Joy in the Journey

by Diane Greenwood Muir

"Why are you mad at Caleb?"

  Cassidy shrugged, but at least she stood up and headed for the back steps. A stubborn Cassidy at bedtime wasn't Polly's idea of fun. She looked back at Henry, who sent her a smirk.

  "Cutting roast beef now," he said.

  Polly followed Cassidy's slow ascent up the steps. She couldn't wait for those little legs to grow just a bit longer. When they got to Cassidy's room, Polly took a pair of pajamas out of the dresser and sat down on the edge of the bed.

  "Why are you mad at Caleb?" she asked again.

  Cassidy stuck her lower lip out and wrinkled her nose, then pointed at herself. "Girl."

  "Yes. You're a girl."

  She slowly shook her head back and forth. "No."

  "You're not a girl?"

  Now Cassidy screwed her face up and looked at Polly.

  "Honey, you're going to have to come up with more words to explain this. I can't interpret anything from what you're saying."

  "He called me a girl," Cassidy said.

  "And you didn't want to be called a girl?"

  "Robots aren't girls."

  "You were a robot, but Caleb called you a girl. Was this when you were playing?"

  Cassidy bobbed her head up and down as if it had all been quite obvious and Polly was as slow as they came.

  "Did he not let you play because you were a girl and not a robot?"

  She let out a huff and dropped her shoulders. More attitude.

  "Did you tell him?"

  "No," Cassidy said. She snatched the pajama bottoms from the bed and sat down on the floor. Sticking her feet up in front of Polly, she waited until Polly took her shoes and socks off.

  "You want me to pull your pants off, too?" Polly asked.

  Cassidy nodded.

  "How long do you think you'll be mad at Caleb?"

  "Tonight," Cassidy said with a shrug.

  "You'll be all better with him in the morning?"

  "Yes."

  "What if you decided to be better with him right now? You don't have to wait, you know. Then he could read you a story."

  Cassidy tugged her pajama bottoms on, then stood in front of Polly and held her arms up so Polly could take off her shirt. Once it was in the laundry basket, Polly tugged down the pajama top and pulled Cassidy in for a hug.

  "What do you think?"

  "Okay," Cassidy agreed.

  "One last potty and then I'll tuck you in with a short story while Heath finishes with the boys. Let's hurry."

  CHAPTER FOUR

  "Do you know which doll you’d like to take to Grandma's house this morning?" Polly asked Cassidy.

  This morning was going to be a busy one at Sycamore House. She and Jeff had two interviews and then they were going to discuss office expansion and usage of the present classroom space.

  "No," Cassidy said and then she began to wail.

  Polly closed her eyes and drew in a slow breath. She held it for a couple of beats, released it, and said, "You are spending the morning with Grandma and Molly. I have to go to Sycamore House to work."

  "No," Cassidy cried and continued to wail.

  "Lolly-dolly it is," Polly said and picked up one of Cassidy's favorites to drop it in her carry bag.

  Cassidy grabbed at Polly’s sweater. "Mommy," she wailed.

  "I love you, too, sweetie," Polly replied. "Unless you can give me a very good reason why you don't want to see Grandma today, we need to get moving."

  Cassidy pranced over to the doorway of her bedroom, crossed her arms and set her feet. "Mommy," she said again.

  Polly knelt down. "I love you very much, but this isn't going to work. Let's go." She put her hand down and took one of Cassidy's.

  The little girl yanked her hand back and sat down in the doorway. "No. Mommy."

  "Why?" Polly asked. She stepped over Cassidy into the hallway.

  "Mommy," Cassidy said again, tears streaming down her face.

  They'd been through this before. Cassidy's brothers had a tendency to give in whenever she cried. Henry and Polly were working to curb their desire to give in to her obvious emotional manipulation. If Polly wasn't certain that as soon as Cassidy walked in the back door of Marie's house, she’d be happy as a clam, she might think there was something going on at that end. No, this was Cassidy doing her best to establish her own boundaries. As much as Polly wanted each of her children to be independent and strong, she wasn't putting up with bad behavior or tantrums.

