Balancing Act

119

It had just finished snowing an hour ago and the maintenance guys, two of them, were still shovelling the fresh fluffy snow off the railway platform where Paris stood, Timoteo at her left and Gabriela at her right, waiting for the Essex steam train to pull up. This was a part of the Dynasty Maker's children's Christmas party which was going to take place on the train. There were going to be elves, carol singing, games and religion neutral gift giving in the end.

From the two clinics there were eight doctors from each clinic, management and administration personnel and a good 30-something nurses altogether, employees currently on maternity leave and far more children than Paris could count for, having left the planning for her assistant this year, waited along-sides them. Each year the percentage of employees with kids kept growing. It was safe to say this was not Paris' scene, but for the past 7 years, the first year having managed to perfectly dismiss any need for such celebrations due to the fact that one-years olds really didn't register the holiday season as such unless it was pointed out to them. But here she was - doing it for the sake of the two children that were her main focus in life at this point. Had she heard herself think that ten years ago, she would've probably reconsidered the whole thing. But there they were, by her side, waiting patiently, the nanny who was getting paid almost as much as some of the senior nurses at her clinic, having clearly paid off for teaching them proper manners.

As the black steam train pulled up in a demonstratively slow manner, blowing its whistle she could hear the kids cheer excitedly, hers included. While she still had to fake her excitement at this type of event to go along with the commercialization of childhood happiness like this essentially was, the smiles on her twin's faces lit up her face nonetheless.

It was just as they were getting ready to board, the elves, dressed in green jumpsuits, helping the smaller kids to find their seats, when Paris noticed a boy, roughly the age her own kids, showing far less interest in actually boarding the train than the vehicle itself.

"1953 Colonial Heart, 1927 Wallingford,1972 Pullman," the blonde haired kid listed in repeat. It took Paris a few seconds to realize that it were the models of the train carts he was listing, seeing one of those names on the side of the train.

"Silas! I got us aisle seats," Paris heard Vikki call out to him from the other end of the cart, and to which the boy actually reacted. It was only then as Paris recognized that the boy had familiar looking facial features - that nose and placement of the eyes just screamed Tristian.

It was then it was Gabriela's turn to board the train, making it impossible for Paris to observe the kid or his interaction with his mother any longer, and she boarded the train herself after both her kids, allowing the goofy elves to direct them towards their seats.

"Oh, I'm sorry, I'd sort of held those seats for us," Vikki's voice said, as she approached Paris' family's seats from the back, not quite seeing their faces at that moment. "See," she gestured at a hat and a pair of mittens she'd used to mark the seats, which Paris hadn't noticed.

"We just followed the elves," Paris replied, apologetically. She was the type of person that went by rules in this type of things. But somehow seeing that this was a little bit of a special circumstance and the train cart was filling up pretty fast, and she might have ended up sitting separated form her kids altogether is she decided to change places now, she relented, not wanting to tell Vikki to look for some place else either. After all she was new at the company and her cirumstances were certainly a little more challenging than other's.

"Would you mind terribly? He gets a little particular about his aisle seat, it can't be too close to the entrances and so on...," Vikki explained, pleadingly.

"Hey, kids - do you think we can scoot over, so Silas can sit next to you?" Paris asked her kids, thinking quickly.

"How do you know his name?" Vikki asked, sounding surprised.