Chapter II: Over My Head

“I still don’t think this is a very good idea, Shaydi,” Ash murmured as she held on to Mia for dear life. “I mean, I am the only person who’s ever watched her and Josh. What if she doesn’t take well to the new babysitter? Better yet, what if the new babysitter doesn’t take well them? At least with your babes under my supervision, you’d never have to worry about them being smelly, hungry, or sleepy when you come home!”

“Oh, Ash,” I sighed and I continued to rummage through my purse. I had a terrible tendency of losing my keys, “Mia and Josh will be just fine; and why do you keep saying ‘the new babysitter’? This is temporary. It’s only for today. You wanted to go to my appointment with me, right?”

“Right, but-”

“But,’ nothing,” I pressed, “We can’t bring them with us. There is no way in hell that Mimi or Joshy-Poo are going to want to sit still for up to two hours, in a doctors’ office where there are no toys, what-so-ever. They’re better off here, Ash. Trust me on this one. In the mean time, put her down and help me look for my keys!”

Reluctantly, Ash complied. “Sometimes-” she sighed as she placed Mia down on the floor, “I don’t understand your mother.” She then squatted down front of Mia and let out another sigh, “You know, Mi, aside from your mommy, I’m the only one that’s ever wiped that little bum of yours? Your mother is taking this privilege away from me and giving it to a complete stranger!”

“Ash!” I groaned.

“See, that’s her guilty conscience speaking.” Ash planted a kiss on Mia’s head before ruffling her hair, “I wish there was some way I could change her mind, but, she’s a very stubborn woman. Of course, I am sure that you already know this. Now, go on. Go play with ‘Joshy-Poo.’”

“Oh shut up,” I muttered. She always made fun of me for referring to Josh by my nickname for him.

To my surprise, Mia was able to join Josh at the block table without him throwing a fit.

Joshua David Buckley was Mia’s younger brother, who was very territorial and followed the, “Toddler’s Creed,” to a “T.”

“Well look a’ here!” Ash gasped, “What is this? Mia and Josh playing together in perfect harmony?” She strolled over to the kitchen counter and began looking through piles and piles of paper, trying to find any sign of my keys.

“Don’t jinx it! Please! Don’t jinx it!”

I adopted Josh during a very critical time in my life. It was exactly one week after I quick my job and two weeks after my miscarriage. By adopting Josh, I thought all of my worries would go away. I figured that taking care of him and Mia would give me something to do, since I was no longer working, but more importantly, I thought he would fill the void in my life that was caused by the loss of my precious baby. Quite naturally, I was wrong. Now, don’t get me wrong, I love Josh, and I love Mia; and I most definitely loved spending time with them, but it wasn’t always rainbows and butterflies; which is part of the reason I never gave Ash the boot. When Josh came home, I wasn’t thinking about what life would be like once he became a toddler. I was just concerned with doing everything I could to provide for the underweight newborn in my arms. Now, a year and a half later, reality was biting me in the ass, and I didn’t like it, one bit!

Mia and Josh didn’t get along, at all! All they did was fight! If they weren’t fighting, they were competing for my attention. If they weren’t competing for my attention, they were competing for Ash’s attention. It was, indeed, a very tiring process!

“Noooooooooo!” Mia screeched all of a sudden.

Ash and I immediately focused our attention to the kids.

“Dang it, Ash! You jinxed it!”

“Sorry!”

Mia was helplessly trying to defend the only block her brother allowed her to play with. “No, Josh! No!” she wailed as she backed away from the block table.

Josh didn’t like this and began screaming at the top of his lungs as he ‘charged’ at Mia. His idea of charging consists of flinging his entire body in the direction of his opponent. He already knows that they won’t be able to escape his wrath.

“Mommy!” Mia wailed as she and Josh crashed to the floor.

Ash and I were already at the scene, desperately trying to break up the scuffle, but Josh wasn’t having it! They boy was not as weak as he appeared. He had locks of Mia’s black hair in both of his hand, so trying to pulling him off of Mia, without hurting her, wasn’t going to be easy.

“Mommy!” Mia cried as Josh pulled her hair.

“I’m trying baby! I’m trying!” I cried as Ash and I both tried to pry Josh’s fingers from around Mia’s curls. Unfortunately, his grip only seemed to tighten.

Now, in any other given situation, I would have just asked Mia to give Josh the block, but usually, Josh also “let” her have at least half of the blocks. Today was a different story. Josh claimed the other blocks as his and only allowed Mia to play with the one that he was now trying to get back from her; so of course, I didn’t think it would be fair to make Mia give him the block, “Joshua David Buckley, let go of your sister’s hair, right now!”

“No!” Josh screeched.

