Short Stories

Fancy Homes and Robbers

Smiling at the computer screen I sent the email that accepted a well paying babysitting job.

"What are you doing?" I jumped at the sudden voice behind me.

"Jesus Christ! Could you stop doing that?" I talked back annoyed.

"I actually can't. Remember? I'm just your imagination, you created me" Aniyah, my imaginary friend said knowingly.

"Yeah yeah," I brushed with my hands "whatever" I turned around in my chair and got up. I went to my wardrobe to take out fresh pajamas.

"Why are you lying to that poor man Samantha?" I looked at her, stuttering.

"I-I'm not lying. I was telling the truth when I said I needed the money." I started walking towards my bathroom.

"But you weren't when you said that your name is Katy! Or when you said you are good with kids, or when you said you had a babysitting job experience before, or when you said you actually liked kids in the first place or whe-" I interrupted her mid-sentence.

"I once killed a spider because an 8 year old was scared of it. It's good enough." I looked around the messy bathroom to find my hair brush, ignoring Aniyah's angry looks. Why did my 5 year old self decide to create an imaginary friend that was prettier than me? With long curly gold blond hair, pale skin and sky blue eyes. Not fair.

"You are going to torture this child without even realizing I'm telling you. You could've picked something else. Why babysitting?"

"My dad is God knows where, My mom is sick, my older brother is an addict and I'm barely graduating high school. It was either babysitting or that other delivery job that wasn't paying me enough. I need to try new things to make some improvement. Someone has to take care of this family and it looks like I'm actually the only one who is physically able to stay on two feet and is a member of this household unlike my non-existent dad." I stared at Aniyah to see if she is going to shut up already.

"Fine." She said back giving up. "But i'm going to stay with you all day tomorrow."

"When are you not." I said under my breath.

After finally finding my hair brush and all the other materials I use for my daily night routine I got ready to hop into my not so comfy bed.

"Tomorrow is going to be fun. Tomorrow is going to be rewarding. Tomorrow is going to be worth all my time and energy..." I repeat multiple times to make myself feel better at this. It wasn't only that I didn't like kids, but the responsibility was making me anxious. What if she chokes? What if she doesn't like me? What if her father doesn't like me? What if I start a fire?

"You still awake?" Aniyah rolled over to look at me.

"If I wasn't, I wouldn't be talking to you now would I?" I responded back tired from all this thinking.

"So much sass for such a small thing. You know you should sleep right? You don't want to look like a spoiled meal from a month ago for your job tomorrow." She said seriously.

"Nice description," I continued looking at the ceiling without turning at her. "maybe should've picked the other job."

"No honey. That job offering was from this side of town and you need a break from all this. Haven't you seen how many shady people there are here? Plus I want to see you try to answer a kids questions." She talked back. "Though I still don't know why you lied about your name." She continued.

"I don't want people to start calling me "the rich kid" or something and start bullying me senselessly. It's already a crappy neighborhood, I don't need anything more. Don't you remember what happened to Dom Bonavich?" I turned to her.