So, Seven Years ago..

I didn't work hard to write up the incident at the time because those nasty shitbag work comp fucks were monitoring my blog and I didn't want them to be able to find anything that might be considered identifying information.

But you know, it's been seven years and unless you know me, you don't have any idea where I used to work or the real names of any of the players.

Which of course I still don't use here.

Real names and locations are always changed for the protection of the kids.

I had Savannah in my program out at our little country school.
She was there every other week. I only had her in my group when she was with her dad. During Mom weeks, she got on the bus after school and went to her mom's house.

We had a weekly contracted schedule that told me which kids were to be with me on which days. Scheduling was done by the parents via the company website, and I had the weekly schedule sent to me.

Since we were out in the country, the kids were either picked up after school or rode the bus home unless they were in my program. Which meant that if a kid went home on the wrong day, he or she could end up in an empty house.

So when I'd had Savannah one week, then the next week she'd been with her mom after school and the next week I was expecting her and she didn't show up in program, I had her taken off the school bus and brought to me.

She was crying and shaking when they brought her down to the cafeteria.
"I'm supposed to go to my mom's!"

It seemed like a rather large reaction to a small thing, so I assured her that we'd call and make sure she was in the right place and that I had her dad's number and that I'd check with him in a few minutes.

She wasn't comforted. She continued to cry, sitting on a bench and saying occasionally, "But my mom is going to be so mad!"

I had a few kids that day who hadn't shown up, and had to make calls to find out why. When I got her dad on the phone, he said that he didn't know why the schedule was off, but that she was supposed to go to her mom's house.

"I'll give her a call," he told me, "And she'll come pick Savannah up, she only lives about two minutes away."

So about five minutes later, the office called me and said, "Savannah's mom is here, do you want one of us to come down and get her?"

I said, "No, I made the call to take her off the bus, I'll escort her out."

So I handed the gang off to my assistant, had Savannah get her backpack and coat, and we went up the hallway and out the front door, where there was a car idling in front of our entryway.

I put on my best friendly face, walked around to the driver's side of the car and prepared to introduce myself while Savannah got into the back seat next to a car seat full of baby brother.

I wasn't able to even say my name before Mom started calling me stupid and a goddamn idiot and liberally sprinkling 'fuck' and 'shit' and 'asshole' into her rant.

She ranted at me for a minute or so, while I stood there, dumbfounded.
Every time I tried to say something, she screamed over the top of me.

She said that, "This is the tenth time this has happened this year!"
"No, it isn't!" I told her. "This has never happened!"
"Are you calling me a fucking liar??!?" she screeched.

Poor Savannah was huddled up in the back seat looking embarrassed and ashamed.

I wasn't able to say much of anything, she told me I was incompetent and OBVIOUSLY didn't GIVE A SHIT about the kids, that it was a wonder I still had a job but that after SHE was done with me, I wouldn't HAVE a fucking job.

Such a pleasant person.

So I finally realized that there was nothing I could say or do to change the situation, told her one more time, "Sorry," and turned to go around the front of her car and back into the building.

She stomped on the gas pedal hard enough to make the tires chirp, steered her car at me and at the last possible millisecond whipped the wheel to the left and missed me by three inches.

She ran the stop sign at the end of the driveway and pulled out into the road in front of a truck, flipped him the bird when he honked at her and screamed, "FUCK YOU!" at him.

I guess she wasn't in a very good mood that day.