“Holy shit,” Shannon said, and laughed. “You literally just gave me goose bumps.”
I shrugged, gave another half curtsy. “Shall we give you a tour?”
The children were still in their homeschooling lesson with Nanny Louise, so the house was quiet as I guided Shannon around. One of the first videos I wanted to tackle with Shannon was an official house tour, and this felt like perfect practice. “It’s not that fancy,” I said over my shoulder as we walked down the hallway and turned in to the living room, “but it’s perfect for our growing family.”
Shannon didn’t say anything. Her head moved on a swivel as she took in all the angles she’d witnessed through a phone, now fully dimensional in front of her.Objects in the mirror are closer thanthey may appear.“It’s so much smaller in real life.” She paused, seemed to realize what she said. “I didn’t mean in a bad way, I just meant—”
“It’s fine! Itisa small house.” Deep inside me, buried beneath layers and layers of Online Natalie, my inner voice snarled up at her.Could you afford something this “small,” Shannon?
Shannon nodded, her gaze still roving. “We should highlight this more in your content. Consumerism is such a problem, and this is a great message: you don’t need a McMansion to have a big, happy family.”
I nodded sagely. “I hate waste.”
She made a noise of agreement, and my Online Natalie monitors flashed green. I had planned on showing her the nursery next, but it didn’t feel like the right time for Shannon to see the piles of boxes of Yesteryear Ranch merchandise piled up along the walls, the sweatshirts and snow globes and bread-making kits, the traitorous gold stickers that stamped each box:made in china.We’d only just launched the online store, and already we were sold out of every product, receiving angry messages about purchases every day.
Hi i ordered a snow globe ten days ago and it says it still hasn’t shipped???
I just needed someone—Shannon, perhaps—to do the packaging and mailing. Later, though. Definitely later. For now: “Let’s drop your bags off!”
I showed Shannon the apartment above the barn, where she would be living. “The homeschooling room is on one side of the hallway, and your bedroom is on the other side.” We reached the top of the stairs and turned into the bedroom. “Here we are!” I opened the door, and Nanny Aimee looked up at me from the lower bunk bed. “Nanny Aimee,” I said, “this is Shannon.”
“Hi,” Nanny Aimee said.
I paused. A strange little girl was standing by the bed, playing with Nanny Aimee’s shoes. “Mama,” she said when she saw me.
Right. Of course. That was my little girl, Jessa.Growing so quickly these days!I just didn’t recognize her because of the location—and her hair, it was braided differently—and well—
Pregnancy brain!
I dropped to a crouch and spread my arms wide. “Hello, darling girl!”
She performed perfectly, crashing into my arms in an explosion of giggles. I gave her a big hug and a kiss, ignoring the smell—she needed a diaper change, or maybe a bath—and then sent her toddling back to Nanny Aimee. I stepped inside the room and gestured at the empty set of bunk beds opposite the nannies. My smile fell another fraction; the nannies were supposed to have made the bed already, but a pile of linens was still bundled on the mattress.
“Sorry,” Nanny Aimee said, reading my thoughts. “I was just about to do that. I was just busy with Jessa. She took a huge poo, and then I got her all changed, and then she did it again! Didn’t you, Jessy? Do we have to clean you again? Yes we do!”
Nanny Aimee was a resounding disappointment of a worker. She’d shown up at the house months earlier, wearing a tube top and jean shorts, all gum-snapping and vocal fry. When I called the agency to complain, they told me they were running short on options. No one wanted to work these days.
“I didn’t know you have two nannies.” Shannon gave a nervous laugh. “I didn’t even know you hadone.”
Nanny Aimee was looking up at us with a cool, unblinking stare, like a cat blinking lazily out from their sunlit perch. “We cleared out the bottom three drawers for you,” she said and pointed at the bureau. Jessa copied her, grinning and pointing. There was, I was noticing now, a smear of dried poop on her chubby little thigh.
Shannon didn’t say anything. She was staring at the bunk.
“Can you clean Jessa up?” I said to Nanny Aimee. “We’ll beright back.” Then I shut the door so Shannon and I were alone in the hallway. “Is everything okay?”
“It’s just.” She gestured helplessly at the closed door. “It’s a really small room. I don’t even know if my bags will fit.”
“Well,” I said. A thin smile spread wide across my face. Not a choice so much as a reflex. A drawing and quartering of the face. “The thing is, Shannon: I’m paying you a great salary.” I wasn’t, but what does a nineteen-year-old know about wages? “I’m not even charging you for room and board. You’re saving everything you make.”
“Right,” Shannon said, after a moment.
“You’re going to love the nannies, anyways. You probably just made two future best friends.”
Forward,Online Natalie roared.
“Let’s go see the fields!”
It was midday, the sun blazing overhead, as Shannon and I marched up to the far paddocks, where Caleb was working. “You’ll want to wear bug spray all the time,” I said to Shannon, my voice nearly drowned out by the drone of cicadas. “This place is tick city in the summertime. We keep canisters of deet in the barn that you can use.”
