The Abstinence Teacher

by Tom Perrotta

  “Excuse me,” she called, quickening her pace. “Just a minute!”

  Several girls turned at the sound of her voice, including Maggie. Ruth caught the warning look in her daughter’s eyes, the silent plea for her to just please keep out of this, but she didn’t slow down.

  Tim Mason ignored her approach. He kept his eyes on the ground and spoke in a low voice.

  “… and all the blessings He has bestowed upon us. Our parents, our families, all the material—”

  “Hello?” Ruth interrupted. “You can’t do this.”

  The coach stopped talking and looked up.

  “This is ridiculous,” Ruth continued. “These aren’t your children.”

  The glance he returned wasn’t defiant, but it was calm and unwavering.

  “Join us,” he said. “You’re more than welcome.”

  “Maggie,” Ruth said, her voice harsher than she meant it to be. “You get away from there.”

  “Mom,” said Maggie.

  “Ruth,” said John Roper. “Calm down.”

  Tim Mason looked at Maggie.

  “She needs to hear this,” he said. “So do you.”

  “You don’t know me,” Ruth told him. “Don’t tell me what I need.”

  “You’re no different from anyone else,” he replied. “We all need the same thing.”

  Ruth was startled by the surge of anger that coursed through her body. It was as if everything she’d swallowed over the past six months—the abuse, the insults, the humiliation—had gathered into a fiery ball that was rising up from her belly, into her throat. She grabbed Maggie by the arm, jerked her to her feet, and yanked her out of the circle.

  “It’s okay, Mom,” Maggie whispered. “It’s really okay.”

  The softness of her daughter’s voice threw her for a second, and she wondered if she’d done the right thing. But she had, she knew she had. She took a deep breath and pointed her finger at the coach.

  “I’ll tell you what I need,” she said. “I need you to stay away from my kid.”

  PART TWO

  Hot Christian Sex

  Three-Legged Race

  ABBY WAS QUIET IN THE CAR ON SUNDAY MORNING, AND AS USUAL, Tim wasn’t sure what to make of her silence. Was she sad about leaving him for another week, or relieved to be getting back to her normal life, the big fancy house she shared with her mother, stepfather, and little brother? Or was she just lost in her own head, worrying about homework, some intrigue with her school friends that didn’t concern him at all?

  “You okay?”

  “Yeah,” she said, a little too quickly. “Why?”

  “I don’t know. You just seem a little subdued or something.”

  She insisted she was fine, leaving him to wonder if the sadness was all on his side, if he was simply fishing for a sign that she wanted to stay with him a little longer. He couldn’t help feeling a pang of nostalgia for the child she used to be, the little girl whose moods were as obvious as the weather. In the past year, she’d gone all poker-faced on him, turning every interaction into a guessing game. It didn’t help that Tim could never quite decide whether this awkwardness was just the normal weirdness of adolescence setting in or something more specific to the two of them.

  “Oooh, look,” she said, whipping her head around to follow the path of a sports car that blew past on Pembroke Boulevard. “That’s an Audi TT. Those things are awesome.”

  Tim didn’t reply. Since she’d started going to private school, Abby had developed what he thought was a dishearteningly well-informed enthusiasm for the finer things in life—plasma-screen TVs, Rolexes, designer handbags, iPods, cars that cost more than he made in a year—and he tried, without getting all self-righteous about it, to let her know that he wasn’t as impressed as she was, though she didn’t seem to care much about his opinion one way or the other.

  “Maybe one of these days you can come to Sunday meeting with me,” he ventured. “You know, just give it a try. See what you think.”

  “You’ll have to talk to Mom.”

  They both knew what that meant. The custody agreement gave his ex-wife exclusive control over their daughter’s educational and spiritual upbringing, and Allison categorically refused to let Abby set foot in the Tabernacle, which she referred to as “that Nuthouse.” Tim understood all too well where she was coming from, and if he’d been coming from the same place, he would’ve felt exactly the same way. But that place just happened to be a swamp of vanity and self-delusion, and he prayed that Allison would find her way out of it someday, as unlikely as that seemed.

