Chương 3 - The Babysitting Clause
Three days passed in deafening silence.
I skipped the Sunday dinner. I didn't text the group chat. I didn't send an excuse. When Mom texted asking what time I was bringing the potato salad, I left the message on read.
On Tuesday morning, while I was reviewing Q1 quarterly metrics for a client in Chicago, my kitchen phone rang. It was my mother’s landline. I answered on speakerphone while typing with one hand.
“Sarah?” Mom’s voice was crisp, entirely devoid of any remorse, but layered with that faux-cheerful tone she used when she wanted a favor. “Well, it’s about time you picked up. I’ve been calling since nine.”
“I’m working, Mom.”
“Right, your little computer articles,” she dismissed with a wave of her voice. “Listen, we’ve finalized the flight details for Orlando. Jessica managed to snag a group rate on Southwest. We leave on the twelfth.”
“Fascinating.”
“Anyway, that’s why I’m calling,” Mom continued breezily. “We have a bit of a logistical puzzle. Jessica and Dave obviously can’t take Buster, and we can’t leave Barnaby and Duke at the kennel for two weeks. It’s over twelve hundred dollars! Can you believe what these pet resorts charge nowadays? Highway robbery.”
Barnaby and Duke were my parents’ sixty-pound Golden Doodles. Buster was Jessica’s chronically ill French bulldog that required three different ear drops and vomited on carpets whenever he was stressed.
“So?” I asked, leaning back in my office chair.
“So, we figured you and Emma could stay at our house while we’re in Florida!” Mom announced, as if she were bestowing the Nobel Peace Prize upon my household. “It’ll be like a little staycation for you two! You’ll have the big TV, the hot tub—well, don't use the hot tub, the chemicals are tricky—and Emma can play in the big backyard. All you have to do is feed the dogs, give Buster his medication twice a day, and water my ferns.”
I sat in the quiet of my home office, listening to the ticking of the wall clock.
She was genuinely serious.
She had purposefully excluded my daughter from a family vacation, given her spot to a stranger’s children, watched Emma cry, and now expected me to spend two weeks cleaning up dog feces and administering ear drops so *they* could enjoy their trip guilt-free.
“No,” I said.
A dead pause fell over the line.
“Excuse me?” Mom asked, her tone sharpening.
“No. I will not watch your dogs. I will not watch Jessica’s dog. And I will not be staying at your house.”
“Sarah Jane Miller, don't you dare take that tone with me,” Mom snapped, her maternal authority flaring up instantly. “We are a family. We help each other. Just because you’re pouting about the Disney trip doesn't mean you get to abandon your responsibilities to this family!”
“My responsibilities?” I let out a dry, incredulous laugh. “Mom, you invited neighborhood kids to Disney World and looked my daughter in the eye and told her she wasn't wanted.”
“I never said that!” Mom shrieked. “I told you, we miscounted the packages! Jessica had already promised Diane weeks ago because Diane helped organize the school gala! It was a social obligation! You always do this, Sarah. You take everything so personally. You make everything about you.”
“Emma is seven years old. She asked me why her grandparents don't want her.”
“Oh, please! Don't be so dramatic. Emma will survive missing a trip to Florida. Children are resilient. You’re raising her to be too sensitive, just like you. Now, I need you to drop by on Thursday to get the key and let me show you Buster’s feeding schedule. He has to have his kibble soaked in warm broth or he chokes.”
“Hire a pet sitter, Mom.”
“We can’t afford twelve hundred dollars on top of park tickets!”
“Then I guess Jessica shouldn't have bought six pairs of personalized Mickey ears on Etsy,” I said smoothly. “Have a great trip.”
“If you hang up this phone, Sarah, don't bother coming to Easter!” she yelled.
“Promise?” I whispered, and tapped the red end-call button.
May you like
My hands shook, but for the first time in my thirty-two years of life, it wasn't from fear. It was from the exhilarating, terrifying rush of setting a boundary that could never be walked back.
***
