"I can't complain, nor to boast about it. It's my first day at work, you know." Frank raised an eyebrow gamely, thereafter unable to suppress a reluctant chuckle. Sipping his warm hot. "But I really can tell how's my job in the forthcoming days." He furthered. 

"Oh! It doesn't matter how they pay you for securiting a school, it matters if you enjoy working it. It comes from the bottom of yar heart, Frank!" Valerie cautioned wisely as she wore a smug grin across her plump, dainty lips. "It depends of you and how do you perceive it!" Meanwhile she winked at him amiably, platonically. Without demonstrating a sheer emotion, or rather feeling, as more than a friend. Whilst the both adults were talking, Shona just stood as she grasped her mother's deft, elegant hand, staring up at the both adults who swop variety of mutual words.

"That's right! I know it. I have an ample experience not only as a cop, but also as a security guard. Perhaps I have a better luck as a security guard rather than as a cop, who has to deal and arrest offenders." The middle aged man proceed with his monologue as he was proud to have such opulent experience as a man, devoted to the nation's welfare by protecting them by offenders and lunatics. It was peculiarly evident how complicated is his life. 

"Well, I am glad for you!" The young lady admitted humbly, content as her thumb kneaded her daughter's velvety knuckels. Her hazel green eyes blinked suddenly. "It's not easy to work as a maid either too." Afterwards the housekeeper didn't help to endure a guturral sniggle, escaping her throat. Frank participated her as the young girl grinned promptly.

"It's visible." He wiped his forehead with a forearm, assimilating what Valerie said. "I knew one acquaintance who used to be a housekeeper. Just like you!"

"Oh really?"

"Yeah. She wasn't one of the best people who I have ever known in my life, however, she was just fine acquaintance. She was young, aspiring, vigorous and neat freak." The security guard took another sip of his coffee that commenced to cool down due its oblivion. He wiped his mouth with his larger, lukewarm fist. In the interim, the both females just smiled, didn't peel a word as they nodded idly. "She was one of my wife's friends. They used to be really close friends. Really close!" He emphasized the last sentence as he recited the word really close. "Marina was a diligent maid. She has never underestimated her own tasks as well." 

"Did she like her job?"

"Of course, she did! Although she struggled to keep her position after she spent 15 years as a maid!" Then a sardonic chuckle escaped his slightly moist lips, due to the caffeine stained liquid. 

"Oh! When you have heard last of her at least?"

"It was a long time ago. Urm," He stuttered as he finished in a gulp the rest of his lukewarm coffee beverage in the plain white mug. In the meantime, he paused as he rubbed his head. "...probably before to work as a security guard in Briarcliff with Judy."

"Oh okay!" The Russian-American sighed in a relief. "Well, I haven't always desired to work as a maid whether in a hotel or to clean and dust after people in their households, nevertheless..." She lingered to carry on as she inhaled serenely. "...the fate granted me to work as a maid after being a single mother, who hasn't finished her university education." She shrugged unintentionally as she emitted a raspy cackle. "Frank, Frank, my fella! It's such a responsibility to work as a housekeeper and clean all this shit after these people!" 

"It's not as difficult as to spy on criminals and dubious people in the society, you know." 

"Absolutely!"

"I am so sorry for the deviation but how is Shona? Isn't she excited for the pending school year?"

"She is! But she's a little bit anxious." Valerie admitted as Frank's dazzling azure blue eyes staring down at the young girl with the braided red-hair, offering her an innocent, amicable smile. 

"She's gonna be alright! She is going to play with Kit and Julia whilst I will take care of the nasty bullies." Subsequently he got from the school's porch chair, rapping lightly Valerie's shoulder as he didn't break off the eye contact with the both females. "Would you like a coffee?" He offered her politely.

