by Fields, MJ
“Louise sent me an . . . interesting email.”
“What did she say?”
I pulled out my phone, scrolled to the message, and then read the entire thing to my mom. For a few moments, I was worried that my mom was going to have a heart attack. “In other words, she wants me to give my daughter to Sonya. What is wrong with that woman?”
“I’m going to kill her, you know that, right? I’m going to tighten those damn pearls around her neck until she can’t breathe. How dare she? What is wrong with her? Who thinks of stuff like this? At first, I tried to make excuses for her, like she was lashing out because she was grieving. I couldn’t fathom the feeling, the loss, and what she was going through. But this . . . this is just cruelty. No more excuses for that woman. She is just vile, delusional, and cruel.”
“Is Callie unhappy with me?”
“Ry, don’t do this. Callie loves you so much. She is six and is really getting out for the first time. I’ve always been with her if you haven’t. Now she’s with other kids and is seeing that there are other types of families. She’s going to continue exploring, and she’ll discover that there are some families with boys that only have moms, some with no parents, some with both. She’s just trying to take everything in, and on top of that, kids are curious. She’s probably had to share that her mommy is in heaven.” My mom reached up and placed her hand on my cheek. “I love you. You are a wonderful man and an even better father. Don’t let that bitter woman make you doubt yourself for one second.”
“I talked with Art, the chief of staff today.”
“About what?”
“To see if I could cut back on my hours. I’d still go in early, but I want to get off in time to pick her up from school.”
“She would love that.”
“I mean . . . there still might be times when something happens and I can’t make it, but for the most part, I would be around her full-time. It would also mean that I probably will take a hit on my salary.”
“Does that really matter?”
“No. We’re fine.”
“I still have the money Dad left me when he passed. We can use that and pay off the house, which will lessen your burden.”
“No, Mom. Dad left that for you. He didn’t want you to have to ever worry about anything.”
“I don’t worry. I have a house, and it’s paid for. I freeload off my son, if you haven’t heard.” She gave me a wink and I smiled.
“It isn’t freeloading. I’d be lost without you, and so would Callie.”
“Right, you would be.” She winked. “Now, do you want to tell me what is going on with this deputy Callie can’t stop talking about?”
I glanced down at my watch. “Wow, would you look at that, it’s time for me to go get Callie.”
“Nice avoidance tactic.”
“Thanks, Mom.”
“Anytime.”
I changed into jeans and a T-shirt before heading back out to my car to go pick up my daughter. When I pulled into the parent pick-up line, I spotted a motorcycle deputy, so I made the second rash decision of the day and decided to park.
“Hey there, Deputy Lazar.”
“Doctor Montgomery, I don’t usually see you at pick-up.”
“Trying to surprise Callie. I wanted to thank you again for agreeing to come to career day for Callie. She thinks the world of you and what you do.”
“I’m kind of looking forward to spending the day with her.”
I felt like I was back in college, it had been ten years since I’d asked a girl out. My throat was dry, I took several deep swallows as I tried to formulate the words, but my chance had passed.
“Daddy. Daddy!” Callie came barreling down the sidewalk toward where I stood. I held out my arms to pick her up.
“You shocked to see me?”
Callie nodded. “Yep,” she said before turning her grin on Sadie. “I made you something, Sadie.”
I rolled my eyes. “Well, I see where I rank.” Callie giggled as she handed a paper to Sadie.
“What is it? Is that me?” Callie nodded. It showed a distorted stick on two large circles with what I’m assuming was yellow hair. “Is that a mini me?”
“Noooo, that’s silly.”
“Of course, I don’t have yellow hair. But you do. So, is that you as a motorcycle deputy?”
“Yep. Since you are coming to school on Friday our teacher read ‘Officer Buckle and Gloria’ to the class. Then we got to draw a picture of a police officer, so I drew you and me.”
“I loved that book when I was in school.”
“Why don’t I remember this book?” I asked.
“It probably came out in the early nineties.”
“Maybe I just missed it? We’ll have to find it so you can read it to me, Callie, okay?”
“Okay, Daddy.”
“Well, let’s let Sadie get back to her job. It was nice seeing you again.”
“You, too. I’ll see you on Friday.”
Callie reached up and gave Sadie a hug. “Maybe . . .” I paused in what I wanted to say. God, I wanted to flirt, but it didn’t feel natural. I was rusty.
“Maybe what?” Sadie’s face brightened, and her lips curved up. I wondered what her lips would taste like.
“Sorry, never mind. Have a nice afternoon.” I led Callie off, but not without turning around and looking at Sadie. Yep, she was still watching me. “I have a surprise,” I said to my daughter.
“For me?”
“Yep.”
“What?”
“You’ll just have to wait and see.” I made sure that Callie was buckled into her booster seat before starting my car. It only took about fifteen minutes to get to the Klub, and just as many attempts to try and talk myself out of turning around and going home.
“Where are we, Daddy?”
“Kidz Klub.”
“Is Sadie here?”
“I don’t think so, we just left her at your school.”
“Oh. But I wanted to come when she was here.”
“You aren’t going to stay today. I just thought we’d go in and look around. Make sure that you liked it.”
