Miscellaneous Writings

What Now?

"Your ride's here." Samantha yelled out to her son.

"Okay." he yelled back.

Sam turned her attention to her younger son, Steve. He was trying, unsuccessfully, to get his shirt over his head.

"Here, Steve. Let me help you." She took the shirt away from him and pulled out the sleeve. "It usually helps to have all pieces of your shirt right side out before attempting to put it on goofball," she said, smiling.

"Oh, yeah," he said kind of goofy.

"Bye mom. Love you," Dale called out on his way out the door.

"Bye, honey. Have a great day at school!"

It was the same routine every morning, but it never got old. She enjoyed getting her kids off to school.

"Mom, can I go over to Kevin's after school today? He got a new Playstation 4 and we want to play."

"Well you know the rules, kiddo. Get your homework done first, then you can play."

"Aw mom. By then we won't have a lot of time to play before I'll have to come home for supper."

"That's the way it works out on school nights, Steve. Work with me here."

"Whatever. Okay I'll do my homework first."

Samantha mussed his hair and he complained, "Hey, I just combed my hair, Mom!"

"Come on, get your shoes on and your backpack. I don't want to be late for work."

"You say that every day Mom, and you're never late."

"That's right, and today will be no different. Now let's go."

They stepped out into the garage. Sam locked the house door while she unlocked the car. Steve jumped in the back seat and pulled on his seat belt. She followed suit in the front, driver's seat.

Her neighbor saw her backing out of the driveway and gave a wave. Sam waved back and pushed the button to close the garage door.

As they pulled into the school parking lot Steve said, "Oh, there's Kevin. Mom hurry."

"Honey there are kids in the parking lot. I can't hurry."

Steve rolled down his window. "Hey Kevin, wait up."

Kevin stopped and waiting for Steve.

"Have a good day. See you tonight."

"Okay, you too, mom."

Sam stopped and watched them walk toward the school together. "He's getting so big," she thought to her self. "My kids are growing up so fast."

She pulled away before she got all teary eyed.

After checking for traffic, she pulled out onto the road. There was still the high school traffic to get through before she could get to the highway. She hated the traffic but knew that she needed to set a good example to the high school kids who were also fighting the traffic. To be honest it only took about eight to ten minutes to weed your way through. Most of the traffic was going to the high school anyway.

As predicted it didn't take long for Sam to be on her way to work. Her husband, Greg, had spent the weekend with his friends on their annual hunting trip, but he would be home later this afternoon.

Sam got into the office perfectly on time and set off to start her morning routine. "Turn on my computer. Check. Get coffee brewing. Check. Get boss's computer turned on and pull the files for the day. Check."

She continued to get everything ready for the day before she sat down with her own cup of coffee and mentally prepared herself. "It's so nice to get into the office a good half-hour before anyone else," she thought to herself as she sipped her coffee and took in the quiet.

The office was an old historic home that had been converted into an office. Martin Stephens was a financial consultant and Samantha had worked for him since she was in high school. They and their families had become great friends.

"Good morning, Samantha." He never liked to call her "Sam" saying that it was a boy's name.

"Good morning, Martin," she replied

"What have we got going on today?"

"You have Mr. Davis at nine o'clock, Mr. Lewis at ten, and Mr. Schultz at eleven."

"I just hope I get a full hour for lunch today because I'd like to spend it with my beautiful wife."

"You actually have two hours. After lunch your appointments consist of Mr. and Mrs. Peterson at two thirty."

"Now Samantha, you're not telling me that and planning to reschedule an appointment to give me a two-hour lunch, right?"

Laughing, Sam answered. "No. You truly have two hours to kill for lunch. But you know I would do that if it was necessary."

"I know you would. Alright let's get this day started." With that he headed off to get his first cup of coffee.