"No, thank you! I have already drank my morning coffee." In spite of her razor-thin coarse rejecting his offer, she attempted to be as geentel as she could be. Her soft voice boated in his ears like jingling bells as he listened the glorious Christmas songs just like hymns ringing its tunes. "All I need is..." Valerie gasped when Frank maneuvered her to turn her back as she faced a young woman with two children from 2 different mothers, holding her hands as they pranced exhilirated, incapable to handle their patience any longer as they wanted to behold their friend Shona again. "Oh, Allison, Julia and Thomas! How wonderful!" 

"Julia and Tom!" Shona hollered beyond exuberantly as she sensed her compact, brittle heart leaping in her chest, skipped its heavy, mirthful beat. Her grin shone on her fresh, juvenile face. Valerie released the hand's grasp as soon as Kit's new girlfriend with her step-children approached the security guard and the single mother with her sole daughter.

"Shona!" They rushed up to their friend as they hugged altogether, uniting as school allies again. 

"Oh hi, Val and sir!" Allison ambled up to the other 2 adults, greeting slightly bashfully the older man with a glowing, charismatic smile waving up in the corner of her lips. 

Allison was Kit's new girlfriend since a week though they met along a couple of months ago. They got along easily. Not only Kit's girlfriend was open-minded and affable with the Howards and Valerie and her daughter, but also she didn't know personally Frank, factly, because Kit rarely saw Frank even the Howards and Valerie.

"Hi Ally!"

"Oh hello, ma'am!" The security guard walked up to the unknown younger woman as his winter blue eyes met her chestnut ones. "I am Kit and Valerie's friend, Frank. It's huge pleasure to meet you. Kit has said many nice things about you!"

"It's nice to meet you, Frank! I am Allison, Kit's girlfriend." The both adults handshaked whilst Valerie supervised the children, watching them with a broad, saturating smile across her lips as it acquired its hallowed brightness due to the sunlight that bathed everything below, carpeting with sun rays. The evidence about their happiness after seeing one another days of absence, was driving the children to insanity and obvious by the way they communicated and acted elated.

***

Once Mrs. Johnson let the parents with their twins to make their way to her office without hesitancy and abstinence, they perambulated uneasily as they rocked the twins in their affectionate, secure. Ellie and Tristan had particularly negative vibes as it was their first time to face a new hurdle that will intervene in their lives for a few years - namely to survive up to 3 years in thr kindergarten. They have never dived in the depths of the life's stages as the life was the abysmal, mystic sea, embodying cluster of paradoxal secrets whether teaching you a lesson from the life or just stimulating your confidence and courage to keep on living, confronting its challenge. The single comfort where they have found was in Jude and Timothy's arms as their presences were even more soothing, especially when they stood for their little adorable angels, regardless how wrong they were.

Ellie formed a girlish smile on her pale face as her hazel eyes in versatile speed scanned her tutor's austere office. Whereas Tristan buried his head in the crook of his mother's neck, her long curly blond strands of her mane of gold shielding his chubby, helpless face, his tender, sensitive nostrils smelling the scent of her cologne and hair's alluring aroma. He cooed desperately, inwardly. He clutched shut his eyes, his fists clenched as he threw his arms around his mother's neck.

"You may take yours seats!" The other middle aged woman gestured them confidently, obligingly the chairs against her hard wood desk with its pile of files as a smug smile glittered in the corner of her lips. In the meantime, she was closing her office door after receiving the Howards.

"Thank you, Mrs. Johnson!" They expressed their gratitude as they seated on the chairs, next to one another. Then their eyes shifted down to the twins as Ellie was sucking her thumb, looking up innocently in her father's mesmerizing chocolate eyes.

"Ellie, are you feeling nervous?" Timothy questioned his daughter as he stroked her long beautiful straight chestnut hair, running his fingers through her strands as his fingertips relished its softness and silken beneath his smooth, milky skin. Further, the former priest noted something suspiciously odd in his eldest daughter's demeanor.  She wasn't bold how she thought to herself at all.

"Not at all, Daddy."