  When Cassidy didn't respond to her question, Polly walked down the hallway to the back steps. It usually took a few minutes for her daughter to figure out that no one was around to hear her complaints. As usual, by the time Polly was putting on her coat, Cassidy was standing right beside her, arms up for a hug. Thank goodness, her tantrums didn't last long.

  "Are you ready to go to Grandma's now?" Polly asked. She slipped Cassidy's jacket onto the girl, zipped up the front and kissed her forehead. She already had a handful of tissues and held one over Cassidy's nose. "Blow." She proceeded to wipe her daughter's face clean of tears, kissed her forehead again and put out her hand.

  Cassidy took it and followed Polly out to the Suburban like nothing had happened.

  Children were exhausting.

  ~~~

  "I'll be back to get her before lunch," Polly said.

  "You know you don't have to hurry," Marie responded. "Bill and Jessie love having her here. Bill is looking at plans to build a playhouse in the back yard for the girls."

  Polly chuckled. "That's fantastic."

  "If you have time, I'd love to ask you to make the curtains for the windows."

  "That would be great," Polly said. "And maybe a matching tablecloth."

  Marie nodded. "He's talking about putting a little kitchen in on one end and making the other end into a living room."

  "How big is this thing going to be?"

  "I have no idea," Marie said. "I get to put flower boxes on the windows so the girls can learn how to take care of those."

  "You two are wonderful. I'm so lucky," Polly said. She surprised Marie with a quick hug. "Thank you for loving my kids."

  "Bill felt guilty that he spends so much time in the basement with the boys. When Molly and Cassidy are older, they might want to play with the trains, but until they can, he wanted to do something nice just for them."

  "No boys allowed?"

  Marie laughed. "Those two little girls love your boys. I don't know that they would want to keep them out."

  "As it should be, I guess," Polly said. "I never had brothers or sisters. It's fun to watch them interact, even when they get mad at each other." She chuckled. "Even when they're mad at me."

  "They feel safe with you if they can show you their emotions," Marie said.

  "Henry and I talked about that after Cassidy's first big meltdown. Just about the time we wondered if she was ever going to open up to us, she exploded about something completely ridiculous. I don't even remember what it was. After facing down an out-of-control child, it hit me that she finally trusted me to not push her away when she was mad. At that point I didn't know whether to cry from joy or frustration."

  "You are a good mama," Marie said.

  The sounds of running feet and screaming voices came from the living room.

  Marie smiled. "My turn to intervene."

  "Thank you so much," Polly said. She watched Marie head into the house and opened the back door to leave. How in the world would she do any of this without her friends and family?

  ~~~

  Polly parked in front in one of the last spaces available in the nearly full parking lot. It would always be a welcome surprise to drive past Sycamore House and see the lot filled with cars, knowing that people were using her favorite place. Polly looked up and saw people looking out of the immense windows of her old apartment. That was more bittersweet. Even now, she missed the intimacy of that place. Then she chuckled at herself. As a single woman, the size of just one half of the upstairs was more than she needed. When they'd opened it
up to use both sides, it had been more than enough for her crazy family. Only a monstrosity like the Bell House could cause her to see the top floor of Sycamore House as intimate.

  What a strange sensation this was. Today she was here for final interviews for a human relations / financial administrator. With the addition of the Sycamore Foundation, as well as the growing number of employees, things had finally grown too big for Polly to manage alone. She didn't have the necessary skills. After a long conversation with her accountant in Story City, they'd decided that in order to accommodate continued growth, someone had to join their staff full-time.

  Jeff had done the initial interviews and it was time for Polly to meet his top two candidates.

  Polly walked in the front door and smiled at a severe looking woman who was dressed in a neat dark suit. Her grey hair was cut short and tight around her face and she sat on one of the benches with her hands clasped tightly in her lap, knees together and feet crossed at the ankle.

  "Hello," Polly said. "How are you?"

