Point of View Series
by Kristen

Part 17 -- The interview (MJ's POV)

It’s official. My mom has lost her mind. Not only has she just given birth to her fifth and sixth children, and apparently agreed to buy Ellie a toy that no one over the age of 18 should have, but she has put dad in charge of hiring a nanny. That’s right. Dad. The man who lets Ellie watch “questionable” tv, buys Ellie a dog without asking mom, and continuously tells mom to breathe at the most inopportune moments. Seriously, if bad judgement were the size of one’s car, dad would be driving a semi.

Not only that, they decided in their infinite wisdom, that this was a good time to start knocking out the other penthouse to make one BIG penthouse. They couldn’t have started that when she found out she was pregnant, oh no, they had to wait until mom was ready to pop. Already Ellie is salivating at some of the things she is seeing and hearing. I know she is waiting for just the right time to use them. Maybe the first day of preschool. Heaven help her first teacher. Someone really should warn the poor lady.

So here we sit, dad, Ellie, and myself, waiting for the first prospect. Dad decided that he wanted to see how the interviewees interact with us. I pity the poor fools.

First interview commences. The woman lasted all of two minutes. Ellie introduced her to the dog by name and the woman had the gall to take dad to task for it.

Next victim.

This one looks interesting. She walks in and I hear her whisper, “fabulous.” Us or the penthouse? God, I can’t wait ‘til I can talk.

“How do you do? My name is Tracy.”

“Welcome Tracy. These are my children Ellie and MJ.”

Dad is really on his best behavior today. He knows what is at stake. If he doesn’t hire just the right person, there will be hell to pay from mom.

“Tracy, sit down. Tell me about yourself.”

I’m a student, just transferred here from a great school in Florida. I’m studying sociology.”

Uh oh, Ellie is chewing her lip. That means she’s confused, and we all know what happens when Ellie gets confused.

“What’s wrong, Ellie is it?”

You asked lady. This oughtta be a doozy.

“You aren’t married to my daddy.”

Tracy looks confused.

“No, that’s right, I’m not.”

“Well, if you aren’t married to my daddy, why do you want him to look at all of you?”

Even dad is lost at that comment.

“Ellie honey, what are you talking about? Tracy never said she wanted me to look at all of her.”

“Oh yes, she did!” She is shaking her head and the curls are bouncing everywhere. “She said she wants people to see all of her. She said she was studying “so see all of me.”

She enunciated every word. The way this kids’ mind works just kills me.

Dad chuckled and shook his head.

“Ellie, she said she was studying SO-CI-OL-O-GY. It is the study of how people get along.”

She looks relived.

“Oh, okay daddy. Cause mommy was gonna be mad if you looked at all of Tracy. You know mommy only wants you to look at her. She gets mad if you ever look at other ladies.”

She looks at Tracy conspiratorially.

“Daddy smiled at a lady once and he and mommy didn’t wrestle for a whole DAY!”

Tracy looks at Ellie with a blank look, then whips out a notebook, mutters “fascinating” and writes something down.

“Hey Tracy, wanna meet my dog,” Ellie asks excitedly.

Tracy smiles genuinely. “I’d love to Ellie.”

“Okay, be right back!”

Ellie is off like a shot and the room is now silent. Dad looks at Tracy a bit sheepishly.

“Sorry about that. She has a tendency to misinterpret things sometimes.”

Gee, ya think?

Tracy just laughs and shakes her head.

“It’s ok. I thought so. She’s a fascinating little girl.”

Dad grins.

“That’s one way of putting it.”

“No really Mr. Corinthos.”

“Call me Sonny.”

Already? He must like this girl.

“Alright Sonny. She is a great kid. I like the way she looks at things. I would bet it keeps life interesting.”

“You don’t know the half of it.”

Here comes Ellie. And she is dragging the dog with her. What in God’s name is in his mouth? Oh my God! Where on earth did he find that? Clearly not in dad’s bedside table.

“Here he is Tracy!” She shoves him at her proudly. “This is my dog. His name is Dammit.”

I’ll give her credit. She barely flinched.

“Dammit?”

Dad shrugs his shoulders.

“More of the misinterpreting you know.”

“Aha.” She turns to Ellie. “He’s adorable. I bet you love him a lot, huh?”

There go the curls again.

“Uh huh. He’s my bestest friend. Well, him and Charlie.”

“Charlie?”

“Charlie is my penguin. See?”

She holds up the stuffed animal by one foot. Uh oh, looks like Dammit has gotten hold of the penguin again.

“He’s very cute too. Um, Ellie, what’s that is his mouth?”

“What? Oh, that’s just his chew toy. There are a whole box of them under my bed. I found them in mommy and daddy’s room and mommy gave them to me, cause she said they don’t do what they are supposed to do, so I just give them to Dammit whenever he looks like he wants to chew on something.”

“Fascinating!”

There’s that word again, and she’s writing in her notebook again too.

“What’s that on your shirt?”

“A gator.”

“What’s a gator?”

It’s a nickname for an alligator, and it’s the mascot for my favorite football team.”

“What’s a mascot?”

“Um, a mascot is a symbol for a team.”

Oh. Maybe Dammit could be a mascot too.”

Dammit? Of what? The Riker’s Island boxing team?

“Maybe he could Ellie.”

Don’t encourage her lady.

“Oh! Do you like kitties?”

Uh oh.

“They’re okay I guess. Why?”

“Well, I just wanted to make sure you didn’t like them a lot, cause mommy has a kitty, but daddy is the only one who gets to see it and I didn’t want you to be mad if they didn’t let you see it either.”

Way to go Ellie. It took you almost 15 minutes to embarrass her.

“Um, that’s ok Ellie, I’ll just have fun with you and Dammit.”

“SO Tracy, would you like to see the rest of the penthouse?”

NOW he tries to change the subject. Smooth dad.

“That would be fabulous Sonny.”

She likes that word I think.

So, Ellie has shown her everyone’s rooms, and told her the history of every inopportune moment she has popped up in mom and dad’s room and the lady is still here. She may be a keeper.

Why on earth does Ellie feel the need to drag her into mom and dad’s room? And where is dad? And why is this girl looking through mom’s drawers? This is not right. Hey! She just took one of mom’s slips and put it in her purse. I have to do something. Oh good, here comes dad.

“Daddy up! Hold MJ!”

Dad is so glad that I am saying dad, he does anything I want these days. He picks me up and I point at the slip thief.

“See Tracy. See Tracy!”

Dad is surprised that I want to be held by a stranger, but he puts me in her arms.

“Ellie come. See MJ.”

Ellie walks over to me curiously.

What MJ? What do you want me to do?”

“Purse. Yuk!”

Ellie giggles.

“You want me to take Tracy’s purse?”

“Take purse!” I clap my hands.

Tracy is starting to get nervous.

“Um, you know what? I’ll just put it down over here.”

“Ellie take purse! Ellie take purse!”

Ellie is tugging on the strap, Tracy is tugging on the bag part, and sure enough, the purse falls to the floor and the contents spill out. Dad looks at her with a dark look. Uh oh, I didn’t know it was THAT slip. That slip is special to dad. Not sure why, but he caught Ellie touching it once and she got in trouble big time.

“I think this interview is over,” dad says simply.

Tracy leaves the room and as she goes I hear her muttering.

“They would have been terrible parakeets.”

Now THAT was fascinating.