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It was a typical late winter, and my little one, just two years old, was returning from school on the bus. Like every day, the woman who accompanied the children on the bus called me, to indicate that the girl's nanny should go down to meet her with her little sister. This call allowed them to avoid waiting outdoors for up to a half hour, ending up with colds, coughs, and maybe the flu. But the call didn't arrive. At the time, I was in another interminable meeting with my supervisors. The minutes continued to pass, seeming like hours to me, until finally by husband called. "They were calling you, but since you didn't answer she got left on the bus!" he said, his voice beyond the point of emphatic. But my phone was turned on, with no missed calls showing. I had no idea what had happened. The least of it was that I felt irresponsible for not being reachable -- the worst was that now that my daughter may be kidnapped somewhere out on the road! In the middle of the meeting -- which was still going on -- I started to fan myself nervously as I tried to clarify the situation. The girl would follow the bus' route all over Madrid, and the final destination was then a return to the school. Although I had a perfectly good excuse to leave work, by the time it could get to my car and drive through traffic I would arrive there almost an hour later. That was not feasible.

Though it all, I was imagining my little one, just two years old, wandering lost through the city, and dying of hunger without her snack (the truth was that she was so easily distracted that when I give her a snack she usually says "for you!"). I tried making some calls to see if any family members were available to help me out in this crisis, but it was a case of Murphy's Law. Impossible. I kept entering and leaving the meeting as quietly as I could, still using my photocopied handouts as a fan. I was fed up with the dialogue, and decided that things had gone far enough. Suddenly my inner she-wolf came out -- although I rarely show my claws -- and I called again. To begin, I told the lady clearly that I had not been contacted. And that obviously she had been calling the wrong number. Furthermore, I could not have my two-year-old daughter circling Madrid because of her mistake, and then be told that she would be left at the school (exactly where or with whom I had no idea). To finish, I pulled a few threats out of my sleeve and said that I would accuse her of "kidnapping", and that I would hold her directly responsible for anything that might happen to my little girl. Take that! I think about it know and I almost die of laughter, but you should have seen me at the time. I was on fire. I thought she might laugh in my face, but my words ended up having their desired effect. She told me that the girl would have to be the final "delivery" -- like a package I guess -- but that she would be dropped at home. I realized that I had gone a little overboard, but in my state of shock, what else could I have done? My supervisors must have thought they were hallucinating, but on the bright side they also saw that I was a woman with spirit. And that's never such a bad thing.

A true story, from the testimonial found at: http://www.charhadas.com/publicacion/ver/id/7894

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