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Callie liked meandering down the rows of the farmer’s market.
Each week, there were a few vendors she’d consistently visit, but she liked to show interest in other people’s products as well.
It made her uncomfortable to walk past the booths she didn’t care about and avoid eye contact with the people eagerly waiting for someone to buy—so she’d at least give everyone a friendly smile or politely comment on an item at their booth.
“Ooh, that necklace is beautiful,” she’d say to a friend of a friend who made jewelry.
However, this tendency to take her time drove her family crazy.
After years of begging her to move along, David and the kids had learned to go off on their own.
They’d get all their shopping done and then sit in the shade eating shaved ice while they waited for her.
If Callie had known just how quickly those years would go by, she would’ve made more of an effort to spend the mornings with her family, even if it meant she wouldn’t be able to move at her own pace.
Nowadays, it was rare for anyone to come with her to the farmer’s market. Every once in a while, David would ask her to pick him up a few items, but it’d been years since he joined her.
But that morning, she enjoyed the company of David and Sasha who were forced to walk slowly due to the cumbersome new stroller Callie had insisted on buying—preventing them from leaving Callie in the dust.
Even still, Callie ended up at the back of the pack, but she didn’t mind. She liked lingering behind and listening to the casual conversation David and Sasha were having. David had mentioned something about an article he’d read on homeschooling, and they were discussing the pros and cons.
“I’d never homeschool Dot,” Sasha said as they walked a few paces ahead of Callie.
“Why’s that?”
“I’m not smart enough.”
“Oh, don’t say that! You’re smart!”
She shrugged. “I’m not saying I’m dumb, I’m just not smart enough to give her the education she should have. I’d be too worried about missing important details, forgetting things, or just messing up... I mean, there’s a reason teachers have to have college degrees...”
“That’s true, but in the article, they outlined a bunch of curriculums that are available on the internet nowadays. So, it’s not like you’d be teaching without any guidelines.”
“Maybe, but I’m still not sure that’s a good idea,” Sasha said. “My grandma used to say you only really understand something if you can teach it. By that logic, the reverse is true, right?”
“How’s that?”
“Well, if I can’t teach her without the help of a textbook or the internet, then that means I don’t really understand what I’m saying. It’s like a blind person leading a blind person. And Dot definitely deserves better than that.”
“Oh, I’m not arguing,” he clarified. “Really. I don’t have a strong opinion either way, I was just pointing out that it seems like homeschooling has changed a lot since I was a kid.
Back in the day, there was a boy who came to our school in 8th grade after being homeschooled his entire life, and he didn’t even know how to spell his own name. It was pretty sad.”
“See! That’s what I’m afraid of.”
“Right, but I don’t think that happens a lot these days.” He laughed. “Or I just read a really biased article....” He looked at Sasha and smiled. “That’s what my son would say, anyway. He’s always accusing me of believing too much of what I read online.”
“Can’t blame you,” Sasha said with a sigh. “I do the same. But if I can successfully teach anything to Dot, it’ll be that she can’t trust something just because someone online said it. Honestly, I’ll tell her to be less trusting in general.”
Callie found this to be a very telling statement, but she kept her thoughts to herself.
If David had any feelings about Sasha’s cautious mentality, he didn’t vocalize them.
“Well, for the record, I do think that it’s a good idea to send Dot to a normal school when the time comes.
She’s already such a social baby, it’d be a shame for her to not be surrounded by kids her own age. ”
Sasha laughed. “That’s true. But we’re talking as if homeschooling would even be an option for me.”
“Is it not?”
“No way!” She scoffed. “Only rich people can homeschool. Do you have any idea how much extra time and money you have to have to keep your kids home with you all day? I’m a single parent who’s going to have to work a full-time job once Dot’s old enough to enroll.
There’s not gonna be any time to teach her everything. ”
David paused and shot a glance over his shoulder at Callie, as if he thought she was going to chime in for some reason. However, she didn’t have anything to say on this matter and only shrugged.
“Right,” David continued. “There is a financial factor for sure. It’s funny how the article barely touched on that.” He chuckled. “Guess that’s another reason to assume it was pretty biased.”
“When we get home, maybe you can look up an article that’s on the opposite side. To have a more... balanced view... you know?” Sasha said with a nonchalant tone.
He grinned at this. “That’s a great idea! Oh, but speaking of jobs, did you ever end up applying the bookstore? Callie mentioned that Kate offered you a temporary gig there.”
“I’m still putzing around with my resume,” Sasha admitted.
“I know I’m wasting a lot of time, but I’m trying to get it perfect.
I just wish I had more things to list under ‘job experience’ or ‘education.’ And before you suggest that I just need to pad it a little, trust me, I’ve already done all the padding possible. ”
“I wasn’t going to suggest that. Actually, I was gonna ask if you’d show it to me when we get back.
It’s been a while since I’ve had to send my own resume anywhere, but I’ve been in charge of hiring new people in my department for years now, so I know what employers care about when it comes to resumes.
Not that Kate’s going to care. Based on what Callie said, it seems like the job is yours if you want it—with or without a resume. ”
“It’s true,” Callie added, speeding up her pace a little so they could hear her. “Kate’s not going to need to see your resume. Or if she does, it’d be just so she has something on file for you, that’s all.”
