✅3️⃣ Treating the Babysitter [Camp NaNoWriMo July 2023]

18. The Rest of the Day

This chapter is dedicated to Uwigi. Thank you!

As she squelched her way back to the house, Claudia kept glancing around every time they saw another figure on the street. It probably wasn't immediately obvious that her shoes and socks were soaked, but she could constantly feel it. Maybe she had the sense that everybody was staring at her for acting so childishly, or perhaps she was just nervous because there was a high chance of somebody that she used to know being around the neighbourhood where she had grown up.

Adam hadn't done anything to ameliorate her humiliation. She had misbehaved, and he had to ensure that she was punished. And like he had planned, he was going to ratchet up the embarrassment factor every time she showed him that it wasn't yet enough to make her behave. So he had led her along the path between the trees and onto the park's main paths on the way home; through places where families and groups of teenagers were hanging out enjoying the sun. And when they had passed the play area, he had teased her with comments about how he could have pushed her on the swings if her shoes hadn't been so wet. It wasn't something he would actually have done; they were both too old to be in that area when real children were playing. But it was an easy way to build on her excitement, and he knew that the suggestion would hit her emotions just the same whether it was practical or not. Hinting at treating her like a real child; while also rebuking her for bad behaviour. That was exactly what she needed to correct her attitude.

Adam led her to the front door this time, and he could see she was surprised by that. He had her keys, so it was his choice, but she nearly always went in through the back door, from where she could go straight up the stairs to her own room.

"Wait there, little one," he said, and pointed to the mat outside the front door in case his instruction could be misinterpreted. "We can't have you dripping pond water all over the nice clean carpets, can we?"

Claudia whimpered, but did as she was told. It hadn't been that long since she had the last dose of St Jeremy's Root, and so had no choice in following direct orders. He left her there while he ran up to the bathroom to get a towel, and quickly hunted for any other things that he might need. He allowed himself a little smile as he thought how this was going to play out; he really had found a perfect situation to turn her embarrassment up to maximum. He briefly went into Lorelei's room as he was passing, and stuck his head out of the window to look down at where Claudia was standing. She was pacing back and forth within the bounds of the little doormat, and looked like she was getting more nervous with every moment that passed. He waited maybe an extra twenty seconds, and then thought that she had suffered enough for now.

"Well, right where I said!" he exclaimed with a grin. "See, you can be good if you want to. Now, let's get you out of those soggy clothes. Sit down here." He quickly spread a towel out on the floor, just inside the door. Claudia pouted, but sat on the doorstep. She was inside now, but still inside the little glass-walled porch area, so the only barrier between her and the eyes of any watchful neighbours was the piles of miscellaneous junk down the sides of the porch – and Lorelei's garden toys, old boots, and other forgotten items didn't really provide that much privacy.

Adam knelt down outside to unfasten her shoes for her, and pulled them off in full view of any hypothetical passers-by. He knew how much that would get to her, even if there wouldn't have been anything out of the ordinary about the scene from a stranger's point of view. And all the time while he peeled her socks off, he talked to her like a rebellious child, gently chiding her for not even being able to keep her clothes clean.

He put the shoes and socks down on the corner of the towel, sure that he would be able to put the whole lot into the washing machine later to wash the scent of pond water out of everything.