The nanny Diaries

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

THE NANNY DIARIES

The elevator stops at the lobby and Grayer rolls ahead of me, propelling himself with one foot, while keeping both hands on his waistband so that the packed pants don't succumb to get.

By the time I catch up, he's already gotten Ramon to lead the way to the caged service elevator.

"Ahh, Mr. Grayer. You must have important business down there, huh?"

Grayer is busy adjusting his tools and offers only a distracted "Yup."

Ramon smiles in his direction and then winks conspiratorially at me. " He's very serious, our Mr. Grayer. You got a girlfriend yet, Mr. Grayer?"

The elevator jerks as we reach the basement. He slides the gate open and we step out into the bright, cold corridor, rich with the aroma of dryer sheets.

"Cage 132 --- to down to the right. Be careful now, don't get lost, or I'll have to come find you . . ."

He winks again and, with a suggestive wiggle of his eyebrows, pulls the door closed, leaving me beneath a dangling light bulb.

"Grayer?" I yell down the corridor.
"Nanny! I'm waiting. Come on man!" I follow his voice around the maze of floor-to-ceiling cages lining the walls.

Some are more packed than others, but each has the requisite luggage, ski equipment, and random pieces of bubble-wrapped furniture.

I round the bend and see Grove lying on his stomach atop his skateboard under a sign that says 132, pulling himself along the wired wall by his hands.

"Oh, man, it's gonna be so fun when Do comes home and does the tree. Caitlin gets us started and Daddy does the high-ups and we have hot chocolate in the living room."

"Sounds pretty cool. Here, I have the key," I say, holding it out toward him.

He jumps up and down as I unlock the cage and then proceeds to deftly make his way in around the boxes.

I let him lead as he's clearly made this trek before I wouldn't know a storage locker from an Easy-Bake oven.

I sit down on the cold cement and lean back on the cage door facing that the Xes.

My parents used to daydream about storage space, sitting with both feet up on the truck packed to bursting with our summer clothes that served as our coffee table.

On occasion, we'd allow ourselves to talk about what we could do with one extra closet --- much as a family in Wyoming might fantasize about winning the lottery.

"Do you know what you looking for Grove?" I call into the piles as I haven't heard anything in a few minutes.

Loud clanging noises break the silence. "Grayer! what's going on there?" I start to stand up as his flashlight comes rolling out of the darkness and stops at my feet.

"Just getting my stuff out, Nanny! Turn the light on me, I'm going to get the blue box!"

I click the high on and point it into the cage as directed, illuminating two dirtied socks and a little khaki rear end tunneling into a middle of the pile.