Free Francesca's Kitchen by Peter Pezzelli Page A

again in her mind, until at last she came to a decision and stood. A few minutes later, bundled up in her coat and hat and boots and gloves, Francesca grabbed her book bag and opened the front door. She stood there for a few moments, wondering if she was doing the right thing.
    â€œI’ve waited long enough,” she finally muttered. Then she stepped outside, locked the door behind her, and went to the car.

CHAPTER 10
    â€œY ou want to do what ?”
    Peg gaped at Francesca with wide-eyed incredulity. Francesca had found her, as she had hoped she would when she had left the house, back in the library computer room. Natalie was there as well, gazing at Francesca with much the same look. Connie, Francesca suspected, would have been making the same face had she not been off in some other part of the library, looking for a book.
    â€œFrannie,” Peg continued, “I can understand you want to keep busy, but do you really want to be a nanny for someone else’s brats?”
    â€œReally,” Natalie chimed in. “Are you crazy?”
    â€œIt’s not really a nanny the ad said she’s looking for,” Francesca tried to explain. “It’s more like a babysitter, ‘a responsible person’ is what it said, to look after a couple of children at their home for just one or two hours after school every day. What’s so bad about that?”
    â€œAyyy, that’s how it starts,” warned Natalie. “Trust me, you don’t know what parents are like these days. First they tell you that they’ll be home at five, next they ask if you would mind staying a little later because they’re busy at work, and before you know it, they’re out till all hours, gallivanting around every other night, while you’re stuck there watching their kids. Believe me, I’ve seen it happen, so I know what I’m talking about.”
    Peg nodded her head in agreement. “She’s right, Frannie,” she said. “These people will take advantage of you every chance they get. It happened once to my daughter, Judy. She agreed to watch one of her neighbor’s kids one day after school. The mother said she had some big important thing to do at work, and that neither she nor the husband would be able to get home on time. The next day, she asked my daughter to do it again. At the time, Judy figured it was no big deal, since the little girl went to the same school as my granddaughter and they were friends. All of a sudden, though, the mother’s calling Judy from work practically every day, asking her to watch the little girl for her. Naturally, Judy always winds up having to feed her supper too, and even helping her with her homework. She was more of a mother to the little girl than her own mother! Well, before long, the kid was showing up at the front door even when the mother didn’t call. They sucked Judy right in. It went on for quite a while like that, until one night when the parents didn’t pick her up until almost ten o’clock. That’s when my daughter finally got up the nerve to put a stop to it.”
    â€œHow sad for that little girl,” said Francesca.
    Her two friends were not telling her anything that she didn’t already know. It was nothing new. She was well aware of how selfish some parents could be, of how indifferent they often behaved when it came to caring for their own flesh and blood. They looked upon parenting, she could only assume, as some sort of chore that had to be avoided whenever possible or, at best, squeezed in somewhere between their busy work and social lives. In truth, Francesca had always believed that such people had no idea of what they were missing. It was the plight of the children, though, that saddened her most. In a land of plenty, there were so many, rich and poor alike, who went without the simple things that counted most in life.
    â€œForget about it,” Natalie advised. “Why would you want to