She shook her head and shuffled around some papers on her desk. “Oh, I’m sorry darlin’. Maria, the director, isn’t here and she’s the only one authorized to give tours. It’s a safety thing and we’re all about the safety here.” Another worker wearing the same turquoise shirt as the receptionist entered the waiting area. She gave a little wave and the woman pushed a button on the wall next to her. A buzzing sound came from above the door that connected the tiny waiting area with the rest of the building. The woman opened the door and passed through and when it closed again, it made a loud clicking sound. “See?” She pointed toward the door. “Safety first.”
“Oh.” My face fell and my shoulders slumped.
She explained further, “She is usually here around this time, so you can come back tomorrow if you want. But if she doesn’t attend the public funding meetings, then we don’t get the foster kids, and if we don’t get the foster kids, then we have to rely on the families who can afford day-care.” She sighed. “Which means I’d be out of a job, ’cause there ain’t many of those these days.”
My confidence suddenly renewed, I leaned into her window and smiled sweetly. “What’s your name?” I asked.
“Name’s Audrey, Miss,” she answered with her own sweet smile.
“Well, Audrey, if funding is your problem, I happen to know a senator who might be able to help you out…”
Five minutes later, I was following around Audrey as she gave me a personal tour of the day-care center. I wasn’t lying about the funding. I would talk to the senator and see if I could help them.
I just didn’t know if it would work.
Audrey brought me out into the main room filled with cafeteria-style tables that were low to the ground, with equally tiny chairs surrounding them. “We feed them both breakfast and lunch plus two snacks. The rooms are arranged by age. Babies in one. One-year-olds in another, and so-on…” Audrey kept talking, but when I spotted Max only feet from where I stood, I faked interest in the bulletin board hanging above the table she was sitting at.
“That’s our activities board,” Audrey said, coming up to stand beside me. “That’s the schedule of music time, numbers time…” Her voice faded into the background when another one chimed in.
“You’re really pwetty,” sang a small sweet voice. I looked down into familiar bright green eyes that literally took my breath away. They were the same color as his, but where King’s eyes held the harsh and bitter reality of the life he’d lived, hers were void of any contempt and alive with innocence.
I knelt down next to her. “Thank you. You are too,” I said. She giggled, her little tiny square teeth reminded me of Sammy. She chewed on her fingertips.
“I like dis,” Max said, reaching out to touch a bracelet I’d put on that morning, in an effort to look more like the Ray Price in the framed pictures in my room.
I pointed to the tiny purple plastic bracelet on her little wrist. “I like yours even better.”
Audrey cleared her throat. “I’d like to show you to the playground. It’s modernized and we firmly believe in at least thirty minutes of physical activity a day, as long as it’s not hotter than the surface of the sun outside.”
“I have to go,” I told Max, who hung her head in disappointment. “But I’m sure I’ll see you again,” I whispered. She lifted her head and her father’s eyes met mine. It hurt my heart, but I had to rip my gaze from hers so that I wouldn’t lose it right there in front of Audrey and the thirty or so toddlers in the room.
I stood to leave, but a tiny hand wrapped around one of my fingers and tugged. “Here,” Max whispered. She took off the purple plastic bracelet and put it around my wrist.
My heart exploded in a flurry of warmth.
Love at first sight was not something exclusively reserved for lovers, because that day, I’d truly experienced it. In the span of three minutes, I’d lost my heart all over again.
I didn’t want to leave her. I wanted to pick her up and run as fast as I could, out of the buzzing door, and straight to the house on stilts. Her and Sammy both.
First things first, I told myself.
I unclasped the silver and gold roped bracelet from around my wrist. I knelt down again, and with my back to Audrey, I carefully looped the delicate chain around Max’s little wrist, twice.
I didn’t stay to see her reaction to my gift; afraid that if I spent one more second with her, I wouldn’t be able to walk out the door.
I stood and turned back around to Audrey, hoping she wouldn’t notice the sudden pain in my voice or the tears in my eyes. “Now show me this wonderful playground,” I said with a sniffle.