From Lawyer to Nanny

Chapter 13

C H A P T E R  13

It was day two of my job as nanny for the Parks. I thought to myself as I walked over to the Parks house in the pouring rain. It was only the second day, but I was already exhausted. Just thinking about the kids and the things we’d have to do today almost gave me a headache, and on that list, was giving the twins a bath. Thankfully, I had dressed appropriately for today, wearing a cotton shirt and jeans. If the media could see me now… I arrived at the Parks and searched through my purse looking for the spare key to the house Valerie had given me the day before. I found it and I let myself in.

 “Gwen’s here!” I announced myself to the kids. “Hello?” I tried again. When neither of them came, I yelled at the top of my lungs.

 “I BROUGHT SMARTIES!” The second I said that I could here stomping of feet on the basement stairs as they both ran up. They jumped up and down as I held the Wal-Mart bag above their heads.

 “Gime me!” They both yelled.

 “Give me, give me, never get, don’t you know your manners yet?” I asked sternly. That quieted them down.

 “Please?” They asked.

 “Have you both had breakfast?” I asked. They nodded. Was it healthy for kids to eat candy after breakfast? Would it kill them? Probably not, I decided.

 “How about, if both of guys let me painlessly give you two a bath, you guys can have some afterwards, sound good?” They nodded again.

 After a half hour they were downstairs in the basement all cleaned up and watching a Disney movie. I brought them each a box of smarties.

 “Gwen?” Violet asked,

 “Yes?”

 “Can we go watch to the movie theatre and watch the new Disney movie?”

 “I’m sorry Violet, but it’s starting to rain and there’s going to be a thunderstorm. We’d have to walk over there and that’s just too dangerous.” It pained me to have to crush her Disney dream.

 “Oh okay,” She said disappointed. I couldn’t look at her sad face any longer.

 “How about we go this Friday? It’s supposed to be sunny and it won’t be as crowded!” I suggested.

 “That’s our birthday!” Aaron said excitedly.

 “Then that’s perfect!” Friday it is,” I smiled.

 I left them to go upstairs and watch some TV in their small living room. I turned to the local news to see what would come on. Some story about a boy reunited with his dog after he ran away, how cute. 

 “And now, back to this week’s biggest story. The lawyer who ruined Nancy Green’s life.” A clip of me in court and the judge going over the hairstylist’s medical problems appeared on screen. I cringed. “Nancy Green’s taking over social media to rant on the lack of professionalism the Khan Corporation firm, where her former lawyer was with, has.” Another clip appeared of Nancy Green, wearing a blonde curly wig, talking to a reporter saying “It saddens me how a lawyer could be so careless. I was paying her a large sum of money for her to represent me and she decides that she doesn’t need to carefully read over the case and misses a crucial detail,”  A picture of me appeared onscreen. “Gwen Winters is her name and she’s-”

 “Violet come! Gwen’s on TV” Aaron interrupted while walking into the kitchen.

 “No! No! Definitely not!” I quickly picked up the remote control and turned off the TV.

 “I pinky promise I just saw you!” Aaron cried.

“Look at the time! It’s already lunch, I made you guys tuna sandwiches!” I tried to change the subject.

“I don’t like tuna, and I know what I saw,” Aaron pouted.

“I’ll give you more smarties,” I knew buying an extra 2 packs would be useful.

“Fine,” Aaron tried to appear mad but I could see the smile creeping up on his face.

                                                                             ***

 I was washing some of the dishes left from lunch when I heard the front door open.

 “Mom!” Aaron asked while running up to her and giving her a hug.

 “Hi honey! Sorry I’m a little late, your father and I had some work to do, he’ll be home soon.”

  “Guess what?” Aaron rushed, not even giving her a second to guess, “Gwen’s famous! She was on TV today!”

 “Really? What for?” Valerie asked me. I started blankly at her for a good 10 seconds. I then I came up with a great excuse.

 “Remember how I told you I was a journalist? Well I had previously covered a story on um, the um, an oil spill!” I made up.

 “I didn’t hear about that, was it in New York?” Valerie asked me shocked.

 “No, it was in um… Kentucky!” I blurted the first place that came to mind.

 “That’s terrible! What happened exactly?” Valerie kept asking me questions as if this was that 20 questions game.

 “They haven’t figured that out yet, we just know that oil contaminated all the potable water in Kentucky,” I responded sadly. As if I actually cared about this made up oil spill in Kentucky story.

 “Well lucky us to have you to let us know about incidents like that!” Valerie exclaimed. I nodded my head still trying to convey how sad I was for Kentucky.

 “Gwen’s the best nanny we’ve ever had! She gives us Smarties and fights bad guys!” Violet exclaimed. I widened my eyes, if Violet explained the fighting bad guys story, I was going to quit right then.

 “What did you say?” Valerie asked worriedly, not sure if she had heard her daughter correctly.

 “Gwen-” Violet tried to explain but she stopped when she noticed me pull out two Smarties boxes from my purse. I looked at the kids and gave them a warning look making sure they understood not to talk about that had happened the previous day. Once I thought they had understood I handed them the boxes. Thankfully Valerie was too busy trying to remove her jacket to notice our exchange.

 These kids were going to be the death of me.