The Dark Influence

Chapter 9
9: It's So Hard to Say Goodbye to Your Kid When They're at Daycare :(

The next month or so went on largely without much incident. John worried once that first Monday rolled around, however. To his job it would have looked like he disappeared into thin air.

It turned out Emily and Chloe had taken care of that one. Emily had pretended John had died, with Chloe showing up at his job and pretending she was mourning. Emily waited in the car with John while Chloe played up the theatrics. So that problem was solved at the least.

Chloe had to go back to work soon, however. Luckily the mourning excuse had worked for her job as well, but time was running out. It was time to find a daycare center.

“I’m not going to daycawe.” John protested; arms crossed. The foot stamp was now characteristic of his resistance to something.

Chloe sighed as she dried him off from his bath. “Sweetie, I can’t take you to work with me, and I can’t leave you here by yourself.”

“Why not?” John said, “I have an adult’s bwain, just keep the baby monitow on.”

Chloe chuckled at his naiveté, “Sweetie, you’re in diapers. Diapers. If you make a stinky, no one’s going to be around to change you. I can’t be coming home to diaper rash every day.”

“What if I change myself?” He suggested.

“Because I’m not letting you climb that changing table, and I’m not letting you near the stove. Also, it means you can’t go outside. I don’t want the neighbors calling child protective services.” The neighbors were an interesting conundrum. A couple of times that had run into Chloe, holding John or letting him toddle behind her as she came upstairs to the apartment. None of them had recognized him, and Chloe just told them he was her nephew. None of them seemed to be the wiser.

Chloe had a good point though. John pouted as Chloe slipped a pair of Huggies slip-ons up his legs. “Otay.”

By the time they found a daycare center, Chloe was set to go back to work on the following Monday. She knelt down to John’s level as she put him on the ground outside the car, “Okay, here’s the deal. I need you to be on your best behavior in there. No cursing, no adult words, we need the daycare center to keep you, otherwise I’ll run out of sick days before you know it.”

John nodded grimly. Here we go, he thought. Entering New Horizons Daycare, he found that it wasn’t as bad as he thought. The brightly colored walls, coloring books, blocks, legos, and kids his age running about put him at ease.

Chloe hammered out the details with the receptionist, “Thank you so much again for taking him. Here’s my number, let me know if you need anything.”

“One more thing, Ms. Baker,” the receptionist said, “Is your son potty trained?”

“He is not, unfortunately.” Chloe responded in a dark manner.

The receptionist sucked at her teeth, “So one requirement at New Horizons is that all our kids be potty trained. We know it’s hard for you two with your husband passing away-” Good cover, John thought, “-but at the very least we want to let you know that we’re going to try potty training with little John, and we expect you to help us with that, is that okay?”

Chloe put on a brave face, “Yep, I’ll be sure to help with that.” She said, “Okay John, you have fun okay?”

“Otay!” John said, trying to put on his best toddler voice. Okay, he thought, all I have to do is pass potty training, then I can grow up and be a real person again. I can do this.