  Not that he was losing any sleep over the state of his ex-wife’s soul; she was an adult, responsible for her own life, both in this world and the next. But Abby was still a child, and Tim felt like a coward and a bad father, letting some family court judge stand between his daughter and God. It was crazy: he was allowed to be Abby’s soccer coach, but was barred from guiding her in something way more important, the only thing that really mattered.

  “So, uh, what are you going to do the rest of the day?”

  “Chill out,” she said. “Probably just IM for a while, then go to the mall.”

  Tim sighed in a way he instantly regretted, knowing it made him sound like a Goody Two-Shoes, Ned Flanders without the mustache.

  “It’s the Lord’s Day, honey. You shouldn’t spend it at the mall.”

  “We might go to the movies,” she said. “I’m not really sure.”

  His sense of helplessness—of personal failure—intensified as he turned into Greenwillow Estates, a luxury development full of bloated McMansions, one monstrosity more gaudy and boastful than the next. His disgust at the sheer excess of the houses—what family actually needed six thousand square feet of living space?—was aggravated by a professional grievance. Tim was a mortgage broker, but somehow he never managed to connect with the kinds of clients who bought places like this. He just handled the little guys, people he met through church, mostly—hardworking, two-income families with shaky credit and not much in the way of savings, who could only qualify for high-interest, variable-rate loans that just barely got them inside a rundown ranch or a garrison colonial on a busy street or otherwise marginal neighborhood.

  Driving past the vast, oddly immaculate lawns of Country Club Way—it was mid-October, and there was barely a fallen leaf in sight—he fantasized, as he did every week, about pulling a U-turn and heading straight to the Tabernacle. What a pleasure it would be, walking into church with his little girl at his side, the person he loved best in the world, to stand beside her as she listened to God’s word, surrounded by the love that filled the humble space, all those joyful voices mingling together in song.

  But it wasn’t gonna happen. Abby’s stepfather was a lawyer, and by all accounts a good one. As polite and friendly as Mitchell always was, Tim had no illusions about the consequences he’d suffer if he violated the custody agreement. Pastor Dennis would have encouraged him to go for it anyway—to stand up for what was right, and trust Jesus to take it from there—but Tim hadn’t reached that level of faith yet. There was a special bond between him and Abby—he’d felt it the first time he saw her, just seconds after she’d slipped into the world—and it had survived all sorts of turmoil, those years when he’d disappeared into the wilderness and inflicted all sorts of suffering on the people he loved. He had a lot to make amends for, and couldn’t bear the thought of spending a minute less with his daughter than he already did, let alone risking the possibility of being cut off from her altogether.

  MITCHELL AND Allison lived in something called a Greek Revival colonial on Running Brook Terrace, a monumental brick house with a portico supported by fluted pillars. Pulling his Saturn into the triple-wide driveway, next to an impossibly lustrous black Lexus SUV, Tim let the engine idle as he turned to his daughter. It was a way of prolonging their time together, as if his custodial rights didn’t officially come to an end until he shut off his ignition.

  “My little girl,” he said, runni
ng his hand over her sleek dark hair, so similar to his own. “You be good, okay?”

  She stared back at him, her face blank and patient. After a long moment, she nodded.

  “Okay, Dad.”

  He felt a fullness in his heart that was almost painful and wished he could think of something to say that would do it justice. But words like that were never there when he needed them.

  “I’m gonna miss you, Ab.”

  She laughed sweetly—the first happy sound that had come out of her mouth all morning—and patted him on the knee.

  “Dude,” she said. “It’s only a week.”

