Standing In The Crowd

Three days later, I’d officially settled into Bakersfield. I had worked 20 hours in the past two days while Edna watched Torrie, but today before work I was going to find a daycare. So I got up, packed a diaper bag for Torrie, and got the stroller ready. Now for the far more difficult task: dressing her.

She’d finally decided she hated wearing clothes, shoes, and anything on her head.

“C’mon sweety,” I smiled down as I picked my daughter up out of her crib. She opened her electric blue eyes and locked on mine.

She really did look like her father and I was so glad she’d gotten his eyes. She cooed as I carried her to the dresser and I tried to balance her in one arm while fumbling through the drawers in search of an outfit for her. After a few minutes I settled on a blue onesy with the words “Mommy’s Little Monster” Jennifer had given me and a simple jeans skirt from Alyssa.

After locating Torrie’s booties and hat (then wrestling them on the poor, screaming infant) I put her in the stroller and at long last we were off to the daycare center down the street.

It was about ten minutes past the Hispanic shopping center in a bright orange building.

“Well here we are,” I told Torrie walking up to the door with “Little Learners Center” in green and blue script.

I could feel the air conditioning as soon as I walked through the door as well as hear the screaming children playing in the background.

“Can I help you?” a blonde middle aged woman asked, walking towards Torrie and I.

“Well I was looking for a daycare for-” I started.

“Oh how sweet! She’s adorable. What’s your sister’s name?” the woman asked me expectantly.

“This is Torrie, my daughter,” I sighed.

“O-oh. Well what can I do for you two today?” she asked, suddenly a little less bubbly.

“Well, as I was trying to say we are looking for a daycare. I work during the day and I just want the best for my little girl,” I explained.

“Well I’m Monica and you’ve come to the right place. Let me give you the tour,” she grinned, opening up a little half-gate behind her, leading to a hallway with classrooms on all sides. I pushed the stroller to the side of the desk and lifted Torrie out of the stroller gently and carried her through the gate.

“We separate the different age groups to different rooms,” she explained, “This first door is for ages 6-12, this one is for 5-6, 3-5, 2-3, 18 months-2 years, and this is for 6 week olds to 18 month olds,” she said pointing to a door at the end of the hallway.

“So this is where Torrie would be?” I asked for lack of anything else to say.

“Yes. There are individual cribs for each of the children, a high staff to child ratio and several toys for playtime,” Monica continued, pointing out each of the features through the window (as the room was already occupied).

“It sounds amazing,” I breathed, holding Torrie a little tighter.

“Well we try very hard to make Little Learners the safest, most fun, and still a learning environment. There is also an outside play area for the older children complete with obstacle courses and nature walks around the area,” she smiled, pointing to a windowless door at the end of the hallway.

I nodded.

“So are you interested?” she asked and I nodded, “Then let’s go to the main desk and discuss tuition.”

Uh oh, it’s called tuition.

We walked back down the hallway to the desk and Monica got some pamphlets from behind the desk. I looked at the pamphlets, but saw no pricing.

“Now how many hours per week are we talking?” she asked, grabbing a piece of paper and a pen.

“For the most part I work 7 hours Monday through Friday and 10 hours Saturday, so 45 hours a week,” I told her after thinking through my newly decided work schedule.

“Well then, this would be the figure we’d be looking at would be, this-” Monica said, scribbling something down on the paper then handing it to me.

“This is per month right?” I asked, really hoping. That would be barely doable.

“No, this would be per week,” she smiled and I went bugeyed.

“Are there any payment options?” I asked.

“Afraid not. We’re not a charity case,” she continued with her plastic smile.

“Well then I’ll come back with the first payment later this month when I get a paycheck,” I sighed, having no intention of coming back. There was no way I could get that kind of money- ever. The escort money was almost gone and I wanted to keep the remains as emergency money.

“Alright, see you then,” Monica sneered and I could tell she knew I wasn’t coming back, “Nice to meet you.”

“You too,” I managed as I replaced Torrie into the stroller and marched out of the overpriced daycare with my head held high.

As soon as I got outside I realized just how frustrated I was. There was no way I was going to be able to afford to send Torrie to such an amazing daycare, especially on my pay. I decided I needed to walk it off so Torrie and I went farther down the street until we got to my work. I decided to show Torrie off.

I smiled as I walked in the door with my back turned so I could bring the stroller in as well.

“Good afternoon,” a familiar voice greeted me.

“Hello Chris, I was taking a walk with my daughter and decided to stop by so you could meet her,” I explained as I turned around and before the door even shut Chris had snatched Torrie from her stroller and was fascinated by her.

