled her fingers on her left hand, which were tightly wrapped around a small piece of paper. She could just make out the name, “Margaret,” written in that curly calligraphy font, before falling back into a drug-induced sleep.
