Page 28 of Privilege

Lucia found that she wanted to just be herself here a lot more than she wanted to be the thing people saw her as when she walked in the doors.

“Okay, hurry over to the other side of the shelter, and get in there to help,” Laurie said, turning to head back to whatever she was doing for the morning.

“Aww, Lucia’s leaving!”

The echo came out from the kitchen behind Lucia, traveling over the noise of the latest song on the radio and the laughter from the joke someone had just told.

Lucia laughed as a half of a dozen voices echoed the same sentiment as she shrugged off her apron, and pulled the gloves from her hands.

“Bye, Lucia!”

Yeah, she enjoyed the daycare.

The kitchen was still her favorite, though.

• • •

“Will you be here tomorrow?” little Rowen asked, her big brown eyes and corkscrew curls bobbing in her excitement as she stared up at Lucia. The girl’s mother apparently had a shift change this week, and so, she needed someone to look after her while she did her morning hours. The daycare it was. “I hope so.”

Lucia smiled as she bent down to help the girl slip her pink, sparkly backpack on. “I’m pretty sure I’m in here working tomorrow, too.”

“Awesome!”

Rowen’s exclamation was punctuated with a tiny fist pumping into the air. The girl’s mother smiled at the doorway, and as soon as she called out her daughter’s name, Rowen gave a little wave before heading off.

Lucia checked her watch to find it was time for her lunch break. The thirty minutes wasn’t much, but it allowed her to grab something from the kitchen, and relax for a few seconds. After letting one of the other supervisors know she was taking her break, she headed out of the loud and busy daycare.

“Loud down there today, isn’t it?”

Lucia popped her head into Laurie’s office because she figured it would be rude to just agree and pass on by. “It is, but they’re having a great time. Finger painting today, so messy.”

The woman never took her gaze away from the paperwork on her desk. From what she understood, Laurie had started this shelter out of her home a decade or more ago. It had since grown into the amazing organization it now was. The woman was always the last one to leave, and the first one to arrive.

This place would never fail with Laurie running it. Not to mention, Laurie was a motivator for everyone around her, including Lucia. Focused, driven, and always wanting to help. The woman never asked for something from someone else. She simply went out, and got whatever it was that she needed for her shelter, or whatever the case may be.

“I was meaning to ask you something,” Lucia hedged.

It had been on her mind for a few days, but she’d swallowed down her questions thinking that Laurie likely wouldn’t tell her anything—if she even did know something—or the woman wouldn’t have anything to say.

“What’s that?”

“I noticed Diego Zulla hasn’t been around in a few days. He was here the day after I first started, but not since. Is that … usual for him?”

Really, she was trying to find out where the boy and his brother were at the moment. With every day that passed where Lucia didn’t see Diego show up at the shelter’s daycare, the more concerned she became.

For him, and Renzo.

Plus, Lucia was worried that maybe their awkward interaction that night in her car caused Renzo to avoid the daycare altogether. She hadn’t meant to make him feel badly about his situation. He, like everyone else in this damn world, was doing the best they could given what he had.

No one could expect anything more.

Laurie finally glanced up from the paperwork in front of her with a soft gaze. “It is a little unusual for him to go this long without attending the daycare, but that’s not my business, and it isn’t your business, either. That’s important to remember here, Lucia. There is only so much you can do, and becoming too involved with one person in particular can cause a problem. I hope you understand.”

Sure, she did.

That didn’t mean she was going to listen to the advice, or heed it, for that matter. If Renzo was avoiding the daycare because of her, then she was going to let him know that was pointless, and it only really hurt Diego in the end.

She knew where he lived. She could go right over there and let him know that as soon as she was done with her shift.