* * * * *
We managed to reach Playplace without incident, except for a man who
called me an obscenity. The children and I, however, called him a
great, big alligator head and on the whole, I think, we won. After all,
how can a man possibly be right when faced with a woman and eight tiny
children?
I herded the children through the Germ Detection Booth and Gail was
returned to me with an incipient streptococcus infection.
"Couldn't you give her the shot here?" I asked. "I've _just_ got her in
a good mood, and if I have to turn around and take her back home ...
and besides, her mother works. There won't be anyone there."
"Verne, dear, we can't risk giving the shot until the child is
perfectly adjusted to Playplace. You see, she'd connect the pain of
the shot with coming to school and then she might never adjust."
Mrs. Baden managed to give me her entire attention and hold a
two-and-a-half-year-old child on one shoulder and greet each entering
child and break up a fight between two ill-matched four-year-olds, all
at the same time.
"Me stay at school," Gail said resolutely.
There was a scream from the other side of the booth. That was Billy's
best friend. I waited for the other scream. That was Billy.
"Normal aggression," Mrs. Baden said with a smile.