Disrupted Setting Exercise #2

In my previous post, I shared our first 'setting' exercise, in which we were supposed to disrupt a commonplace and predictable scene.  In our next exercise, our task was to take the previous scene which we constructed and change it to a different setting.

My first scene was between a mother and child, who was playing in a sandbox. I took that same mother and 'child' (cackle) from my first story, and changed the scene to a daycare. 

Modern Childcare

“What do you mean ‘you don’t have room for him?’” Sharon stood in amazement. She’d been on maternity leave for the past 12 weeks after adopting a six-week-old infant, and she was tired. Adjusting to motherhood had been so difficult; the days were long, and the nights were longer, but she was pretty certain she had heard correctly. Another daycare had turned her down. She could have sat on the colorful square carpets and cried. Thankfully, Frankie slept on in his covered stroller, unaware of the rejection he and his mother faced.

“I’m sorry ma’m, we just don’t have room for another infant right now. There are so many rules regarding the young ones,; it’s not personal.” The daycare teacher smiled at her weakly. She’d apparently had this conversation before and it was uncomfortable for both parties. Sharon felt a little better; not that she wanted—she read ‘Betty’ on the name tag—to feel bad, but seriously. She’d been all over town. Some of the daycare’s employees had been really nice, like Betty: “Sorry, but we don’t have room.” The first daycare lady had looked at her incredulously like she thought, “What kind of a mother hasn’t figured this out BEFORE the end of maternity leave.” But how was Sharon supposed to know that you needed so much notice to get a daycare spot? She hadn’t even known she would be allowed to adopt until 13 weeks ago, and she was a new mother after all. At the last daycare, “Mollie’s Babie’s and Tots” had been absolutely cruel, patting her on the back and laughing at her as they escorted her out, like her life was some big joke. It stung.

Betty clearly felt bad. “I’m so sorry Ms..maybe we can find a spot for your son next month. Let’s go ahead and fill out some forms and then I can just give you a call if a spot opens up.”

Sharon’s face brightened. Maybe a light at the end of the tunnel? If nothing else, she could take short-term disability and wait a few extra weeks. Ugh, didn’t the government know that 12 weeks isn’t nearly enough maternity leave? She murmured under her breath as she took the papers.

Child’s Name: Franklin Wilberforce Smith

Birthdate: 03/12/2020

Race: Prefer not to answer

What does your child eat/how often?: bottle 4x a day, organic goldfish crackers, organic fish sticks, organic grain cereal

…

She finished what seemed like mountains of paperwork, and handed them back to Betty with a bright smile. Finally, someone was going to help her.

Betty scanned the paperwork. “Excuse me ma’m, how old did you say your son was?”

“6 months, 3 weeks and 5 days.”

“Ok…that’s what I thought. Under ‘mobility’ you marked that your son is mobile already. Kind of an early crawler!”

“Yes, he’s very strong for his age” Sharon agreed smiling.

“He must be! Looks like he’s a healthy eater too. Well, we will have him on a regular feeding schedule here. Let me see…” She scanned farther down. “Well, everything looks pretty good here! We’ll set up a ‘meet and greet’ for Franklin—”

“Frankie” his mother corrected. “He doesn’t like Franklin.”

“Ah, well Frankie will have to come in to meet his teachers, but other than that, we should have you squared away to take the next infant spot that becomes available.”

Sharon was beaming. And then she heard a small yawn coming from her stroller.

“Oh, Betty, THANK YOU! But you can meet him now; sounds like he’s waking up!”

Sharon lifted the carseat cover to check on her waking infant. “Frankie, say hello to Miss Betty!”

Betty walked around the counter with the clipboard hugged to her chest and crouched to admire the baby. “Hello Frankie, I’m—”

She stopped, stumbling slightly backward. She picked up the clipboard which had clattered to the floor and stood up straight and tall. “Sharon,” her timid voice shook with either nervousness or fury, it was hard to tell, “I’m sorry Sharon, but we don’t take cats.”

I greatly enjoyed these 'settings' exercises. For the upcoming week, we've chosen an exercise for creating characters. Stay tuned!

KPA