Death of a PTA Goddess Read Online Free PDF Page B

meanwhile, looked over at Patty, making it obvious that he would take orders from her alone. She gave him a little nod. He loaded the tape in the slot, turned on the television, and pressed the play button.
    The opening shots were credits that listed each of the four girls who had been lobbying us for money to purchase a video camera this year, then showed them mugging for the camera. This took an inordinate amount of time, and they were suffering from a bad case of the giggles. We could wind up as PTA
bored
members, after all.
    Next came a shaky view of Stephanie heading toward the camera on what I recognized as the sidewalk in front of Carlton Central School. The date readout on the bottom corner of the screen showed that this was filmed last September, six months ago. Just as Stephanie started to open the door to the lobby of the elementary school, a girl not shown by the camera asked, “Excuse me. Are you Mrs. Saunders?”
    Onscreen, Stephanie paused and turned toward the voice, but the camera was significantly below her gaze. The girl must have been carrying the camera inside her purse or knapsack. “Yes, hello.” She stared for a long moment, then asked, “Are you a friend of my daughter’s?”
    “Not really. I mean, I knew her well enough to say hi to her, you know? But she was already a senior when I was a freshman. You’re the president of the PTA, right?”
    She smiled broadly. “Yes, I”—her smile faded—“or rather, no, but I was until recently. Is there something I can do for you?”
    “Yeah, um, I’m in Mr. Alberti’s government class? And we need to get five hundred dollars from the PTA? So that we can buy a video camera? It’s for, like, filming projects and things?”
    It was clear from Stephanie’s frozen expression that her patience was already wearing thin. “I see. Well, have your teacher put that on his wish list for the school, and we’ll—”
    “We want to keep him out of it. See, that’s part of the learning process? For the government class?”
    Stephanie started to turn away, waving her manicured fingers in the air in a gesture of dismissal. “In that case, you can talk to our treasurer, Susan Embrick. She can have you fill out the forms. Then you can come to the next meeting and plead your case.”
    “Is that all there is to it? We’ll be able to get money for a new camera?”
    Though Stephanie answered, “Yes,” the girl kept asking questions. Stephanie gave increasingly snarky answers until finally she growled, “
Save it
for Ms. Embrick!” and shut the door in the camera girl’s face.
    The theme song from
Jaws
began to play, then a voice-over said, “And thus our story begins.”
    Though I could see why Stephanie would find this an unpleasant episode to have been captured on film, so far it was hardly grounds for an emergency meeting, let alone threats to Patty’s well-being.
    “Stay in your seats, boys and girls,” Stephanie said as if anticipating this reaction. “It gets worse.”
    The next few minutes showed a series of vignettes featuring all four girls, at different times, trying to get the paperwork handled so that they could get on the agenda at the next meeting. They were bounced between Susan and Chad, getting misinformed by both. Susan, especially, came off as both addled and irritable, but overall, this was merely a valuable lesson to high schoolers about dealing with any kind of a bureaucracy, the Carlton PTA being no exception.
    Next came scenes of our monthly PTA meetings, shown in chronological order. The time of day was on prominent display, and the editing demonstrated how endlessly Emily Crown could drone on. I glanced at her, and her hands were now over her lips. I tried to give her a reassuring smile, but her attention was focused on the screen. Although she could go toe-to-toe with me in terms of talking too much—and likely win the contest—she was likable and energetic.
    My attention abruptly returned to the screen when the camera’s