karenika - books - the law of averages

The Law of Averages

Each summer I teach a course in BASIC at the junior college. This year Tracy Whitten is my favorite student. She's eighteen - bright, handsome, cheerful all the time. I like her braces. She's self-conscious about them, always remembering a minute too late to keep her lips tightly closed. She comes to class in shorts and a T-shirt, perspiration glinting at her temples, and we talk, her eyes darting around as if we ought to be more discreet.

By the fourth week of the session I'm so taken with her I'm ready to break the rules. In the hall, after class, I say, "Maybe you could come for dinner? I'll ask some other people. We can cook out."

"Oh, sure," she says, giving me a look that means maybe I'd better think again. "That'd be real suave."

We walk down the corridor without talking, then go outside and stop near the bike rack. "I'm sorry I mentioned it," I say, making a show of looking for my car in the parking lot. "Well, not really sorry."

She smiles, wires glittering, then turns away and looks out over the baseball practice field. Today she's wearing pale pink running shorts, the shiny kind, and a thin Jack-in-the-Box T-shirt, and she's tapping her key on the rack, so there's a pinging sound in the air.

Finally, she turns around and gives me a squinty look. "I wouldn't mind coming, if you're serious."

"I am serious." That sounds too serious, so I try for a Chevy Chase joke with some stupid faces, wondering how I could have been silly enough to start this.

"Take it easy, will you? Calm down. Let me think." She watches me and does some faces that look good on her. "We know it's not a great idea. We both know that, right? It's destructive and impossible, and you're too old, and it's bad PR."

"My specialty," I say.

She studies me for a second, then she's all smiles - patting my arm, straightening her hair, ready to walk away. "I like it. I'll come. We'll have a good time. Where is it?"

I picked up The Law of Averages from the recommended section of the New York Times. I'm sure I'm missing something, but I didn't enjoy these stories much. I liked the subtle details and his descriptions, I just wasn't crazy about the plots.