8. Chapter 8 #3
“Well, you haven’t tried it yet; how do you know you don’t like it till you’ve tried it?” she asked, tilting her head so they could make eye contact. Theo took another look at his food but shook his head again.
“No, I don’t like it. Can I have chicken nuggets instead?” He asks with a hopeful smile, but Luna doesn’t look like she is ready to give up. Damn it.
“But there aren’t any chicken nuggets left, and I made this special just for you,” she says sweetly, lying through her teeth because there was, in fact, an extra-large bag of chicken nuggets in the freezer, a necessary purchase for a child of any age.
Theo goes quiet; he didn’t want to make her upset by not eating her food, but didn’t want to try it either, being so conflicted about what to do.
Theo is on the verge of tears. Time for me to step in.
I’m not about to watch her force my child to eat something he didn’t want to, no matter how good it smells.
But I stop at the sound of Luna’s chair scraping against the tiled floor.
“Theo, can I show you something?” she asks gently, waiting for him to slowly nod yes. Then she heads back towards the kitchen, meaning she would have no choice but to pass me lurking in the hallway to get there.
Shit.
I turn away quickly enough so that Theo doesn’t see me, but evidently not quickly enough for her to notice me. She jumps back, startled, but then chooses to ignore me.
We stare at each other for a moment, then she offers me an unreadable smile and jogs into the kitchen.
What the hell was that smile? Who did she think she was?
Well, she hasn’t won this thing yet. Luna returns with her backpack in hand, slipping past me and making her way back to Theo, now aware that I’m watching her.
She pulls her chair out slightly and places her backpack on her lap as Theo and I watch her lift out a rolled-up piece of A3-sized paper secured with a red elastic band, which she snaps off and unrolls.
“This is a new food chart,” she explains, revealing a laminated monthly calendar-looking chart. Theo’s eyes lit up at the sight of it, and his big smile returned. I can’t see what the fuss was about until I notice the way she holds it up more, angling it so I can see it from where I’m standing.
The chart had the words ‘Theo’s Food Chart’ written at the top in hand-drawn video game bubble font and had little drawings of all the different Mario characters running all along the border, including the big Mario with a thumbs-up next to Theo’s name.
Son of a bitch, coloured me impressed; when did she have the time to do this? She hadn’t known Theo for more than a day, and yet knew exactly what he liked and found a way to implement that into something useful. That was more than his own mother.
This irritability just increased her chances of getting hired.
“My brother and I had one of these growing up; his was Kingdom Hearts themed, and mine was Bratz.” I have no idea what either of those things means, but I was pretty sure they were just fads she and her newly discovered brother must have been into as children.
“Wow, and my one has Mario on it!” He yells, pointing to the chart.
“Yup! I put all the characters on there because I know it’s your favourite,” she smiles, making Theo’s smile wider and his cheeks red.
“So, this chart is to keep track of all the new foods and every time you try one…” she pauses to reach into her bag again, pulling out a packet of Mario-themed stickers and waving them towards Theo.
“You get a gold star, and it’s okay if you don’t like some of the new foods you try, but as long as you try them and try 7 new foods by the end of the month-” she pauses again to point to the bottom right corner of the chart that had a big Mario star with the words ‘WISH’ written inside it.
“You get to push the wish button, and you have a whole day to make a wish,” she reveals, shooting me a sly smirk, then back at Theo, who was bouncing up and down in his seat.
“Yay! I want a wish!” he says with excitement. Without wasting another second, he dives into his food and shovels it into his mouth as fast as he can.
“This is delicious, Luna, thank you!” he says, swallowing a mouthful of food.
“You’re welcome, honey, but you gotta slow down, okay, otherwise you’ll choke,” she suggests, stroking his hair as he starts eating a tad slower.
What a kiss-up; he never slowed down when I asked him to. Not that that was important right now, but it should be. I hate to admit it, but I’m really impressed by what Luna did.
I still have my reservations, but she had just gotten Theo to do something it took Min-Joon and me days, weeks, even to accomplish, and she did it in a matter of minutes…
Nigel may have also been right; her experience with children was as clear as day, and what’s worse is that I have to hire her now. I tell myself, turning my attention back to them, but I only saw Theo chopping down his dinner and didn’t notice Luna until she was standing next to me.
Making sure to hide the surprise on my face, I turned to face her and watched as she placed her finger over her lip and pointed towards the kitchen. I don’t know why I obediently followed her when this was my house, but I did, until we were both standing in the kitchen.