“Good God, man!
What have you done!?”
“I don’t know! I did everything it
said on the note. Even to a T!”
The first night of babysitting and
Barry thought he had it all down. Joan’s mother had instructions; simple to
follow for simple needs children. Even TV time was the least of worries since
Joan had gotten into drawing. That did plenty of damage to Barry’s paper
supply, at least for his inkjet printer.
Times for snacks, homework, dinner,
and bedtime, were also simple to follow. Except it was difficult for Barry to
coax Joan into doing her English assignments. She loved her drawings and
further loved math.
“They’ve got this thing called
geometry in it,” She said. “There’s like drawings galore of circles and
triangles.”
That struggle was nothing compared
to what Barry was facing now. Joan was face down into her dessert, corn bread
and chocolate ice cream. Being the nervous type, too nervous to check for
snores or breathing, Barry phoned a nearby babysitting helpline. He had
explained the situation and the instructions left behind, but they seemed to
have the same type of nervousness.
Barry waited minutes while the
helpline’s staff scurried about their offices, cross-referencing data regarding
children and health. The on-hold soundtrack blared New Age numbers mostly
consisting of the same ocean sounds. He took the opportunity, putting the phone
on speaker, to check on Joan.
He looked close at her Adam’s Apple
to see if some breathing action was taking place. There was. Barry relaxed and
hung up on the helpline. He forgot about the two hours of Draw Something they
played together.
For Flash Fiction Project prompt 34.
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