Day at the museum

Dillan HAD to go to the museum. If he couldn’t it would be the end of the world, in his opinion. His mother, Sara, had a different opinion. she had never like stuffy places like libraries and museums. She saw them as places old people went to. Sarah was not old. She was only 19. Dillan had been a product of a prom night romance that hadn’t ended well. His father had gone off to college without a backwards look as soon as Sara had told him she was pregnant. Dillan liked libraries though. He liked to look at picture books and try to read. Although at four years old he didn’t get far, but he tried. His grandfather encouraged him by taking him to the local library every Saturday, while Sara played on her phone talking to her friends who had jobs or who were still in education. Sara didn’t have a job. she had left her last one a month ago and was looking occasionally for another when Dillan got on her nerves and she wanted some time away from him. She huffed.

“Sara, come on. Dillan wants you to come with us.” Her fathers voice strained with annoyance.

“Come on mummy. it’ll be cool!” Dillan yelled excitedly.

He had learned about the science museum from a friend at his play group whose older brother had took him. He had heard it was full of dinosaurs and robots from the future. Sara looked at the messages on her phone. There was a birthday party tonight for the first of her friends to turn 20, or twenteen as her friends were calling it. Her dad knew about the party. HE also knew Sara had no money to go with.

“If you come I’ll give you £20 to go out with tonight.”

“£30.” Sara haggled

“£10 for every hour we spend at the ‘boring’ museum. You might like it you know.”

Sara rolled her eyes and thought about it. She knew the museum was large. was it £30 or £40 large? She might even persuade her dad to buy them food after so She wouldn’t have to get a takeaway on the way home after her night out.

“OK,” she said her mood brightened by the thought of a night out. “Come on Dillan, Help mammy get dressed for the museum.”

Dillan screamed in excitement of spending the day with his mother and going to a museum. He ran up the stairs followed by Sara. Sara’s parents looked at each other.

“You shouldn’t have to buy her time.” Her mother said

“I’m not buying her time, it’s an investment. She used to like science.” Her dad said with a wink.

“You have a plan.” His wife replied with a knowing smile. Her husband always had a plan.

XXXX

The museum was huge. Even Sara was impressed by the size of it. Dillan squeezed her hand in excitement and she squeezed his back. His excitement was infectious.

Dillan flew from display to display looking at all the dinosaurs on the ground floor level, his grandfather kept lifting him up to see the ones that were too high for him. Sara followed. If a display caught her eye she would go over and look at it or read what it’s note said. Mostly she watched her son and his grandfather. They had a strong bond. Dillan kept looking behind him to make sure she was still there. She would smile and wave at him, then he would go back to chatting with his granddad or look at the displays. It was the second floor that bored Sara into thinking about leaving them. War was something that bored her to tears. She had hated it in school. Her father was trying to explain it nicely to Dillan.

“But why?”

“Because sometimes people don’t get on, so they fight.”

“But why?”

“Because, "

“Do they really like each other though?” Dillan interrupted

“What?”

“When Suzie kept pushing me down, you said she liked me. We had a war.”

Sara’s dad laughed, so Dillan started to laugh too and began to walk away. Sara was glad the “But why’s?” had ended but she had been curious how many more here dad would have lasted.

The next floor held an art exhibition. Luckily Dillan got bored of that almost as quickly as Sara had. Finally they reached the last floor. The science centre. It was full of games, lights and toys. Sara saw a bright flash and turned to look. A smile spread across her face for the first time since they had entered the museum. Her dad noticed it and smiled himself.

“Look Dillan!” She ran over excitedly and picked him up “A shadow catcher!” She pointed it out

“What’s that?” he asked

“It catches your shadow, it’s really cool.”

She started to walk over to it but Dillan struggled in her arms. He didn’t like the idea of a shadow catcher.

“Look, I’ll go first then so you can see. DON’T look at the flash, ‘k?”

Sara went in and did a silly jump as the flash went off. Dillan closed his eyes so he wouldn’t look at the flash like mummy had said. When he opened the his mothers shadows was stuck to the wall, still jumping but his mam was looking at it. IT wasn’t attached to her anymore.

“It’s been catched!” Dillan shouted running over to touch it.

“Caught.” Sara and her dad said at the same time, they smiled at each other.

They played the games in the science centre then went for a cuppa. Dillan wanted to keep playing so they let him. The café was on the science floor. It was full of other parents who where letting the kids roam around. They had tea and cakes and chatted about nothing until Sara noticed the time.

“Dad, I need to get home to change.”

“OK, have you had a good day after all?”

“Yeah, thanks for dragging me along, I’ll go grab the kid.”

Sara left and her father sat people watching the other parents in the café and checking his emails. He was surprised when the waitress came over to him.

“I’m sorry sir but we have a queue, if you have finished you’ll have to leave.”

“No, no I’m sorry. My daughter went to get my grandson,” He looked at his watch “Twenty minutes ago?” He looked around panicked, he grabbed the waitresses arm

“I’m sorry have you seen a young boy on a blue coat and a dinosaur hat with a young sullen looking girl probably on her phone?”

“I’m not sure about the girl sir, but there is a happy looking woman over there with a boy in the hat.”

Sara’s dad looked over to where she was pointing. There was Sara laughing and whispering in Dillan’s ear. He was sat on her cross-legged on a mat listening to a robot. Sara’s dad thanked the waitress and went over for a closer look. The robot was being controlled by a young man who was talking about robotics and science. He had a jovial face and was so passionate about what he was talking about you couldn’t help but listen. Once he had finished Dillan jumped up and spotted his granddad, he ran over.

“That was soooo cooool.”

Sara’s dad looked for Sara, she was talking to the young man who had been doing the presentation. Once they had finished she found her dad and Dillan.

“Getting his number where you?” He dad asking in jest

“No I was asking him about the robot, I used to be good at building things.”

“Yes, you were.”

“The guy said I could do something called STEM if I was interested in the local collage.”

“Oh, yes. And what’s that?”

“Science, technology, engineering and maths. I’m going to look into it.”

Her dad smiled at her. Dillan looked from one to the other with a big grin on his face.

“My mammies going to build me a robot!”