Living Without Dreams

Chapter 10 - Beginning School

Monday morning began early in the guest house at the beach. Susan had the children up extra early due to the drive they had just to get them to school. They all ate a quick breakfast with Richard, who had to be on set early, then said goodbye for the day.

"Will you be back for dinner?" Marion asked.

"We should be," Susan said. "Maybe by six?"

"I'll plan to eat at six-fifteen," Marion told her. "Just to make sure the kids have plenty of time to finish before going to bed. I know it's a school night tonight."

"Yes, it is," Susan said. "Come on everybody. Let's brush our teeth, get your backpacks and let's go."

The traffic was heavy going through the canyon and Zackary was nearly late. Susan dropped him off at the middle school with Greg going with him to help him find his class. Susan promised to pick him up after taking Jessie to her first day of kindergarten at the elementary school. It took longer than Susan expected, but she was still back to pick Greg up within an hour.

"Thank you for your help," Susan told him.

"You're welcome. Zackary will be waiting for you by the flagpole when school gets out at three fifteen," Greg told her.

Susan nodded. "Jessie is finished at noon. It's only a half day kindergarten. They do offer daycare run by the YMCA for the afternoon, but I wanted to check with you first before signing her up."

"With us working, it would be good to have her occupied in the afternoons," Greg said.

"It would be, except if she comes home directly after school, she could take the bus and Zackary can too, so we wouldn't have to leave to go get her. She could do her homework and play here in the afternoons," Susan said.

"Is there a bus that runs if she stays for daycare?" Greg asked.

"Not if she stays all afternoon. We'd have to pick her up," Susan explained as they drove back to the house.

Greg considered her explanation. "Let's plan to have her come home at noon for now. As you say, we can change our minds and register her for daycare later, once we're more settled if that seems better."

With the decision to delay Jessie's enrollment in daycare made, once they arrived at the farmhouse, Greg and Susan planned to devote their time to ensuring the rooms receiving deliveries would be ready when their furnishings arrived.

"I hope the delivery people don't come too soon," Susan commented as Greg opened the front door. "We haven't even begun to clean in the master bedroom yet."

"Then I suggest we focus on that first," Greg suggested. "I can clean the shelves in the closet and window sills in the bedroom and bathroom, if you vacuum."

"I can do that," Susan agreed.

With a plan in place, the two set to work without delay.

Greg was finished with the closet and the bedroom, and had just started work in the bathroom when above the roar of the vacuum he thought he heard the sound of the doorbell coming from downstairs. He went to check, and sure enough, it was the delivery men from the mattress store. Susan hurried to finish as they began to bring the deliveries in, completing her work in the bathroom just as the delivery men were bringing the new bedframe for their bed up the stairs.

"Please bring it right in here," Greg directed as they squeezed past her.

Susan stood to the side as they brought in the frame, followed by the mattress and the box springs for their new bed and began to set them up.

"What do you think?" Greg asked as they finished.

"It looks good ... bigger than the one we had in Australia. And it looks like they brought the right one," Susan said as she sat tentatively on the side of the bed.