Hope you enjoy
UNEDITED
July 24, Thursday
Nyle was mowing the lawn with the mower. I was walking behind him, making sure that the children that I was watching did not get to close to the mower. He had started to mow the lawn thirty minutes ago, but he was barely half way done (he wanted to make sure that every bit of the lawn had short grass).
"Ms. Scott?" a little boy asked me, tugging on my shorts. "Can I go inside and get some lemonade, please?"
I bent down and picked him up in my arms, "Sure thing, Lewis." I turned to the other four kids, "Time for a snack break. The last one in is a rotten egg!" Being a couple of feet away from the door, I figured and Lewis and I were safe. Holding him closer to me, he opened the door for the both of us to enter my grandma's house. I placed him on the floor and he ran into the kitchen and got the seat at the end of the table.
The other kids ran into the house and sat around the dining table as I poured the lemonade into five glasses.
"What is for snack, Ms. Scott?" Georgie, short for Georgina, asked me when I set down her lemonade in front of her.
After I put down the last glass on the table before I finally answered her. "When my grandma comes back from the grocery, I will tell you. At the moment, it will most likely be crackers and chess. Is that okay with all of you?"
Lewis and the boy sitting next to him shrugged their shoulders. After being around the kids for two weeks, I had gotten to know how their personality was and what type of things they liked to do. And food. Lewis and Troy would eat anything that I set in front of them. One out of the other two girls, stuck her tongue out but noticed that I was watching her immediately apologized. The two girls nearest to me said yay and changed the conversation.
It took them a few minutes to get into their lemonade but they were finished within five minutes. Soon, I heard their stomachs start to growl and start complaining about being hungry.
"Okay, let's get to know each other better," I sat down on the other end of the table, looking at Lewis. "What is your middle name Lewis?"
His cheeks started to gain a tinted pink and he looked down at the table. "Dale. Lewis Dale." He glanced around the table and looked at Troy. "What is your favourite toy to play with?"
This kids have no idea how to get secrets out of their friends.
"My hot wheel cars," the five year old answer.
And the questions went like that. They were all asking each other basic questions, Georgie asked my middle name question to Rose. Turns out her middle name was Iris, and then I felt sorry for her. At least her last name was not a flower.
After a few rounds, it was Georgie's turn again. "Ms. Scott," she used her innocent voice, "have you ever had a boyfriend, like a prince? A Charming to your Snow?" Being the oldest one out of the group, nine years old, she was the one that was most dream land. Imagining what it would be like when she grew older.
I nodded my head slowly and opened my mouth to ask somebody else a question, but she sat up straighter in her chair.
"Who? Do we know him? Or she? I do not have a preference," she quickly said.
"He does not live here, next question," before I could answer the question, grandma walked through the door with the groceries in her hand. "How about you guys go help my grandma with the groceries and maybe we can change what we are having for snack." That immediately sparked something and they ran out of their chairs and took the bags from grandma's arms, "Walk please, we do not need a repeat of what happened to Trevor."
Lewis stopped with a box of gummies in his hand, "Who is Trevor? What happened to him?"
"Exactly," I warned him.
His eyes got wide and told Georgie to walk when she almost ran him over.
Grandma walked over to me and put her hand on my shoulder, "How much money are you getting out of today for watching these five?"
"Well, I am getting paid fifteen dollars an hour, for eight hours, so that is a hundred and twenty dollars per kid, making it six hundred dollars today," I explained to her. "Do you know what their parents are doing? In the middle of summer? Are they going to work? That is eight hours without their kids."
She rolled her eyes at me, "You are getting paid six hundred dollars a day, for about two weeks straight, each with a different kid. That is six thousand in two weeks. And their parents work in Helena, which is about a hour and a half away. And this is the last week, cheer up." She bumped my shoulder with hers, "I would not be complaining if I were you. Just think how much you could buy. The plane tickets to take us to England!"
Rose and Georgie stopped putting the groceries on the counter and turned to face us. "One Direction is from England, did you meet them?"
Grandma turned to me, "Who is One Direction? Is that another boy band?" Both Rose and Georgie nodded their heads and grandma walked out of the kitchen and was going on about how the children of their generation is spending way too much money in entertainment.
"Okay," I said, clapping my hands together when I saw that Lewis had put the lost part of the groceries, "What do you want for snack?"
"Gummies!"
"Crackers and cheese!"
"Chex mex!" Mentally, my head changed it to chex mix. I could tell how that could be confusing. To some people to should rhyme, yet to others, it will always be mixed.
