0730 hours, morning rush, Avocado Avenue
Gabby normally listened to her favorite self-help guru, Sloane Ellis, on the way to work. Today, she pulled up Sheridan Lane’s podcast. She hit play on an episode titled “Balance.” After some acoustic intro music, Sheridan said, “Welcome toUncommon Sense. I am your host, Sheridan Lane. Today we are talking about the greatest myth of all: balance.”
Gabby scoffed. All you had to do was try harder.
“Balance is difficult if you have too little or too much. Too little and you become the focus, time becomes a swamp. If you have too much, you want more. Oof. Women, I see you.”
If you wanted to balance more, you had to be faster, harder, stronger, smarter. Gabby knew that, if she could be more, she could do more.
Sheridan took a call. The caller, a woman named Tanya, said, “I have it all, a job and kids and everything, but I feel like I’m falling apart all the time.”
Gabby fought the impulse to pressSTOP. She didn’t need to hear this depressing garbage. Be More. Do More—that’s all there was to it.
“Do you really have it all?” Sheridan asked. “If you have a big job and a lot of family responsibility, are you having any fun?”
The caller actually sobbed into the phone. “No.”
“Well, then you don’t have it all. You just have all the work.”
Oh shit.
Frustrated, the woman asked, “How can I add some fun if I can barely do my job and take care of the kids?”
“If you can’t carry what you have, sounds like you need to set something down, and that is okay.”
What good was this psychic? “Help her!”
“Tell me what to do. Can you see a different future for me?”
“You determine your future. It’s time to dig deep and use your uncommon sense. I only call it uncommon because most people don’t have it, and if they do, they don’t use it.”
If Gabby wanted to add anything, or anyone, she needed to set something down. But what?
In a calm, but firm tone, Sheridan said, “Don’t forget. It’s your life, and you make the rules.”
Now she was talking! Gabby turned her up like she was listening to a girl-power anthem.
Everyone had an opinion on Gabby’s purely hypothetical love life lately. Sheridan was right—she needed to make the rules. There was one other person who needed this reminder.
In a loud, clear voice, Gabby said, “Hey Siri, call Mom.”
Elena Greene picked up the phone on the first ring.
“Gabby, how are you? How’re the kids?”
She could not small talk, not when her mom had been colluding with Phil. “Mom.” She said the word with all the force of a stop sign.
“How is Kyle doing in school? I’ve been worried about her being bullied. It’s all they talk about on the news.”
Thanks, Katie Couric.
The irony of her mom talking about bullying. “Mom, Phil came over last night—”
“Oh good!” she said in a high-pitched, drawn-out tone, as if she hadn’t instigated the visit. “How’d it go?”
Gabby took a deep breath. “Mom, he said you’ve been talking to him about us getting together.”
“You say that like it’s a bad thing?” Gabby could hear Elena shaking her head over the phone. “It would be so much better for the kids if you could put your differences aside.”
