***

"We have two minutes and sixteen seconds! Move it!"

Charlotte tossed her laptop case into the front passenger seat and revved up the minivan's engine, tapping her fingers against the steering wheel with one hand while clutching the Palm Pilot stylus in the other. She poked at the tiny keyboard.

Eight a.m.: Do the Gossards' regular grocery shopping and deliver their meal plan for the week.

Nine-thirty: Pick up the Raffertys' dry cleaning, drop off their little dust mop of a dog at the groomer's, then meet their pool restoration man at ten-fifteen. She could work on their weekly meal plan while she waited for him to finish his estimate.

She checked her watch and leaned out the car door. "Matthew! Hank! Let's get a move on!"

Back to her Palm Pilot.

Noon: A lunch meeting with the Jacobsens, potential new clients. The husband was an executive at Procter amp; Gamble and the wife was a tax attorney. They had two kids and zero time to manage their home life-ooh, how she loved people like that! They were the ideal clients for Multi-Tasker, Inc.

The van bounced as the children threw themselves into the backseats. Without looking up, Charlotte reeled off the usual checklist

"Seat belts?"

"Yep!"

She heard the click of metal. "Lunches?"

"Yep!"

"Backpacks?" "Yep!"

"Matt, do you have your volcano?"

"Uh-oh."

Charlotte's head snapped up and she looked at her watch. "You've got forty-five seconds, big guy. Do you need me to help you carry it?"

'^No. I got it."

Watching Matt run into the house, she recalled how they'd stayed up until eleven finishing the earth sciences project and pictured all that hard work crashing to the macadam. Charlotte set aside her Palm Pilot and ran after her son.

Matt bit his lip in concentration as he took tiny steps out of the garage. She reached him just before the creation slipped from its cardboard base.