"Oh, sweetie! You cannot fool your father. He knows you aren't bold how you might think. It's perfectly normal because it's high time to join the society by communicating and playing with your peers instead of staying at home just like your first four years in your life." Timothy explained further as he sensed ferociously the agitation that conquered his daughter. Then he pecked kisses on her cheeks and temple, opting to reassure her whether she's feeling better now or worse.

"Come on, Tris! It is your tutor, she isn't a bad lady who will eat you for breakfast." She tapped lightly his back in attempt to embolden him and he avoids to conceal himself. "She's just going to be your kindergarten's teacher." She dangled her arms around the blond boy's tiny body, pulling him in a tight, warm, reposeful embrace. "I know how shy and unprepared are you but I assure ya..." She paused after breaking off the embrace, taking her time to admire his gorgeous chocolate eyes which he inherited from his father and the short curly golden hair from his mother, framing his cute, plump face as his curly honey hair shaped a glowing halo, illuminating his boyish face.

"Mr and Mrs. Howard!" Winter began sternly, adjusting her eyeglasses as soon as she sat on her desk, gazing coldly at the both former pious faces of the church. Unfortunstely, she was the reason why Jude didn't continue her sentence as she opted to persuade her son that everything will be fine.

"I assure ya everything will be okay, my baby boy!" The former nun comforted Tristan calmly, then her warm hazel eyes swooped on Winter Johnson's cold-blooded sapphire blue eyes. "Yes, Mrs. Johnson?" The both parents said in unison as they sang triumphing anthems united.

"First of all, it's a pleasure to receive 2 more kindergarteners in this institution. I have been a kindergarten teacher for almost 20 years and the majority of the children that have passed in my claws were obediant and sociable." Jude swallowed a heavy lump that has developed in her throat once the other woman emphasized the word sociable. Her heart was in her mouth as she was beyond worried for Tristan how will pass his first year though she was aware he's not only introvert child, moreover he's tending to be less communicative. It scared her away and she was ready to confront anyone who condemns otherwise whether her son or even her daughter.

"Sociable?" Judy pondered deeply as this word crossed her mind immediately. "If she thinks the communicative kids can pass the kindergarten year, then is Tristan having a chance to be amongst them?" She kept on with analyzing its situation.

"Would you tell us what are the twins' names?" The teacher inquired gravely, without taking her frosty gaze off the parents' dark eyes.

"Ellie and Tristan." Jude replied in complacency without wobble. Likewise the dark blond lady peeped down as her peep turned into gape in a matter of seconds, hastily inspecting the healthy twins as her fingers fixed her eyeglasses.

"I see." She answered huskily. "Which twin is the older one?" Winter enquired beyond seriously.

"Ellie!" In this time, Timothy replicated, whilst Ellie absent-mindedly played with her father's shirt clasped buttons.

"I see. How old are they?"

"Ellie will turn 4 on 30th of September, while her brother a day after her." Jude answered honestly, abiding sober in her firm answers though she recognized somethkng leery behind Mrs. Johnson's mask. She was unsure if she was either a good or a bad person. It was eccentric and thought-provoking question, in her opinion. Until this moment, Jude had the great impression of the kindergarten tutor as a strict, responsible, wise and nonchalant.

"Good! They fit ideally for kindergarteners." Winter stated as she started taking notes in case if she either forgets or hesitates to return a reply.

The parents just smiled simply as they pursued for one another's eyes whilst the another middle aged lady was focused on her notes. Two hazel irises met two other chocolate ones as they locked up in each other's irresistible stare.

"Tim?" Jude whispered in velvety voice.

"Yes, honey?" He arched an eyebrow, glancing down at the twins as they were clinged to their parents.

"Are we going to..." When the former nun was about to carry on with her utterance, all of a sudden the mildly younger woman cut her off, placing her both hands on the desk, shuffled.

"Well, could you please tell us more about Ellie and Tristan? For example how they spent their first years in this world?"

"They always were clinged to us and spent almost every moment with us." Timothy began, fondling gently his daughter's head.

"Mhm. Go ahead!" The dark blond woman gestured to go ahead.

