Part 4
The next morning found Chris up early to deal with morning chores. As he finished feeding and watering the horses, Chris thought about the arrangements that had kept them up late the night before.
It had taken him and Buck hours to clean out the other two bedrooms and set up the beds for the boys, a set of twin/full bunks in one room and a twin in the other room. Considering the fear the boys had of being separated, Chris wondered if they shouldn’t use the larger room and put them all in there together, at least at first. Chris and Buck had carefully pulled out the box of toys that had been packed away after Adam and Sarah’s deaths. Chris was glad that Buck hadn’t pushed him about bring them out and had waited for him to take the initiative. It had been hard enough to set them out with out being pushed to do it.
As he walked back to his room to change, he looked into the two rooms. They were still pretty bare, just basic furniture and a few toys scattered around, but it would be much better than what the boys had been living with recently. Glancing at the dresser on one room, Chris abruptly realized that he was going to have to stop and buy some clothes for them. Almost nothing of what they had been wearing would be salvageable.
Shrugging, he continued with his morning routine. It shouldn’t be that difficult, he remembered shopping for Adam’s clothes, how hard could it be?
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Chris had just finished setting two plates of eggs and bacon on the table when a very rumpled Buck ambled down the stairs with a sleepy, “Morning, Chris,” interrupted by a yawn.
Chris grinned, then quickly hid it behind his coffee mug. Buck looked like he could hardly keep his eyes open, but then he usually looked like that first thing in the morning. After Buck had finished his breakfast and two cups of coffee, he was beginning to look a little more human and definitely more alert.
“So, Pard, What’s gone down today?” Buck asked as he sat back in his chair with his third cup of coffee. It amazed Chris that while he always made the coffee in the morning, he never got more that two cups. If he wanted anymore than that, he had to make a second pot.
Shrugging off that random thought, Chris said, “I called Travis last night and he gave me a couple of days to get Vin and JD settled in. He was real happy about, but he didn’t fight to hard. We’re going to have to figure out some type of schedule to the next week or so. Unless I missed something yesterday, those boys are going to want to be over at the hospital with Ezra everyday.”
“Seems likely. All those boys have been able to depend for a long time is each other, they ain’t gonna trust anyone yet. The boys and I can deal with the office without you for a few days. Ain’t much to do but pape…” Whatever else Buck was going to say was cut off by the ringing of the doorbell. “You expecting any one, Big Dog?” Buck asked as both men rose and went to answer the door.
“No,” Chris said as he opened to the door to reveal his next door neighbor. “Nettie! I wasn’t expecting you this morning. I was going to call you after I picked up the boys.”
“Figured that, Chris,” Nettie said crisply as she walked passed him to stand in the living room. “But we need to figure out some sort of plan for dealing with these boys of yours before they get here, not after. Better for them and better for you. Good morning, Buck.”
Chris was a little shell shocked by Nettie’s take charge attitude, but Buck just grinned. “Morning, Mz Nettie.” Checking his watch, Buck realized that he needed to get moving if he was going to get to the office on time. “Well, I’ve got to get goin’. Some of us don’t got the day off.” The glare Chris threw at his fazed him not one whit as he said his good-byes and strode out the door, leaving Chris and the preparations for the boys in Nettie’s capable hands.
“Well, young man, where do we start?” Nettie asked after she hung up her coat and set her bag down on the end of the couch.
“Um, Buck and I got the boys’ rooms ready last night,” Chris began as he lead the way upstairs and down the hall. Pointing to the two rooms, Chris continued, “We pulled out some of Adam’s old things. It’s still a bit bare, but much better than it was.”
Nettie nodded in approval as she surveyed the two rooms silently. “This is good. Let the boys pick out what they like, it’ll give them the idea that what they think and like matters.”
Chris cleared his throat uncomfortably, before leading her back downstairs. “We’ll see. If they come up with a family that will take them all, they may not be here that long. I’m just letting them stay here until DFS can find a good family for them.”
Nettie smile secretively at him, before replying, “That’s good, Chris, and you doing a good thing by takin’ those boys in, but you’ve got to consider other things, too.”
Chris didn’t verbally answer, just cocked his head questioningly at her.
“What kinds of food do you have in this house, Chris?” Nettie asked as she headed for the kitchen at the back of the house. “You’ve got school lunches to worry about soon. You’re going to have to get those boys registered and in school as soon as you can. They’re going to need the structure and dependable schedule.” Nettie started opening cabinet doors, checking their contents, before looking at Chris over her shoulder when he didn’t answer.
“I’ve got lunch meat to make sandwiches.” Chris offered. What kinds of things did one put in a boy’s school lunch? Sarah had always taken care of that while he did morning chores. He remembered that they always seemed to be running out of those little juice boxes, and that was with only one. Now he had three!
