13 Going On 20?

I was the best babysitter in the neighborhood.

I started babysitting for the Summers when I was 11 years old, caring for their 6 year old boy and 2 year old girl. Nancy and Greg Summers liked to go out and party, so they called me almost every weekend.

They paid me $2 per hour, which I later found out was highway robbery but at the time I was thrilled! A girl cannot survive on hand-me-downs alone. One night of babysitting could buy me a new shirt from Caldors.

I still remember the first top I bought with my earnings; it was a white sweatshirt with the collar cut off, a la Flashdance. Two weeks later I had saved up for some new dark Jordache jeans, tighter than tight like a second skin. This was definitely a step up - I was in style!

And so this little arrangement went on for years and years. Word eventually spread that I was a nice responsible kid (and cheap, apparently - who knew?) and I ended up with several families racing to be the first to book me for a Friday or Saturday night.

“Sorry, I’m babysitting for the Summers on Friday night and the Slotnicks on Saturday night.”

“Then put me down for next weekend, okay?”

********


One night when I’m 13 years old, the Summers are going to a party with Joey, Nancy’s 21 year old brother. He’s a dead ringer for John Stamos, and I had actually heard all about him from the other local babysitters. They all think he’s gorgeous.

Nancy tells me they will probably be out pretty late, maybe 3am.

“That’s no problem,” I tell her, calculating how much money I’ll be making.

“It’s okay if you fall asleep on the couch. We don’t expect you to stay up the whole time.”

After games are played, movies are watched, teeth are brushed and kids are sent to bed, I settle in under a blanket on the couch to watch some TV and doze off.

At about 2:30 am I hear a knock at the door. I figure the Summers have forgotten their key, so I get up to let them in. I see Joey standing there through the glass, and assume he has gotten back first. I unlock the door and shuffle back to the couch, half asleep, to wait for Nancy and Greg.

Joey comes in and sits on the chair. He tries to engage me in conversation as I stare blankly at the Mary Tyler Moore Show, lying on the couch under the blanket, still heavy-eyed and sluggish.

“So this is what’s on in the middle of the night,” he says.

“Yeah, I guess.”

“It is sooo cold in here.” He’s right, it’s sub-zero in their house tonight. I’ve been shivering the whole time.

“Yeah, it’s freezing. Do you know how to work the space heater?”

“No,” he says, moving over to the end of the couch, down by my feet. “Maybe we can snuggle to keep warm.”

Whoa. Now I am awake.

“Nancy would kill me if she knew I was here.”

Okay, now I’m REALLY awake. I can smell alcohol on his breath, and that makes me even more nervous.

“Why are you here then?” I ask him.

“I came back to see you, Tammie.”

I am scared to death, but I am trying to remain calm.

“You’re too old for me,” I tell him, turning my attention to the television.

“Why, how old are you?”

“Thirteen.”

“You are not!”

“Yes I am.” I feign interest in Mary Tyler Moore. I’ve never even seen this show before. But it doesn’t matter, since I can’t hear a word they’re saying. My heart is beating so hard that the blood is pounding in my ears.

“You don’t look thirteen,” he says.

“Well I am.”

“You don’t act thirteen.”

I sit up as I turn to look him at him straight in the eye. “I’m a thirteen year old girl. I’m in 7th grade. And I think you should go back to sitting in that chair over there while we wait for Nancy and Greg to get home.”

“That’s okay,” he says, getting up from the couch. “I’ll leave you alone.”

He lets himself out the front door. I relock it and turn on all the lights. Nancy and Greg are surprised to find me awake when they get home at 4am. I never tell them what happened.

********

You gain strength, courage, and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. – Eleanor Roosevelt