Tuesday, October 14, 11:20 AM, the portal refreshed on my phone in the Fenner's break room.
I set my sandwich down on the wax paper.
There was a new line.
Deposit — $6,440.00 — New Uniforms Drive — balance after vendor deposit
The treasurer's office had scanned the slip and attached it.
Kendra's round handwriting filled the memo box.
It had the same loopy K she puts on our Christmas cards.
Balance after vendor deposit.
There was only one vendor.
At 12:05 Kendra posted in the parents group.
Fully repaid! Moving on. 💛
There was a photo of the slip, with her thumb over the amount.
It had 140 likes.
Jenna's name wasn't on any of them.
The comments were hearts and praying hands.
One said, Knew it would work out!
I texted Hector one line.
Did she pay you a deposit?
At 4:10 PM he answered.
Still nothing here.
I read it at the slicer with my gloves on.
That night I sat at the kitchen table.
Her August post was still pinned at the top of the group.
🏈 $11,240 RAISED!
I took a Fenner's receipt out of my purse and turned it over.
I wrote $11,240.
Under it, $6,440.
I subtracted it twice, the way I check a till.
Same answer both times.
$4,800
Owen came in with a bag of chips and read over my shoulder.
"That's only six thousand?"
"Sixty-four forty."
"She said fully."
"She said a lot of things."
"So where's the rest?"
"I don't know."
"Hector doesn't have it."
He set the chips down.
"What happens now?"
"Tomorrow I sign the audit."
At 10:15 Jason texted.
She paid it back. Sign it clean tomorrow and this is over.
I didn't answer.
Mom hadn't called since the night on my steps.
She calls every Sunday.
Two Sundays had gone by.
Wednesday, October 15, 3:30 PM, the treasurer's office.
Ellen Voss set the certification on her desk and turned it to face me.
Annual Booster Activity Fund Certification — Fund 300-9014
Signer of Record
"You can sign it clean," she said.
"Or you can note an exception."
"Due at five."
"I know."
She tapped the copy of Kendra's slip clipped inside a folder.
"The organizer deposited this yesterday."
"I saw it."
"Memo says balance after vendor deposit."
"I saw that too."
"Did the vendor get one?"
"I asked him."
"He says nothing yet."
"If I sign it clean, what am I saying?"
"That every dollar raised is accounted for."
I took the pen from her cup.
I signed my name on the line.
Theresa Ann Wozniak.
Under it, in the white space, I wrote in block print.
Drive collected $11,240 per organizer's post; deposited $6,440; $4,800 unaccounted. Vendor reports no deposit received.
She read it upside down, the way I'd read her pencil checks.
She stamped it received.
3:41 PM.
"An exception goes to the board," she said.
"Then it goes to the board."
"With your name on it."
"My name's been on that card since 2016."
She put the certification in a red folder.
At home Owen was on the floor of the living room, stretching his hip.
He didn't look up.
"His kid told the team the stand's Big Rod's next year."
"Rod's kid?"
"Yeah."
"Brisket every game."
"He said it like it was done."
"It's not done."
"Okay."
He held the stretch and counted to twenty under his breath, the way his coach taught him.
He switched legs.
"He also said you're why we don't have jerseys."
"What'd you say?"
"I said that wasn't true."
"Did he believe you?"
"He's the quarterback, Mom."
"Nobody argues with the quarterback."
Wednesday, 7:30 PM, Jason's truck pulled into my driveway.
He left the engine running.
He got out and slammed the door.
I came out onto the porch.
"Dale called her," he said.
"You wrote her up."
"I wrote down numbers."
"She paid it back."
"What else do you want?"
"Forty-eight hundred dollars."
"She's in front of the board now, Tess."
"Our name."
"In front of the whole board."
"Mom cried on the phone last night."
"She hasn't called me in two weeks."
"Because of you."
"Because of a number, Jason."
"She put the number in her own post."
"I just subtracted."
He walked a tight circle on the concrete.
His keys jingled in his fist.
"It's not like it's gone."
"Where is it?"
"It's handled."
"By who?"
"It's coming back."
"From where, Jason?"
He stopped walking.
"Rod said he'd put it back after the—"
He heard himself.
His mouth stayed open.
Then he shut it.
He looked at the truck like he might get back in it.
The truck idled behind him.
"After the vote," I said.