  ALLISON STOOD in the sunlit, two-story entrance foyer—it featured a glittering chandelier that could be raised and lowered by remote control—looking sweetly disheveled in a gold silk robe that Tim had never seen before, tied just loosely enough for him to get a tantalizing glimpse of the sheer black nightgown underneath. She hugged Abby, then invited him in for the ritual Sunday morning cup of coffee and parental debriefing. He could’ve begged off, of course, could’ve told her he was in a rush, had to get ready for church or whatever, but he never did. She was the mother of his child, a woman who’d stood by him for way longer than he deserved before finally throwing in the towel, and the least he could do was give her fifteen minutes a week of his time.

  He just wished she would put some clothes on. Allison was a beautiful woman—even at forty, with twenty pounds of post-childbirth weight that looked like it was here to stay—and Tim had to force himself to keep his eyes where they belonged as he trailed her through the dining room to the entrance of the family room, where he paused to say hi to Mitchell and his two-year-old son, Logan, who were playing a wooden ring toss game that looked like it came from a catalogue that only sold toys made of natural materials by the finest Old World craftsmen.

  “Hola,” Mitchell called out. He was a baby-faced guy in his late thirties with curly hair and a doughy physique. “It’s Señor Tim.”

  “Hola to you,” Tim replied. “How’s the little guy?”

  Mitchell wrapped his thumb and forefinger around Logan’s pudgy bicep.

  “Strong like bull,” he declared in a ridiculous Russian accent that elicited a hearty chuckle from the boy, who appeared to have been cloned from his father.

  Abby peeled off to join her brother and stepfather, while Tim and Allison continued into the breakfast nook. It was possible, he thought, that there was an innocent explanation for the fact that his ex-wife was hardly ever decently dressed when he showed up on Sunday mornings—it was true that she’d never been shy about her body, and had enjoyed lounging around half-naked on weekends ever since he’d known her—but he couldn’t help suspecting that she got some satisfaction from reminding him of everything he’d thrown away, all the pleasures and privileges he’d surrendered for the simple, stupid reason that he liked getting high better than he liked being a husband and father.

  If that was her strategy, it was working a little too well. Standing in the archway of the eerily spotless dream kitchen—it looked like a movie set, not a place where actual people cooked actual food—watching her pour his coffee, he couldn’t help noticing how shamelessly short her robe was, not much longer than a miniskirt, which made him wonder how much shorter than that her nightgown must have been, which led, inevitably, to more specific thoughts about her body, and the many ways she’d shared it with him over the years. Mitchell must have felt like he’d died and gone to heaven, a nerdy intellectual property lawyer living in a house like this with a wife who had a black strawberry tattooed on her ass—she’d gotten it back in the mid-eighties, when it was still a little bit daring—and, unless things had changed, an unusually strong sex drive. The whole deferred-gratification thing had really paid off for the guy, and Tim couldn’t help envying him for his discipline and foresight.

  THE BREAKFAST island was long and sleek, the countertop a thick slab of polished blue granite with a weirdly deep sink at one end. Sitting across from him, Allison rearranged the lapels of her robe in a gesture of belated modesty, as if it had just occurred to her what she was wearing and who she was with.

  “So how’d the game go yesterday?”

  “We won. We’re tied for first place in the division.”

  “Wow.” She sounded impressed, though both of them knew she couldn’t have cared less. “How’d Abby do?”

  “Great.” He took a sip of coffee, a dark roast that Allison insisted was way better than Starbucks, though Tim could never taste the difference. “I did want to tell you, though—she got into a pretty bad collision near the end of the game. She and this other girl crashed into each other at full speed, and I think she was knocked out for a minute or two.”

  “Oh my God, did you—”

  “Don’t worry. Dr. Felder says she’s fine, no sign of concussion or anything. He says to just keep an eye on her, but he doesn’t anticipate any problems. You can give him a call if you want.”

  Tim had expected to be grilled for details—he knew she questioned the soundness of his parental judgments, a holdover from the days when her worries were more than justified—but his explanation seemed to satisfy her. She shook her head with what seemed like genuine empathy.

  “That must have been scary for you.”

  “You have no idea.”