  "Fine, thank you," the woman said. She looked down at her lap.

  Polly had read through the resumes of the two candidates and assumed this must be Edna Dahlman. Her qualifications made her a perfect candidate for this job and Polly had expected to approve wholeheartedly, but right now she wasn't so sure. The other candidate was Rob Moore. He wouldn't be here for an hour. His resume was less dense than Ms. Dahlman's, but he had the education and some experience.

  "Are you here for the interview?" Polly asked.

  "Yes," the woman responded. "The young woman told me I could wait in the office or out here. I'm so nervous. It's been a long time since I've had to do this."

  "You've spoken with Jeff Lyndsay a couple of times, though, right?"

  She nodded. "But this is the important one. I'm meeting the owner today. Are you here for an interview, too?"

  "I should have introduced myself. I'm Polly Giller. You don't need to be nervous."

  "I'm so embarrassed." The woman stood and put out her hand. Even with her nerves, her hand was warm and dry. "Edna Dahlman."

  "No need to be embarrassed and please don't be nervous. Would you like a cup of coffee?"

  "I'd better not. I've had plenty this morning."

  Polly smiled at her. "Take a minute to relax. I need to let Jeff know I'm here. Kristen will come get you."

  "Thank you." Edna smoothed her skirt, sat back down, and though she wasn’t quite as rigid as she had been before, she still sat straight as a board and placed her hand on the leather case beside her.

  "Hello there," Polly said when she walked into the main office.

  Kristen grinned. "You never come in here dressed up like that."

  Polly laughed. "Stop it. You're shaming me. But maybe you're right. I should dress in something other than jeans and sweatshirts."

  "I'm sorry." Kristen looked down. "That was awful of me. It's just that you look so nice today."

  "If it's obvious when I dress nicely, I need to do it more often," Polly said. "Jeff in his office?" The door was closed.

  "Jeff," Kristen asked when she pressed the intercom button. "Polly's here."

  "Send her in."

  Polly nodded and headed for his office door. She rapped lightly, opened it, and stepped in. "Good morning."

  He tapped at his keyboard, held up a finger, and then stopped, closing his eyes. In a flash, he opened them, finished typing and spun his chair to face her. "Good morning to you. Are you ready?"

  "It's been a while. I much prefer just meeting people and inviting them to come work with me. Can I admit how glad I am that you have been in charge of the interviewing part of the process?"

  "I like both of these candidates. What did you think of their resumes?"

  "Good, I guess. I just met Edna Dahlman in the hallway."

  "She's here?"

  Polly frowned. "Didn't Kristen tell you?"

  "I told her not to bother me until you showed up. I had a bunch of work I needed to slog through."

  "Where's Stephanie?"

  He thought for a moment, then turned back to his computer. After bringing up his calendar, he chuckled. "I'm really out of it this morning. She's upstairs."

  "Okay."

  "No, it's pretty cool. They've started a young business women's group in Bellingwood. They meet once a month." He grinned. "To be fair, this is the first month, but it looks like a good turnout. You'd know most all of them. Heck, you probably brought half of them to town. Jessie Locke is there, Nan Stallings, Stephanie. Rachel is up there and Camille is here today. There are a bunch more. I think Dylan Foster's wife, Lisa was invited. If I wasn't so busy, I'd have let Kristen go up."

  "How young do you have to be?"

  "Younger than you," he said with a laugh. "Sorry about that."

  "Thanks tons. And next month, tell me. I'll come over and answer phones so Kristen can attend."

  "What a good idea. I didn't even think about that. Come on in and sit down."

  Polly took a seat at the round table in one corner of his office.

  "People are talking about you again," he said.

  "What this time?"

  "You and Henry found his missing supervisor out at the new salon. I spoke with Mina Dendrade when she came in for the meeting upstairs. She's still upset about it."

  "Can you blame her?"

  "No. You really found the poor guy wrapped up in plastic?"

  She nodded, then stood up. "I need coffee."

  "Wait. You're not going to tell me anything other than that?"

