The Pull of Destiny (9 page)

“Please, one
more page,” Zandi begged, her brown eyes pleading with me.

“Another page?
You guys need to go play!” I said in a mock severe voice, my hands on my hips.
They all pouted at me, making me feel like a meanie, but I had to save the
bigger kids before Miss Campbell caused them lasting damage. “Tell you what.
We’ll continue the story next time, how about that? And look!” I pointed across
the room, to where Miss Campbell's long suffering assistant, Vanessa Ruiz, was
laying out toys for ‘playtime’. “Vanessa has some new toys for you guys!”

Proving that
all children have one track minds, they all got to their feet and ran off to
bombard Vanessa, leaving me free to go and save William from Miss Campbell's
wild eyed stare. Jerome and Helen, lured by the toys, had left their ring
leader to carry on alone, and that’s exactly what he intended to do.

William was
whining, knowing from past experience that this was the surest way to piss Miss
Campbell off and judging by the grimace on her face, it was working. The smug
smile on William’s cherubic face- not helping matters. At all.

I walked up to
them, scratching my nose nervously. Miss Campbell was cool when she was normal
(
not often
). When she was angry- you didn’t want to be there. “Is
everything okay?”

She turned to
me, at the same time blindly swatting at William’s hand as the little boy
tugged on her skirt. “No, everything is not okay!” she exclaimed, her nostrils
flaring sharply. Turning on William, she barked “Stop pulling my skirt!”

Somebody’s a
little high strung.

“But I need to
use the bathroom!” Surreptitiously, William turned his head slightly to wink at
me. I shook my head, fighting back a laugh.
The kid is a mastermind.

“You don’t
need- he went to the bathroom just five minutes ago!” Holding her head between
her hands and looking like she wanted to keel over, Miss Campbell looked
beseechingly at me. “I can’t do this anymore! I can’t deal with this child.”

Lord save me
from overly dramatic daycare supervisors.

“Miss Campbell,
it’s alright, just calm down,” I said soothingly, patting her arm. Calming down
a woman undoubtedly in the throes of a midlife crisis wasn’t what I had signed
up for. “William’s just restless, aren’t you?” The smug smile still on his pink
cheeked face, William nodded and I turned back to Miss Campbell, who was
squeezing the life out of her poor stress ball. “I can take him for a walk,
how’s that sound?”

“Please,” Miss
Campbell said in a weak whisper as William gave an exuberant, “Yay!”

He looked up at
me, slipping his hand into mine. “Can we get candy?” he asked, his blue eyes
hopeful.

Miss Campbell
massaged her temples again. I was sure I knew what the answer to that would be.
“Definitely not.” William’s face fell as she continued. “Just- take him up and
down the hallway. Make sure he doesn’t push any buttons and if you bounce that
ball, young man-.”

Her voice
tapered off as she gave William a threatening look.

“Okay,” I said
hastily, seeing William open his mouth to make a stinging retort. “Let’s go,
kid.”

As we walked
out of the daycare and into the relative quiet of the hallway, which housed the
reserved outpatient’s rooms, I heard Miss Campbell exclaim, “That boy will be
the death of me.”

Somehow, I
don’t doubt that.

“I hate that
old biddy,” William muttered, squeezing his bouncy ball angrily.

I bit back a
laugh. I was supposed to be a role model for the kid!
Even though ‘old
biddy’ is an astute description of Miss Campbell
. But what kind of role
model would I be if I agreed with him?

I settled for
saying “William!” in a slightly admonishing tone.

The tips of his
ears turning scarlet, William looked up at me, an embarrassed look on his face.
But his voice, when he spoke, was defiant. “Well, she hates me! She’s always
yelling at me!”

“That’s coz you
are always causing trouble,” I pointed out as we slowly walked down the hall. I
resisted the impulse to peek in the open doors and take a look at the people
who had the nerve to reserve thousand dollar rooms for a one day stay. I heard
they were served coffee and sandwiches in those rooms.
How extravagant.