“Do you have any
Smiling, she suggested, “Why don’t I go shopping this afternoon while you get the boys and we can talk about this later?”
Chris heaved a sigh of relief, and quirk a half smile at the efficient older lady. “That’d be great, Nettie. What else?”
“That needs to be out of site and out of reach,” Nettie said bluntly, pointing to a not-so-innocent glass bottle sitting on the counter.
Chris grabbed that bottle and two others that were in the cupboard, before carrying them into the laundry room and stashing them on the highest shelf and closed the door on them. This time he didn’t bother with a question and just followed her back to the living room and waited as she looked around. He knew she had spotted something else when her eyebrows made a jump toward her hairline. He moved around the end of the couch to get a better look at the item she was picking up from the floor beside the fireplace hearth. When he finally recognized it, he flushed bright red. It was some of Buck’s….um, adult reading.
Nettie gave Chris a stern look, before commenting, “Unless you want to be answering some very embarrassing questions, I’d suggesting keeping this well hidden.”
Chris kept his face down as he grabbed a trash bag and deposited the magazine. “Would you help me look for any more of …that around the house?”
Nettie nodded in approval as she followed him from room to room gathering any magazines, or other things of similar type, into the bag. By the time they were done the bag was about half full. Chris couldn’t believe how much of the stuff was just sitting in different places around the house. Tying it shut, Chris pondered the problem of stashing it someplace or just trashing it. It was Buck stuff, but he wasn’t about to have it in the house with three young boys running around. He finally decided to trash it. He didn’t think Buck would complain all that loudly.
When they finished Chris checked his watch, and commented, “I’ve got about an hour and a half before I’m supposed to be at the hospital, and I need to stop at Wal-Mart on the way. Is there any thing else we need to cover before I leave?”
Nettie’s face softened as she looked at the nervous man. “You’re doing fine, Chris. It’s a big adjustment for you to suddenly have little children in the house again. You just have to think carefully about what they hear and see. Also I would suggest laying down a few rules first thing. Don’t get nitpicky, but rules about where the boys can and cannot go, things they should and shouldn’t do. Privacy may be at a premium. And be firm, Chris, but temper it with understanding. Just remember these are children, expect them to act like children at times.” Nettie smiled at the ATF Team leader as she gathered her bag and donned her coat. Laying her hand on his arm she reassured him one last time, “You’ll be fine. I’ll stop back by this afternoon with the groceries. It would probably be best if we held of meeting the boys to tomorrow morning.” With that she slipped out the door and was on her way.
Chris stood stock still at the front door for several minutes after she left, stunned at the force of nature that had whirled through the house. Shaking his head he checked to make sure he had his wallet and keys, before walking out to his truck and heading into town. That was Mz Nettie alright, a force to be reckoned with, he had always know that. It was just that this was the first time it had been pointed at him!
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Chris pulled into the parking lot of Wal-Mart and silently thanked God that he had gotten the extended cab on the truck.
Come to think of it, JD just barely made the requirements to get out of a car seat. It really surprised him how small JD and Ezra were, and Vin looked like he was just hitting his growth spurt. Chris shook his head as he grabbed a cart and headed for the boys clothing.
‘How hard can it be’? You’re a fool, Larabee! Chris berated himself as he looked around in confusion. Yes, he had shopped for Adam’s clothes before, but he had always known what sizes he was looking for. He knew he should only get something simply right now and let the boys pick out something they like later, but looking at the racks of hanging clothing, he was having trouble figuring out where to start.
Okay, Larabee, start with the basics. Thus Chris started with the most basic, and necessary, part of a child’s wardrobe…underwear. Picking up packages, Chris compared what the doctor had told them about first Vin, then JD, and finally Ezra’s height and weight to find the sizes he needed. Remembering what the doctor had said about Ezra needing to gain weight he adjusted accordingly.
Once he finished, he took his new found knowledge of sizes and moved to the next level, but there seemed to be one system of sizing for underwear and an entirely different one for the rest of children’s clothing.
Chris’s frustration caused him to practically growl as he hung up yet another shirt having know idea if it would fit any of the boys. He really didn’t want to have to go size be size until he found ones that he thought would fit.
An elderly lady in an employees blue smock saw his frustration and came over to lend a head. “Can I help you, sir?”
Swallowing back his frustration, Chris smoothed his
expression. “I need clothing for three
boys, but I don’t know what sizes.”
Seeing the confusion on her face, he elaborated
Nodding her head in understanding, she moved closer to Chris’s cart and asked, “Did you have anything in particular in mind for now?”
“Just basics, a single outfit a piece, coats, and shoes.” Chris replied.
