2     another day in paradise

I wake up to the familiar sound of pop music coming out of my clock. My ears catch at the song… ONE DIRECTION. I cringe. I roll over and smash the top, silencing it. I blink up at the ceiling. My heart perks at the fact it’s Friday and Saturday is only a few hours away.

I sit up straight. I throw my legs over the side of the bed. I see that there’s a note stuck to my dresser. With a wrinkle in between my brows I walk over to investigate.

I pick up the yellow sticky note and read Ms. Gallows neat handwriting.

It goes something like,

“Dear Lena,

Mr. Gallows will be stopping by this late afternoon. Remind the kids that he’s coming and try to keep them from going home with him... I know they’ll want to spend some time with their dad. Oh and would you be a dear and bathe the dog?”

I sigh.

I have to give the Saint Bernard Monster a bath.

Great.

I set the note back on my dresser. I catch a glimpse of my brown locks in the mirror. With a shrug I decide that they really aren’t worth messing with. So instead I just walk to my small bathroom.

After I’ve brushed my teeth and put on my slippers I walk outside. It’s very pretty outside. The birds are singing, the fish are swimming in the fountain, and the roses are in full bloom. The gardeners have done an excellent job so far this summer, indeed.

I walk up the back patio and open the French doors. I glance back at my cottage once before closing myself inside the Gallows Mansion.

“Hello lovely.”

“AHH!” I shout.

I turn around and press myself against the door. A few feet away at the kitchen counter is Ryan. He’s looking as creepy as always, his long curls sticking to his orange juice covered lips. I still have no idea why this boy’s parents don’t have him at home more often. As much as he’s here I should be getting paid for attendance of four children.

“How did you get in here?” I ask. My heart is starting to beat at a normal pace again.

His thin shoulders shrug. “I have my ways.”

“Okay, that’s lovely. But now could you make your way out? And stay out?”

Ryan shakes his head no. Then he slides from his seat and makes his way to the entry, sauntering like he owns the place. He turns to me in his fuzzy socks. He winks and puckers his lips. “See ya when I see ya baby,” Ryan tells me.

I blink.

Well that was weird.

But somehow it still doesn’t surprise me.

This was just another day in the fabulous life of Nanny Lena Opal Edwards

In my pajama trousers and thin spaghetti tank top I paddle over to the fridge. I know the kids will all be awake by eight, so I have about ten minutes to make breakfast. And I’m tired. So instead of something fancy I just get out everyone’s favorite bowls. The deep purple one for Abigail, plastic lion one in honor of Cade, and Benjamin liked the big soup bowl and a serving ladle to go with it. And I assumed Ryan would be joining us, so I took out a green stout dish just for the lad.

I take out the cereal dispensers and two glass pitchers of fancy milk. Then I take the rest of the strawberries and throw them in a bowl. I sprinkle some sugar on top and then call it a day.

Voila! Breakfast is served.

And cue the munchkins.

“STOP IT!”

“Don’t touch me!”

“Why is Ryan here?”

“I told you to stop touching me, BEN!”

“I don’t like Ryan!”

“WELL I DON’T LIKE YOU!”

The herd wanders into the kitchen. Ben is pulling at his sister’s long braid, tugging her backwards. Ryan is getting a death glare from Cade. The four year-old is looking rather sleepy in his monkey pajamas. His hair is sticking up in every direction.

“Why is he here?” Cade asks me.

“I have no idea,” I say honestly. “He just shows up.”

“You know you love it, sugar lips.”

Everyone makes a disgusted reaction to this.

“That’s nasty,” Abigail says. She walks over to the counter to fill her cereal bowl. She chooses Cheerios like always.

“Yeah let’s not hit on nannies,” I say with a shake of my finger. “I’m too old for you.”

Ryan leans up against the wall. “I’m very mature for my age, you know.”

I walk over to him in a few strides. I shove the bowl at his chest, leaning down to reach him. “Eat your grub and shut your trap.”