William puffed
out his chest and looked up at me, his dark hair falling into his face and
reminding me of Luke. I blinked and he turned into William again. Weird. “It’s
not my fault I like talking,” he defended himself. “And it’s not her fault she
hates kids.”

So I’m not
the only one who’s noticed!

“Well, you need
to back off on her, she’s this close to having a nervous breakdown,” I told him,
patting him on the head. “And she could kick you out, then what would you do?”

“My dad would
kill me,” he admitted.

Almost 6 years
old, William would be starting elementary school in September, but his parents
had spent so much on his older brother that they didn’t have enough for his
pre-school fees. If he got kicked out of the daycare, one of his parents would
have to look after him constantly, and they already had their hands full with
Kevin.

“Exactly. So
what are you going to do?” I asked.

He smiled up at
me. “Stop causing trouble,” he said reluctantly. I nodded, pleased.

“And I’ll get
you candy,” I said spontaneously, even though I had less than 5 bucks in my
pocket.
Oh well.
I would be getting my pay check soon, and the grateful
look on William’s face- that was priceless.

Squeezing my
hand, he said “Yay! Thanks, Celsi!”

“Sugar free,
though,” I amended hurriedly. We didn’t want a hyper William running around the
hospital.

His face fell,
but just slightly. “Aw,” he said.

“If I get you
normal candy, Miss Campbell will kill me.”

“Okay.” He
looked up at me. “I wish you ran the daycare.” A shy smile. “It’s more fun with
you there.”

I smiled back
at him, the words warming my heart. “Give me a couple of years, I’ll be working
here full time,” I told him, half truthfully.

Because what
else could I do? University was out of the question, unless I was lucky enough
to get a scholarship, and even then, I would have to sacrifice my dream of
studying music. Ghetto girls didn’t go to Julliard. I had been lucky enough to
get in to Dalton, but even though Aunt Kelly was optimistic about my chances of
getting a scholarship, I knew I probably wouldn’t be heading to university. I
couldn’t put all that on Aunt Kelly’s head. It would be so selfish, especially
since she’d supported me through way too much already.

Maybe I could
take over from Miss Campbell when someone checked her in to the psych ward. At
this rate, it wouldn’t be long.

“At least you
don’t scream at us. She acts like we want to be there,” William said. He
scowled, bouncing the ball on the tiled floor. “If Kevin wasn’t sick, my
parents wouldn’t be here all the time. She could try being nice.”

I sighed,
squeezing William's hand comfortingly. “She’s just stressed out,” I told him.
“How’s Kevin doing?”

“He was super
happy with the Sponge Bob DVD you gave him! He was so happy; he gave me this
bouncy ball.” He held it out to show me. “He never used to let me touch it
before, it was his favorite thing. But now- he can’t play with it.”

His face
saddened and I bit my lip, wishing I hadn’t asked. Kevin had acute leukemia and
was terminal. I used to babysit the brothers, which was why William was so
comfortable with me. Kevin didn’t have long to live and knowing that William
knew this, in a way; it just made me want to cry.

To cheer him
(and me) up, I bought him two candy bars at the vending machine and his face
brightened as he dug in.

“You can’t even
tell they don’t have sugar!” he exclaimed excitedly, insisting that I have a
bite.

“As long as it
doesn’t make you hyper, I’m cool with it,” I said, making a mental note to make
sure his face was wiped clean (thank God for Wet Wipes) and the candy wrappers
disposed of before we got back to the daycare.

As we walked
back, William took out the ball, which he’d put in his pocket for safekeeping.
“Hey, you wanna see how high I can bounce it?” he asked me.

I shook my head
immediately. “Nuh-uh. Remember what Miss Campbell said? Don’t bounce the ball
in the-.”

Too late.

William threw
the ball onto the floor with such force that it bounced up to the ceiling, just
missed hitting a hall light, and skewed off into a room with an open door.

