Jo Barney

Wednesday Club Jo Barney

Half of Jan Morrison's life is pure chaos, the half that has to do with her family, her sense of wifeliness, motherliness, womanliness. The other half, the half in which she counsels children whose own lives are as chaotic as hers, is the core of her days, and she is pretty successful at it even though she comes to school hungover, popping breath mints, unsympathetic toward little girls who suck their thumbs, and incapable of calling her autocratic principal by his first name. Asshole seems a much more fitting label.

Then Mr. Peterson warns her that her days at James Lee Elementary School are numbered. RIFFING: reduction in force. Six weeks, to be exact. And her only hope of survival is to cure the six most problematic kids in the school or at least make them disappear from the principal's radar.

Between her divorce and her unsympathetic school principal, Jan is almost as unstable as the kids in her Wednesday Club who are not following the rules and are creating havoc in classrooms and on the playground. Mr. Pedersen has given her the edict "cure these kids" or else, the else being her job. Jan knows she needs to cure herself while she's at it.

The cure may be the Wednesday Club, except that every time it meets, one of its six members either flies away as a pterodactyl, hides behind the tightened strings of his hoody, continues to suck her slick thumb, steals a watch just for the heck of it, or just plain disappears. An irate parent, a scared principal, and Jan's inability to keep her mouth shut bring Jan's job to an abrupt end.

However, a couple of good girl friends, a talented lover, a dog, the return of a son, and a belief in her own vision for messed up little kids keep Jan moving through the chaos, hope on the horizon.