Lauren Carter had her hands full, not only taking care of two children every day but also putting up with her friend Sandra, who she met through her job. When she started working as a nanny for her client, she had no idea that the nannies throughout the building not only talked amongst one another, but also planned many trips together to get bulk discounts so they could pocket the rest of the money meant to be used on the kids they were watching. Lauren didn’t mind as working and interacting with the other nannies helped give her advice on how to do her work better, but also some would make amazing references in the future if she ever needed one. She only had two kids to watch over, which she didn’t find that difficult. Some nannies in the building had as many as five to watch over, so Lauren never complained about her workload. Watching two kids, ages ten and six wasn’t so bad and it was days like this one that made her rather exited about her work. The nannies were taking their kids to the art gallery in the middle of downtown, which wasn’t a far walk from their building. It would take them twenty minutes to walk each way and the exercise would make nap time for most of the kids a tad easier to achieve. Lauren loved taking the kids to articulate places, not only because it was good to take them somewhere educational, but she liked to dress up and make a day of it. Lauren was wearing a nice sundress, and was looking rather spiffy. She got the young girl, six year old Alexia, to wearing something similar so she’d he easier to find. Nathan on the other hand she was able to talk into wearing jeans and a shirt after strict negotiations. Lauren took Alexia’s stroller with her, just in case the young girl became tired and didn’t want to walk any further, but also as a sly carrier of their supplies. If the day was nice enough, Lauren was considering taking them to the park for a picnic. She walked near the back of the pack of nannies as they all herded their kids towards the gallery. One of the other nannies that she loved hanging out with because she was closer to her age was a young Italian woman named Sophia. She loved to hang out with her whenever possible, and just chat about things. They also looked out for each other’s kids and worked rather well as a unit.

“You look nice today,” Sophia said, as she rolled up her stroller next to Lauren’s. “Is that a new dress?”

“No, I’ve had this a while,” Lauren answered, “But it’s a favorite.”

“And why are you dressed up?” Sophia asked, mildly curious.

“We’re going out, to a gallery of all places.” Lauren reminded her, “I just want to look nice in case we bump into someone tall, dark and handsome. You remember what those old commercials said; you never get a second chance to make a first impression. I want to look my best just in case I meet the man of my dreams.”

“Sure,” Sophia said, as she knew better than the argue. She preferred to let Lauren dream of what might be and keep an eye on the kids.

“Any plans after the gallery?” Sophia asked, “besides marrying the an of your dreams, of course.”

“I brought a blanket,” Lauren informed her, “We could break from the group after the gallery and maybe do a picnic?”

“I’d love to,” Sophia replied, “But I’m afraid we can’t join you. Daniel has an appointment in the afternoon so he’s going to the dentist after lunch.”

“Ew, poor Daniel.” Lauren said.

“It’s just a check up,” Sophia added, “He’ll be alright.”

As they walked into the gallery, Lauren grabbed the young man she was watching and pulled him closer to her, to give him some last minute instructions.

“Nathan,” She started, “A lot of pieces in this gallery are quite expensive. If you happen to touch them, it would get you in a lot of trouble.”

“What kind of trouble?” Nathan asked, mildly curious.

“Let’s put it this way,” Lauren answered, “Remember how angry your Dad got when you accidentally burned down his shed at the cottage?”

“Yeah,” Nathan replied, as it wasn’t a pleasant moment.

“Well, some of the art here is worth ten times more than your dad’s entire cottage,” Lauren continued, “And if you break anything, you Dad could lose millions.”

“Millions?” Nathan repeated, “Seriously?”

“Tens of millions for some of them,” Lauren added, “So touch nothing, okay?”

“Alright,” Nathan said, as he understood that his father’s wrath might be like.

“Try to enjoy yourself,” Lauren said, fixing Nathan’s collar. “Maybe after we’ll grab something nice for lunch and have a picnic at the park. Sound good?”

“Alright,” Nathan said, smiling back at her. “That sounds fun.”

Lauren stuck with Sophia as they walked their kids around the gallery and at all the different paintings from different eras of history. Even Nathan seemed to enjoy himself and that made Lauren feel really good about bringing them on the trip. They came upon a certain panting that was a classic from one of her favorite artists. She stood there and looked at it for a while, amazed to just see it in person.

“It can’t be real,” Sophia said, looking over her friend’s shoulder. “I thought this piece was in France.”

“It was,” one of the gallery workers said, “The owner died without a formal will, and the squabbling led to a liquidation of all assets, including his entire art collection. After the piece was sold, the new owner for whatever reason was unable come to terms with the gallery in Paris. I assumed they would eventually come to an agreement, but the new owner walked away and offered to let us display it. We were just as surprised as anyone else, but the move angered those in Paris who felt shunned.”

“Who owns this now?” Sophia asked.

“The details are on the card beside the work,” The gallery worker replied.

“Okay,” Lauren said, as the gallery worker walked away, “Thank you!”

“What does it say?” Sophia asked.

“Some local from the city,” Lauren said, reading the plaque beside the priceless work of art. “He must be loaded if he could afford to buy this and then just loan it to the gallery.”

“What’s his name?” Sophia asked.

“It says Alexander Hopkins Junior,” Lauren said, reading the plaque. “He probably got most of his wealth from Alexander Senior.”

“Most of them do,” Sophia said, “Let’s keep going, my favorite is right around the corner.”

They spent a little over an hour looking at many more works of art, but eventually Lauren decided to break away from the crowd cause she could tell the kids were getting restless. It was almost lunch time so she felt it was very good timing to run off and get some food for the little ones to consume. The park wasn’t too far from the gallery, so she decided to take the kids for a stroll and get some air before getting something to eat.

“Did you pack our lunch?” Nathan asked.

“Not really,” Lauran replied, grinning back at him. “I figured if you guys were good at the gallery, I’d let you pick a place and we’d take that food to the park.”

“That’s cool!” Nathan said, “Was I good enough?”

“You were,” Lauren confirmed, “What would you like for lunch?”

“I’m not sure,” Nathan admitted, “Can I think about it?”

“Of course,” Lauren said, “Just watch your step.”

The streets were crowded with people going to and from their place of work. It was just past noon and the lunch rush was on so they were also more packed than usual. It was when they were crossing the road, when something happened. The little girl in the stroller, Alexia, who had been rather well behaved all day dropped her dolly into the middle of the road while they were crossing the street. Just as they were reaching the other side of the street, Nathan was the first to notice it was missing. He turned around to see it lying in the middle of the road and went back to get it. He was so fixated on retrieving the doll, that he never noticed the lights had changed and it was no longer safe to cross. By the time Lauren had noticed Nathan’s new direction, she was too far away to catch him and called out to get him to stop as he walked into oncoming traffic.

“Nathan!” she cried out, “Stop!”