Chapter Nine
After that visit, things had done well. Katie see Sara by baby-sitting her every time Martin had to do something like running errands, going to NA meetings, or just wanting to hang out with Danny which for all of the above, a couple times a week and Katie had no problem with it. Whenever she is with Sara, they always had fun but on this February Saturday is not fun at all.
It was a really warm Saturday. The temperature had the high of 60 degrees which is definitely unusual. It sounded like global warming just came. To get ready to watch Sara while Martin is helping his Uncle Roger with something in Long Island, Katie got up at 8:00am, took a shower until 8:30, put on jeans and a button down shirt by nine, and drank some coffee to get to Martin's place by nine-thirty so Martin can drive to Long Island right away. The moment she put on her trench coat jacket and her brown leather bag over her arm, Katie opened the doorknob, got into the hallway, locked the door, and ran down three flights of stairs to meet Martin and Sara so they can start their New York City adventure.
The moment she got to '3C', Katie quickly put her fist to the door and begin to knock on it to get in. After she knocked on it, Katie heard the door being unlocked from the other side of the door and figured out that could be Martin but it was someone else. When the door was finally unlocked, the door was wide open. Katie looked through it, expecting Martin but it was his daughter. Right in front was a smiling Sara who was wearing a little light blue sweater, jeans, and little black mary janes flats on her feet and greeted her Auntie by saying, "Morning. Auntie Katie." In return, Katie got down to Sara's level, gave her a bear hug, and greeted back, "Morning, Pumpkin."
After they had greeted each other, Katie let go of her ponytail wearing goddaughter and asked her where her father is at? With a smile on her cute little face, Sara said to her, "Martin is at his bedroom" and pointed her finger at his door. Katie stared at the door and wondered if Martin is awake since she knew that Martin sometimes sleeps until ten in the morning on the weekends, she turned to Sara again and asked her if Martin is awake? "Yes, Auntie." answered Sara who was looking up at her. With a smile on her face, Katie asked her again if she go in there to see if Martin is wide awake so she can see him. Right away, Sara ran over to Martin's bedroom door, opened the door wide open by turning the doorknob and ran right in.
Katie heard Sara's voice saying "Martin. She's here." and two sets of foot steps are coming out of the room. A minute later, she saw Martin coming toward her while holding his daughter's little hand. Once he let go of Sara's hand, he walked to Katie to said hi to her and thanked her for watching Sara for him. "No problem, Martin. Sara and I will had a great time. Right, Sara?" said Katie. Sara turned around and said to her, "Right, Auntie." Martin smiled at the both of them while grabbing both his and Sara's jackets off the coat rack. After putting them on, Martin gave Sara many hugs and kisses on her face like he will never see his daughter again and Sara laughed during the whole thing, knowing that never going to happen.
After the hugs and kisses, Martin got the stroller out of the closet and gave it to Katie so Sara don't get tired from all the walking. A few minutes later after giving Sara a kiss on the forehead, Martin waved goodbye at the both of them while opening the door to get to the other side and right away, he was gone. After Martin had left the building, Katie went over to Sara to lift up and asked her, "are you ready for an adventure?" "Yeah" answered Sara who just raised her arms up to the ceiling. Katie smiled at her while putting her goddaughter into the stroller. After buckling her into the stroller, Katie turned to the doorknob to open up and pushed the stroller out of the apartment and into the hallway. Once the door was locked, Katie pushed the stroller over to the elevators which leads to the main floor. The minute the elevator reaches the main floor, both of them got out and walked to the doors to New York City. When they got to the warm streets, they walked to the first destination to start the adventure.
During the adventure, Katie noticed things that she didn't know about her goddaughter, Sara. Their first stop was Gramercy Park Flower Shop to get roses for her single best friend, Maddie O'Conner whose recently had a string of bad luck with guys since her Navy Sailor fiance turned out to be gay on the morning of their wedding for almost a year. To not suffer another day of love, Katie decided to get her yellow roses for Valentine's Day to cheer her up. While she was ordering the flowers, she turned around to see if Sara was having fun but the moment she turned, Sara Elizabeth Fitzgerald was not there.
