‘Give me some credit!’ Seth fires back. Which actually hurts my feelings. I may not look very attractive in this beret and red-cheeked from my trek through New York to find him. Butstill…
‘I need to talk to you!’ I explain when he reaches me. ‘I need your help and it’surgent.’
Seth bites at his lower lip. ‘This is all incredibly weird but okay… Can you wait? I’ll be finished up here in around thirtyminutes.’
I sigh, thinking of that letter on the move to god knows where. And then I get a vision of Birdie’s face when I have to tell her that whoops, I lost her letter and this was all a wasteoftime.
‘Actually, it’s really important,’ I say. ‘I needyounow.’
He raises aneyebrow.
I tut. ‘I mean I need totalkto you now. I’ll only be a fewminutes,I—’
Seth interrupts me, an expression of irritation flitting crossing his face. ‘Look, this is the only time these kids get away from a school that writes them off, a home that’s dysfunctional or, for some of them, the streets where they hang out with an older, shittier crowd. I volunteer and they only get one hour with me every week. I already arrived late…’ He gives me a pointed look. ‘I mean, if it’s another bathroom related requested, you’re on your own. But otherwise, you can wait another thirty minutes,right?
I feel embarrassed at my storming in here. He volunteers? That doesn’t fit with my current impression of him. He’s clearly having some kind ofDangerous Mindsmoment. Or maybe he’s volunteering just so he cantellpeople he volunteers and act all worthy about it. Yes, that must be it. There’s no way someone so self-important would volunteer out of the goodness of their heart. Either way. I suppose I can manage another thirty minutes. I really could do withhishelp.
‘Fine,’ Isniff.
‘In half an hour you can have as much of me as you want,’ Seth says loudly so the kidscanhear.
Whatadick.
‘Give me some credit,’ I call back to his retreating form, to which some of the kids whoop and cheermeon.
I amble into the corner, every squelchy footstep amplified by the acoustics of the room, and plop down on an errant plastic yellowchair.
I take a breath and pull out my phone and earphones. Now would be a great time to listen to that meditation app I’ve been meaning to try. Thirty minutes of Still Minds sounds like a positive and sensible thing to dorightnow.
I press the buttons on my phone to load it up but am soon distracted by Seth’s voice booming intotheroom.
‘Alan, Trey, Lauren. You’re up!’ he’s saying. ‘Your theme is…’ He holds his hands to his chin as if he’s thinking very hard. ‘Birthday.’
Three of the kids step out from the crowd and form their owngroup.
‘Remember,’ Seth says. ‘Relax! It’s all aboutrelaxing.’
At Seth’s instruction the kids shake out their legsandarms.
‘Okay,go!’
‘I got you a gift,’ one of the kids says, pretending to hand something to one of the others. ‘It’s a really cute littleteddybear.’
The other kid, a skinny little thing, folds his arms. ‘That’s not a teddy bear,’ he says. ‘It’s a killerdrone!’
‘Hold up!’ Seth interrupts. ‘Okay, Alan,’ he says to drone boy. ‘The point with improvisation is that you always have to sayyes. No matter what. So if your teammate starts the scene by saying that they are giving you a cute little teddy bear, they are giving you a cute little teddy bear. You have to gowithit.Sayyes.’
Alan nods, his little cheeks turning abitpink.
‘Try again,’ Seth says, patting him on the shoulder. ‘Go from thestart.’
‘I got you a gift,’ the girl says again. ‘it’s a really cute littleteddybear.’
Alan takes the invisible teddy bear from Lauren and gasps. ‘This is the most beautiful teddy bear I’ve seen in my entire life. And lord knows I’ve seen a lot of teddy bears.’ Alan pretends to look at the floor sadly. ‘Too many teddy bears…’ he saysmysteriously.
A big laugh goes up around the room and I find myselfjoiningin.
I put down my earbuds and watch with interest as an entire scene is created in front of me, totally off the cuff. With the guidance of Seth, the kids concoct a whole story in which the teddy bear is secretly stuffed withstolenpot.