Now, I didn’t take lightly to Josh or Mia telling me, ‘no,’ but now was not the time to give Josh a lecture about how ‘no’ was not an acceptable answer.

“Josh, buddy! How about you and me go for a little ride in the stroller? You like going on rides in the stroller!” Ash suggested as she continued to try and pry Josh’s finger from around Mia’s black tresses.

“Noooooooooooo! Josh, want, block! Now!” the little tyrant screeched. He sort of reminded me of the Hulk when he was angry. All the little vessels in his little head were quite visible and he often paused between his words, “Give, me, block, Miiiiiiiiiiaaaaa!”

“No!” Mia snapped.

This time, Josh pulled Mia’s hair with such force that even I wanted to cry when I saw the look of agony on her face, but Mia didn’t cry. No, that little girl was a fighter. Instead, she waited until Josh opened his mouth, ready to sink his fangs into her check (that’s right, I had a biter on my hands) and… SMACK! She slammed her fist (that held the block) into Josh’s nose, as hard as she possible could.

Instantly, all was quiet.

Josh released his grip on Mia’s curls, allowing for me to pull him off of her, “You know, young man, I am getting fed up with you bullying your sister!”

He didn’t screech, fuss of anything when I said that. Instead, he grabbed his nose and buried his face into my shoulder.

“Oh, Josh, what on Earth am I going to do with you? Mia? Are you all right?”

“Yes, Mommy,” Mia answered as she stood up and brushed off her dressed. Now that she had nothing to fear, with Josh sobbing silently into my shirt, she could play with as many of the blocks as she wanted until her little heart was content.

“Hey, Shaydi,” Ash called out.

“Yeah?”

“Nora just sent me a text. She told me to tell you that she’s not a mechanic or anything, but it isn’t a wise decision to leave your truck in idle.”

Nora? How does Nora – Oh crap.

“Shaydi, you know what that means, right?”

I could hear the amusement in Ash’s voice, “Shut up, Ash! Just shut up!”

My keys had been in the truck with Nora the whole time.

~ *** ~

“I still can’t believe the babysitter hasn’t showed up yet!”

“I still can’t believe you entrusted your children with Jackson!” Ash screeched.

Jackson was Ash’s twin brother who’s been trying to seduce me since he was a mere freshman in high school. “He’s a nice guy,” I lied. Well, I didn’t really lie. Jackson wasn’t a mean person, he was just a perv.

Ash rolled her eyes then looked out of the window, “Shaydi, you don’t need to lie to me. I live with him. I shared a womb with him. Hell, I’ve even had to share a room with him. I know how he is. I’ve had the unfortunate experience of knowing him my whole life.”

“Ouch,” Nora giggled.

“The truth hurts,” Ash sighed. She then focused her attention to me, “I just want to know what on Earth would provoke you to leave your most valuable possessions in the care of Jackson Eleazar Blackwell?!”

“Eleazar? Whoa. That name is like, ancient,” Nora piped up from the back.

“Yeah, I know,” Ash mumbled.

“Wait until you hear her middle name,” I snickered.

“What is it?” Nora inquired.

Ash turned around and looked at Nora, “Not Eleazar. I’ll tell you that much.”

“Ooh touché!”

Ash rolled her eyes then looked over at me, “So, are you going to answer me, or not?”

“Well, Henrietta-”

Nora immediately cracked up laughing, “Your middle name is Henrietta?! Oh, man! I thought it was something like Agnes or Agatha, but Henrietta? That is waaaaaaaaay worse!”

“Shut up!” Ash snapped. She then folded her arms across her chest and kept her eyes fixated on the windshield.

“Ashleigh Henrietta Blackwell,” Nora mused, “How old were your parents when they had you?”

“Oh, shut up, Nora! Like your middle name is any better!”

“Lenora Anne-Marie Watson, it fits, if you ask me,” Nora beamed.

“Anne-Marie is old fashioned, too!”

“But, it’s not ugly!”

Ash gave me a menacing glare, “I am going to kill you later! ANYWAYS, why did you leave Mia and Josh with Jackson? And don’t change the topic this time!”

“Okay! Okay!” I cried as I stopped at the red light, “I left the kids with Jackson because-” Dear God, why did I leave my kids with him? “I left my kids with Jackson because, well, I sort of trust him.”

“You sort of trust him?” Nora gawked, “Do mothers usually leave their children with people they ‘sort of’ trust?”

“You’re not making me feel any better about the situation, Nora!”

“Sorry, I’m just saying!”

“What else was I suppose to do?! Angel is at work, and God knows that if he wasn’t working, I would have left the kids with him!”

“You could have brought them with us!”

“Thank you!” Ash exclaimed.

“No, I couldn’t have!”