  “I’m glad it was you,” she said, rolling her neck in a lazy circle. She’d recently begun putting blond highlights in her hair, and he liked the way they glinted against the darker gold of her robe. He’d always enjoyed her hair; she used to tease him with it when they were making love, sweeping it across his face and belly like a broom, and she never complained if he pulled it when they were playing rough. “I woulda had a heart attack.”

  The conversation flagged for a few seconds, just long enough for him to register the music playing in the background; it was the Dead, a live version of “Cassidy” he’d never heard before. He grunted with surprise.

  “What’s this, a bootleg?”

  “One of those Dick’s Picks,” she said.

  “Since when do you—?”

  “I always liked them,” she said, a bit defensively.

  “News to me.”

  “I appreciated the music. I just didn’t like all the drugs and craziness.”

  “Okay,” he said. “Whatever you say.”

  She looked at him with what felt like real curiosity.

  “You still into them?”

  “Not so much. I’m trying to put all that behind me.”

  “Must be hard.” She smiled sadly, acknowledging the depth of his sacrifice.

  “A little easier every day.”

  “Good for you.” She paused, letting Jerry finish a jazzy little run, that clean sunny sound no one else could duplicate. “So how’s Carrie?”

  “Fine.” He didn’t like discussing his wife with Allison, though she was more than happy to discuss her husband with him. “Same as always.”

  “Well, tell her I said hi.”

  Tim nodded, feeling momentarily disoriented. Sitting across from Allison in this gorgeous kitchen, listening to the Grateful Dead on Sunday morning, it was easy to believe that this was his life—their life—a new improved version of the one he’d screwed up so royally. Abby was with them, and Mitchell and Logan and Carrie were just people they knew, and not especially important ones. It was such a convincing sensation that he had to make a conscious effort to remind himself that losing that life, painful as it was, had been the best thing that had ever happened to him. God had a plan for him, and it involved something more important than a big house and a beautiful wife and a happy intact family. He slid off the stool and pressed his palm over the lid of his coffee mug.

  “I better be going,” he told her.

  MOST OF the time, Tim felt pretty good about his new condo—it was a two-bedroom townhouse with wood floors, central air, a gas fireplace, and Corian countertops—but it always struck him as cramped and dingy after he returned from Greenwillow Estates. Everything was
all squashed together—the closet-sized half bath a step away from the front door, the kitchen table wedged between the refrigerator and the dishwasher, forcing you to turn sideways when serving or cleaning up. The furniture, which was perfectly nice, and not cheap by any means, seemed common and nondescript, and even slightly tacky, in a way he couldn’t put his finger on.

  He had a similar reaction to Carrie, who was sitting on the living room couch, flipping through Parade magazine. With Allison fresh in his mind, she seemed paler and less vivid than usual, vaguely disappointing. He must have stared at her a moment too long, or with a little too much intensity, because she put down the magazine and looked up with a worried smile.

  “Everything okay?”

  Fine.

  “How’s Abby’s mom?” For some reason, Carrie insisted on referring to Allison in this way, and Tim could never quite decide if she meant it as a subtle dig or an expression of respect.

  “Hard to say. I just stopped in for a minute or two.”

  She nodded, keeping her gaze trained on his face, as if awaiting instructions. Though she was already dressed for church, he knew she was expecting him to take her by the hand and lead her up to the bedroom, the way he did on most Sunday mornings, taking advantage of this brief interlude—their first free moment of the weekend—between dropping Abby off and heading to church.

  But Tim just stood there, hands jammed into his pockets, reminding himself of the promise he’d made to Pastor Dennis after Wednesday Night Bible Study, not to touch his wife until he cleared his head and purified his heart. Because it was deceitful and disrespectful, making love to Carrie after being aroused by Allison, turning one woman into a substitute for another.

  “You look upset,” she said. “Can I make you some eggs or something?”

  He shook his head, feeling a sudden wave of affection for her. Carrie was a sweet girl and wanted nothing except to make him happy. He stepped toward the couch and extended his hand, as if asking her to dance.