Peace Sign

I pulled up in front of the Montgomery household that Saturday evening. As I got out of my car, I could have sworn I saw Mia peer out the window and then quickly disappear. I knocked on the front door twice and could distinctly hear a toddler shouting, "She's here! Daddy, she's here!"

A couple of seconds later, the door opened, revealing Derek carrying Mia with one arm and Mia's arms wrapped around Derek's neck.

"Hey," Derek said happily about the same time Mia exclaimed, "Angie!"

"Hello," I responded as Derek held the door open a little wider for me to walk inside the house. I took a quick scan of what I guessed was the living room and realized that Derek's parents must make some serious bank if they live in such a nice house.

After Derek closed the door, he set Mia down and she instantly ran over to me and hugged my legs. I laughed and bent down to hug her back. "How are you, Mia?" I asked.

"Good! Do you wanna play dolls with me?" Mia's blue eyes grew wide and hopeful and she was rocking back and forth on her heels.

I smiled widely and was about to respond but before I could, I heard an older woman say, "Emilia, sweetheart, give your babysitter a chance to relax." I looked to my right and saw who I could assume was Derek's mother walk into the living room. She was wearing a long, gold silk dress with thin straps and had her hair held up in a neat bun. "Hi," she said to me with a kind smile on her face, "you must be Evangeline. I'm Derek's mother but you can just call me Katie."

Mrs. Montgomery held her hand out and I shook it. "It's very nice to meet you. And you can just call me Angie, it's simpler, I think."

"Oh, but I think Evangeline is an exquisite name." Right after Mrs. Montgomery said that, a man who I could assume was Derek's father walked in the room and smiled at me.

"Hello, Evangeline. I'm Derek's father, Jake, " Mr. Montgomery announced enthusiastically while holding out his hand, as well. I shook his hand as he added, "Our son, Derek here has told us really, really nice things about you." It was very brief, but I saw Mr. Montgomery wink at Derek who was behind me.

I turned to see Derek who just stared at me blankly. "Well, I would hope so," I replied to Derek's dad.

Mrs. Montgomery giggled and said, "Evangeline, thank you so much for babysitting tonight on such sort notice. We really do appreciate it."

"Oh, it's really no problem at all," I replied.

"Alright, well we better get going," Mr. Montgomery said. "All emergency numbers are on the fridge and if you have any questions or need anything we wrote down our cell phone numbers and don't hesitate to call."

"Okay, got it," I said as Derek's parents started to head for the door.

As Derek was putting on his jacket, he turned to me. "Mia already had her dinner but if she wants a snack, there are a couple of cookies on the counter. But, please don't give her too much or else she won't be able to sleep. Her bedtime is around eight o' clock. She likes to be told a story before bed. She has lots of books in her room so you don't have to worry about that. I think that's pretty much it."

"Alright, sounds good," I said and nodded.

Derek smiled and grabbed his cell phone on the counter. "Remember, if you or Mia need anything, just call. We should be back around eleven-thirty. Thanks so much again for doing this, Angel. You're the best," he said as he pulled me in for a quick hug. About thirty seconds later, the three of them pulled out of the driveway and drove off.

I looked around the living room but Mia wasn't there. "Mia?" I called out. I started to slowly walk towards the kitchen, looking in all directions. Right when I stepped on the tile floor in the kitchen, I heard, "Boo!" Mia popped out from behind the counter.

I dramatically jumped and placed a hand on my chest, as if I were scared to death, while Mia was happily giggling. "Oh my goodness! Emilia, why would you do that?" I made an exaggerated gasp. "I'm gonna get you," I said, slowly moving toward her with my hands up. Mia squealed, still giggling and ran away from me as fast as she could. "Come back here!" I called out, running after her and laughing along with her. Soon enough, I caught her just as she was about to run up the stairs. "Got you!" I exclaimed happily.

"Angie! Not fair!" Mia shouted, but she was still giggling.

"Do you want to play dolls now?" I asked her and her face lit up. She started bouncing up and down energetically as she grabbed my hand.

"Yeah!" She responded. "My dollies are upstairs. Come on!" She tugged my hand until I started following her up the stairs to her room.

Mia's room was a reasonable size for a three year old and it was surprisingly neat. There were no toys or clothes scattered everywhere like I had expected. I also noticed a giant pink 'M' sticker placed on the wall above her bed. As Mia said, all of her dolls were neatly placed in a circle with a small table in the middle and little plastic cups and plates.

"They're having a tea party!" Mia announced, clapping her hands together. She looked at all of her dolls and her smile slowly started to fade. "Where's Annie?" she asked to no one in particular. "Angie, Annie was sitting right here," Mia said sadly, pointing next to a doll with straight black hair and wearing what seemed to be a wedding gown.

"Huh," I said, my eyebrows furrowed together. "Well, let's try to look for her. Did you take Annie anywhere today?"