“Why not? Do you go to one of those doctors that don’t want children in the office?”

“No, but-”

“Then why couldn’t they tag along? If it was because you didn’t want to put up with them, Henrietta and I could have kept them entertained.”

“Exact- HEY!”

“I’m kidding! I’m kidding!” Nora laughed, “But seriously Shaydi, I don’t understand you sometimes. You claim that you love your children, but you always put them in awkward situations.” How could she say something like that? I’ve never done anything to jeopardize the safety, or well being, or my children!

“No I don’t!”

“Yeah, you really do,” Ash chimed in.

“Name one ‘awkward’ situation, besides the whole Jackson and babysitter thing, that I have put my children in! You guys are trying to make a mountain out of an ant hill! It isn’t even that serious!”

“It is so ‘that serious!’ Shayda, you quit your job when it was just you and Mia. Then, you had the nerve to adopt another baby when you barely had the funds to take care of Mia!” Mia shot back, “What the hell is wrong with you?”     

I was waiting for Ash to jump in and defend me, but she didn’t say a word.

“Look, Nora,” I finally brought myself to say, “You have absolutely no idea what you’re talking about!”

“Yes I do.”

“No, you don’t! See, that, that, right there, is your problem, Nora! You think you know everything, when really, you know nothing at all! My advice to you would be to just sit back there and shut the fuck up!” I hissed.

I heard a small gasp escape from Nora, but she didn’t protest. “Well, fine. If that’s the way you feel, I won’t say anything else,” she mumbled.

“Good!”

“Okay.”

~ *** ~



After I found a decent parking spot, I looked through my rearview mirror, “Are you still sore?”

Nora wiped a few of the tears from her cheeks before shrugging her shoulders.

“Oh, you’ll be all right! Come on. Let’s get inside.”

She shook her head softly.

“You don’t want to go in?”

Nora shook her head once again.

“Okay, then. Suit yourself. Come on, Ash. Let’s go. I’m already running a little behind.”

“Actually-”

Oh, you have got to be kidding me! “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing, I just think that I’m going to stay in here, with Nora.”

“Why?”

“I don’t know, it just seems like the right thing to do. She looks as if she could use a friend right about now,” Ash replied with a small smile. I grimaced, and the smile on her face quickly vanished, “Shayda, don’t be mad.”

“I’m not mad.” No, I was beyond mad. I was pissed. “I just think that it is utterly ridiculous that you both came with me, but now neither one of you want to go in. I mean, I left my kids with Jackson-”

“Which, was your mistake. Not mine.”

I didn’t want to blow up at Ash, so I did the next best thing. I merely got out of my truck and slammed this door. This time, I knew were my keys were. As much of a “bitch” as I may seem, I wasn’t getting ready to let the two women in my car die of a heat stroke.

Once I made it to the entrance of the hospital, I looked up at the symbol above the door. There I was, all alone; no one by my side to face my bitchy doctor with me.

“Oh well, here goes nothing.”

~ *** ~

When I got home from my appointment that night, I wasn’t very pleased with what I found. Not only was my door wide open, but my two toddlers were sitting just inches away from the entrance, screaming their heads off.

“Mommy, food!” Jackson begged as he grabbed onto my leg, “Food!”

Not only were my kids hungry…

And smelly…

They were both exhausted!

After tucking both of my precious gems in, I went into the living room and picked up the phone.

“Hello?”

“Ash? Put Jackson on the phone.”

“Well, hello to you too. Are you still mad?”

“Yes, I’m still mad, but right now, it has nothing to do with you and Nora! I need to speak to Jackson, now!”

“Okay! Okay! Hold on! Hold on!”

A few minutes later, a new voice sounded on the line, “Hello?”

“Jackson?”

“Yes?”

“It’s me, Shayda.”

“Yeah, I know. What’s up babe?”

Babe? Ha! He had some nerve! How dare he call me ‘babe’ after the way he neglected my children,“Oh, you, my friend have a lot of nerve!”

“W-w-what? What did I do?”

“You know what you did!” I screamed, “Your ass is dead, Jackson! Do you hear me?! D-E-A-D! Dead!”

“W-w-what?! Shayda! What did I do?!”

“You know what you did! Stop trying to play dumb!”

“I’m not playing!” For once, he was telling the truth. “Seriously, babe! Talk to me!”

“I’m not your babe! Stop calling me that! Ha, and to think, I  defended you when Ash was telling me what a terrible mistake I made by leaving my children in your clutches!”

“Shayda, wait! I can explain!”

“There’s nothing to explain!” I snapped. How on Earth did he have the audacity to try to reason with me? “Tomorrow, you are a dead man, Jackson Blackwell! Mark my word! Tomorrow, your ass, is grass!”