"Ice cream!"
The other five of us turned to look at Rose. Lewis is the first one to speak up, "We can't have ice cream for snack."
Rose put her hands on her hips, "Why not?"
"Because ice cream is for dessert," the other children told her.
I put my hands in the air, "Okay, what to you five want for lunch? Gummies or crackers? There are probably only nine to twelve gummies in the little pouches but there an infinite amount of crackers of cheese if you pick that."
Three out of five of them picked gummies (they liked sweets) and then the smart two out of the bunch wanted the crackers and cheese or chex mix. "I am going to split it up, and give you what you want, but you cannot complain if someone has more food than you."
They sat around the table, once again, Lewis sat at the end. I gave Rose, Georgie, and Veronica their gummies, telling them that they only get to have two bags. I gave Lewis is small bowl of 'chex mex' and Troy his plate of cheese and crackers.
"You have fifteen minutes to eat and converse," I put the boxes of chex mix, gummies, and the crackers in the pantry. "Grandma is going to watch over you guys while I go make a very important phone call, do not make a mess," I pointed a finger at Rose and Georgie, "If you do, then you will not get to participate in our next activity that involves painting with paint. And it may or may not be with brushes." I put my hands in the air and wiggled my fingers.
The girls giggled and covered their mouths with their hands and the boys rolled their eyes.
When grandma walked into the kitchen, I left her alone to deal with the children and walked into my bedroom. I shut the door behind me and turned on my computer. I quickly glanced up at my clock, it was barely ten in the morning, meaning it was seventeen hundred in England.
I quickly went to Skype and called Autumn and Max.
Over the summer, we decided that we would skype each other once a week or once every two weeks in case one of us was busy.
About a week after I had been back home, Max called me and straightened out the situation when Autumn called me mom. He had told me that she was confused but then he paused saying that other than his mom, I was kind of the other mother figure in her life. That line was very confusing for Autumn. The line between a friend of your father's and your actual mother.
I told him that Autumn thinking, or even her pretending was fine with me, I just did not want it to become a regular thing. It was too weird to thing about.
During our first Skype call, grandma and grandpa Nyle met both Max and Autumn. After the Skype call ended, I had a whole lecture on how I should be careful around Autumn. How I should not leave the little girl hanging when or if Max and I break up.
It was like having the same exact lecture be given to me for a fifth time.
"Hi, Loggie!" Autumn's face popped on the screen. She waved her hand at the screen. On her head was the hat she was wearing the first day I met her. The top of the owl hat was out of view, cut off by the top of the computer. I was able to see the orange beak and the bottom of the white eyeballs, the yellow bottom of the hat and the tails that were white and yellow that touched her chest. "How was your day?"
Her feet were not in her chair, she was practically leaning on the table that the computer was on. Her butt in the air.
"You might want to sit down before your dad walks in and sees that you are about to fall out of your chair," I called her out.
Her eyes widened as she sat down on her chair, properly. "How are the kids that you help out? Do I get to meet them?"
I shrugged my shoulders, "Maybe when they are done with their snacks. What have you been doing today?" I took notice that her cheeks and hands were covered in blue paint.
"Oh," she got off of her chair and walked off the screen and then came back carrying a mug in her hand. The mug looked store-bought, but Autumn had painted it. "Grandma let me paint the mug that I got so I painted it blue and put owl eyes and a beak on the front." She turned it around and showed me the front.
I had honestly thought it was going to be two white blobs and then an orange blob in the center, but it was actually the exact opposite. The eyes were a perfect circle with two black smaller circles towrds the top right of the white balls, like it was looking up. The orange beak was a perfect triangle.
"Grandma made the outline for the eyes and gave me really small paintbrushes so I did not make a mess," she explained to me. "Do you like it?"
"It is very beautiful, Autumn," I told her. She smiled brightly and put it down next to her on the computer table. "Did you do anything else today?"
She nodded her head, "Daddy took me to a huge ferris wheel near the huge river and let me take pictures on it with his phone. And he was shocked that I did not let the phone fall out of my hands once!" She chewed on her bottom lip.
When she was finished talking, Max walked into the room and peeked his head onto the screen. "Hey, Logan, how is the United States of America? Miss seeing Union Jacks every where? Getting tired of seeing the American flag?"
"Nope," I said, popping the P. "I missed seeing the American flag every where. Actually, grandma put a small little union jack flag behind the front door. I get just a taste of both everyday. Autumn told me that you two went to the London Eye, was it crowded?"