Mia seemed to be thinking long and hard about the answer to my question. Then, a look of enlightenment showed on her face. "Daddy's room!" She exclaimed with wide eyes. She started to run out of her room. I assumed I was supposed to stay where I was until her head popped back in her room and she looked at me. "Angie, please come with me?" she said as more of a question than a statement.

"Oh, okay," I replied and followed her to Derek's room, apparently.

Derek's room wasn't as neat as his daughter's nor was it as messy as a typical teenage boy's room. His bed wasn't neatly made and there were only a couple of articles of clothing sprawled on the floor. I awkwardly stood near the front door while Mia frantically searched for her missing doll. As she was looking under the bed, curiosity got the best of me and I started to wander around Derek's room. I first observed his desk which was placed across from his bed and there were numerous pictures taped to the sides of the mirror. There were many pictures of Mia smiling and laughing, even as a baby. As I reached to fix a picture that appeared to be crooked, another picture below it fell on the desk and it was bent. I quickly picked up the picture to put it back when I saw that, after unfolding the bent part of the picture, this picture was of Derek, Mia (as a newborn), and a girl with blond hair and familiar ocean blue eyes. She appeared to look Derek's age and honestly looked like an older version of Mia with blond hair. I took a lucky guess that this person is Mia's mother.

"I can't find her!" Mia was tugging on my pants to get my attention and she was pouting. I put the picture back where I found it and turned to Mia.

"Oh, sweetie, we'll find her. Don't worry. We just have to keep looking," I said, hoping to make her feel better. "Maybe she's in the closet," I added, pointing to a partly closed door on the side of Derek's bed.

Mia nodded, still pouting. "Yeah," she replied, walking towards the closet door and opening it.

I followed her and helped her move things around to find the missing doll. I couldn't help but notice Derek's acoustic guitar leaning on the wall inside the closet. The guitar case was placed next to it, with many papers filled with writing. I assumed that those written papers were lyrics. When Mia's head was turned away, I got curious again and sneaked a peek at the paper on top of the pile in the guitar case. I only read the title of the paper ('Crushing Hard') and the first couple of lines ('Why am I feeling this way, She's so untouchable') before I heard Mia happily yell, "I found her!"

I jumped a little bit and turned to Mia to see her hugging her now found doll. "Yay!" I responded, standing up from the floor. "Now, come on, let's join everyone else and have a tea party." Before Mia and I left Derek's room, I made sure that everything was where it was before.

***

Around eight-fifteen, Mia started to yawn indicating that she was pretty much ready for bed. The last couple of hours included Mia and myself having a lovely tea party, playing freeze dance, and watching one of her favorite Barbie movies.

"Angie, can you babysit me forever?" Mia asked me with a serious facial expression as she climbed into bed.

"Of course, I would love to," I replied, smiling.

"Good," Mia said with a huge smile on her face. "The only girl grown up around here is Grandma but she's old and no fun. You're very fun."

Unintentionally, I burst out laughing at Mia's statement about her grandmother. I helped Mia cover herself with her blankets and I adjusted her pillow so she was comfortable. "Okay," I said, "what story would you like for me to read to you?"

"Um," Mia said as she looked at the pile of books on her desk next to her bed. She then pulled out a book that was in the middle of the pile. "Sleeping Beauty," she said as she handed the large, thin book to me.

I took the book and sat on Mia's bed across from her. "Once upon a time," I began, holding the open book on my lap. Mia was looking at me with a satisfied smile. I was almost finished with the book when I looked up and saw Mia fast asleep, breathing steadily. I closed the book and slowly and quietly got up from the small bed.

As I quietly placed the book on top of the book pile, I felt a hand on my right shoulder. Startled, I quickly turned around to see Derek smiling at me. "Oh, it's you," I whispered, relieved.

Derek quietly chuckled. "Sorry if I scared you," he whispered. He looked at Mia and then back at me. "How did it go?" he asked.

"Really well," I said with a smile.

"Great," Derek said before he moved closer to Mia and dropped a gentle kiss on her forehead.

After saying goodnight to Mr. and Mrs. Montgomery and thanking them for letting me babysit Mia, Derek walked me outside to my car. "Okay," he told me, pulling out money from his pocket, "here is your forty bucks. I can't thank you enough for taking care of her tonight."

"It's really not a big deal," I said, putting the money in my purse. "She's very well behaved."

Derek smiled before pulling me in for a hug. As we were hugging, I couldn't help but notice how good he smelled. I pulled away from him before I became even more of a creep. "Alright, well, I guess I'll see you on Monday."

Derek shoved his hands in his pockets and nodded. "You bet," he replied. I waved to him one final time before driving away.

That night, before I went to sleep, I thought about the lyrics I found in Derek's closet. It's obviously a love song but I wondered who it was about. Who is Derek crushing on? Who is "so untouchable"? It could be about any one of the girls falling over him at school.

Not that I care or anything. I mean, it's not like I have a crush on him.