Chapter Twelve

Diagnosed with Love:

Chapter 12

I sat on my bed, tapping my pen as Patience rolled the ball against the wall. I listened to the smacking as I flipped through channels, trying to catch something good. No luck. It was Friday night and I had no plans. It was perfectly fine with me that I had no plans on a Friday night, really. I had finally come to the conclusion that Cas was not allowed having phone privileges… and I wouldn’t dare call to find out. Patience couldn’t talk right enough for me to use her and make her call for me. Finally, giving up on the TV, I sat my pen on my pad of paper, picked up the remote, and shut the TV off. As I scooted to the edge of the bed, I stood up halfway and leaned back on the bed backwards, holding myself up with my arms. I often did this to stretch. Finishing up, I stood on my feet.

“Wanna go for a walk, pumpkin?” I asked, turning to Patience.

“Otay.” She picked up her ball and neatly placed it inside my closet, then grabbed her jacket and walked over to me. I helped her into her jacket and headed downstairs. Patience walked over to my bed, grabbed my keys, and followed me.

“Mom, going for a walk!” I called to my mother.

“Alright,” she called back to me, then continued on her phone call.

I opened the door, and Patience and I took off walking outside. She grabbed hold of my pants leg and gripped it as we walked. I’ve always done my best thinking when I was walking the streets of Miami- it always cleared my head. I kept walking as we headed into downtown, where big buses passed with ads across them. Cars sped by and I grabbed Patience’s hand in mine, just to be safe. We walked around for hours, not really finding anything to my liking. I was starting to get frustrated. Patience had stopped in front of a toy store window, looking at all the different toys and pointing.

“Wook!” she shouted, and I laughed at her.

“I see pumpkin.” I kneeled down beside her as a man and a woman stopped near us.

“If they find out that we’ve been stealing from the budget, we’ll be fired and put into jail for sure!” the man was trying to whisper. I had already turned my tape recorder on a little while after we had left the house. A journalist was nothing but a story teller who you didn’t know if you should believe without hard evidence. I listened some more to the familiar voices.

“No one’s going to find out. Who’s going to tell them? The little brats don’t even know what money is, let alone funds,” said the woman, now speaking.

“What if another one of the teachers finds out? What if one of the kids without health insurance gets sick? How are we going to pay for the doctor visits?” the man asked. I was getting even more disgusted each time one of them spoke.

“Man up!” she shouted, then looked around and lowered her voice. “We’ll cover it all up. When kids get sick, their parents just come pick them up and take them home. It’s never anything serious.” They weren’t looking at each other, instead speaking towards the window. They looked as if they were trying to hide that they were speaking to each other. They weren’t at the same window as Patience and me. There was the toy store door that split the two windows. Suddenly, startling me, Patience started screaming.

“Dora! Dora! Sar, it Dora!” She started jumping up and down. “Me want!” Finally relaxing, I laughed as I grabbed her hand and led her inside the store. I was about to go broke.

“Star, Patience,” said the woman, expecting me to stop, which I did. I grabbed Patience’s hand, pulling her back to me.

“Hold on a minute, pumpkin.” I looked over in the direction of the man and the woman. “I missed you when I picked up Patience today.” I walked over to them, Patience’s hand in mine.

“I had some things to do. The assistant teacher wasn’t there?” she asked.

As I glanced over at the man standing beside her, I saw fear in his eyes. His hands were slowly opening and closing. I had seen him come and leave with her at the daycare. He looked younger than her by quite a bit.

“She was there,” I said, looking at her again. I noticed that Patience had gotten quiet. “I just needed to speak with the head teacher, if you know what I mean,” I said.

“Of course- but I’m a little bit busy right now. We could schedule an appointment- how does tomorrow afternoon sound?”

“Sounds good.”

She finally looked over at Patience for the first time. “Hello, Patience dear.”

Patience gripped my hand tighter, and I picked her up. “Awww, what’s the matter, sweetie? Say hi to your teacher.” She buried her head in between my shoulder and my neck.

“Sorry about that, she’s really sleepy. See you tomorrow.” I turned and headed into the toy store, her holding around my neck like she wanted to strangle me. I moved my neck around a bit to get loose and try to breathe. “We’re gonna get you Dora, don’t worry,” I managed. “You were such a good girl while I was talking to your teacher.” I grabbed a cart and put her in the front seat, moving her bangs out of her face. “What’s wrong? You were just so happy a moment ago. You weren’t happy to see your teacher?”

She violently shook her head, “No!” And so began my suspicion that continued alongside thoughts of the other day. What kind of daycare were they running? What the hell were they doing or telling to my baby sister? I know a lot of kids at my school who have siblings that go to Higher Peaks. If they only knew what was going on…