Ryan looks up at me with a weird grin. “Feisty, I like it.”

Ben takes his friend by the arm to get breakfast. I roll my eyes before helping Cade get his Peanut Butter Crunches into the bowl. He watches me pour the milk while pressing his stuffed elephant’s trunk to his chest.

“STOP!” He tells me when the milk is where he wants it.

“Take a chill pill buddy,” I say back. “I’m not your waitress,-”

“You’re our friend,” All of the kids interrupt me.

I blink.

Abigail rolls her eyes. “You say it all the time, Lena. We know it by heart.”

“So what? At least you guys aren’t spoiled brats,” I answer. “It’s all because of Lena.”

Ben fills his ladle with milk. Then in one swift move he throws it at Ryan. He gasps dramatically.

“Well… except for him,” I say.

Then the boys start to chase each other around the house. I cringe at the sound of a crash.

“GO OUTSIDE!” I holler at the top of my lungs.

They run back by me and out the back door. Still wearing pajamas, by the way.

“Can we go to the park?” Cade asks me. His eyes are wide and hopeful.

I shake my head. “Not today, amigo. Papa is coming.”

“I don’t wanna see daddy.”

I bite my bottom lip and say, “Well I’m sorry. But he’s coming later today. And I want all of you to be good little angels.”

Cade glares at me. “No.”

I give him a glare right back. “What did you just say to me?” I ask bitterly.

“I… Say… NO!” He shouts. Then in an act of rebellion he throws his toy elephant at me. Then without any help he slides from the counter and runs out of the room screaming, “PARK! PARK!” over and over again.

I’m just about to say something when I hear someone scream outside.

A gardener named Phil storms in from the backyard. He’s covered in dirt and fuming mad. Abigail ducks her head into her cereal bowl at the sight of the grumpy old lass.

“Get those damn boys under control,” He shouts at me. Then he points to the yard. “Do your job so I can do mine!”

I give him a calm shrug. “Sorry,” I say. “But my job description doesn’t include catering to grouchy old menfolk.”

Abigail chokes on her milk with giggles.

I smirk proudly. While Phil stares at me I put a pot of water on the stovetop. “Want some?” I ask sweetly.

“Damn kids,” is his mumbled response.

He slams the French doors and I holler sarcastically, “Have a nice day sir!”

I look at the pretty girl sitting across the counter. “Your brothers are driving me bonkers,” I tell her exasperatedly.

“That’s kind of their specialty.”

“Aren’t you excited for when you get to watch them in a few years?” I ask jokingly.

Abigail grins. “Mum said that’s never happening. She said that you’re the only one alive that can tame us.”

“That’s true,” I say with a sigh. “I’m just so dang good at this job.”

The phone starts to ring. I look at Abigail at the same time she looks at me.

“NOSE GOES!” We both shout. My finger fails at reaches my nose after hers, automatically making me the phone answerer.

“Darn,” I say.

I really hate phones.

And talking on phones.

And texting on them.

Honestly I would much rather have a nice tea and a face to face chat.

I skip over to the vintage wall phone and pick up the receiver. “Hello?” I say. Wait- aren’t you supposed to talk loud into a phone? Or are you supposed to whisper? Oh heck if I know.

“Lena?”

“Hadley!” I say happily. “What’s going on?”

“Oh you know… another day in paradise,” my nanny friend giggles. “I was just checking to see if you were still coming home this weekend. I know Abby’s birthday is Monday and I wasn’t sure if they needed you to stay…?”

“Nope,” I say with a shake of my head. Oh she can’t see me… haha. “I’ll be over there tonight.” I say of the small flat we share. On the weekends it’s where we retreat to. She comes home from the Watson’s house of two munchkins and I escape the Gallows’ house of three.

“Cool! Hey, what ARE they doing for her big 13? Another exhausting bash?”

I shrug.

Oops.

“Oh just something small this year I think. Abigail hasn’t really talked about it much. I think that’s what her dad’s coming over to talk about,” I tell her. The ex-mister finally agreed to be a part of something besides paying spendy child support... the guy was a total dead beat.

