Valentine Blues - Season 1 - Episode 22

Episode 4 years ago

Valentine Blues - Season 1 - Episode 22

Please say no please say no .
”No!”‘
Yes!! He jumps mentally and does the moonwalk dance.
”Then why the hesitation?”
”I kinda have a thing tomorrow.”
”What kinda thing?”
”Need to volunteer at the motherless baby homes tomorrow. It’s kind like a thing I have to do after work so..”
”If it’s not a problem I can come with?”
She looks at him and then c---s her head to the side ”It’s not something a guy would want to jump at. Like crying babies poop, lots of singing and then story telling and tantrums.”
He shrugs ”If you can do it I can do it. I just want to see you, so..if i have to go through that torture, fine”
”You might regret that decision”
”Nope”
”Okay, tomorrow then, 4:30 at the st martins cathedral. I would leave immediately from work so you can meet me there”
”Got it.”
”Goodnight Darren”
”Goodnight Annalisa!” He watches her go in and waits till he hears a lock to her door before he leaves, driving home.
”Dude, how did your day go?” He saw the text from Tom.
”It was an amazing day” he replies the text from Tom.

*****

”He really is a sweet guy. he offered to volunteer with me tomorrow” Annalisa sends a text to Lucy.
Lucy picks up her phone and then reads the text which she laughs to ”He gonna regret that decision. LOL” she sends back to Anna.
”I told him so. LOL. Goodnight Luce” Annalsa replies as she slips into her bed after taking a shower. She thinks about the events of the day and then smiles. He really was a sweet guy.

*****

The Next day, in the Cathedral….
”AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH !” The little boy of about 5 years old has been crying his lungs out. There were a lot of them, about a dozen.

Darren stood tall amongst them. His shirt already ruined with food and he had pen colors with drawings of snake on his jeans.
Annalisa had left him for 30 minutes to go attend to a child who had fallen and broken a teeth. she took him to the clinic center across the hall and has been trying to calm the child down, the last thing she told him was..
”Just be calm and relax, talk to them sweetly and they would behave” then she was off after he told her that he got it.
Oh, he wished he didn’t offer.
Less than five minutes and each child either wanted something, food, crayons, books, or even climbed the chairs or shelve, fallen and balled their lungs out, fighting and then roaring like animals.
Soon, they are all on him when they realized that his white shirt was cleaner than the board and used different colours of crayons to design it. He telling them to stop and moving them carefully away didn’t stop when they were like a dozen. He puts them one after the other on their chair far away from him and then below he blinks, they are already back to climbing him and then painting his face. Once he manages to place them back in their chair, they come for him with renewed energy or soiling themselves.
He had fallen stepping on banana peel. He had been spat on while a child was coughing and the slime shoot out of their throat and to his face. He had wiped catarrh from one’s nose only to have the child sneeze and .. yuckiness all over his shirt.
Yes… this was hell. it was!
He stood watching them, wondering what other thing they intend to do to him when Annalisa walks in and then after seeing the mess and he, she bursts out laughing, she quickly grabs her phone and to take a picture.
”Don’t you dare Annalisa” he frowns
”Too late, aww look at what they did to you” she laughs taking two more shots and then hiding her phone. She goes to him and plucks the child away from his arms. ”Dear lord Darren, they did a number on you” she laughs.

”Sadly so” He looks down at himself, the kids giggle. He makes a face at them and they make one back
”Oh you little rascals” he sneers shaking his head .
”Okay Kids, now, we are going to do some exercise okay. There is the wash basin, each and everyone of you is going to go wash your hands, empty the bowl to put water for the next persosn, wipe them and go back to your seat. yes?”
They nod ”Yes, and after then what do we do?”
”Stories!”
”Okay, now go go go, ”
They nod rushing to the wash basin ”No, one line please one line ”
He watches her frowning ”See how do they listen to you, me? I felt they were intimating me as I spoke and they kept screaming and attacking me”

She laughs coming to him ”Kids! You should know how to handle them if not they would handle you. You need to speak to them with understanding, be tolerant and patient. I didn’t learn this in a day, trust me. My first day was hell. I nearly threw in the towel but when I realized that kids are special beings, in a world of their own and all, I had to speak their language and viola, it worked like magic” She says picking up toys , books and other littered items on the floor. He helps her with it.”
Soon the room is neat and every child is seated on their chair. Waiting,
She turns to him ”There is a convenience down the hall. You can use it. But you shirt cannot be saved ” she stares at him apologetically.
”I would just take it off, and wear my jacket in the car.”
”Okay. sorry” she smiles.
”Yeah!”.

He leaves her. He comes back a few minutes later and watches her from the door. She was reading them a story, and demonstrates while they follow her. She turns at that moment and sees him standing there outside the door, she smiles, He waves, she nods and then turns away.
There was something calm and soothing about this picture. He muses.
****