Page 60 of 3 Daddies to Go

“Yes, ma’am! Are y’all ready to go?”

We nod and follow him into the first room. Just like the one I could see, this room has a long table down the center with jars of small creatures lined up along it. The walls are vibrant, though, with explanations of each specimen.

“This is the evolution room,” Mr. Monty explains. “Everything you’ll see in this museum started here, as one of these tiny organisms.”

We look closely at the small, dead animals. Without a microscope, it’s nearly impossible to see most of them. The blown-up pictures on the wall help give a clear picture of what they’re supposed to look at.

“Now, I won’t go too much into the science, but you’re welcome to come back through and read the explanations later, if you’d like. The main beat is that all living organisms today came from the water way back then. So if you were to really trace your ancestry back as far as it could go, you’d find one of these little guys at the very beginning.”

Mr. Monty leads the way to the next room, which contains some larger fish. I read the wall as Mr. Monty explains evolution some more. I’m trying to get excited and seem interested, but this is nothing we haven’t learned before.

Tanner and Trace are also attempting to look interested, and they’re doing better than I am. They actually pay attention to what Mr. Monty is saying.

We finish up in this room and move on to the next. There are fossils on the middle table. Tanner runs his fingers over the cold stone. I’ll never understand what is with that guy and dinosaurs. We all have to have our hobbies, I guess.

Mr. Monty continues to drag us through the rooms one by one. Tanner, Trace, and I are shuffling our feet, desperately fighting boredom. Kendall, though, is enrapt. She asks questions in every room, and Mr. Monty is thrilled to answer her. She has undoubtedly taken this tour before and knows the answer to every question, but that doesn’t matter. She’s trying to make Mr. Monty feel good, since we’re his only visitors.

Kendall is too good for us. We’ve known it from the beginning. While the guys and I struggle not to yawn, Kendall smiles and nods along with everything Mr. Monty says. She’s showing the old man a level of empathy that I’ve hardly ever seen before.

I’m sure Kendall is bored, but she never shows it. I’m in awe over how kind this woman is. She’s making Mr. Monty feel loved and important. I wonder if any of his other guests take the time to listen to what he has to say. I doubt it. If it weren’t for Kendall, we probably wouldn’t.

Tanner and Trace are watching Kendall as well. We don’t have to speak to know we’re all thinking it.

We are so lucky to have Kendall.

We better not do anything to screw it up.

22

Tanner

I’m not going to lie because that museum tour sucked. The dinosaur room was cool, but the rest of it was boring. I don’t know how Kendall was so nice to Mr. Monty as he droned on and on about evolution and the weird little animals in his collection.

She’s incredible. It takes a special kind of person to make an old man feel so good about himself. Now that we have her, there’s no way we’re letting Kendall go. We need her positivity in our lives.

We stand by the front desk as Kendall says goodbye.

“Come back soon,” Mr. Monty says.

“I will! Let me know when you get that new species in, and I’ll be here for sure.”

Mr. Monty smiles so wide I’m afraid his dentures might fall out. Kendall gives him one last squeeze before leading us out the door.

“That was fun,” I say.

Kendall laughs. “Liar. You hated every second of it.”

“Not every second.”

Tag punches my arm. “Yeah, Tanner got a hard-on for the dinosaurs.”

“I’m glad you found something you liked,” Kendall says. “I know it’s probably nothing like the museums in New York, but we love it. Did you know that everything in that museum was found here in Boone? The fossils, the animals, all of it. That’s what makes it so special.”

Her face lights up as she talks about it. So that’s why the town is obsessed with it. It’s an homage to the natural history of their town, not necessarily the natural history of the world.

“Anyway, thanks for humoring me. Sorry if you totally hated it.”

I squeeze Kendall’s arm.