She smiled, and a hint of electricity passed between us.
“Well, this all worked out quite nicely then!” she remarked.
“It really did. Can I bring her over at 7:30?”
She nodded.
“You can. I'll see you then.”
I beamed a warm smile at her.
“You’ll see me before then. I’m still going to cut this lawn of yours.”
***
“Janie, this is Vivienne,” I said, holding Jane's hand reassuringly as she half-hid behind my legs, looking out shyly at Vivienne. “She's gonna play with you for a bit while Daddy goes to work, okay?”
Jane motioned her little finger to get me to come down to her level like she wanted to tell me something. I complied. “Vivienne is pretty,” Jane said with a smile in a voice she thought was whispering, but wasn’t. I grinned, and Vivienne chuckled a little.
“Yes, sweet-pea, Vivienne is very pretty,” I halfway whispered back and glanced up at the woman standing in front of us.
“Looks like you two will be getting on famously,” I remarked with a smile. “Thanks again for doing this, Vivienne, you're a life saver.”
“It's lovely to meet you,” Vivienne said, squatting down and taking Jane's little hand in hers. “Do you like chocolate chip cookies?”
“Uh-huh,” replied Jane, still smiling shyly.
“Well, come on in. I've got some nice fresh ones we can eat. And do you like Frozen?” Vivienne added.
“Yes!” Jane’s eyes lit up.
“Well, I've got that too; we can watch it together,” Vivienne told her.
“Yay! Frozen!” Jane squealed.
“See, sweet-pea? I told you you'd have fun with Vivienne. Alright, Daddy's gotta go to work now. I'll see you later.”
I turned to Vivienne, handing her the small piece of paper I’d written my cell phone number on and a Ziploc bag with Jane’s asthma medication in it. “Thanks again for helping out. Here’s my number if you need to get in touch with me and, of course, her inhaler. I guess I'll see you around 10.”
“Not a problem. And I'll call you if there are any problems. Have a good meeting, Everett.”
“See ya later, Vivienne.”
I watched her as she led Jane inside the house. Jane was already comfortable with her, which was unusual. She typically took a lot longer to warm up to people she didn't know. I guess her experience working with the kids at her daycare probably didn't hurt things.
I got into my truck and was at the school a matter of minutes later. It was close enough for a walk, and I would have, as it was a
nice night for a walk, but I preferred to have my vehicle with me just in case anything happened with Jane. Since she was asthmatic, I wanted to be able to get to her side as quickly as possible if she had an attack.
I walked into the school, surveying the grounds. I'd been here before, of course, but I'd been in a hurry and had been focused on getting my interview done, so I hadn't had much time to really look around. Now that I wasn't distracted with an interview, I could take in the surroundings.
It was a nice school, very modern looking, and the facilities were all high-tech and very new; so very, very different from the inner-city school I'd just come from working in. They had told me, though, that the drug situation was bad here. I couldn't imagine it being anything like the problems I'd encountered when working in the inner-city school, but hey, life was always full of surprises, and things could be very different to how they appeared on the surface.
I headed into my new office where the deputy principal, Ben Trower, and three of the senior teachers were waiting for me. They all stood up as I entered the room and took the time to shake each of their hands and briefly make introductions. Ben, however, I already knew, so I gave him a polite nod and then sat down at my desk.
It was hard not to feel like a bit of a kid here; at 32 I was 16 years younger than Ben, who was the next youngest in the room. Everyone else was in their 50s and 60s. Still, I wasn't intimidated by any means; I knew how to do this job, and I knew how to do it well.
“Alright people, let's get down to business. I think I know what's at the top of the agenda here. Rocket. Am I right?”