  "I don't know anything more," Polly said with a shrug. "Henry and I went in so he could do something with something construction related. I walked around to look at the space and found a body. It isn't like this is new business for me. Do you want a refill?"

  He held up his mug. "Just for that, I'm not going to tell you what I did this weekend."

  "Went looking for a house with Adam," Polly flipped off.

  She had her hand on the door handle when he exploded out of his chair. "How did you know that?"

  "I was kidding," she said with a laugh. "Did you really? Where are you looking? Have you told your mother? This isn't a short-term thing, is it?"

  Jeff dropped back into his chair. "I guess it isn't. And no, I haven't told my mother. She'll be alerted when I send her a change of address card."

  "Where are you thinking of moving to?"

  He set his jaw. "Where do you think?"

  "I don't know what to think. You stayed in Ames because you didn't want people watching every move you made and you liked having access to a city. I understand all of that. Bellingwood isn't the most open-minded community in Iowa."

  "But Bellingwood has gotten to know me," he said quietly. "And they've accepted Adam. At least most everyone has. If there is anyone who doesn't, they certainly haven't made it an issue with me."

  She laughed to the point of snorting. "Token gay couple."

  He joined her laughter and started coughing. "That's what Adam said. But yeah, we're looking at a couple of houses here. I have to decide how much work I want to put into a fixer-upper. That’s all that’s left in town it seems."

  "Because you don't know anyone who's any good at that kind of stuff."

  "Yeah, whatever. We even talked about buying one of the old buildings downtown."

  "And do what with it?"

  He shrugged. "We'd renovate the upstairs into a big apartment. The main level? We have no idea. Maybe a second site for the sign business. Adam isn't in love with the idea, but I kinda like the thought of being close to the action."

  Polly laughed again. "Action? Bellingwood? Stop. You're killing me."

  "Go get your coffee. We need to be on time with this poor woman. If she's been waiting, she's going to be really nervous."

  "I can wait for coffee."

  Jeff shook his head and frowned at her. "We still have five minutes before her appointment. Go get your coffee."

  ~~~

  Polly stood and
paced over to the window of Jeff's office. "I don't know what to think."

  They'd finished the second interview five minutes ago. Polly had taken young Mr. Moore for a tour of Sycamore House and a quick tour of the grounds. He'd been properly impressed, as had Edna Dahlman.

  She watched him get in his car and drive away, then turned back to Jeff. "What about you?"

  "I have a preference."

  "Not him. Right?"

  He smiled at her. "You know me so well. He's a nice guy and I'm sure he'd do the job." He hesitated long enough before continuing that Polly jumped in.

  "But Edna would do it better."

  "She has a bigger sense of things. Did you notice that she asked more questions about the hotel and the bakery?"

  "Edna also had a good sense of the investment group and how to manage that. But I don't want to leap into something just because she seems like a better candidate. I don't want to make a mistake." Polly dropped into Jeff's sofa.

  It was his turn to pace back and forth. "First of all, so what if she isn't perfect. We train her for what we need and if she doesn't work out, we part ways."

  "I hate thinking like that. I want her to be as perfect for us as you were perfect for me."

  "Honey," he preened, "you'll never find anyone as perfect as me."

  "You got me there. Are we agreed?"

  Jeff nodded. "I think so. I'll reach out to both of them this afternoon."

  "I wish we had a position for Rob. He's a really good guy."

  "In this market, he's going to find a job. You don't need to worry about that. So, walk with me?"

  "Where are we going?"

  "Across the hall."

  Polly jumped up. "That's right. What are you thinking?"

  "I have a lot of thoughts floating around up here." He tapped his forehead. "Short-term and long-term."

  Stephanie was back in her office and Polly stuck her head in. "Jeff told me about your meeting this morning. How did it go?"

  The girl's eyes lit up. "It was so much fun. I knew almost everybody. We talked about bringing in speakers and having retreats. We talked about ways to support each other and everyone had ideas for others we should invite. We're also planning some Saturday trips to Des Moines and Ames."