My MIL kept licking the serving spoon and putting it back in our food
I entered Noah’s name, then paused over the start date. He hadn’t asked for any of this. I pictured him waiting for Grandma at pickup.
She obliged,
I submitted the inquiry.
***
The director called the next morning.
There was a place available, but pickup was at five-thirty. I arranged to visit before my shift and wrote the time on a piece of paper for Mark.
He read it twice.
“I’ll have to leave earlier.”
I submitted the inquiry.
“Can you?”
“My supervisor says I can switch on those two days. I’d have to start at six.”
I imagined the early alarm, the fee, Noah learning a new routine.
None of it was what I’d hoped for when I welcomed Diane.
“Are you willing to do that?” I asked.
“Can you?”
He nodded, slowly.
“Yes.”
***
I went to the daycare that morning.
I asked how they helped children settle and whether I could bring Noah before his first afternoon.
When I got home, he met me at the door with a cushion under each arm and sad eyes.
“Yes.”
“Grandma says the zoo’s closing.”
I knelt to help him put the cushions back. I could arrange visits with her.
I could not promise that nothing would change.
“We’ll build it again,” I told him.
***
On Friday, Mark showed me a furnished apartment listing. It was available from the end of Diane’s six weeks, on a short lease.
“Grandma says the zoo’s closing.”
He’d written the deposit and first month’s rent beside the daycare fees.
“She says she doesn’t want another temporary place.”
“Have you told her this is an option?”
“I said we’d look at it together.”
I studied the figures. Between helping her move and paying for childcare, we’d have to postpone the weekend away we’d been saving for.
“I said we’d look at it together.”
I’d been looking forward to having him to myself.
I hadn’t imagined spending that money to get our home back.
Mark tapped the listing.
“Could she stay until the tenant leaves?”
“Do you know when that is?”
“No.”
I hadn’t imagined spending that money to get our home back.
“Then that’s the same question again.”
He put the pen down.
“She’s going to say I promised.”
“Will you tell her what you told me? That you expected me to get used to it before you asked?”
He looked toward the hall.
“I’ll talk to her.”
He put the pen down.
***
On Saturday, my sister took Noah to the park.
Mark asked Diane to join us in the kitchen.
She barely glanced at the apartment.
“I don’t need that. I have a home here.”
“We agreed on six weeks,” I said. “This is available when those six weeks end.”
She looked at Mark.
My sister took Noah to the park.
“Are you really going to make me leave?”
He drew a breath, and I waited for him to look at me. To ask whether I could manage just a little longer.
“Mom, I told you that you could stay,” he said.
Diane nodded. “Exactly.”
“I shouldn’t have done that without asking Claire.”
“So now I’m supposed to pay for your mistake?”
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