Kneeling on the blue yoga mat, Theresa stretched her left leg out
and pointed her toes, then extended her right arm, struggling for
balance while the teacher chanted, “Imagine sending a ray of
pure white light out from your fingers. Feel the energy flowing through
your body. Now, slowly bring your knee in toward your body, lower
your elbows to the floor and tuck your head. Stretch your back out
and relax those muscles. One, two, three, four...” Theresa felt
the strain of the exercises and the week as a tightness across her
shoulders, tried to relax as she took a deep breath and let it out.
Around her the other students also breathed in and out, reached their
arms over their heads. “Now come to a comfortable sitting position,
put your arms down and give yourselves a hand! Great work today, have
a good week everyone.”
Theresa stood in the shower, hot water pelting her in a steady stream.
The workout had been a good antidote to the recent routine of too
much homework, too little sleep, too much nervousness over Michael.
She felt shaky thinking about him, wired as if she’d been drinking
too much espresso. She closed her eyes and felt his hands on her shoulders,
pulling her to him as he kissed her. Her desire for his touch was
a tense knot in the pit of her stomach.
She turned off the water, wrapped herself in the thin white gym
towel. The hollow slam of locker doors echoed down the corridor, and
snatches of conversation drifted through the air as women shed their
leotards and changed into jeans and T-shirts. “Personally, I
picture God as a perfect black circle centered on a perfectly white
page.” What an odd thing to say, Theresa thought. Could I possibly
have heard that right? She was struck with an image from a math class
she had taken the previous year. The teacher had shown them how to
draw a circle by holding the chalk behind his back at a point on the
chalkboard, then spinning around like a dancer while sweeping his
arm in an arc across the board.
Two women burst through the gym doors into the morning sun, brightly
colored bags slung over their shoulders.
“So, you know that girl who was in the row behind you, the blonde
in the pink halter top?”
“Yeah, I think, why?”
“Well, I think she’s the one I saw hanging with Leslie’s
boyfriend at the cafeteria the other day.”
“Oh, shit. Really?”
“Yeah, I’m pretty sure. They seemed pretty friendly.”
“Do you think Leslie knows?”
“No way. She’s always complaining about him, taking him
for granted and stuff. I think she’s clueless.”
“I think she’s mental! He’s incredibly cute.”
“Well, maybe this will wake her up.”
“What, are you going to tell her?”
“Me? No way. But you know she’s gonna find out sooner
or later.”
A neon orange Frisbee soared above the expanse of freshly mown grass.
Michael snatched it from the air, pivoted and tossed it back in a
fluid motion. His friend Jason ran lazily after it while his black
Lab puppy orbited around him in crazy circles, barking furiously.
“Are you gonna talk to Leslie?”
“Yeah, I guess. I don’t know. I mean, I just met this
girl.”
“And?”
“She’s great, really amazing. I just don’t want
a huge scene with Les. She seems to hate me these days anyway.”
“Maybe it’s time for something new. Nothing lasts forever,
you know. At least that’s what Heraclitis says.”
“Are you sure? I thought it was David Byrne.”
“Talking Heads?”
“Yeah, you know that song. ‘Things fall apart; it’s
scientific.’”
After class Theresa went by the science building hoping to run into
Michael. She tried the physics lab and the library, wandered the halls
for a while and then, unwilling to go back to her apartment, she sat
on a bench in the shade of a pepper tree across the street from the
city park. A flash of motion at the far end of the park caught her
eye, and she turned to see a black dog chasing a Frisbee. She watched
as the dog raced into the distance, a dark blur receding like a point
shrinking away to infinity. Then he jumped up and caught the disc
in a perfect intersection, tangents meeting at the apex of motion,
and for a moment it seemed he would simply continue forever in flight,
released from gravity and consequence.
Rima Snyder...
