Of all the places he had to work at it had to be a daycare. William had just stepped inside the building when his eyes and hears felt the presence of children running around at 8a.m in the morning. It wasn’t something new to him, his son had been about the same age two years ago… his time. That part still felt odd to him, but his head was starting to get more used to it as time passed. His old life was behind him and he had a new job to put his focus upon. Sadly enough he didn’t find it to be as joyful as usual and hadn’t been for the past days.
“WILLIAAAAM!” a young, female voice screamed and not too long after a brown haired child of five came running his way. Her mother always left her off early and the girl never failed to pull off a smile everyone’s way.
“Ah, hi Trish”, he replied a bit reluctant. He bent down to be able to catch the girl, Trisha, before she threw herself at him. Thankfully she let him go after just a quick hug and he hurried to state that he had something to take care off, and therefore couldn’t stay and talk. Trisha gave him a frown and began to pull his shirt, which didn’t do him any more good. “Please, I can come and play with you later – I’m sure one of your friends will show up within an hour or so.” William wasn’t sure of why he held back or pushed the girl away, often he was known to be playful and to stay at the children’s level – but this week had been different ever since Friday. Maybe it was just one of those weeks? Yeah, that had to be it.
Once Trish was out of the way William moved further into the building to meet up with one of his coworkers: Felicity Lowe. She was two years younger than him, 33, and had been working at the daycare for almost six years. She came off as a bit exhausted at times, but neither less she never let down a child and always did her best to stay excited and active. There were one more coworker to arrive later, but not until after lunch. William threw a “good morning” her way while he walked over to the coffee machine across the small kitchen area.
“Where do they get all the energy from?” Felicity said with a shake of her head, putting down her own coffee cup in the sink.
“They have yet to see the horrors of life, that’s what”, William said with a shrug. Felicity let out a laugh at his comment, moving over to the table instead. They ended up chatting for a couple of minutes before the female had to move out of her chair to check up on the few kids that had disappeared into their TV room.
Upon that the little girl Trisha once again saw her chance to gain the male’s attention. She came sneaking up to him with a paper in her hands, putting it down on the seat next to his. “Look!” she said and pointed at her drawing.
William glanced down, staring at the mess of lines that was supposed to look like something. Normally he would have clapped his hands together and asked for the story behind the character she had drawn, but now instead he kept a straight face and narrowed his eyebrows a bit. “What’s that?” he asked. His question did not sit well with the girl.
“Can’t you see? The fire, Will! Big, scary… rawr!” Trish made a monster sound, lifting her hands up in the air as she tried to come off as frightening.
“Uh… a monster?” he tried, but Trish only shook her head.
“No, a dragon.”
“A dragon? Why would you draw a dragon? There aren’t any dragons around anymore.”
Trisha became silent and pursed her lips, her fingers wrapping around the drawing. “What do you know about that?” she said after a while. “Dragons are real and they are great, you are no fun.” She put the paper against her chest and walked away with big, angry steps. Again: normally William would have apologized for his answer, or played along better, but today his head only found it more pleasing to see the children stay away from him rather than flock around him. Dragons had been extinct for generations back home, here they didn’t exist at all – or at least not in their original form. He was right and it sure saved him the trouble of having to act like a magical creature later during the day.
With that he only took another sip out of his cup as he waited for the day to be over.
