Chapter 2 - Some Kind of Wonderful

“Darryl… umm is there a Darryl Koryluk here?” A confused looking Rec Center supervisor said.

I raised my hand. “I’m Darryl Koryluk ma’am.” I said politely.

She looked at me, completely befuddled apparently. “Are you sure?” She asked.

“Well that’s what it says on my birth certificate, my social insurance card and my driver’s licensee, but I suppose it could all be one big mistake.” I joked.

Apparently she did not appreciate my sense of humour. “Well at least the cheerleading thing makes sense now.” She snapped. “Our day starts with the kids getting dropped off at 9 am.” She said. “The morning is mainly free play and supervised arts and crafts. Around 10 or 11 you might want to organize some games or activities. The kids go home for lunch at noon and come back at 1:30. You will have lunch from 12 to 1. At 1:30 the kids go to their chosen activities for an hour and a half, with a 15 minute break, and then another hour and a half. The class sizes you have will vary from day to day, and the kids leave for the day by 5, and you’ll be here until 5:30.”

She took a deep breath and paused. “I know they went over this with you at orientation, but I wanted to remind you again. I’m Mrs. Anderson I am in charge of the centre. If any parents complain about you, well I deal with it. Remember this is supposed to be a fun summer for everyone so have fun.”

The people I was working with, Erin, Nick, Ryan, Sarah and Peter were soccer, baseball, basketball players and Sarah was a singer and Petey was an actor. We’d gone over all this at orientation, and most of them were pretty cool, but they were definitely younger then I was by a couple of years. Either way, we had planned how we were going to set everything up and it wasn’t long for the doors were open and kids seemed to be pouring in.

As soon as they were in the doors and had been signed in, most of the kids hurried with friends to the gym or the arts and crafts area. A few kids took a little while to warm up, but one girl really stuck out to me.

She looked to be about 8 or 9 years old with light brown hair and big eyes. She was standing off to herself, and had been standing by herself for over an hour. I took a deep breath and headed over to her. We hadn’t yet introduced ourselves to the kids, though many had come up to us and introduced themselves.

“Hey there.” I said slowly, lowering myself to her level. “I’m Darryl.” I told her. “I was just wondering if you’re okay. You’ve been standing here by yourself for a long time.”

The little girl just shrugged. “Are you new in Cole Harbour?” I asked. “I am.” I told her. “I just moved here all the way from Winnipeg. I don’t really know anybody yet. Sometimes its scary when you’re in a new place with new people.”

“I’m not new.” She said. “I’ve lived here my whole life.”

I smiled. “Well that’s good.” I said. “Maybe you can help me out a little bit. Be my local expert.”

The little girl smiled. “I’d like that.” She said.

“But before I start asking you a ton of questions I need you to answer one for me.” I said. “I told you my name but can you tell me yours?”

“I’m Taylor.” She said.

I stretched out my hand to shake hers as I stood up straight. She seemed more comfortable now. “Well Taylor it’s very nice to meet you.”

“Hey Taylor!” An older girl… who was probably about 12 called, seeing us.

Taylor just glared. “Whoa.” I said, looking at her. “You know if you’re not careful your face is going to freeze like that and then you’ll be stuck like that.” I told her with a smile.

“That’s not true.” Taylor mumbled grumpily. “I’m not 5 anymore you know I know better than that.”

“Sorry.” I said with a shrug, knowing that 9-year olds hate being treated like “babies”. “But she seemed nice. I don’t know why you’re glaring at me or at her.”

Taylor shrugged and didn’t say anything. I decided to leave it alone. We’d just met after all. I didn’t want to push the issue. “Well do you know what classes you want to take in the afternoons?” I asked, trying to get her to open up.

She shrugged again. “I’m not really good at sports stuff.” She said. “Well sometimes, but everyone thinks I have to be good at sports stuff.”

“Why?” I asked. “No one has to be good at anything. I mean, I am a really, really good student, but my little brother failed most of his classes and isn’t going to finish Grade 12 this year. A lot of people would say that because I am a good student he has to be one too, but that isn’t true.”

“My big brother just graduated.” She told me with a smile.

“Did he?” I asked. “Is he going to go to University in the fall?”

“No.” She said, not looking at me. “He’s going to work.”