“I still want to get in the habit of updating it,” Sasha said and then smiled up at David. “I’d actually really appreciate your help, thank you.”
He smiled back, beaming like a proud father. “No problem.”
This wasn’t the first time Callie noticed David’s paternal care for Sasha.
He’d always been such a caring dad and in the same way that Callie’s own maternal instincts kicked in when Sasha and Dot had arrived, she could tell David was feeling something similar.
She found it a bit ironic that David had been so wary about hosting Sasha but was now deeply invested in her future—nonetheless, this was a good kind of irony.
If only Callie’s children could open their hearts to Sasha and Dot too, but that seemed impossible.
Over the past few days, Mallory had made a few gallant efforts to converse with Sasha, but there was still a lot of tension between them.
It made Callie wonder if she’d made a huge mistake by not giving Mallory more of a heads up.
It made her stomach twist when she considered how her other kids were going to take the news.
Unless of course, Mallory had already told her siblings—she couldn’t exactly be trusted to keep her mouth shut.
She paled at the thought but tried to brush it off quickly.
At that same moment, Dot let out a shrill cry that startled everyone and sent Sasha rushing to check on her. Callie and David panicked too.
“Oh, I think there’s something in her eye,” Sasha said. “Like some dust.” She took the baby out of the stroller and gently wiped Dot’s eye with the sleeve of her flannel shirt.
“Hold on,” Callie said. “If it’s a grain of sand or something, you might scratch her eye.” She reached for Dot. “Let me take her to the bathrooms over there and use some water. This happened once to Ariel.”
“I remember that,” David said. “She screamed bloody murder but then was fine after we splashed water on her face.”
The three of them scurried off to the bathrooms. There was a long line, but when a woman in the back saw the Callie’s worried expression and the screaming baby in her arms, she stepped out of the way.
The bathrooms were like the dirty ones at the beach, but with individual rooms so anybody could use one that was open.
“You go ahead,” another man said. Soon enough, Callie, Dot, and Sasha were rushed to the front of the line.
Sasha was tearing up with fear, but Callie kept her cool and smiled at everyone who let them pass.
At the door, David told them he’d stay outside with the stroller.
Dot continued screaming into Callie’s ear, but she didn’t care.
They rushed inside the next open stall the minute the person came out.
At the sink, Sasha cupped her hands under the faucet and then dumped cold water over her baby’s head.
Dot shrieked even louder at this, but Callie insisted that Sasha keep it up.
After three more attempts, Dot was able to open both eyes fully.
Callie looked into the right one, which was a little red but didn’t seem too irritated.
“I think she’s okay,” Callie reassured her. “Probably just a little scared. Let’s just give her a second to calm down and then see if she can blink normally.”
Dot’s eyes remained scrunched up in pain as she wailed a few more times, but the next time she opened them, the baby was no longer trying to keep the right one half-closed.
“I think she’s feeling better. Here.” Callie held out the baby.
Sasha took her child into her arms and pressed Dot tightly to her chest, calming her. Sasha took a few deep breaths too, and Callie chuckled to ease her own anxiety.
“Whew. I know that was alarming, but it’s all okay now.”
“How do we know she didn’t scratch her cornea or something?”
“I think she’d still be crying a lot if she did,” Callie said.
“But then again, I’m not a doctor, so don’t take what I say as gospel.
” But Sasha was looking at her in a way that said she needed Callie to tell her what to do.
She was too young, too scared, and too new to motherhood—she had no idea what to do.
Callie took a deep breath and added, “I’d say we wait a little bit to see if she starts rubbing the eye more and go from there.
If she seems fine after a few hours and the eye isn’t as red, then we’re probably in the clear. ”
Sasha nodded. “Yeah, alright.” She tucked her chin in to get a look at Dot’s face. “She’s already starting to doze off, so I’ll let her sleep and then check the eye again when we get home.”
Callie smiled and put a hand on Sasha’s shoulder. “That’s a good plan.”
“Thanks for jumping into action back there,” Sasha said. “You’re like wonder woman. I don’t know what I’d do without you.”
“I’m no more wondrous than any other woman who’s raised three kids. These are the sorts of things you learn on the job, and I promise, you’ll get better at jumping into action as time goes on. It just takes practice.”
“I hope so,” Sasha said, exhaling heavily.
David knocked on the door to the bathroom and called from the other side, “Is everything okay?”
“Yeah, we’re good!” Callie called back. “We’re coming out now.”
They left the bathroom. David, who’d become quite pale when Dot first started screaming, was also looking calmer. He touched the sleeping baby’s cheek and said, “Gave us a good scare there, little one.”
“We’re going to keep a close watch on her eye,” Callie explained. “And take her to urgent care if it seems to get worse, but for now, she’s fine.”
David nodded. “Should we head home early though? Just to avoid any more sandy wind? I’d hate for something else to irritate her.”
“Yeah, good thinking. Why don’t you two go to the car,” Callie suggested. “I just have to stop at one more booth before I go, but I swear, I won’t be long.”
“I’ll believe it when I see it,” David said, laughing.
“I’m serious!” Callie clicked her tongue. “I’m just going to grab a few more veggies for this recipe I want to try. I’ll meet you all back at the car in five minutes.”
“Alright, but I’m timing you.”
Callie rolled her eyes and then dashed back into the crowd.