“Cool!”

“Aren’t you supposed to be watching the twins?” I ask with a smile.

“Oh they’re sleeping still. I got up early for no good reason,” She giggles again.

I can hear my pot of water screaming in the background. “Listen Hadley I have to let you go… but I’ll see you tonight?”

“Yep! Can we just order a pizza tonight?”

Really? Again with the pizza?

I sigh, “Sure.”

“Cool! See you then, lovely!”

“Bye,” I say and then shut the phone down.

I turn around to face a smiling Abigail. She’s holding a wide mouthed mug out towards me. Steam is seeping out of the tea and to my face.

“Wow that’s so sweet of you,” I say. I take the cup and stare at the girl suspiciously. “What do you want?”

“Want?” She asks, “Why would you say that?” Then she does her adorable little fake laugh. “I don’t want anything, Lena.”

“Mhmm,” I hum. I bring the hot cup up to my lips. First I just close my eyes and smell the strong mint leaves. Then I let it pool around my tongue. It feels so dang good slipping down my throat to rest in a pond of goodness in my tummy.

“How about you go get dressed while I clean the kitchen, eh? Then we can team up against Crazy Cade,” I tell her.

“I already put away the cold cereals,” She says back. “And the milks.”

I raise a brow.

Her big blue eyes bat thick lashes. Her rosy cheeks get dimples as she smiles.

No child is ever this sweet on his or her own willing.

“Okay seriously kid. What do you want?”

“Nothing! I swear!”

I roll my eyes and take another sip of my morning tea. “Okay. Go and get dressed.”

“Sure thing!” Abigail says. Then she skips out of the room.

I give my head a small shake.

I’m finally at peace for about four seconds when two muddy boys slide past me. Head to toe they are filthy. They slide across the marbled floors with slippery socks.

“HEY!” I holler after them. “STOP!”

I chase them through the kitchen to the entry. The trail goes straight up the stairs to Ben’s room. I feel my ears get hot as I stare at the vintage carpeting.

God da-

“Good morning!” I hear. I fly around. A curvy lady with her dark hair tied back is smiling at me. Her smile fades as she looks to the muddy mess. She starts to say, “Let me guess…”

“Don’t say their names, Flora. I really don’t want to explode.”

The kind lady with a friendly face smiles at me. “Don’t worry about it, Lena. I will clean it all up before Mister Gallows comes. Just get yourself dressed,” She says.

“But he-” I say and point upstairs.

“Lena, go. I will watch the children for a few minutes.”

I sigh, defeated. “Fine. Only because I trust you Flora. But if they get to be too much just scream. Okay? I’ll just be in my cottage…”

“Okay,” She laughs. Then she pushes me back towards the kitchen. “Now go. Make yourself pretty.”

I smile tiredly and take off to the back door. I cringe at the sight of mud tracks. Ignoring them as best I can I skip to my little house. It’s made solely of red bricks and covered in creeping vines.

I open the door and step inside. My bed and dresser are the first things I see. Along with a bathroom and a cute reading nook the loft has a little deck that overlooks the neighborhood.

I open the dresser and bite my lip. Swaying my head to the beat of a song I have stuck in my brain I search my outfits. I don’t own anything fancy. When you’re with kids 24/7 you don’t have the time or energy to look very elegant. So most everything I own is casual.

I pull out a drawstring dress and look at it. It has half sleeves and seems pretty summery. The blue dress goes just above my knees and always makes a good impression. And the best part is it’s a b-word to stain. Not even ketchup can stop me in this beauty.

I pull that thing on and then slide my favorite sandals on. Who am I kidding? They’re the only sandals I own. Abigail gave them to me for my birthday last year. They were just simple things with braided ropes. She said they were perfect because, “They don’t have any heels to make you look taller! Because let’s face it Lena, you’re a bit taller than you should be…”

Well I’m sorry my genes turned out the way they did.