"They were always at home though in the past weeks, me and my wife took them on the playground and hanging out with other kids. Just like them! They weaned off and began walking and talking without problems at young age." The former nun proceed with her speech, giving more further information about her children as Winter sceptically surveyed not only her body language, but also Timothy and the twins' ones.

"Alright!" Meantime the younger lady jotted down on the blanket, taking a few more notes of her future protégés. Then she left the pen on the desk. "So you want to tell me your children lead such a type of life, correct?"

"Yes, ma'am!" The both adults nodded agreement.

"Okay so...let me instruct you the rules here about this kindergarten! The first rule is the children should respect each other and be kind to one another. The imminent one is the children are allowed to play with their peers but they cannot pass the year if they aren't sociable enough. It will be tough for them."

***

After the Howards left Mrs. Johnson's office in a matter of minutes later, they headed up to the front door, leaving the facade as Jude took a cigarette from her cigarette pack from her denim jeans' pocket, gathering the lighter as she let the twins to play in the monumental yard by themselves, liting up her cigarette as Timothy took her other hand into his larger, smooth one.

The sun bathed the ground with its saturating sunlight, illuminating every surrounding. Screams and shouts of children swirled a whirlpool. Crispy, multi-colored, unique leaves falling down from the grand trees with its abstract, aesthetic ginormous crowns, blanketing the ground with bedazzling carpet of leaves.

"We should celebrate this occassion with Agnes!" Timothy evoked jubilantly. 

"We will, darling." Jude rested her head on his shoulder as she carried on to take a puff off her cigarette, afterwards mist dim escaping her nostrils and mouth. "Guess how I will bring the joyous spirits at home!"

"What's going to be, my love?" He enquired teasingly as Jude took another drag off her cigarette, thus handing it to Timothy as he took a quick puff off her cigar's length, inhaling weak dim, vapouring like fog. Consequently he handed her back the cigarette as he zested it. 

"Don't be silly, sweetheart!" Meanwhile she paused as she beheld the light chestnut haired girl Kaitlyn who she saw earlier and the bizarre oracle mentioned her name once in her dreams, was interacting to the twins. Ellie and Tristan didn't mind to accept in their company Kaitlyn as she was amicable towards the Howard twins. "Chocolate bars for each child!" A smug smirk contorted on her face. Then the couple chuckled contented. 

"They deserve it. They deserve the entire world our little angels!" Timothy said flauntingly. 

"Well, hello Judy!" A familiar feminine voice rang in the couple's ears abruptly as they startled especially Jude as they both turned to the much younger woman, wearing the boho garments. It was her. The single mother with her sole child, who was currently playing with the twins. 

"S-Sally? You are the..." Timothy was rather speechless to utter an adequate syllable once he beheld the arcane woman who was a few inches away from them. Judy recognized from head to toes, her hazel eyes wandering up and down as she scrutinized from closer the oracle who emerged once in her dreams, wearing a sheepish smile honed on her fresh, slightly olive tanned complexion. As the blonde was about to state her second sentence as she struggled to speak, in fact, only vowels were the sole sounds she can produce, Sally cut her off.

"I know you, Judy! Do you remember me?"

"W-who are you, ma'am?" Timothy's decent British accent accentuated in his question. He has never seen the strange woman in Boho style outfit with her cunning predictions that smited the others. He heard about a woman under the name Sally in Jude's dreams, according to his wife's words. His chocolate eyes were darted to the petite figure.

"I remember you...Sally!" Judy responded at last as she swallowed hard after discovering the brunette was not only unrealistic in her dreams, but also being realistic in the real life. It has been weeks after she recalled utterly its reverie. The former nun's uneasiness was particularly obvious. All of a sudden, a genuine, unbiased smile shaped on Sally's youthful face. "You were in my dreams."

