Once in a Lifetime
Claudia sighed and pushed
her plate of food away. "Why do I have to
baby-sit?" she
whined.
"Because you're the
oldest, and we trust you with the guest's kids,
okay?" Her mother
replied, throwing another batch of bacon on the
grill. "You'll only
have your brothers, and two others."
"ONLY?!"
Claudia cried. "Oh, yeah, thanks."
"Claudia Jean, I
don't have to tell you that the winery isn't doing well
financially, and your
father needs to do this to keep us in business."
"I wouldn't have
such a problem with it if you would keep your promise
and pay me when the
adventure is over," Claudia muttered, taking a drink
of her juice. "I'm
going outside."
"They arrive this
afternoon."
"And unless you pay
me, FORGET IT," Claudia said, pushing away from the
table.
Lilian Cregg watched as
Claudia got up from the table and literally
looked down at her as she
walked away. At nearly 6 feet tall she was a
good half a foot taller
than her mother.
"I'll be on the
porch, if you find any more jobs for me to do" said
Claudia sarcastically as
she yanked the screen door opened and stormed
outside.
Lilian stood in the
doorway and watched as her daughter settled down on
the porch swing, her long
legs pushing her with much more force than
needed to get the swing
going. She sighed to herself and wished that
things could be easier on
Claudia. The vineyard was in trouble and the
family had decided to
open up some of the rooms to guests. As a result
of the financial
situation some of the staff had been let go and Lilian
had been forced to take
on a large amount of work. And in turn Claudia
had gotten more jobs
around the vineyard, including babysitting.
At 15 years old, working
with her family wasn't exactly high on Claudia
Jean Cregg's list of
exciting ways to spend her summer.
Her parents had already
told her she couldn't go to the lake with her
best friend, because she
had to help harvest the grapes.
It just wasn't fair.
She was the one everyone
fell back on when they needed to take a break,
and she was sick of it.
"I'm going to the garage," she yelled at her
mother through the screen
door.
She went out to the
garage, where she was studying the anatomy of phones
in her spare time -- not
to mention getting knowledge out of destroying
things they didn't need
anymore, anyway.
She grabbed a screwdriver
from the workbench and started to take apart
the receiver from the old
kitchen phone. Within minutes she heard the
unmistakable sound of
four little feet approaching the garage. Her
brothers Ben and Peter
had the uncanny ability to find her when she
didn't want to be found.
Ben was 8 years old, tall and thin like his
sister but with his
father's blond hair. Peter was almost 5 and a
redhead like his mom and
sister.
"Whatcha doing,
Claudie?" asked Peter as he climbed up onto the stool
next to his sister.
"Nothin"
muttered Claudia as she pushed back a strand of reddish hair
that had escaped her
braids.
"Why're ya doin'
that to the phone?"
"Because I feel like
it."
"Oh. You're mad
again," he pointed out.
"Yeah."
"Did I do it?"
"Nope."
"Okay."
"Guess you're stuck
babysitting again today?" asked Ben as he pulled his
bike out and sat on it.
"Yep, and the two of
you had better behave. I have two more kids too"
"Why do people have
to come stay with us" muttered Ben.
"Cause we need the
money" sighed Claudia.
"Claudie, are we
going to have to go live in the poor house" asked Peter
with his 4-year-old
innocence.
"Peter, where did
hear that?"
"On TV"
"No we are not going
to live in the poor house," said Claudia as she
hopped off the stool and
held out her hand to Peter. "Let's get your
bike out and take off the
training wheels. We have a couple of hours
until the guests get
here. We might as well have fun while we can"
"Yeah," Peter
agreed. "They may have GIRLS with them."
Ben made a face, and
scowled. "Claudie, will they have girls?"
"I dunno -- how come
you don't mind me being a girl?" she asked as they
left the garage.
"'Cuz you're just
Claudie, you're not a girl."
Claudia laughed at the
logic.
She spent the next hour
and a half helping Peter learn to ride a
two-wheeler on the grass
in front of the house. He was doing pretty
well when he mother
stepped out on the porch and called for them to come
in and get ready for the
guests.