“So this is little Torrie,” he grinned as she started to blow bubbles.

“The one and only.”

“She really is a sweetheart, and with those blue eyes, damn,” he continued.

“Yeah, she got those from her father,” I grinned and he nodded. All he knew was that the father wasn’t in the picture and knew not to ask anything further.

“So where are you guys walking?” he asked, walking over to a booth and sitting down.

“On an unsuccessful hunt for a daycare for Torrie,” I sighed.

“I see, you try Little Learners down the street?” he asked, his eyes still fixed on Torrie.

“Oh, yeah. You wanna see what it would cost me?” I asked and he nodded so I handed him the little piece of paper Monica had written her figure on.

“Per month?”

“Try per week,” I sighed and Chris’ eyebrows raised a full inch.

“Holy shit.”

“No kidding.”

“You know my friend Peter’s son goes there and they don’t charge anywhere near that,” Chris told me slowly.

“Really? Maybe it’s because I told them Torrie’d be there for 45 hours a week,” I suggested, confused.

“No, that place charges by the month and besides his son goes there for more than that a week,” Chris continued.

“Well then why are they charging me an arm and a leg?”

“I don’t know. You should march down there and ask,” he suggested, handing Torrie back to me.

“Maybe I will. Dammit,” I breathed. I was beyond pissed.

I left and marched right back to the daycare and Monica was obviously surprised to see me again.

“Charlotte-”

“Hello Monica. Look, cut the crap. I know you’re way overcharging me for the daycare. What gives?” I demanded.

“What are you talking about?” she asked gently enough.

“Well my boss has a friend who goes here and I know how much the usual rate is,” I countered.

“Oh, well that would be our family price,” she smiled.

“And I don’t qualify for this family price?” I sneered.

“Well I don’t see a ring on your finger so no, I’m afraid you don’t,” she told me, still smiling.

I repressed the sudden urge to choke her.

“I see.”

“Well, it was lovely to see you again,” she whispered then opened the door for me to leave.

Once again, I held my head high and walked out of there and brooded the entire walk back to the house.

Just because I’m a single mother, she thinks my baby doesn’t deserve to be there. Geeze. What a selfish, spoiled bitch.

Edna was waiting on the front porch when I came back.

“How’d the daycare hunt go?” she asked.

“Not well,” I sighed, then smiled. I didn’t want to drag Edna through this. I was afraid she’d want to help and it would cause her a lot of problems.

“Well I do have a friend who runs an in-house daycare place a few blocks over,” she told me.

“Really? Well count me in,” I told her. I was done hunting and if they were a friend of Edna’s they’d be okay with me being a single mother.

***

Two days later I was picking up Torrie from the sitter’s house. She was a seventy year old woman who only had a handful of children there. I was just grateful the price was a quarter of the Little Learner’s price.

“Hello, Linda. I’m here to pick up Torrie,” I beamed.

“Torrie? Okay, give me a second,” Linda said kindly enough as she turned around and headed into the small house.

I fidgeted uneasily in the doorway. It wasn’t exactly the best neighborhood in town. It seemed ages before Linda came back with a toddler walking next to her.

“Well here she is,” Linda smiled, shoving the poor boy towards me who started screaming.

“Linda, that’s not Torrie,” I tried to tell her.

“George, it’s your mommy. Why are you crying?” she demanded of the toddler who was still screaming.

“Linda, that’s not Torrie,” I said louder and Linda looked at me again.

“Oh- Torrie. Not Georgy. My mistake,” she told me, going back in the house, but leaving poor George with me.

“C’mon George. It’s okay,” I tried to console the boy and he just continued. I noticed I was getting stares in every direction. I felt my cheeks turning redder by the second.

“Here we go,” Linda said with Torrie in her arms.

“Trade ya,” I offered, shoving George back in the house as Torrie reached out towards me.

“Hey you,” I said, caressing her nearly bald head.

“See you tomorrow,” Linda smiled as she shut the door. I sighed and started the long walk back to the house. I knew Linda was a friend of Edna’s but the woman was old and her mind just wasn’t there anymore. I needed to get Torrie to Little Learners.

You don’t make that kind of money washing dishes sweety.

I groaned. I knew what I needed to do to get the money. I just didn’t like the idea of it. I remembered how dirty I’d felt before.

It’s either that or Torrie getting handed to some stranger never to be seen again.

I looked down at Torrie who was happily cooing and realized I needed to do it for her, no matter how much I didn’t want to. I was going back into the escort business.