Sound of Science

When Mary called the restaurant to make a reservation, the wait was about an hour long. "An hour?," Mary says, surprised. "Okay, we'll be there in an hour," she says. She yells up to Spencer's room, and Robert's room. "Boys, dinner in an hour." "Alright," they rely, with little enthusiasm. Spencer is almost fifteen years old, the oldest son, and Robert, at thirteen, the younger of the two. "Oh god, the baby!" mutters Mary under her breath. She now remembers that she left the baby in her crib with the door open. Krista, now one and a half years old, has a tendency to crawl out of her crib, and wander around the room. The problem is that now that Mary left the door open, the baby has full access to the top floor of the house, not to mention the stairs. " How could I be so stupid?" wonders Mary as she hurries up the stairs. "I looked at the top of the stairs when I called up to the boys, and she was no where in sight," she thinks.

When she reaches the top of the stairs, the baby isn't in her room or in the hall. She asks the boys if they have seen her, but neither of them have. "Where could she be? She is little, she can't go far..." she mentions, reassuring herself. She looks once more in her crib, no Krista. The window is open. "She wouldn't," she thinks to herself. "She couldn't have..." Mary runs to the window, and looks out. All that she sees is a few birds in the tree across the street, and neighborhood kids running around. Then she glances at the closet, with its door hanging wide open. "Please," she thinks. She looks in the closet. She finds boxes full of books, coloring pages, and dresses and jackets hanging on various hangers. Then she sees. Krista is playing with her dollhouse behind one of the big boxes. "Thank god!" she says. "Krista, Krista baby, here I am," she says with delight. She picks her up and brings her down to the kitchen securing her in her high chair. She went to the cabinet, rifling through the various baby food jars until finally reaching the right one. "Her you go honey," says Mary, handing the food to Krista. Krista, who seemed quite hungry, shovels it into her mouth, one spoonful after another. "Slow down there, you don't want to get a stomach ache, and besides," she adds, "We will be leaving soon for the restaurant anyways."

After taking about twenty minutes to get everyone together, Mary packs everyone into the car. "Dad is going to meet us there," says Mary. "He just got out of a meeting." The restaurant is on the other side of town, so it takes about fifteen minutes to get there. The boys listened to there music, and Krista just looked out the window, amazed by the many sights of the world. When they finally pulled into the restaurant parking lot, it was packed with cars jammed into parking places. The restaurant was a modern building, with outside seating as well as inside seating. The family walked in, meeting Anthony-their dad, there. "Hey!" he said to the kids. "Sorry I was late," he said with apology. "It's fine," Mary said. "Let's just get a table," she added.

At the table, the setting was clearly fancy. Silver-ware had been polished to shine, and the napkins were lace. After ordering drinks and entrees they talked about school, and Mary's search for Krista. Spencer told Mary a joke he learned in school made her laugh, and I mean laugh hard. The food came, and the scratching noise made by the utensils skimming across the plates while the family ate annoyed Anthony. The noise was too much for him, and he already had a previous head-ache, so he got up, sliding his chair out, and left for a break outside. It certainly had been a long and hard night for him, and there was still much more to come.