I held on to Callie’s hand much tighter than she was holding on to mine as we walked through the door. “Hello there, I’m Lizzy Kunis, I’m the director at Kidz Klub, and who are you?”
“I’m Ryan Montgomery, this is Callie.”
“Hello, Callie, it is so nice to meet you.” I glanced down at Callie, shocked that she didn’t seem as excited as she had just a few moments ago. “Why don’t I show Callie into the playroom so she can meet some of the other wonderful children? That way, you and I can get to know each other better.” Her choice of words seemed weird to me, but hey, whatever.
“No. I want to stay with my daddy. I’ll wait for Sadie.”
“We don’t have any children named Sadie, I’m sorry,” Lizzy explained.
“She means Deputy Lazar.”
“Oh, you know Sadie Lazar.”
“She’s my best friend,” Callie added.
“Well, she doesn’t work here, she only comes by every now and then.”
“Oh, I thought that she volunteered here every week.”
“Oh no, not that often. Why don’t I take you to go meet some of the girls your age?” Lizzy held out one hand, but Callie recoiled.
“Maybe this wasn’t such a good idea, I’m sorry to have wasted your time.”
Lizzy held my information packet in her hands and glanced down at it. “Mr. Montgomery, you’re a doctor, so you more than most know that children can’t be coddled.”
“I’m not into coddling, but I’m also not into traumatizing. Clearly, she isn’t comfortable here, so we’ll try again at another time.” I held on to Callie’s hand and left, making a mental note to talk with Sadie.
Twelve
Sadie
They’re going to eat me alive.
A shiver ran down my spine at the mere thought of being surrounded by twenty-five kids. Okay, Callie was going
to be one of them, which seemed to make the whole scenario palatable. Kids in small groups I could handle but a large group . . . ummm, what would you call that? I’d call that a No Thank You.
I headed into the main office and checked in before heading to Callie’s class. When I got there, I stood outside and took several deep breaths while I tried to steel my nerves before knocking.
“Sadie,” Callie called from inside, and I couldn’t help but smile as she swung open the door. “You’re here.”
“Of course I am, I told you I would be, didn’t I?”
“Come on.” Callie tugged my hand and pulled me inside.
“Hi, I’m Miss Ashley.”
“Of course you are,” I mumbled, taking in the sheer chaos that was the classroom.
“Excuse me?”
“I’m sorry. All I meant was that of course your name is Miss Ashley, it just seems to fit. Has anyone ever told you that you look like Miss Honey from Matilda?”
She smiled. “I get that all the time.”
I was so out of my depth here. I took a step back and tried not to focus on all the little faces staring at me. My eyes stopped on one particular face, a big face, in the back of the room. His eyes held a glint of amusement, and his mouth was curved into a slight smirk. Why was Ryan here and looking at me when Pollyanna was standing next to me?
Miss Ashley clapped her hands, once then twice in a rhythm. Then all the students stopped what they were doing and finished the beat with three swift claps. Not another word was said. “Thank you, now that I have your attention, Callie has invited a special guest to be with us today. Callie, would you like to come up and introduce your guest?”
Callie walked up wearing her plastic sheriff’s badge that Bridget had given her pinned to her shirt and came to a stop next to me. “This is Deputy Lazar, she rides a motorcycle and carries a gun and has handcuffs. She helps people and kids. She is tough, really tough . . .”
My eyes locked with Ryan’s, but a second later, I had to look away because the heat radiating along my body was intense.
Callie was still working on my introduction. “She finds bad people and takes them to jail.”
“Okay, Callie, why don’t we let Deputy Lazar take it from here,” Miss Ashley cut in, which I was thankful for.
“Thank you, Callie, for my wonderful introduction, you made me sound like Wonder Woman. As Callie mentioned, my name is Deputy Lazar, and I’m part of a police unit known as motors, we all ride motorcycles. How many of you have seen a movie with a police officer in it?” I waited for the kids to raise their hands and nod. “Were they driving a car?” Once again, they nodded, and some said yes. “Did they catch any criminals and put them into the back seat?”
A little boy frantically waved his hand in the air. “Yes?”
“On Cops they always put people in the back seat.”
“Yep, they sure do.”
“On a motorcycle, I can’t do that, I don’t have a back seat. So, my job is different. I drive around and work traffic, car wrecks, and pull over speeding cars. Whenever they need someone who can drive fast, they use motorcycles because of speed. Our unit is also used for special events when there are huge crowds like parades and carnivals because we can move around people, a car can’t drive through a crowd, but a motorcycle is smaller and is easily maneuvered.” I took the students through my typical day of running radar, looking for people who disobey important road laws like slowing down through school zones, and finally responding to accidents. Once I was finished, I allowed the kids to ask me questions, which turned out to be a big mistake . . . really big.
“What happens if you find a bad person? Do you have to let him go since you are on your motorcycle?” a little girl asked.
“Nope. I use my radio”—I pointed to it hooked on my shoulder—“to call into dispatch and ask for another deputy to come out and pick up the bad person.”
“What happens if you have to go pee and you’re chasing a bad guy, do you just pee in your uniform?” a boy name Joey asked.
