Not long after I returned home, I found a job.
Since I was busy getting settled into my work, I enrolled Anders in an after-school program that let out at eight.
Today, while I was organizing some materials, I received a call from his teacher.
She said something had happened to Anders, and I immediately took a taxi to the after-school program.
As soon as I entered the yard, I saw several adults surrounding Anders, pointing and discussing him, including Katie Baker.
Anders’s small figure stood in the middle, looking completely helpless.
“Anders, Mommy’s here.”
After calming Anders down, I sought out the teacher to understand the situation.
It turned out that while the children were playing in the yard, Katie Baker claimed she saw Anders slap a little girl.
The girl’s parents overheard this and caused a commotion.
Not only that, but Katie Baker also said, “I pushed him away when I saw it. He’s so young and already so bad; he must have been born that way.”
The parents praised her for this.
One even chimed in, “I saw you hit back; there aren’t many righteous people like you these days.”
Katie Baker, blushing, waved her hands, saying, “No, I just pushed him away.”
I had encountered Katie Baker before at the hospital where Larry Tate worked.
He had been working late into the night for several days.
A few nights ago, I suddenly thought about how he used to love the porridge I made, so I planned to cook some and surprise him at the hospital.
However, I happened to bump into Katie Baker coming out of Larry Tate’s office.
I was taken aback when I saw her face; if anything, she looked like me-like me from ten years ago.
Especially her eyes.
When I entered the office and saw Larry Tate, his expression clearly froze for a moment.
He looked a bit uneasy as well.
Thinking he was just tired from work, I left the porridge and gave him a few reminders before leaving.
As I passed the front desk, I overheard some conversations behind me.
“That’s Dr. Tate’s wife?”
“Dr. Tate’s classmates say I look like her. I’m way younger than her, okay?”
After leaving the hospital, I instinctively touched my face with my hand.
I certainly wasn’t as young and pretty as I was ten years ago.
Just a few days after meeting Katie Baker, Anders had been wronged.
Even though I suspected this incident was related to her, the crowd made it impossible to confront her directly.
I could only take a deep breath and seek out the parties involved.
The girl who had been “hit” by Anders.
She was curled up in a corner, seemingly frightened.
I squatted down and took her hand. “Hey there, are you and Anders good friends?”
She slowly nodded, looking at me with some shyness.
“Since you’re good friends, why would he hit you?”
“He didn’t hit me!”
This time her response was quick, almost vehement.
“There was a bug on my face, and he helped me get it off!”
“I told my mom, but she didn’t believe me…”
Before she could finish, she buried her head and started to sob, her cries intermittent.
This action attracted quite a few parents.