CHILD OF THE HEART
Written by Katherine
Tomlinson
Illustrated by Mark
Satchwill
Some of her
clients had complained when Tina told them the yoga studio was going to be closed
over the holiday weekend. “But you never close,” Marianne McSweeney had said
accusingly, as if Tina were running some kind of bait and switch operation.
“I’m closing
this year,” Tina said, without giving her an explanation.
“I think you’re
being selfish,” Marianne had said and Tina had nearly laughed. Marianne
McSweeney was the most singularly self-absorbed person she’d ever met and she
wasn’t even an actress.
“I’ll see
you Tuesday,” Tina said to her.
“Whatever,”
Marianne had said and left in a huff.
Tina hated
people who said whatever.
The truth was,
Tina never had closed before. This
was the first year she’d had enough of a financial cushion to even think about
taking a three-day weekend. She’d opened the studio the year the economy had
taken a dump and by December of 2009 she was sure she was going to have to close
it and go back to doing medical transcription. And she so didn’t want to do
that.
The work
wasn’t particularly hard and the pay was okay, but she’d been working for the
doctor who’d overseen her transition. He’d been wonderful during the process
but she felt that every time she saw him she was taking a step back in her
personal journey and not a step forward. She’d felt like she was playing it
safe, hiding from reality, not really being the strong and independent woman
she was born to be.
Her mother
had loaned her a thousand dollars to keep the bills paid and then Tina had
landed a job as a personal yoga trainer to the soon-to-be ex-wife of a major movie
star. The ex-wife had paid her an outrageous amount of money to come to her
Brentwood house twice a week and the gig had paid the studio rent for a year.
She’d been sorry when that client had moved to Sedona, claiming to be in search
of inner peace but actually in pursuit of a handsome artist who’d caught her
eye.
It had been
a lean couple of years but since the early spring, things had started to
change. All of her classes were suddenly full and she was booked solid with
private clients as well. Tina wasn’t sure what was happening—gas prices were
still high and food prices were still going up and it wasn’t as if yoga lessons
were a necessity—but for whatever reason she suddenly wasn’t having to kite
checks to keep the lights on and the doors open at the same time.
And she
really needed some time to herself. Since her mother had died in September, she’d
been too busy to grieve. But getting through the first Mother’s Day since her
death had been brutal. Every time she turned on the television there’d been
some commercial with mothers and daughters. Or mothers and sons.