I look into the mirror and frown. How come all those kids get perfect straight blonde hair and gorgeous blue eyes? I’m stuck with crazy brown hair and oddly pasty olive skin. And my eyes are just so bland. I mean, who looks at grey eyes and says, “Woah. Them eyes be hot, babe.”

No one. No one says that.

I sigh and use a Scrunchie to tie my hair at the top of my head. It’s a meh way to get it from sticking to my lip gloss.

So I dab some blush on my cheeks and smear some paint on my lips. Then I spritz my wrists with perfume and stare at my earrings through the mirror. I have little silver ring at the top of my cartilage and then two shiny studs on my ear lobes. I’m a sucker for piercings. And tattoos… but I didn’t have any of those yet. A girl can only wish.

I’m just about to leave. But then I decide to wear a bracelet or something. A weird craving, I know.

So I skip over to my nightstand and dig into my jewelry box. I use my pinky to through random cheap chains and rings. I pop a piece of bubble gum and glance around the sparkly things.

A flash of blue catches my eye.

I stop all movement.

With a slow hand I reach out to grab the woven bracelet. Its two different shades of blue mixed together with some orange string. It looks a lot like a tribal pattern, but that’s not what we had in mind when we made it.

I flip the thin bracelet around in my palm. I can’t help the curl of my lips as I reminisce about how that little thing came to be.

“How about we use our favorite colors for our bracelets,” He had suggested to me.

“OK!” Was my eager reply.

The little boy from next door rummaged around my arts and craft box. He smiled and showed me a bright blue string. “This is mine!” He told me.

I remember saying something about blue being my favorite too. My new friend had responded with, “That’s so cool!” Then he got this thoughtful expression on his innocent face. “But wait… we can’t just have a blue bracelet.”

“Orange is pretty,” I said.

“Oh I like orange. It reminds me of the sun,” He had said.

“But the sun is yellow,” Me as a little girl argued against him.

He smiled at me and said, “It depends on when you’re lookin’ at it.”

Going back to present day I stare down at the bracelet. It gives me this sick knot in my stomach.

But something tells me to put it on.

Why? I haven’t worn the thing since I was fifteen!

I go to put it away when my stomach does a weird flip.

Without even deciding to do so, I clasp the string around my right wrist.

That was weird…

But I don’t have time to contemplate. Because someone is pounding on my cottage door.

Oh no.

“LENA!” I hear Cade holler. “LEE NAA!”

I can hear the distress in his voice.

Only one explanation comes to mind:

THE CHILDREN HAVE KILLED THE MAID!

I run to the door. I trip on my area rug and slam against the door. When I open it Cade is staring at me with tears in his eyes.

“What’s wrong?” I say. “Who’s hurt?”

“Lena is…” He answers.

I blink.

“Cade what are you talking about honey?”

He sniffles and a tear rolls down his chubby cheek. “I hurt your feelings… and I’m berry sorry.”

“No no no,” I say softly. I drop down to his height and pull him in for a hug. He buries his head into the crook of my neck. “It’s okay, buddy. I forgive you.”

“Abby told me I hurt your feelings,” He explains.

“But it’s okay now,” I say. “Because you were a big boy and said you were sorry.” I pull him away by the shoulders to smile at him. “Okay? It’s alright.”

The corners of his soft strawberry lips pull into a grin. “Are you sad?”

“No of course not!” I say.

“That’s berry good.”

I nod in agreement.

Oh gosh he’s just too cute with his adorable cheeks and chubby little arms. I just want to kiss his button nose. If anything can get ole Lena to go soft it’s a little baby boy.

I look down at his outfit. “Oh don’t you look smashing!” I exclaim. He’s wearing a yellow polo and lightweight shorts. I remember those trousers… I spent hours trying to get grape juice out of them. Curse those hundred dollar baby boutique khakis!

“Thank you,” He states cordially. “Flora helps me.”