“Alright, for now, I’d suggest getting sets of sweats. They’re warm, practical, and you’ll have more leeway in the sizing.” Chris released some of the tense in his muscles as he followed her to the racks of folded sweats.
“About what size are the boys?” the lady asked.
“Well, Vin’s twelve. He’s about 5’ tall, very slender, though. The doctor said he needs to put on a little weight. Ezra’s eight. About 3’8” and really skinny at the moment. The doctor ain’t even going to let him out of the hospital until he starts gaining weight. JD’s five. Stands 3’4” again he’s slender, but underfed as Ezra.”
The matronly woman that was assisting Chris made sympathetic noises as she helped him pick out sets of clothes for each of the boys. After they had regular clothes, she led him to a rack of heavy winter coats that were on sale and together the picked out three well insulated functional hooded coats. Nothing fancy, but they would be warm. Socks and shoes, however, turned out to be almost worse than clothes, for he had paid no attention to the size of the boys’ feet the day before.
Heavy winter socks were easy to find, but shoes… Chris was finally settled on inexpensive tennis shoes in average sizes. When they came in later, he would get them some better ones. She assured him that he could return them if they were the wrong sizes.
As they were walking back toward the front of the store so that he could check out, she suddenly stopped and stepped toward a rack and began picking things off of it. When she returned she added three pares of knit gloves and three scarves to the buggy. Chris nodded in approval. He hadn’t thought of those.
Arriving at the check out, thanked her for all her help and commented that he would probable be back with JD and Vin sometime that afternoon.
“What about Ezra?” she asked in concern.
Chris shook his head, “The Doc is going to be releasing him for a few days al least. He’s come down with a pretty severe case of bronchitis and his system is run down. They want to keep him in the hospital so that is doesn‘t turn into pneumonia.”
“Oh, dear. Well, I hope everything turns out alright for them.” With a smile the helpful lady went on her way as Chris silently echoed her last thought. So do I, ma’am. I hope everything turns out alright for them too.
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Chris arrived at the hospital a little after nine. He spoke quickly with the nurse at the desk, who informed him that Dr. Roberts was on his way to sign JD and Vin out.
Stepping to the door of the room the three boys had shared, and entered quietly. Standing just in side the door, he watched the three boys swathed in thin cotton hospital gowns sitting on the bed farthest from the door coloring pictures on of the rolling tables.
They sat close together with Ezra sandwiched between Vin and JD. As Chris watched, Ezra began coughing harshly. Before he could start moving forward to help him, Vin gathered Ezra close, being very careful of the IV in his arm, and Ezra muffled the strident sound against his friend’s chest. JD tried to comfort his sick friend as best he could by rubbing Ezra’s back.
When Ezra stopped coughing, he didn’t immediately move away
from Vin, but paused with his head cradled against the old boy as he regained
his
Chris watched as they all turned back to their coloring. Both JD and Vin had said they were brothers, and from what he had just seen, they were. Ezra, who had flinched and jerked every time an adult touched him, had accepted the comfort and contact from Vin and JD as if it were the most natural thing in the world.
Chris musing was cut off when Vin abruptly looked up and caught his eye. Chris didn’t move as Vin assessed the intruder in their room with shuttered blue eyes. When Ezra looked up a moment later, he was treated to the say treatment from a piercing emerald gaze. From JD, however, he received a loud, “Mr. Chrwis!” At least one of them is happy to see me, Chris thought wryly.
“Good Morning, boys. Did you sleep well last night?”
Ezra’s quiet, “Yes, sir,” JD’s chipper “Yep,” and Vin’s silent nod were his answers.
“Has the doctor been in this morning?” Chris asked.
This time the all shook their heads, only JD gave a verbal reply of, “Nuh-uh.”
“The nurse told me that he should be here soon. When he gets here we need to talk for a bit, alright?” Chris said. One thing he did remember from when Adam was alive. Boys react a whole lot better if things are couched as requests as apposed to order. Orders just make them want to dig in their heels and do something else.
The boys again nodded their understanding, with JD’s cheerful, “Sure,” and went back to their coloring. Chris set the plastic bags he had brought in with him on one of the other beds and snagged one of the chairs to wait for the doctor.
As he watched the Chris was fascinated by the way the seemed to communicate with out talking. Vin would glance at Ezra then the crayon in his hand, without seeming to notice, Ezra would finish with it and immediately hand it to Vin. Ezra glanced past Vin to another that was out of his reach; without him saying a word, Vin picked it up and handed it across to Ezra. JD laid down the crayon he was working with, and Ezra immediately handed him a crayon that had been sitting on the edge of the table in front of him. Chris saw no clue at all how Ezra knew he wanted it, but JD immediately smiled and started coloring again.
Chris became so focused watching them that he jumped when Dr. Roberts pushed through the door.
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