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worse.”
    “One of them bet me five dollars I couldn’t get your phone number,” Sarah said, once again shocked by her own boldness.
    “Five bucks?” Todd smiled. “Could we split it fifty-fifty?”
    “It could be arranged.”
    Todd patted himself down, then showed her his empty palms. “You got a pen?”
    Sarah knew there was a pen in her diaper bag, but she didn’t want to walk all the way over to the picnic table to retrieve it. And besides, she already had a better idea.
    “You know what would really shock them? If you gave me a hug.”
    Neither one of them moved for a second or two, and Sarah’s confidence began to falter. But then Todd began walking toward her, his Prom King face surrounded by the dazzling blue background of the summer sky. He smiled shyly and opened his arms.
    Sarah was unaccustomed to the sensation of hugging someone so tall. She pressed her face against his collarbone, uncomfortably close to the sweat stain spreading out from beneath his arm. There was a sour odor radiating from his body that she found oddly reassuring.
    “This feels pretty good,” he whispered.
    She nodded into his chest and held him a little tighter, as if they were slow-dancing at the prom. Her back was to the picnic table, so she could only imagine the consternation this embrace was causing among the other mothers. She pulled her head away from him and looked up.
    “You know what would be really funny?”
    In retrospect, she was never quite sure if he answered her question. Maybe he nodded or made some vague murmur of assent. In any case, he did exactly what she’d meant him to, as if she’d outlined the action in precise detail.
    The first kiss was tentative, only half-serious, as if they were acting in a play, but the second one was for real—gentle, then forceful, and then completely electrifying, the kind of kiss that would have made perfect sense outside a dorm room at two in the morning. On a playground at noon, between near-total strangers, though, it was a kind of insanity. Luckily, one of them finally had the good sense to pull away from the other, though Sarah could not for the life of her remember which of them it was.
    “My God,” she murmured.
    Todd wiped his bare forearm across his mouth. He was blushing now.
    “Wow,” he said.
    “You better go,” she told him.
    He nodded and set off without another word, slowly pushing the stroller across the unreal green expanse of the soccer field. Sarah watched his broad back receding for as long as she could stand it, then turned to her daughter, who was sitting in her motionless swing, watching the same sight as her mother, her feet kicking dreamily at the air.
    “Let’s get going,” Sarah told her.
    For once, Lucy submitted without complaint as her mother lifted her out of the swing. The two of them walked back toward the picnic table in silence, holding hands. Sarah’s legs felt unsteady as she approached the other mothers, her face burning with pride and shame. Cheryl and Theresa were staring at her in complete bewilderment. Mary Ann looked furious.
    “I’m sure your daughter found that very educational,” she said.
    “His name’s Todd,” Sarah replied. “He’s a lawyer. And he’s really very nice.”

The Committee of Concerned Parents
    AARON HAD DISCOVERED HIS PENIS. WHENEVER HE HAD A SPARE moment—when he was watching TV, say, or listening to a story—his hand would wander southward, and his face would go all soft and dreamy. This new hobby coincided with a sudden leap forward in his potty training that allowed him to wear big boy underpants at home during the day (at night, during naps, and in public he still needed the insurance of a diaper). Because he often had to sprint to the bathroom at the last possible moment, he preferred not to wear pants over the underwear, and this combination of easy access and an elastic waistband issued a sort of standing invitation that he found impossible to resist.
    Having been reassured by