The phone at the reception desk never ceased ringing after two. Her assistant Mike was doing his best to handle the traffic but he was fraying under pressure.
Dr. Morgenstern tapped her nails on the desk. The kids were out on the playground, parents would arrive at any moment. She felt only relief when the first news van stopped at the gate of Child Time Preschool.
“Mike, make sure that damned Jenny is the first kid out the gate today, won’t you? Let’s get in front of the cameras as quickly as possible.”
That little brat, of course she had a cell phone.
Behind the news vans came the minivans and family trucksters, carrying parents inbound from every direction. The staff passed the children off to angry and hysterical parents, and Sherry heard sirens wailing in the distance.
Meanwhile, she turned to face the press. Mike tried his best to be invisible.
“My name is Dr. Sherry Morgenstern and I am the director of this facility. I’ll take your questions now.”
Babble, twenty microphones shoved forward.
“One at a time, please.”
“Jim Stone, the Chronicle. Dr. Morgenstern, what’s this about tainted food in your lunchroom?”
“At noon today, one of our children had a spat with Martha, our cafeteria cook. The child objected to her meal. The child said, ‘This food tastes like death,’ or something similar. I’m afraid that Martha lost her temper after the child threw a lunch tray.”
The reported nudged, “So what happened?”
“Martha is an excellent cook who’s been with us from the day we opened. Her lunches are delicious. I’ve often shared lunchtime with the children.
“Martha screamed back, ‘That’s because it’s made from homeless kids.’”
The red and blue flashing lights were arriving now. Police vehicles came to crunching stops in the gravel parking lot.
“We had Sloppy Joes on the menu today. Except I think his name was Harold.
“I’m going to miss Mother’s cooking.”
323 words. Inspired by old stuff hanging around on my ‘story snippets’ idea list.
(Day off, feel like I should write something, even if the prompts are uninspiring this week.)
ParkInkSpot 