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Making a surprised face, I play along. "A whale? But they are huge. You could fit a whale onto your little paper?"
Cale smiles, puffing his chest out as he nods, and I smile in awe as I clap. "Wow."
Cale giggles and continues on a rant.
Rolling my eyes, I ask Cale — knowing he can never refuse building blocks, "Sweetie, I need to talk to Ms. Hanna. Can you wait for me while playing with the building blocks?"
He nods as he runs towards the building blocks, and I turn to Ms. Hanna, who is surprised to see me after such a long time, "Ms. Hart, it's been a while. Is there something you want to talk about?"
"Yes. If possible, I need to talk to you in confidence."
Seeming concerned, Ms. Hanna leads me into the adjoining office, leaving an assistant caretaker behind. "Yes?" she asks.
"Ms. Hanna, you know I'm a reporter, yes?"
Ms. Hanna nods in the affirmative, "Of course."
Sighing, I explain, "My job sometimes brings me a lot of hate. On my way here, I noticed I was followed by a suspicious black car, so I wanted to ask if you would please keep a good watch on Cale for me. I don't want him to become involved in my problems. I will also take more care from now on."
Ms. Hanna is concerned by now, "Oh my. Of course, I'll help you with this, Ms. Hart. But if you're right and that suspicious black car is dangerous, and it's parked outside the gates of our kindergarten…."
I nod, "Yes. I observed it for a while and waited to see if it would move at the gates. It didn't. It's probably waiting for me to come out."
Ms. Hanna extends her hand to her phone, "This is too problematic. We need to get it removed immediately."
I stop her, "Ms. Hanna, please wait. Student safety at your kindergarten is paramount, but this car followed me, so it mostly concerns me. I hope it's not too selfish of me to ask if you cannot report it to the authorities. Please raise this point at the school board's meeting to make them aware of the situation and increase security throughout the school."
Ms. Hanna firmly states her opinion, "Alright. I'll do as you ask now since you have informed us of the situation. But I will have to get some other school staff involved because I alone cannot handle such a responsibility. And if we notice something else, we may need to take action. But you do not have to worry. Confidentiality is also important in this case, so I will handle this matter as such. Thank you for your information."
I smile, relieved, as I pull a card from my purse, "Thank you. This here's my number. Very few people have this. If you have anything to tell me, call me directly no matter what time it is. And if you have anything you want to ask of me, please do. Thank you so much again."
Ms. Hanna smiles. "No problem, Ms. Hart. I will call if something happens."
I feel better, and we both walk out of the office, happy and smiling. Bidding goodbye, I help Cale put on his backpack and walk to the parking lot, looking for Charles' car.
Confused, Cale looks up at me, pointing at our car. "Mom? Let's go. There's our car."
I smile at him and try to distract him, "Wow, you're so smart. But do you know our car's number?"
Puffing his chest again, he replies, "Of course I do. It's number 1."
Astonished, I'm rooted to the spot, "Number 1?"
Oddly confident, my little munchkin bobs his head, "Of course, our car is the best!"
Unable to deny his happiness, I must play along, "Of course. The best. But you know we get to ride in Uncle Charles' car today."
Seeing his expression crack, I feel terrible, so I have to appease him for now, "Our car may be the best, but Uncle Charles' car is awesome. You'll love it."
His expression is doubtful as he says, "Really?"
To which, with confidence, I respond, "Of course."
But when I finally notice Charles with his banged-up Jeep, I almost smack my head in disappointment. There goes my hope of getting Cale into the Jeep with compliance.
Meeting Charles, I can't help being sarcastic. "Wow, such a fancy car you brought, Charles."
Cale almost drawls, "Uncle Charles, is that supposed to be a car?"
