Michael,

I want to apologize to you that my letters haven't been as frequent as I know you would like. London has been much more than I had ever imagined or hoped it would be. I have been busy at every second of the day, not to mention the time difference between us so it's been impossible to call you and Abby. I hope she's well, by the way, I miss you and your sister. I start law school this fall at Yale and my first assignment will be to present my research from my internship at Hurricane Utah, to the undergrad pre law class. My dad tells me that I should revisit Hurricane to prepare for my lecture. But I'm not sure. Officer Hurst... he made it very clear that I was not welcome in your town before I left. But I do miss you. I will let you know of my decision soon enough. Anyways, I'll write you again soon when I can.

P.S. Please tell me how Ness is doing?

Yours,

Fancy

˗ˏˋ ★ ˎˊ˗

Michael sighed as he read over the letter in his hand.

It had been months since he heard anything at all from Fancy who seemed to be next to horrible at keeping in touch. Especially when she got busy. Which Mike understood, of course, Fancy would be busy, she had a successful life ahead of her. He was just barely starting to get his own life together.

The last he had heard from her before this letter Fancy had called to tell him that she would be going to London for most of the summer to stay with her aunt and study abroad with Cambridge university. He was happy for her, of course, but he knew with this change he would hear from her less and less.

But her most recent letter gave him a shred of hope. Maybe Fancy would return?

He would be more than happy to see her again. But he understood at the same time that her relationship with Officer Hayden Hurst made tense look pleasant. He moved his attention from the letter in his hand to the newspaper on the kitchen table.

˗ˏˋ ★ ˎˊ˗

The add in the paper had to be way too good to be true.

A full time babysitter for practically free?

Well, not free exactly. The add in the morning paper had said that Mabel Parton would request free lodging and a low monthly stipend of barely a hundred bucks, but in return she would provide full time child care for anyone asking.

Mike almost couldn't believe his luck.

Just when he was in between jobs too. He had just started an apprenticeship position at a local construction company and abby was out of school for the summer. It had to be too good to be true. So Mike researched this "Mabel Parton" on his old laptop that he hadn't used since the days at Freddys... man did he not want to think about that.

His search for anyone named Mabel Parton only brought up a few results, mostly obituaries for old ladies born in the 1950's. Nothing riveting. Perhaps this Mabel girl was truly legit.

He eyed the phone number printed on the article in the paper and with a sigh he picked up the phone and punched in the number. It rang twice before someone picked up on the other end of the line.

"Hello?" "I'm looking for a Mabel Parton." Mike said simply.

There was a pause on the other end of the line.

"Who's asking?" The voice- seemingly female- asked.

"My name's Mike I'm calling about the baby sitting add in the paper." "oh." the voice said simply with sigh of relief.

"Yeah I'm Mabel." "are you really offering to baby sit for such a low price?" "yeah." Mabel said simply.

"I don't need much I'm a simple girl, really." She explained. "When can you start?" "as soon as you need me to." Mabel quipped.

Mike hesitated for a moment. He had never met this girl and she was practically asking to live in his house. He put on the breaks real quick.

"Could I meet you first?" He asked and Mabel laughed.

"I figured you'd want to. Who would let some stranger live in their house without meeting them first?" She seemed to be joking but something about her tone was off putting to Mike.

"Yeah. let's meet tomorrow at five. Sound good?" tomorrow was Abby's last day at daycare before the summer started. She would be picked up and taken home by five.

"Yes. that works. I'll meet you at Sparky's." "see you then, Mike."

the line went dead.

˗ˏˋ ★ ˎˊ˗

Mable wasn't anything that Mike had been expecting.

From the way she sounded on the phone he expected someone who would smell of cigarettes, and have hair that had never seen the better side of a hair brush.

He was surprised when the girl who showed up was quite the opposite. Mable was thin and pale with auburn hair and ocean colored eyes. She had a dusting of freckles on her face and her hair was tied into two loose side braids almost making her look like a character from Little Women.

"Are you Mike?"

She asked with a chalky small voice and Mike nodded.

"Mable?" "that would be me." She sat down across from him. A waiter came by, not Ness, and took their order.

Mable ordered just coffee. No food. No nothing. Mike just got a water, he didn't have the money to buy anything in between meals with Abby.

"So what exactly is the deal with this whole baby sitting gig of yours?" Mike asked and Mable took a sip of her coffee.

"I just moved here." She said simply. "The job market isn't big so I need something to sustain me while I look for something a bit more stable." She explained.

"You just moved here?" No one moved here. Not willingly at least.

"Where from?" "OBX" Mable said briskly. "OB-What?" "The outer banks." Mable said. "North Carolina. You know, beach town."

"Ohh." Mike said with a nod.

"What brought you here?" "I needed to get away. Far away." she stated, her tone growing colder. "Away?"

"Yes." Mable said with a nod. "Don't worry I'm not like a criminal or anything. I just had to put some distance between me and some family members."

That Mike understood. Just earlier that year he had to deal with his extremely difficult aunt Jane. That woman made Marie Antoinette look like a saint.

"I know what thats like." Mike replied.

"Do you have any experience with baby sitting?" "Not particularly. But I do have experience with children. I've taught loads of dance classes for children between four and twelve. I even looked after my neighbors kids most evenings when they were at work late." Mike nodded. So this didn't seem too bad. Mable seemed legit as far as he could see.

"Anything I should know about? Like drugs or anything like that?" Mable shook her head with a smile. "No, no drugs or anything. I've smoked the occasional cigarette but nothing more. I'm under 21 so I can't legally drink or buy weed so you don't have to worry about any of that."

"Under 21? How old are you?" "I'm 19." She replied swiftly. "Old enough to vote and get drafted but not old enough to have a drink in the eyes of the law." She joked. She didn't seem so bad. Her eyes even looked familiar, though he couldn't pin point just where he had seen them before.

"Alright." He said. "You're hired."