Now panicking that she just lost her, Katie asked the person who is taking the order if she can wait a minute because Sara is missing!! The person told her sure and right away, Katie started looking around the flower shop to spot the little girl. Five minutes later, Katie and an employee of the flower shop had just founded Sara staring at some calla lilies at the other side of the shop. After she paid for the roses, Katie put Sara back into the stroller and asked her why she did that? With that innocent smile on her face, Sara told that she just wanted to help out Martin who is planning to order some flowers for Katie for Valentine's Day and it supposed to be a secret. Katie smiled at her and told her two very important things for the rest of her childhood: 1. Don't do that again and 2. Don't break secrets. "Fine" said Sara while Katie put the stroller out to the streets of NYC to their next stop.
The next stop was Magnolia Bakery to get cupcakes to eat as lunch. Once they are there, Katie told Sara to wait there while she get them. The moment she came back with a red velvet cupcake for Katie and a vanilla cupcake for her little girl, Sara's eyes wasn't aiming at the cupcake. The dark brown eyes was aiming at the chocolate chip cookies, Jim's favorite cookies. Knowing that Sara got many of his traits, Katie went back and asked for a chocolate chip cookie. The moment she got one, she put the little chocolate chip cookie into Sara's hand and told her to never tell Martin about what had happened. Sara smiled at the promise and started digging into the cookie. Katie stared at her and thought to herself that Sara kept her promise or it will be not good.
After they ate the baked goods, Katie pushed the stroller to Central Park since it is such a nice day. During the few hours, the both of them explored the large park. Katie noticed that half of Manhattan came to Central Park today. There are people everywhere. One of them was Katie's friend and dog walker, Adam. When they spotted Adam, he was walking five of his regulars which contain puppies. "Hey, Adam." yelled Katie. Adam looked up and smiled at her twenty feet away. Katie right away called him over and with the puppies, Adam walked over to Katie and Sara.
Once he got there, Adam gave Katie a hug and asked who is this little girl that she is with today? Right away, Adam was introduced to Sara by Katie. "Hi" said Sara. Adam waved back and immediately one of the puppies got over and begin to lick Sara's hand. Adam and Katie stared at the little moment while Sara started to pet it with her other hand. During the moment, Adam whispered to Katie, "what a sweet little girl?" "Yes. She is." whispered back Katie knowing that is very true. Sara is a very sweet child and will had no problem with anybody.
After Adam told her that he will see her tomorrow to walk Colby, Katie waved 'bye' at him and continued their exploring. Ten minutes later, they are at a playground. Right away, Sara noticed that her friends from day care, Emily Roberts and Jane Nichols are there, playing. She looked up to Auntie Katie and asked her if she can play with her friends. Not sure who they looked like, Katie asked Sara where are they? "There" answered Sara who is pointing her finger at a little light blonde girl named Emily and a strawberry blonde girl named Jane. Katie saw those two girls and in front of Sara, Katie unbuckled the seat belts and said to Sara, "Okay. You can play with them at a place I can see them." Katie got Sara out and right away, Sara ran toward her friends. After seeing her ran off, Katie walked over to a nearby bench to rest her body and watched Sara and her friends played on the monkey bars.
Fifteen minutes later, Sara waved at Katie on the top of the slide and when Katie waved back, Sara quickly went down the slide. While Katie was staring at her little girl, she noticed something. Katie noticed some woman staring straight at Sara. Right away, Katie knew that the woman wasn't either Emily or Jane's mother since she met them while Sara was playing with their daughters but it was someone else. Katie looked closer to see who it was but the woman was gone. "Where she went?" thought Katie. From where she was sitting, Katie looked around to see where she went. After a few minutes of looking, Katie quit looking for the mysterious woman and try to focus on Sara.
It didn't lasted long. A minute later, Katie felt that someone or something is behind her. Then a voice came out. "Hello, Katherine." said the voice. Katie heard the voice and right away, it sounded like Irish. "Oh crap, it is really her?" thought Katie. To see who it is, Katie turned around and saw a woman with light brown wavy hair, strong green eyes, and a pretty evil-looking grin on her face. One look at her, Katie figured out who she is. The woman in front of her is Alanna Hennessey, the woman who left Sara on Jim's doorstep on the day his daughter was born and the woman who Katie hates.