I nod and do a silent thank you to the house maid. Praise that sweet woman angel.

“How about we go inside and maybe play a game?” I ask the toddler. He nods vigorously. As I stand up he grabs my hand and leads me to his house. I smile at the back of his blonde head.

As we make our way to the staircase Cade says, “I had a dream last night, you know.”

“Oh did you?”

“Mhmm,” He replies with a nod. “It was a good dream though. No more bad ones.”

“I’m glad,” I say back.

“Me too,” Cade tells me.

He has led me to the children’s play room at the top of the house. It’s a huge space filled with toys and books, beanbags and stuffed animals. Barbies from when Abigail was a toddler are filling up boxes along the far side of the room near the painting easels.

“I want to draw,” Cade says.

“Go for it,” I say with a wave of my hand.

He grins and takes off to the paper and pens cupboard.

I take a seat in a tiny chair. I wish my butt wasn’t so big, maybe I could sit in the bean bag without popping it to a billion pieces. But instead I just sit on a tiny child sized rocking chair and pose for Cade as he does a portrait of me. I stick my tongue out and he giggles.

We’re only in there for a few minutes when I hear thundering feet.

Oh here comes trouble.

“LENA!” Ben shouts. He’s standing covered in dry dirt and holding some sort of toy.

“What’s up?” I say with an even tone.

“Are you busy?”

I shrug. “Yeah I guess. Why’s that? You need something?”

He smiles devilishly. “Nope. Just checking.”

Then he takes off to the sound of Ryan’s giggles. I know they are up to something bad… but I’m not really in the mood to track them down and interrogate them. I can catch them later when the scheme blows up in their faces, probably resulting in casualties. I sigh and remind myself to grab an extra box of bandages from the closet before heading back downstairs.   

Another set of feet start to parade to the play room. These ones are quicker and much lighter. I look to the door and expect to see Abigail standing there soon.

With her long blonde hair in distress she runs to me in a panic. “Look at this!” She squeals. “I can’t work with this!”

“Oh calm down,” I say. “Luckily you have a nanny who deals with crazy hair every day.” I pat the ground in front of me for her to sit. She plops her tiny self on the ground and hands me her comb. I start to yank away at the knots and pull hair back into a slick ponytail. Then I wrap her thick blonde locks around and make a bun at the top of her head.

Abigail jumps up and looks at her reflection in the mirror by the DVD shelves. “Oh thank you…” She sighs. “I had a heart attack.”

“I kinda got that much,” I say. She starts to leave but I notice the way she’s twirling her thumbs. “Is there something else?” I ask.

She faces me again. “Well… I’m just sorta… stuck.”

“Stuck?” I repeat.

“You’re not stuck,” Cade says. He’s moved from coloring to toy trucks now. “You are walkin’ around.”

Abigail makes a weird face and sits herself on a chair next to me. Her fluffy skirt puffs as she crosses her dainty dancer legs at the ankle. “Can you give me some advice?”

“That’s what I’m here for,” I say with a smile. “What’s the problem?”

“Well I got this text…” She sighs. “From Miranda. Do you remember her? The one who spent the night last spring?”

“Sure,” I say and nod.

“Miranda texted me just now. And she told me she got me a birthday present…” Abigail puckers her lips. “But I didn’t invite her to my party.”

I lean back in my tiny seat. “Invite her over on Tuesday or Wednesday. Then she can give it to you then. Just don’t mention the party and you’ll be golden.”

Abigail gets this happy glow to her.

“Is that all?”

“Oh yes!” She jumps from her seat and hugs my neck. “Thank you Lena!”

I laugh, “No problem kiddo.”

Abigail skips out of the room while texting away on her IPhone. I glance over at Cade, who has a constipated look on his face. I know him better than that though. It means he’s thinking about something really hard. It makes him strained.

“What’s on your mind?” I ask.

“Girls are weird,” Is his only answer.

I open my mouth to retort but then silence myself. “Touché,” I finally say with a grin. “Touché my good friend.”