“Crap,” we said
in unison as we raced to the room and hovered nervously outside the door,
unsure of what to do.

“It went under
the bed, I saw it,” William claimed, hopping from one foot to another
excitedly.

“Will, I told
you not to!” I whispered exasperatedly.

“I’m sorry,”
William whispered back. “Can you please get it back?” His eyes filled with
tears and my heart melted. “I don’t want to lose it. Kevin gave it me!”

He sniffled,
wiping his eyes on his t-shirt sleeve. I knelt down till I was at his level.

“I’ll get it
back, William, don’t cry. Go back to the daycare and tell Miss Campbell I’m- in
the washroom.” It was highly irresponsible, but it was the only way I was gonna
get the stupid ball back. Having William around while I extracted it would just
distract me. William nodded, wide eyed. “And for goodness sakes, don’t get
sidetracked. By anything!”

“Okay,” William
said, nodding violently. He took off at a run as I let go of him.

“Don’t run!” I
whispered loudly and he slowed to a walk, looking over his shoulder at me.

Nervously, I
peeked into the room. It looked empty, the bed was made and there were no bags,
tea trays or half eaten sandwiches littering the place. I hoped it was empty as
I tiptoed in, my eyes darting in different directions as I inched towards the
bed. The bathroom door was firmly shut and I kept my ears cocked for any
approaching footsteps. Getting down on my knees, I peered under the bed. The
ball was lying innocently on the far side and, cursing William, I got onto my
stomach and wriggled under the bed.
Thank God for dust free floors.

Just as the
tips of my fingers connected with the evil ball, footsteps in the room made me
freeze.

“There’s no
money under there, I already checked,” an amused sounding voice said.

“I wasn’t
looking for- I was just getting this ball for a kid- I’m sorry,” I blurted, my
heart leaping into my chest.
Just my luck!
I wrapped my fingers around
the ball, preparing to wriggle out from under the bed and face the music.

“CiCi?”

I froze again,
frowning in the dark. Nobody ever called me CiCi, apart from-

“Luke?” I
ventured hesitantly.

The bed above
me squeaked as whoever was calling me CiCi threw themselves on it. An upside
down face appeared over the side of the bed and for the millionth time that
week (or so it seemed) I found myself staring into a pair of gorgeous emerald
green eyes.

With a smile on
his face like he was happy to see me, the tips of his shaggy dark brown hair
almost brushing the floor, Luke quipped, “We really need to stop meeting like
this.”

Luke’s Point
of View

Being dropped
off and picked up at the school entrance by my dad two days in a row wasn’t
helping me win cool points with my friends.

I mean, sure, I
was supposed to go for my tests yesterday, and I showed up at the front of the
school like I was told cooperated with the doctor and I didn’t even cringe
during any of the tests and x-rays and scans. That was good of me, right, since
I could have just blown dad off if I really wanted to. But he really didn’t
need to drop me off and pick me up today too! He claimed the doctor told him I
needed one more test and I could collect my results at the same time, but I
knew he was just trying to keep tabs on me. He didn’t trust me a bit, but these
days, I really didn’t care.

When Ahmed
spotted me heading to the entrance after school, he started taunting me as
usual.

“Since when did
you turn into a Daddy’s Boy, Astor? You gonna start hanging out with him so he
can tell you the family secrets, Luke Astor Junior?” he asked, coming up behind
me and punching me on the shoulder in greeting.

“It’s the
Third, numb nuts,” I corrected, punching him back as Wendy slinked up beside me
and wrapped her arm around my shoulder. “And I’d rather get a ride with my dad
than go home in that bullet proof coffin of yours.” I grinned mischievously at
him. “And why the hell do you need a bodyguard?”

If there was
one thing that made Ahmed feel self-conscious, it was the fact that his ride
came to pick him up with a bodyguard sitting in the front seat.