“Oh.” I said. “That’s what my little brother is doing too. Mom says he’s not ready to go back to school. We call him Sasha.”

“Sasha?” Taylor giggled. “That’s a girls’ name.”

“Actually it’s a nickname in Russian for Aleksander.” I said. “Most of his friends call him Wayne… that’s his first name, but at home we always call him Sasha.”

“Are you Russian?” She asked.

“No, we’re Ukrainian.” I said. “But the Ukraine was part of the Russian Empire for a long time. Aleksander is a family name… so are my middle names, Katerina and Yelsaveta.” I paused with a grin. “Now see why I get everyone to call me Darryl?”

“Darryl is my brother’s nickname.” She told me.

“Really?” I said. “So I guess your brother and I have something in common then.”

She giggled. I stayed and talked to Taylor for a little bit longer before she seemed comfortable going to the arts and crafts area and doing an activity. I couldn’t help but smile as I watched her go. She actually looked like she might have some fun today,

I headed back to where the other program coordinators (or official foo-foo title) were standing and chatting. The kids were having fun and if they needed anything, they’d come tell us. Sarah was manning the arts and crafts area. It looked like things were going really, really well.

“You sure spent a lot of time sucking up to her.” Erin said in a snooty voice.

“Sucking up to who?” I asked confused. “I certainly didn’t suck up to Mrs. Anderson. You can already tell that she’s not going to like me.”

“I meant Taylor.” Erin said.

“You know her?” I asked. “She seemed pretty lost over there. I thought she was new in town.”

Erin snorted. “New? She’s lived here her whole life.”

“That’s what she told me.” I said with a shrug. “But I just got here a few days ago, so I had no way of knowing that.”

“You really have no idea who she is do you?” Nick asked looking incredulous.

“Should I?” I asked.

“Well you live like, just across the park from her family.” Petey said (he and I had spent a lot of time talking at orientation so he knew where I lived).

I shrugged. “I live just across the park from a lot of people.” I said. “I haven’t met the people in my building yet, let alone the people across the park.”

“You cannot seriously NOT know what we’re talking about.” Erin said rolling her eyes. “You’re just playing dumb.”

“Honey dumb is not a word anyone would use to describe me, well ever.” I said folding my arms across my chest. “Now quit playing games and tell me what the frick you mean.”

“You know you’ve probably seen her brother already.” Erin taunted me. “I mean, you say you run in the park every day and I’m absolutely sure he does too.”

I sighed and shook my head. “Are you done yet?” I asked. “Because I think I’m going to play with the kids.”

And that’s exactly what I did. I spent the rest of the morning playing bump with different groups of kids. Taylor kind of watched me, but didn’t really join in, though I encouraged her too. I had NO clue what the heck those guys were talking about and I wasn’t sure that I really cared to know.

Either way, I headed home for lunch and grabbed a quick bite to eat before heading back to the site where I set up in my corner of the gym for basic gymnastics/cheer course. I would be doing cheering and gymnastics the first hour and a half and dance the second. I wasn’t very surprised when I had a group that was all girls, though I was surprised that Taylor wasn’t among them.
At least not for the first class. When the 15-minute break was announced she immediately bounced over to my side. “Hi Darryl!” She said excitedly.

“Hey kiddo.” I said. “Did you have fun?”

“Yeah.” She said with a big grin. “I took improv with Pete.”

“Well Petey is a nice guy.” I said as I continued to put equipment away. “What are you going to take next?” I asked.

“Dance with you.” She said with a small smile.

The rest of the afternoon passed rather quickly, Taylor seemed to have a lot of fun in the dance class and so did the other kids. However, 5 came and went and Taylor was still there. At 10 after 5 I turned to her and asked. “Who’s coming to pick you up Tay?” I asked looking at my watch. “Do you know?”

Taylor shrugged and looked at her feet. “My brother I think.” She said. “He’s always late when he picks me up.”

I chuckled. “Don’t worry about it kiddo. My brother’s the same age as yours and he’s always late for everything too.” I said. “Do you have a number where we can call him?” I asked.

“He probably has his cell phone.” She told me. “I know the number.”

“Well how about we go call him?” I said with a smile, reaching my hand out for hers.

Just then a voice in the doorway said. “Sorry I’m late.”

I looked up and gasped before gaping. Never in a million years had I expected this….