Claudia reluctantly dragged
herself into the house, changed her clothes,
redid her braids and
spent a long time looking in the mirror. She wasn't
exactly happy with the
reflection she saw. She saw a tall, awkward girl
with reddish braids,
braces and glasses. She sighed as she heard her
mother call her to come
help in the kitchen.
Claudia went downstairs
to help make the fresh lemonade and muffins that
were their hallmark
greetings treats for their guests. "I hate this,"
she muttered, shoving the
muffin tin in the oven and slamming the door.
Her mother was already
out on the front porch, waiting, but she heard
the crash and came back
inside. "Claudia, what on..."
"The door stuck and
slammed," Claudia said, voice tinged with pure
innocence.
Peter and Ben snickered
in the dining room.
Lilian just sighed and
turned to go back to the front porch.
Claudia sat at the
kitchen counter watching the timer count down the
minutes until she could
take the muffins out of the oven. Just as she
was pulling them out of
the oven she heard a car pull up. She put the
muffins in the basket,
covered them with a clean white cloth and put
them on the table.
Peeking out the window
over the sink she saw the latest group of guests
pile out of a yellow
station wagon. Two couples and two kids, both
girls. One looked about 2
and the other about 7 or 8. The adults
looked normal enough, in
her opinion, at least. She watched as they
unloaded their luggage
and set it on the front porch. Smoothing down
her hair, she opened the
front door with a plastered on smile and let
her father introduce her.
"Claudia, these are
our guests, Mr. and Mrs. McGarry and their daughter
Mallory," said
Thomas Cregg as he pointed to the couple with the younger
girl. "And Mr. and
Mrs. Bartlet and their daughter Elizabeth".
"Pleased to meet
you" said Claudia in the most polite voice she could
manage.
"So you'll be
baby-sitting?" Mrs. McGarry asked with an artificially
kind voice that made
Claudia wince.
"Yes, ma'am,"
she responded as politely as she could.
"Good," Mr.
McGarry commented, nudging Jenny. "Let me take you to the
side and give you Mally's
special instructions now, so you can get used
to them before Jenny gets
angry because you've forgotten some obscure
thing." He glared at
his wife.
"Sounds like you had
a rough ride," Lilian commented. "Why don't you
all come inside and have
some warm muffins and cold lemonade? Boys,
will you please go inside
and get some glasses out of the cabinet for
the girls?"
"Yes, mom." answered
the boys as they held open the door for their
guests. Mr. McGarry and
Claudia stayed on the porch. He motioned for
Claudia to sit down.
"I'm sorry about my
wife. It was a long trip"
"That's ok, sir, I
understand."
"Please, don't call
me sir" he smiled. "Leo is fine. I'm sorry, what
was your name
again?"
"Claudia"
"That's a nice
name"
"Not really"
she said with a sigh.
"I like it."
"So one of us
does," she said with a shrug. "Anyway, you said your
daughter has 'special
instructions'? What's that supposed to mean?"
"She's allergic to
cow's milk, and a couple other things, but just
mainly, I think I wanted
to save you from Jenny's wrath." He laughed a
little too loud for
Claudia's taste, and she edged away a little.
"Okay," she
said, looking at him a little suspiciously. "Want me to go
inside and get you
something to drink?" she asked.
"No thanks, I'll go
inside in a few minutes. Here's the list of
instructions for
Mally" he said as he pulled a piece of yellow paper out
of his shirt pocket.
Claudia took it, read it
quickly and put it in the pocket of her
shorts. She stood up and
opened the front door. Leo followed her and
she had to hold back a
giggle when she realized she towered over him by
at least 5 inches. In
fact, she noticed that she towered over all of
the guests by at least
that amount.
"Must be visiting
from munchkin land," she muttered to herself as she
walked into the house.
When she got to the
kitchen Mr. and Mrs. Bartlet were at the table with
her parents, her brothers
and Elizabeth were on the stools at the
counter and Mally was in
her mother's lap. Mr. Bartlet was going on and
on about some obscure
facts about grapes and winemaking.
"Looks like a long
week" she mumbled under her breath.
"What was that dear?"
asked Lilian.
