Sucking Up Yellow Jackets by Jeanne Denault

Author:Jeanne Denault
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-1-84694-384-3
Publisher: John Hunt Publishing

Chapter 27

I loved museums, trains and cities. Wilmette was the last stop for what was locally called the ell. I took the three children into Chicago on the Sundays when Pete had to work or was out of town. We always sat in the front of the first car so we could see the spooky abandoned tracks and stations when the elevated train went underground and turned into a subway.

Chicago had great museums. The train ride was always a success, the cafeterias at the museums rated high but deciding what to visit at which museum was a problem. Each child had a favorite exhibit in a specific museum and the two children in what they considered the wrong museum and/or the wrong section bickered non-stop no matter what I did.

I had taken a job teaching graphics at The Art Institute of Chicago. I was to work from nine to four on Mondays and Wednesdays. A smart, kind woman named Ann Duncan cleaned and took care of children for two neighbors. She was pleased to get two more days of work and was available on the days I needed her. My classes started in early September but I hired her in mid-summer theoretically to train her but quickly saw she didn’t need training. What’s more, she liked Max and he liked her. After a couple of weeks, I saw she didn’t need me underfoot so I suggested setting up a rotation system one day a week where I took one child at a time to a museum of their choice and the other two stayed at home with Ann.

This worked. Max loved the Science and Industry Museum with lunch at the cafeteria. Linda loved the Thorne rooms at the Art Institute with lunch at Marshall Field. Seth loved the Field Museum. He was okay with the museum food but liked it better when we ate in Marshall Field’s cafeteria. He loved their rice pudding. We all hated having these special days end, Max most of all. Each time my day with him wound down, I wished I could prolong the cheerful peace we enjoyed when no one else was there to disrupt it and we did exactly what he wanted. He was so rewarding one-on-one when he wasn’t bored. By the time the train arrived in Wilmette, we were both edgy and anxious. I was suddenly tired knowing the rest of my day was about to go downhill no matter what I did.

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