Valerie Hansen - Love one Another

“Boy, not me,” he countered. “I don’t envy you your job one bit. Give me a reasonable teen any time.”

“There is no such thing as a reasonable teen,” Tina argued amiably. “Believe me, I know.”

“That sounds like the voice of experience. We’ll have to compare notes sometime. Maybe I can give you a few pointers and you can do the same for me.”

“I’ll be glad to help you and Justin in any way I can. See you tomorrow, then. Bye.”

Curiosity filled Mavis’s expression as Tina hung up the phone. “I thought your specialty was little tykes. You never mentioned that you’d worked with teenagers.”

“I haven’t.” Tina busied herself straightening piles of paper on the desk rather than continue to meet her boss’s inquisitive gaze. She’d slipped again. That was twice in one day, which was two times too many. “I was just making polite conversation.”

“Oh.” The older woman reached out and stilled Tina’s fluttering hands. “If you don’t stop rearranging my papers, I won’t be able to find a thing. Go on home. I’ll lock up.”

“You’re sure?” Tina was eager to leave, to be alone where she could sort out her thoughts and gain better control of her tongue.

“I’m positive.” With a motherly smile, Mavis looked her up and down. “You deserve a break. You’ve either had a particularly rough day or a truck full of raw eggs crashed into you while I was busy in the other room.”

Tina laughed lightly. “The yellow spots are from finger paint, not egg yolk. Tommy got mad at Sissy, and the rest is history. I was kind of caught in the middle.” Recalling the funny incident, she shook her head. “To make matters worse, it happened exactly when Zac decided to drop in to look the place over.”

Mavis’s left eyebrow arched. “Zac?”

“I meant Mr. Frazier,” Tina said, blushing.

All her boss said was “Of course you did.”

Justin Frazier was a miniature version of his daddy. The minute she saw the lonely little boy, clinging tightly to his father’s hand, Tina’s heart belonged to him.

She made sure all the other children had their cookies and milk, then approached father and son. “Hello, Justin. My name is Miss Tina. I have an extra cookie that really wants to be eaten. Do you suppose you could help me with that?”

He buried his face against his father’s pant leg.

“Okay,” Tina said casually. “I guess I can give it to one of the other boys if you don’t want it. That wouldn’t be really fair, though. They’ve already had theirs. I saved this cookie specially for you.”

Justin rolled his head just far enough to reveal one dark eye, and peeked out at her.

“It’s chocolate chip. Of course, if you don’t like that kind…”

One pudgy hand reached out. Tina quickly handed him the cookie and turned to rejoin the class, subtly motioning Zac to follow. “How about a carton of milk to go with that?”

Without looking back, she proceeded to get the milk, insert a straw and set the carton at an empty place at the low table as if she fully expected Justin to agree to sit there. “Here you go. Nice and cold.”

For a moment it looked as if he was going to continue to hang on to Zac in spite of Tina’s assured manner. At the last second he let go and slid into the scaled-down plastic chair. None of the other children said a word. They were all too busy studying the new arrival and his daddy.

Across the table, little blond Emily began to giggle, when Justin bit into his cookie and half of it crumbled and fell on the floor. Tina was about to offer him another, when she saw Tommy McArthur carefully break his own cookie in half and lean closer to hand the piece to Justin. She was too far away to hear what the boy said, but she figured it had to be funny because Zac had his lips pressed tightly together and was struggling not to laugh.

To her relief, Justin accepted the gift and whispered something back to Tommy before stuffing the whole half of the cookie into his mouth at once.

Zac stepped back quietly. As soon as he was far enough away, Tina joined him. “What did Tommy say?” she asked.

Shaking his head for a moment to compose himself, he said, “I think my son just took his first bribe. He promised Tommy he’d see that I didn’t dunk him in any paint.”

“No wonder you looked like you were about to burst!”

“I was surprised he even remembered me. I told you I didn’t understand little kids.”

“Hey, don’t worry about it. Nobody really does. They don’t even understand themselves.”

“You sure seem to know how to handle them, though. I was worried Justin would pitch a fit when I tried to let go of him. It was amazing he didn’t.”

“I think sometimes we underestimate the adaptability of children. All I did was act like sitting at the table with the others was the most natural choice for him to make, and he made it. It’s that simple.”

“For you, maybe. When I told him he was going to day care this morning, he threw a terrible tantrum. It’s a wonder the folks at the motel didn’t hear him and call the police.”

“Have you found a house, yet?” Tina asked, keeping watch on the children as she talked.

“No. And I’m getting pretty frustrated.”

“Well, as long as you don’t throw a tantrum…”

“Very funny. Although I did feel like it yesterday when we drove seven miles out of town to look at a place and found out it was already rented.”

“In a close-knit area like Serenity, most of the best places never get advertised. People just hear they’re going to be for rent or for sale, and tell their friends.”

“Terrific.”

“It has its advantages. For instance, I happen to know that the house two doors north of me is going to be vacant soon. It’s in a nice neighborhood and only about a quarter-mile from the high school. Would you be interested?”

“Interested? At this point I’d practically kill for a decent place to live.”

Tina laughed. “I don’t think you’ll have to do anything quite that drastic. I’ll talk to the folks who are moving as soon as I get home tonight and find out all the details for you. Hopefully, there won’t be too long a wait.”

“You’d go to all that trouble for me? Why?”

Looking up into his eyes, she saw how much her kindness had affected him. This was a man who apparently wasn’t used to experiencing the honestly offered concern of strangers. Or accepting their help. He was never going to fit in around here if somebody didn’t set him straight. Tina immediately decided it was her duty to be that person.

“In small communities like this one, Mr. Frazier, folks help each other all the time. It’s how we are. We don’t need specific reasons to look out for one another. We just do it. A lot of us behave that way because Christians are supposed to, but we aren’t the only ones who show kindness. Pretty much everybody does. It’s one of the blessings of living here.”

“I see.”

Tina decided to press ahead. “Do you have a church home? If not, you can’t beat the one I go to,” she said enthusiastically. “We’d love to have you visit this Sunday. At nine-thirty I teach a Sunday School class of children Justin’s age. He should be comfortable enough with me by then to enjoy it. Regular church starts at eleven.”

“We’ll see.” He glanced at Justin. “I guess I might as well try to get out of here. I do have a lot to do.”

Tina scanned the table where her charges sat. “I think you’re wise to leave him with us right away, instead of getting him used to having you stick around. He’ll be fine. Just go over and tell him goodbye as if you’ve done it that way a thousand times. I’ll take care of the rest.”

“What if he cries?”