"Nothing, Mom, just
talking to myself"
Lilian raised an eyebrow
and narrowed her eyes in warning. "Claudia,
dear, will you go get a
bottle of merlot out of the cellar and put it in
the fridge?" she
asked with a smile.
Claudia inhaled sharply
and nodded. There were times you didn't cross
her mother, and this was
one of them.
She made her way down to
the cellar and grabbed the bottle of wine. As
she was turning to go
back up she heard a set of heavy footsteps on the
stairs. She heard Leo's
voice calling to her.
"Over here Mr.
Mc..sorry, Leo" she yelled.
"Your mom said it
was ok to come down and take a look around. Hey, this
is great"
"I guess, if you
like dark dusty spaces," said Claudia with a shrug of
her shoulders.
He chuckled. "You
don't like it much, I take it?"
"I've grown up here.
I used to play hide and seek down here with my
friends. No big
deal." She smirked. "There's a ghost, though."
"Ooh, scary."
She raised an eyebrow.
"Oh, please, whatever." She pushed past him
with the bottle of wine
in her hands and headed for the stairs.
Claudia deposited the
wine in the fridge and was closing the door as a
pair of little arms wound
their way around her legs. She looked down to
find Mallory looking up
at her with a big grin. As much as Claudia
hated being the
designated babysitter she did love little kids. She
bent down and picked up
Mally.
"You wanna go play
outside?"
Mallory nodded her head
with a great deal of enthusiasm.
"Mom, I'm taking the
kids outside. Come on guys, bring Elizabeth with
you." she called
over her shoulder.
"I don't want to go
outside," Elizabeth said with as much dignity as she
could muster, considering
she had just dumped lemonade accidentally down
her front.
"Okay... Mom?"
Claudia asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Elizabeth, would
you like to help me make dinner while your parents
look around?" Lilian
asked.
"No, I want to stay
with Daddy," Elizabeth insisted.
"That's fine."
said Lilian as she motioned for Claudia to go outside
with the kids.
Thomas took the guests on
a quick tour of the vineyard and the house
while Lilian started
dinner.
Claudia had taken the
kids outside and let them play on the tire swing
in the backyard. She was
distractedly pushing Mally and daydreaming
about having a normal
family and a normal life when she saw her father
and the guests round the
corner of the house and walk towards her.
"No, she's not real
thrilled about helping out, but she's 15, she's not
thrilled about anything
that involves her family" she heard he father
tell them.
With a roll of her eyes
and a sigh she turned towards them just as the
swing came back towards
her. Ben screamed but not in time. The swing
hit her in the shoulder
with enough force to knock her down and knock
the wind out of her.
She hit her head on the
ground, and lay there, dazed. Mallory got off
of the swing and came
down to kiss her on the cheek, even though she
wasn't really responsive.
"Claudia, open your
eyes," Mrs. Bartlet ordered. "Come on, honey, open
your eyes..."
Claudia opened her eyes
slowly and said, "I'm just gonna... lie here...
for a minute..."
That brought a chorus of
laughs from the group.
"That's a good idea,
sweetie" said her father as he straightened out her
glasses.
After a minute Leo and
her dad helped her stand up and walked her to the
front porch and settled
her in the wicker rocker. Her mother went in to
get her a drink. Mrs.
Barlet hovered around her for a minute before
sitting down next to her.
"I'm okay,"
Claudia insisted. She grunted when Mallory came running up
and plopped down into her
lap.
"Cauda?" she
said.
Claudia looked confused.
"Huh?"
"I think she's
trying to say Claudia," Thomas said.
"Oh. What,
Mallory?"
"Sowwy."
"It's okay,
kidlet." Claudia smiled.
"Cauda?"
"Yeah?"
"Your name's
hard."
"Yeah."
Leo had watched this
exchange from where he was sitting on the porch
railing.
"She has a little
trouble with her R's and her L's." he explained.
"Oh" said
Claudia as she began to rock Mallory in her lap.
"So what's your
middle name?" asked Leo with a smile.
"Jean, but please
don't tell me you like that too" she smirked.
"OK, I won't"
She rolled her eyes.
"Well, y'know, I don't like it, so..."
