Well Water...Part Four

When their oldest child, Savannah, was born, Shonda was employed as an assistant manager at Walgreen’s pharmacy. When she came off of maternity leave and went back to work, she just couldn’t stand the thought of leaving her baby girl with some stranger. It wasn’t a so much a case of separation anxiety, as it was that she just didn’t want to work at a job where the hours weren’t consistent. (okay, okay, maybe it was a mild case of anxiety). Along with her initial reservations about going back to work, Shonda and Chris had decided to find an at-home daycare provider so that Savannah could spend her days in a familiar setting instead of the typical, and unfriendly, confines of a “center” type facility.

What they settled on, was a younger woman, not much older than they were, who also had children of her own. In retrospect, their internal warning systems should have gone off when they found out that this would be her very first “student”. But she seemed nice and trustworthy and so they decided to give her a shot. Little did they know that Savannah would cry so much during the day that this woman made quite a deal about it on the first day when they came to pick her up. As Chris pulled up in the driveway, the woman practically ran out the door with the baby already in the pumpkin seat, ready to go. Chris assured her that when Savannah had grown accustomed to her that she would settle down. She made some wisecrack about Savannah “driving her to drink” but Chris thought nothing of it. In fact, the only thing he considered on the way home, was that he thought it strange that she made such a big deal about a baby crying. She was a home daycare provider, right?

Without dwelling on it too much, aside from telling Shonda when he got home, Chris took Savannah back the next morning and proceeded to work. Later on that day, Shonda called him and said that the lady was complaining, again, about Savannah’s crying and that she wasn’t sure if she could continue. Chris finished his day at the office and made the trek through rush hour traffic. This was another sore spot for this woman; even though Chris and Shonda both explained to her that he would not be able to be there any sooner than about 5:45 or 6:00 pm to pick her up, she made a huge ordeal when he got stuck in traffic the first day. Chris sighed because he was running late again. He spent the majority of his drive time by mentally preparing himself for another scolding from someone he barely knew.

On that second day, when Chris pulled up in the driveway, he was not met by the woman. He actually had a chance to walk up to the door and knock. When she opened the door, Chris was already prepared for the “you’re late” talk, but he was completely unprepared for what he saw. As the door opened, he saw that Savannah was already in her pumpkin seat. As the woman was bitching again about him being late and about how much the baby cried, he barely noticed a man sitting in the woman’s kitchen. As he turned his attention back toward the woman, something that he had just noticed began to nag at him. He looked back into the kitchen, this time being more observant. He noticed that the trash can was one of those that had the swivel type of lid. He also noticed that there were several beer cans that were keeping it from shutting all the way. He also noticed that there were four or five beer cans on the kitchen table, and that the man he presumed to be “husband” or “boyfriend” was busy finishing one off.

As he stood there, not really paying attention to the buzzing that was coming out of the woman’s mouth, he could feel the blood start rushing to his cheeks. All of a sudden, the woman’s off handed remark about “driving one to drink” became perfectly clear. He surmised that the woman had literally thought that getting drunk on beer would somehow make the day go by a little easier. To avoid a physical confrontation and a possible trip to the local precinct, Chris kept his mouth shut took out his check book. He wrote it out for the amount that they owed her, and then told her they wouldn’t be coming back. Then he picked up his baby girl and took her home.

Shonda was so enraged when she got home later that evening and Chris had informed her of what had happened that she started to pick up the phone give that chick a piece of her mind. He convinced her to just let it go and that they needed to figure out what they were going to do next. What Chris had expected her to say was “Honey, I’ll take a few days off from work and try to find a more qualified individual to care for our child during the day.” Instead, what she said was “Honey, I’ve been thinking about this for a long time.”

“Thinking about what?” Chris asked.

She said, “Listen, before you freak out, I want you to know that I was researching this the entire time I was on maternity leave…”

“Researching what?” he asked as he was starting to get a little worried (and somewhat annoyed) that she was being very vague.

“…and I think that I can really do it and make something out of it.”

“Something out of what!” he said. At this point his irritation was starting to show.

“And, if we gave that stupid chick a chance, then think of how many people will come to us, because I know I can do a better job.” She concluded this last statement and just stood there looking at him.

“For the love of God! What are you talking about?” He was upset by now.

He was getting a little more than nervous about this exchange and he had good reason. Shonda had a slightly annoying habit of starting off conversations with statements like “Don’t be mad but…” or “Listen, I know you told me not to but…” And he never knew what earth shattering news was about to be delivered or what miniscule event had happened to warrant this type of opening. Usually, these beginning salvos were followed with “I flex paid a new digital camera from HSN and it’s only going to cost us fifty five dollars a month for the next twelve months.” Or “I know you told me to wait but I went ahead and rearranged the entire living room while you were gone.”

This time, it was a little more important. When she finally decided that she had tortured him enough, she went into detail about a plan she had recently devised. She explained to him that when she was searching for someone to take care of Savannah, she thought she had lucked out when they found this lady. Most of the in-home daycares that she had spoken to charged upwards of one hundred seventy five dollars a week to care for an infant. The lady she had found only charged seventy five dollars a week. At the time Shonda didn’t mind that this would be her first student, because she thought she was making out quite well at only three hundred a month for child care.

When she started to crunch some numbers, she realized that she could almost match her salary at the pharmacy if she were able to watch four kids at one hundred fifty a week. She also figured that by charging less than the average of what most other people were charging, she would be able to get four kids in no time.

“Not only that,” she continued, “we won’t have to spend money on child care ourselves. That alone is worth about eight grand a year right there. So when you really think about it, I’d be making the equivalent of almost forty thousand a year!” Shonda had started to get excited all over again about her idea. “And, as if that weren’t enough, I would be able to take care of Savannah myself, and not have to worry about sending her off to someone like that douche bag trailer whore.”

Chris just stood there staring at her with an open mouth. Equally stunned by how much research she had already put into this idea before springing it on him, as he was by the shock of hearing the words “douche bag trailer whore” come out of his lovely bride’s mouth.
“How are we supposed to get by on just my salary until you find four kids?” It was the only thing that he could think of to say. Inside, he was actually getting excited himself. What a completely beautiful and extremely intelligent creature he had had the luck of finding and getting her to say “I do”.

“It’s funny you should ask that” Shonda replied. “I’ve already put an ad in the local paper and a few people have already responded to it.”

“Besides,” she continued “if it doesn’t work out, I can always get my job back at Walgreen’s.” “In fact, I may even just tell them I need a few more weeks of time before I come back to work for good.”

Chris considered it for a moment. This would be the first most major decision that they would make. He knew she was probably right about Walgreen’s taking her back, but it was still a very scary proposition to think about her quitting. She made more money than he did and they already had trouble making ends meet as it was. But aside from the uncertainty of how long it would take before they found families to come to the daycare, he really couldn’t think of any reason not to at least give it a try. So against his better judgment, they dove in feet first.

That was several years, couple dozen daycare kids, two more of their own children, and three houses ago.