Chapter 7 #2
“Don’t do that either, or you might find yourself in the dog house again.
” He promised that he’d not and decided that his brother had a lot of good advice.
“Another thing you might want to do is to make sure you have a car seat for her. I know you know the laws about them, but you don’t want to be teased about having her in your car and no car seat. ”
He started making notes on things that his brother was telling him, and was very glad that he wasn’t making fun of him.
He would make sure not only did she have a car seat, but that she was buckled in properly too.
There were all kinds of things that he was going to have to do with the little girl.
The topmost was to make her safe as she’d be with her mom.
Secondly, it was to make sure that nothing ever happened to her while on his time.
He’d never forgive himself if something happened to the little girl.
She was quickly becoming someone that he loved as much as he already did her mom.
It didn’t take him long to get ready for work tomorrow.
He was going to start going in early now so that he’d be ready when the time came.
He also wanted to make sure that the school had his name and phone number in the event that they couldn’t get in touch with Anna.
He was going to be her stepdad soon, and he wanted to make sure that the world knew it.
Going to bed tonight, he felt good about the progress he was making in their lives.
They sure had made an impact on his life, and he wanted to make sure that they knew it.
Tomorrow afternoon, he had an appointment to look at a house.
While he knew that Anna couldn’t get out of work to go with him, he’d make sure that he took plenty of pictures so that she could see it when he did.
He was going to be a girl dad, and he wanted to also have plenty of bathroom space in the house for them.
Being sentimental had never felt so good before.
Just before he was ready to close his eyes, Anna called him. He was worried that something had gone wrong, but all she wanted to do was to tell him that she was sorry for overreacting today.
“I had it in my head that things were never going to be right, and I took it out on you.” He said he’d never felt like that, and she had been fine.
“I talked to Harri, and she said that you picking her up would be all right. But I was to make sure you knew the rules. I have to get you a car seat for her, too. That’s something that I don’t want to forget having a police officer pick my girl up.
” They both laughed, and he mentally marked that off of his list to talk to her about.
“We’ll do just fine, the two of us. And like I said, we can get to know one another better, too with just the two of us hanging around together.
” She thought that was going to be the best part.
“Thank you for saying that. I already love the little girl and can’t wait to see what she grows up to be. ”
“I don’t want to talk about her growing up.
She’s all I have at the moment, and talking about her growing up will make the time go by faster.
I don’t need that.” Anna sounded teary-eyed and he changed the subject.
“Yes, having your parents on the list, too would be a good idea. I’m glad you thought of that.
” He gave credit to Aaron about that and was glad that he’d been able to bring it up with her.
“I need to get off here and get to bed. I hope that I didn’t wake you up. ”
“No. I was just going to bed, but not asleep yet.” He wanted to tell her that he’d fallen in love with her, but knew she’d not be ready to hear that.
He was trying to be the best he could be for her and was happy when she told him to sleep well.
Zeno knew that he would because he’d ended his day talking to her. Yes, he was being sappy again.
~*~
Anna finished up the route in record time today.
She wasn’t sure how, David had been lagging behind since they started out.
He was out of shape, too, for someone that wanted a walking route.
She supposed that she’d been as well when she first started out, but she’d been working in it.
He didn’t seem to understand why they had to stop at each house, even when they didn’t have any mail.
“They might have something going out, and you wouldn’t know that unless you checked the box.
Didn’t you learn that when you took the test for a postal career?
It was right there in the books.” He said that he remembered it, but didn’t see any reason for stopping every time.
“I just told you. Because they might have mail going out. Or they might need something from you. You just never know what you’re going to run into when you’re a postal worker. ”
“I know that this is going to be harder than I thought.” She delivered the mail to the next house and waited for him to catch up.
He’d been two houses behind her all morning, and she thought that she was never going to be finished with her route.
Then he perked up toward the end, and that was why she was able to finish.
“Don’t you take a break? All the houses have chairs on them that you could just have a seat and rest a bit. ”
“You’re not supposed to do that. They put them there for themselves.
” He wasn’t going to last, she just knew it.
And then the postal service would be down another person because he was going to get caught taking a nap on someone’s porch when they weren’t home.
“You really need to follow the rules and do what you’re supposed to do.
It’ll take you a while to get up to speed, but that should be all that’s going to keep you from getting done on time.
You can’t take naps or rest any while you’re on the job. ”
“We’ll see about that.” Leaving the mail that hadn’t been on her route at the post office, she was headed home when her boss asked to speak to her about David.
She told her just what she had encountered and what he’d said.
She wasn’t going to be getting into trouble by him saying that she said he could take a nap, either.
She told Dolores just what she thought about him making it too. He wasn’t.
“I’ll have to keep an eye on him, I’m thinking not just for the first few days either but all the time.
If he pulls that shit, he’s going to be out of a job and not be hired again either.
Does he know how hard it is to get into one of these jobs?
It’s not easy at all.” Anna said that she knew that, and that was why she did everything in her power to make sure she kept the job, too.
“I know you do. I hear back from your customers all the time about how you do such a good job.”
She had to cover the route one more time with David before she’d be going on her other schedule.
It would be great if she could start early and get off in time to pick up Harri, but that was already planned out with her daughter and she was all right with that.
Today, she was getting off at four again but since the school knew that she was going to be late today, they’d made arrangements for her to be picked up later.
While at the school, she told them about Zeno and his parents picking up Harri.
“We’ll put them on the list. Since we know who they are, we won’t need a picture identification for them.
Mr. Dresden senior has been coming here for years, when there are things like forms that have to go home to the parents.
Some of the kids don’t have their shots all taken care of, and he goes over the paperwork that we have so that we know which students that need it.
Mrs. Dresden has always been helpful at fundraisers too.
” She said that she’d more than likely always be dropping her off, but on the off chance something happens, they’ll be able to do that as well.
“Good to know. We’ll have everything in place for them when they come to get her. Do they know the safe word for her?”
“Yes, I’ll make sure they do. I’d forgotten about that.
” She would have to tell the whole family the safe word to pick up Harri.
If something happened to her and they needed to take her out of school early, then all they’d have to do is tell the teacher string beans, and she’d be allow to go with them.
She never thought of a reason someone would have to take her out of school early, so she seldom thought about it but she would from now on.
“Also, if you could make it so you have their phone numbers too in the event you can’t get in touch with me. I don’t have them.”
“We’ll get them if we don’t already have them on file. I’m sure that we do, but I’ll make sure. I wish other parents were like you in getting things taken care of. We always know when Harri is having someone do something else for her when it’s necessary.”
“Yes, well, we’re all we have but each other and we need to make sure that we’re able to communicate well when something goes wrong.
” Again, she couldn’t think of something like that would go wrong but she was sure that for every one thing she could think of there were about fifty more that would pop up.
“I’ll pick her up tomorrow if everything goes right, and then she’ll have Zeno pick her up from then on. ”
“Yes, we have that.” After leaving the school with Harri, Anna went home to try to finish the laundry. She should have finished it yesterday, but Harri had cleaned her room and had found about another load of things that she didn’t know if they were clean or not. So she had to wash them to be sure.