"CJ."
"Huh?"
"She can say that,
can't you, Mally?"
"Say wha?"
Mallory asked sleepily.
"CJ."
"CJ," she
repeated. She looked up at Claudia. "You're CJ, 'kay?"
"Okay," Claudia
said with a smile.
By dinnertime her
brothers had also taken to calling her CJ and that was
fine with her. She helped
her mother get the meal on the table and then
took a seat between
Mallory and Peter. Usually she detested eating with
the guests but these
people were different from most of the others.
Most of their other
guests were rich, stuck up people looking forward to
being waited on hand and
foot. But these people struck her as something
else entirely.
Especially when Jed and
Leo helped serve the food, allowing her to sit
down and relax for a
minute before Mallory chucked a muffin her way to
show appreciation.
CJ sighed and stripped
butter out of her hair. She couldn't quite get
it out of her braids, so
she undid the ends and let it fall so she could
get the rest out.
"You have beautiful
hair," Abbey commented with a smile.
"Thanks" she
said shyly. "I usually just braid it, it's easier to keep
out of my face that
way"
"Yeah especially
when she's in the garage taking things apart" added
Ben.
"Benjamin"
whined CJ.
"So what do you take
apart in the garage?" asked Jed.
"Phones, radios,
stuff like that."
"Ever get the stuff
back together?"
"Sure"
"That's better than
you do," said Abbey, teasing her husband.
"Daddy's a little
klutzy," explained Liz.
"Hey" cried
Jed.
Claudia chuckled.
"Hey, it's okay," she said with a shy smile. "I'm
pretty klutzy, too."
"She falls into
things," Peter added. CJ smacked him upside the head so
his face wound up in the
soup bowl. "HEY!" he yelled.
"Claudia Jean,
please stop doing that," Lilian sighed, cringing.
"As soon as he stops
selling me out as a klutz, I will," CJ snapped. "I
can take care of that
well enough, myself, thank you!"
"Claudia, please go
to your room until you can be civil," Thomas said in
his sternest fatherly
tone.
CJ stood up, turned to
her guests and spoke quietly before leaving the
room. "I'm
sorry."
The rest of the meal was
spent in relative silence. When she heard the
sounds of everyone
leaving the table CJ crept down the back stairs and
went into the kitchen.
Her mother was bringing the dirty dishes in from
the dining room. CJ
silently went to work at the sink. While she
worked she dreamed of a
life away from the vineyard, somewhere where she
could live out her life
long dreams. But being only 15 she didn't
really have any life long
dreams, yet.
A little hand tugged on
her shorts. "CJ?" Mallory said.
"Yeah, kiddo?"
Claudia said, turning around.
"Read me
story?"
CJ smiled. "When I
get done with the dishes, okay?"
"The Three
Bears?"
"Sure!"
Ten minutes later Mallory
was on the front porch swing in her pajamas
and wrapped up in an old
quilt. CJ was next to her reading The Three
Bears.
CJ looked up as she saw
Leo come out the front door with a glass of wine
in his hand. He sat down
on the steps and looked out over the
vineyard. CJ went back to
reading the story until Mallory fell asleep.
"You like the
wine?" CJ asked Leo, twirling her hair back into a bun so
she could carry Mallory
back inside and not have it get in the way.
"Yeah, it's very
good."
"Good." She
picked Mallory up and headed for the door.
"I think Jenny's in
our room" yelled Leo over his shoulder.
CJ deposited Mallory into
Jenny's arms and went back downstairs. As she
passed through the
kitchen she noticed Leo had left the bottle of wine
out on the table. She
grabbed it and went back out to the porch.
"Here, thought you
might want some more" she said shyly.
"Thanks. So you *off
duty* now?" he asked as he poured himself another
glass of wine.
"Yeah. Mom is
tucking the boys into bed"
He nodded. "Sit
down?" he requested. "So... you take apart phones and
stuff?"
"When I get mad,
yeah." She shrugged, frowning. "It seems more
constructive than
clocking somebody."
"Yeah," he
agreed. "I used to clock 'em."
She laughed. "No
wonder your hands are all gnarly.&