Sara tried to ignore the inner cringe that caused her shoulders to bunch up. Every parent had pet peeves. For some it was talking back, others it was being messy or chewing with your mouth open, for her it was whining. She could handle the anger of temper tantrums, the tears of a total meltdown, and toys being strewn around a floor, but whining was the kryptonite to her retaining her four vital Cs: cool, calm, collected, composure. Trevor was old enough that with just a look, he’d change his tone if it was veering into whine territory. But explaining the nuanced difference of speaking with a normal voice versus using a whiney one was completely lost on a three-year-old.
“Yes, you can,” Sara answered, successfully managing to suffocate all of the irritation and frustration that was bubbling up in her.
She walked to the front desk, the kids at her side, and looked for a bell or something to announce their arrival. When she didn’t see anything she called out, “Hello?”
Nothing.
No one.
It was déjà vu of the B&B.
Just as she was about to call out again, a teenage boy came out from a door that she assumed led to an office. He was looking down at the phone he was holding in his hands and a pair of white wireless earphones were stuck in his ears.
Sara waited for him to notice her as he took a seat on a stool behind the counter that she was standing at, but he didn’t.
“Um, hello,” she repeated, this time waving her hand.
The motion caught his attention and he looked up. He must not have been expecting to see anyone because he jerked his head back, which tipped him off balance on the stool and set in motion a domino effect.
The next few seconds were a blur. There was a crash as the wooden stool hit the ground. His phone launched out of his hands as his hands and feet flew in the air. A screen door slammed and a woman wearing a Whisper Lake Rentals ball cap rushed over gasping, “Oh my gosh!” Charlotte was plastered to Sara’s side and Trevor was pumping his hand in the air triumphantly as he yelled. “I got it! I got it!”
It took a moment for Sara to process everything but when she did, she reached out toward the teen who was pushing himself up, using the wall for leverage and began apologizing, “I’m so sorry! I didn’t mean to scare you.”
At the same time she was talking, the woman that had just joined them snatched the earpiece from his left ear. “I told you not to wear these when you’re watching the store. I’m so sorry,” she apologized to Sara.
“I got it! I got it!” Trevor was still yelling.
Sara glanced beside her and saw that her son was holding the phone. The kid did have catlike reflexes. He loved baseball and was sure that he was going to play in the big leagues one day.
Ignoring the woman that had tugged the earphones from him, the teen smiled widely at Trevor. “Damn, you caught that?”
“KJ.” The woman elbowed him in the ribs.
KJ’s face scrunched. “What?”
“Damn is a bad word,” Charlotte offered.
“It’s fine.” Sara told her daughter, hoping that the subject would get dropped. She didn’t want to make this encounter any more awkward than it already was and once her daughter got started listing bad words it was anyone’s guess where the conversation would go.
“Yes, it is. You’re absolutely right.” The woman smiled at Charlotte then gave the teen what Sara called a “mom” stare. To a non-parent, it might just read as tense, but to a person trying to raise respectful members of society, it read as you-have-two-seconds-to-remove-your-head-out-of-your-rear-and-act-right.
Charlotte was, of course, totally oblivious to the “mom stare” being directed to KJ and beamed up at both strangers, glowing with glee at being right.
“Sorry.” The teen grumbled before accepting the phone back that Trevor had been trying to hand to him. When he took it he immediately made a fist and gave Trevor a pound. “That was a sick catch, little dude. You’ve got a good arm.”
Now both kids were beaming. Charlotte at being right and Trevor because a cool teenager gave him a compliment.
KJ reached for the woman’s fisted hand that was holding his earpiece and moved to step beside her. Before she released her grip, she said, “Break down the boxes before you put them out by the bin next time.”
The teen nodded and her fingers un-flexed. He retrieved the small white device that was lying on her palm and put it back in his ear before stepping around her and back into the room he’d come out of.
“I’m so sorry about that.” The woman smiled as she moved into the spot behind the counter that the teen had just vacated. “Hi, I’m Ali, what can I do for…”
When Ali’s eyes met Sara’s her words trailed off.
Sara waited, not sure what was going on.
Ali tilted her head to the side, causing the blonde hair pulled through the snapback cap to fall over shoulder. “You look so familiar. Do I…do we… know each other?”