He nodded, "Can you remind the next time I want to go on the London Eye during the middle of summer, not to? I swear that line has half a mile long. But it went by fast. But it was also crowded."
I swiped my hand in the air, "Just right it on a sticky note and you will be good."
We bantered back and forth until grandma called me back to the kitchen when they finished their food.
"That is my cue to go," I waved good bye to Max and Autumn. "See you two next week."
"Bye Loggie," I heard Autumn call out when I ended to the call.
* * * *
Who's to say
What's impossible
Well they forgot
This world keeps spinning
And with each new day
I can feel a change in everything
And as the surface breaks reflections fade
But in some ways they remain the same
And as my mind begins to spread its wings
There's no stopping curiosity
Lewis and Rose were leaving dots of red and blue up each others arms when I turned my back on them to get more paint into the bowls. They would giggle every time I turned back around and scold them. "Your parents will not be happy with me if they saw the mess you are making right now."
They had to paint their favourite animal or animals if they could not pick one to paint. I got bunnies, tigers, lions, koalas, and pandas. The most weirdest one was the platypus, done by Troy.
In the background I was listening to my child play list, playing songs from Disney movies and just upbeat songs that did not have any inappropriate words in the lyrics. One of my favourite songs on the play list, or just in every day life, was the intro song in the movie Curious George.
I had heard it on the radio a couple of years ago, when I got out of the hospital and it just lifted up my spirits, letting my think about my dad watching the movie with me. I bought the song immediately off of Itunes when I got home. I needed to have happy things around me. Which is what brought the Disney play list on.
I want to turn the whole thing upside down
I'll find the things they say just can't be found
I'll share this love I find with everyone
We'll sing and dance to Mother Nature's songs
I don't want this feeling to go away
Georgie and Troy were the only two actually doing what they were suppose to do: not make a mess on the dining table and not paint your friends arms. But once they saw Lewis and Rose doing to it, they joined in. Veronica was kind of in her own little world, painting a manatee on her white paper.
"Veronica, would you like to take a break and watch Scooby-Doo? Or continue painting your manatee," I asked her when it was about thirty minutes before their parents come and pick them up, making it time to clean up.
She looked down at her painting with a pout, "It is a cat."
Shit.
"Oh, that is right," I looked at her picture and put it on the counter so it could dry, "I was just testing you to see if you knew what you were painting."
Lewis mumbled, "Liar." I glared at him.
"Scooby-Doo."
"Huh?" I asked her.
"I want to watch Scooby-Doo," Veronica explained to me.
Who's to say
I can't do everything
Well I can try
And as I roll along I begin to find
Things aren't always just what they seem
"Oh, go watch it while the others help me clean up. Do not forget to wash your hands," I told her.
"Why do we have to clean up? Veronica painted too, why doesn't she have to clean up," Rose complained to me.
I picked up their pictures and set each of them on the counter, "She did not paint her arms nor make a mess on the floor.' When the floor was brought up, each of them tilted their heads down to look at the floor. "Yeah, oops."
I want to turn the whole thing upside down
I'll find the things they say just can't be found
I'll share this love I find with everyone
We'll sing and dance to Mother Nature's songs
This world keeps spinning and there's no time to waste
Well it all keeps spinning spinning round and round and
I tossed each of them a towel, and told them to clean their arms first before they clean up anything else.
In under five minutes, I, meaning the kids and I, had the dininng table and the tiled floor looking spotless.
"Go join Veronica in Scooby-Doo," I told them, watching them fast walk and sit on the couch next to Veronica.
Upside down
Who's to say what's impossible and can't be found
I don't want this feeling to go away
When their parents showed up, I got paid, my six hundred for the day and I felt contempt. I was glad that I got to hang out with five children all day and then get paid for my help.
Please don't go away
Please don't go away
Please don't go away
Is this how it's supposed to be
Is this how it's supposed to be
As I watched their parents cars drive away, I thought about school and London and Oxford and family. I had to go back to England at the end of next month and get settled back into things. And when that year ends, come back here for three months and then go back.
That is a lot of traveling.
ONE CHAPTER LEFT
Tomorrow is my moms birthday so I may or may not update tomorrow. I am thinking about it, I really want to finish it this weekend and write the epilogue this week.
I kind if want to do a Q&A after the epilogue, so if you have any questions for me, leave them in the comments below and I will get to them in the Q&A. If there are not a lot of questions then I might not do one.
And it should be Chex Mex.
Please comment and vote.
Check out my other book Here or There.
Until next time...