Tara Quinn - A Child's Wish

“No.”

“Then what? Is it that she’s not your mom?”

“No!” The derision in the child’s tone put that one to rest.

Mark pulled onto the shoulder of the country road he’d chosen, put the car in Park. “Then what?”

His question garnered no response. Not even a shake of the head. But he had plenty of time to analyze the perfection of the ponytail his daughter was showing him.

“Why don’t you like her?” he asked again. He couldn’t deal with what he didn’t know.

“I do like her.”

Really? “Then why are you so quiet around her?”

The hardness in the eyes that turned to face him shocked Mark. He’d had no idea his daughter was capable of such strong negative emotion. “She treats me like I’m an alien from Mars.”

“No, she doesn’t,” he said, and then wished he’d bitten his tongue instead. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to discount your feelings.”

Kelsey showed no reaction other than to stare out the windshield at blacktop, gravel and emptiness.

“Susan’s not very good with kids,” Mark said. “But only because she’s never been around them and not because she doesn’t like them. She never had a chance to be a kid herself. But she likes you, Kelse. She wants to get to know you, to be your friend.”

“No, she doesn’t.”

Don’t argue perspective, his schooling taught him. It was a lose-lose approach. “Why do you think that?”

“I dunno.” Hard not to argue, when the opposing side gave illogical answers.

“You don’t have a problem with Ms. Foster—Meredith,” he said, in response to his daughter’s knowing glare. Meredith had been at their house the previous Thanksgiving for dinner, helping Susan with the meal. She’d granted the child the right to call her by her first name, since Kelsey had graduated from her class months before. As long as she could remember not to do it at school.

“So?” Kelsey said, sliding down in the seat as she crossed her arms over her chest. When had his precocious pal turned into a drama queen?

“She and Susan are best friends.”

“So?”

Well, he didn’t know. That was the point of this conversation. He thought. But obviously Kelsey didn’t think so. Until the past few months, they’d had no problem communicating. What had changed?

Not him. At least he didn’t think so.

“You never talk to Susan.” He tried a different approach, glancing at his watch. In fifteen minutes they were going to be late.

Good thing he was the boss. Because he was willing to miss the whole damn day if that was what it took to reach an understanding with Kelsey again.

“She never talks to me.”

This was getting more frustrating by the second.

“But you don’t wait for Meredith to talk to you.”

The child’s eloquent answer to that was a shrug.

He could make her clean her room. He could make her brush her teeth. He could make her do her homework. But he couldn’t make her share her confidences.

“What do you two talk about?” he asked, without much hope of enlightenment.

Kelsey sighed. “I’m growing up, Daddy. Girls have stuff.”

Stuff. Uh-huh. For the first time since his daughter’s birth, Mark felt completely incapable of caring for her.

“What kind of stuff?”

“You know,” she said, having a stare down with him. “Girl stuff.”

He almost choked. Did girls start that stuff at nine? He’d thought he had more time….

And then he caught the uncertainty in Kelsey’s innocent gaze. The child was out of her league.

At least they still had something in common.

“You don’t want to tell me.”

“Nope.”

“Is everything okay?”

She glanced over at him and then away. “Sure, why wouldn’t it be?”

He had no idea.

“Have you ever tried to talk to Susan about some of this ‘stuff’?”

Kelsey’s silence said far too much.

Watching her for another minute, thinking over everything he knew about child development and patterns of behavior, Mark figured it was best to cut his losses for the moment. He pulled back onto the road and drove the rest of the way to school in silence.

And the first thing he did when he arrived was phone Lucy’s mom to say that Kelsey wouldn’t be coming on Friday, after all. Then he called Susan and cancelled dinner that night. As always, she was understanding.

MEREDITH STOOD AT THE DOOR to her classroom, dressed in a red turtleneck sweater and a black cotton shift that featured a colorful shoe print. She’d opted for hose and pumps in honor of a new week, and her gold shoe earrings, necklace and charm bracelet completed the day’s ensemble. Smiling, looking forward to Monday morning, she welcomed each student as the kids slowly filed in, shouted greetings at classmates, put backpacks in lockers, took their seats or a place at one of the computers against the far wall or stopped to chat with a friend.

“Good morning, Erin. How was your weekend?” Meredith asked a tiny red-head who, though the smallest in the class, had proven to be one of the most rambunctious. If there was trouble, Erin usually found it.

Innocently, but completely.

“Boorrringgg,” Erin sang, knocking her backpack into Jeremy Larson as she passed on her way to her locker.

“Hey!” Jeremy shoved back.

“Hold it!” Meredith’s voice stopped all movement in the classroom. “Jeremy, what’s the first rule of this classroom?”

The boy turned red and looked down. Then he mumbled.

“Excuse me?” Meredith asked, aware of the eyes turned in her direction, but focusing only on the boy.

“Don’t hit.” He refused to look at her.

That wasn’t it, exactly. “And?”

“Don’t be mad.”

That wasn’t it, either, not exactly. But he was close.

“Do you think Erin bumped into you on purpose?”

Jeremy shifted from foot to foot, his chin tucked down on his chest. He was one of the kids who caused her the greatest concern. He had far too much pent-up anger. But she had no idea why. He came from a good family—lots of siblings, support, closeness. She’d taught an older sister and a brother of his, so far. Knew both of his parents well enough to be completely comfortable with them.

“I didn’t,” Erin blurted out, as Jeremy remained silent.

“Jeremy?” Meredith said again, smiling as another couple of students shuffled in, eyes wide at the silence so early on a Monday morning. “Do you think she did it on purpose?”

“No.”

“Good. Erin? Do you have anything to say?”

“I didn’t do it on purpose.”

Meredith bit back a smile. “You already said that. What else?”

“I’m sorry.” The boisterous little girl spoke so softly she could barely be heard. But because of the earliness of the day and because of the kids still coming in, Meredith chose to accept the apology, thin as it was. She watched long enough to see that the kids were separated by half the room and then turned back to the door.

“Macy! How long have you been standing there?”

Mark’s secretary, Macy Leonard, was one of Meredith’s heroes. Calm and unflappable, the plump fiftyish woman exuded good nature.

Usually.

“What’s wrong?” Meredith asked more softly, reaching the other woman’s side.

“You’ve been summoned.” Her voice was low, serious. Concern shadowed her soft blue eyes.

With a quick look up at the loudspeaker directly over her head Meredith said, “I didn’t hear anything.”

Macy shook her head, her short gray curls stiff with spray. “He sent me. I’m supposed to stay with the kids.”

Her chest tightened. “He wants me to come right now?” Before she’d called roll or set the kids to work?

Macy nodded.