“Nope, I hold it.”
“What if you can’t?”
“Then I’d have to let the other deputies chase the bad guy and pull over.”
“What if there weren’t any other deputies around?”
“Okay, Joey, that’s enough,” Miss Ashley said, finally coming to my rescue.
“What if you’re sleepy and fall asleep on your bike?” another boy asked.
“That wouldn’t be good, I’d fall off and get hurt.”
“Probably die. Get run over by another vehicle and smash.” The kid smacked his hands together mimicking smashed.
“Okay, class, we are going to be finished if no one has any other work-related questions for Deputy Lazar.” Miss Ashley’s voice was firm.
“What is dispatch?” a girl with the brightest red hair asked.
“I’m glad you asked.” I had already set it up with Bridget, and she was listening to channel Charlie ten, which was one that we never used so it wouldn’t confuse any deputies listening. “Dispatch is who answers 9-1-1 calls, and they tell us where emergencies are. But I also call dispatch to let them know what I find or if I need help. You want to hear what it’s like?”
All the kids nodded.
“We use special codes, and they are called ten codes. I’ll explain them in a second.” They all watched as I pressed the button on my radio. “This is thirteen twenty-two, put my ten twenty at Audubon Park Elementary.”
“Orange County copies at ten thirty-four.”
I smiled as the kids let out a gasp of breath.
“What did you say?” Callie asked.
“We don’t use our names over the radio for security purposes, so we each have an ID number. Mine is thirteen twenty-two. That is how we always start a call, to tell them who we are. I then asked them to put my ten twenty at your school. Ten twenty means location. Dispatch has a huge electronic map, and when we make a stop somewhere, they’ll mark us at the location and then in three minutes if they don’t hear from us, they will check on us again.”
“What did dispatch say to you?” another little girl asked.
“She said that Orange County copies. I work for Orange County, so she was telling me that my workplace understood me and then she said the time for our records. If my boss needs to see where I was, it will say Deputy Sadie Lazar was at Audubon Park Elementary at ten thirty-four.”
While I was talking, Bridget’s voice came across the radio. “Thirteen twenty-two, your ten thirteen.”
“Ten ninety-eight,” I replied.
“Ten-four.”
“See? She checked on me and asked for my ten-thirteen. That means my status, or how I’m doing. I said ten ninety-eight, and that simply told dispatch that I had completed my assignment.”
“I know what ten-four means!” a little boy shouted from the back of the room.
“You do? What does it mean?”
“It means okay.”
“It sure does. How did you know that?”
“My dad says ten-four to me all the time.”
“A lot of people use that phrase. So, let’s look at the numbers again, they all start with the number ten. Do you know what we call this code?”
“Secret code?”
“Nope,” I said.
“Cop talk?”
“Nope. We call it ten-code.” The kids laughed. “That’s easy to remember, but we have ten-codes for everything. Like ten-eight means I’m starting work and ten-seven means that I’m going home. Would you like to learn some of the ten-codes?” Everyone nodded. “Well, I have a surprise for each of you. Callie, will you help me?” She raced up. “Will you pass one of these out to all of your friends?”
“Yes.”
“In your bags, there is a sheriff coloring book, and on the back is a list of some of our ten-codes. I’ve also put a large sticker in there so you can put it on your shirt and be honorary deputies for the day.”
“What do we say to Deputy Lazar?” Miss As
hley asked.
“Thank you,” they all replied in unison.
“I parked in front of the school if we want to go out and see my motorcycle,” I whispered over to the teacher.
“They would love that.”
“Why don’t you all put your badges on and then we can go see my motorcycle?”
You would have thought the fire alarm had gone off, the way the kids were scrambling to line up at the door. “Slow down, I need you all to pick up your lunch boxes and bring them with you. We will go straight to the cafeteria after seeing Deputy Lazar’s bike. So please get in line like nice boys and girls.”
I took a step back as the kids lined up. “I have a question.” Ryan’s warm breath tickled my neck as he spoke, and it took everything in me not to jolt in surprise. I hadn’t realized that he had moved to stand near me.
“What’s that?”
“Is Deputy Lazar single?”
“Yes. Is Doctor Montgomery single?”
“Yes,” he replied just as Miss Ashley opened the classroom door and motioned for the kids to file out.
There was a bounce in my step as we headed outside. Callie held on to my hand as we walked. Ryan stayed a few steps behind us, which put me in a rather awkward situation, since I could almost feel his eyes on my ass as I walked.
“Okay, everyone, this is my bike, it’s a Harley Davidson Road King. I need you to keep your hands back because this bike weighs more than eight hundred pounds. But if you want, I’ll turn on the lights and siren.”
I flipped the switch for the lights and let them flash. Then quickly turned on the siren, which had everyone covering their ears.
“What’s that?” Someone pointed.
“It’s a computer in a rugged box. When I have to give someone a ticket or look up something, I just flip the top open”—I showed them how it all worked—“and enter the information. Everything else I need is in my saddlebags hooked on to my console.” I showed them my radar detector.
“Wow, thank you, Deputy Lazar, for spending your morning with us. You are welcome to have lunch with us if you would like,” Miss Ashley invited.