"Yeah, Judy!" Then she shifted her hazel green eyes to the former priest's chocolate eyes, giving him a reassuring smile. "I was in your wife's dreams. I am Sally Whigham, the most popular oracle in this state." She offered her hand for a handshake the both bushed parents of three children as Timothy was more bushed than his wife. 

"It's a pleasure, Sally! I am Timothy Howard, Judy's wife!" He shook his mammoth hand with her petite, elegant hand. In the interim, the young brunette nodded her head as she groused mockingly as a grin splashed in the corner of her lips. "I know you are Judy's wife, Timothy!" 

Then it was high time Jude's turn to handshake with the younger lady though it was peculiarly odd to her to encounter the same person in the both realms- dreams and reality. 

"It's not necessary to introduce myself since you know me as we have seen each other in my dreams. It's my huge pleasure, Sally! Judy Martin!" 

"Do you mind if I sit next to you, guys?"

"Sure!" Timothy allowed the much younger woman to seat next to his wife. 

"Thank you!" The oracle expressed her gratitude graciously, remorselessly. She sat next to the blonde as she took a cigarette from her cigarette pack, gathering up her lighter as she lit up her cigarette, taking its first drag off united with Jude as she was near the edge to finish her cigar for now. "It's a pleasure our children are playing together."

"Yeah! It doesn't seems oblivious how rejoiced they are." The former monsignor clarified merrily. 

"Exactly, Timothy! Are your children first year here in this kindergarten?"

"Oh yeah, they are." Jude replied beatifically as a grin curled up in the corner of her mouth. "What about your daughter?"

"She's either too." Then the brunette couldn't endure a guturral cackle. "It's apparent they don't have a lot of friends."

"You mean Ellie and Tristan?" The former nun asked.

"Exactly, dear!" Sally responded.

"They have a small inner circle of friends though I hope they will befriend with more kids there." Timothy explained wisely as he was sufficiently laconic in his persuasion. 

"I hope for my daughter either too. But it seems they select smartly their friends."

"They do, of course!" Then a raspy chuckle absconded her throat. "Is your daughter sociable or some kind of recognized girl?"

"Hmm, no! She has no friends." After hearing these bitter words, coming from Sally, the Howard couple not only were tremendously dumbstruck, moreover they pitied the young girl of the single mother for not having any friends. Sally's undertone contrasted its her glee a few minutes ago. 

"Oh, that's horrible! We are so sorry to hear it."

"Don't be sorry for this! They spurned her because her father is Father McKenzie." Hence, she paused as she took another puff off her cigarette, consequently inhaling sharply as she sensed the heartache that downhearted her generally. "Who would be proud to have for father a hypocritical, lunatical rapist, who disguises himself in a dark cloth to conceal his phantoms?" She posed a rhetorical, sarcastic question as she couldn't suppress another shrewd chuckle. "Nobody does! But I love my child more than anything else in this world. More than anything, I swear!"

Timothy was beyond staggered once he realized Sally was raped and her child was experiencing a tough childhood, being raised by a single mother who works as an oracle and earns a lot of money to afford everything that is required in one family. 

It was obnoxiously true Sally's sole daughter Kaitlyn was neglected by her peers just because her biological father is nothing but a sperm donor and rapist, besides he's outstandingly known as a notorious priest, who has sinned and broke his vows constantly or almost every time. He never regretted for his personal choices. Almost every Boston citizen loathed to blood and bones the young, extremely obdurate priest. Kaitlyn's a good, mousily obediant and clever girl. She has never harmed any single soul just like her father does. Her mother astained herself from informing her daughter about her past and the non-consent intimate act as she preferred to warn her daughter about the abomination of her past when she grows up a bit. Little did Sally know how much her rapist is going to be even more detested by her daughter once she hears the entire truth about him and his wrongdoings. What the young girl of the single mother knew about her absent father was actually that he's a priest and his work was priority over the family as the pious faces of the church are being forbidden to be wed with children. 

Although the crude circumstances, Jude and Timothy didn't mind their children to befriend with the desolated Kaitlyn and her mother. 

To be continued...