Running From An Angel - Part Two
PG
See Part One

Calling from a pay phone the next morning, Skid gave Doug an ETA of 5pm.  He'd
spent an uncomfortable night in the back of the truck, wishing he'd
accepted the plane ticket Doug had offered.  Doug informed him that Tess and
Kate were excited about meeting him again, as he and Carol had sat down and
explained that Skid was their brother.  Skid grinned thinking about that as
he hit the Interstate again.  These two weeks were going to be great.

That night, Skid sat on the bed in the bedroom he had been given.  He had
just hung up the phone to his mom, telling her that he hadn't died in a
freak nuclear blast or a five way pile up on the Interstate, and that he had
actually arrived safely with no cause for alarm.  He looked around the room.
The walls were painted a light yellow colour with the alphabet painted
around the top, and glow in the dark stars stuck to the ceiling.  One wall
was taken up with some sort of multi-storage system that had a closet in the
middle, a small desk to the left and loads of shelves on the right.
Children's books filled the shelves as well as stuffed animals, Disney
videos and a doll's house.  A framed cartoon of Snow White and the Seven
Dwarves decorated the far wall, and big windows by the bed made the room
airy and peaceful.  Okay, so it wasn't exactly the kind of room for a guy,
as Doug had jokingly pointed out, but Skid didn't mind too much.  Tess had
drawn a picture of a baseball player for him, so he'd stuck it up on the
wall behind the bed and it made the room seem a bit more like his own.  As
he was changing into some cleaner jeans for dinner, he heard voices
downstairs.

"I'm just not sure I'd feel happy about leaving them in his care."

"He's a responsible kid, Carol.  And they love him already."

"I'm not saying he isn't capable, I just don't think I want to leave them
with someone I don't know."

Someone sighed, and there was the sound of what could have been cutlery.

"Look, we've got a week.  We don't need to decide this now.  Besides, we're
presuming he wants to spend his summer watching a couple of kids."
The conversation faded as they moved somewhere else downstairs.  Zipping his
jeans, Skid picked up a shoe and out it on.  He was just looking for the
other one when the door crashed open and something flew onto the bed at high
speed, bouncing to a stop.

"Hey Kate."  Skid was beginning to feel really thankful for Carol's decision
to dress the twins in different clothes so he could tell them apart.  Kate,
in blue dungarees and sneakers, thrust a piece of slightly crumpled paper
towards him whilst rearranging herself into a sitting position, feet
sticking off the side of the bed next to him.

"Another picture, huh?  Cool.  Is that me?"  He pointed at a stick figure in
the drawing.

"Yeah.  And that's your car."

"It's a great drawing.but my truck is red, not yellow."

"My red crayon broke.  And yellow is a nice colour - don't you like yellow?"

"It's okay.  I'm gonna stick this up here next to your sister's picture,
okay?"

"Yeah!" she beamed, then jumped off the bed and grabbed his hand, pulling
hard.

"It's time for dinner now, come on, you have to wash your paws."

Letting himself be dragged out of the room, Skid questioned, "Paws??"

"That's what Daddy says.  'You don't wanna get germs in your food so you
have to wash your paws'."

"Ah.  Okay then."
Before Kate could continue her personal hygiene lecture, she ran into Carol
who had come up the stairs.

"I see Kate has you in her command already!"

"Yeah.  She seems very.health conscious."
He would have said more, but the weight on the end of his arm was protesting
and trying to yank his shoulder out, so being the polite guest he gave in
and followed Kate into the bathroom.

"Pasketti!"
The joyful cheer filled the air as Skid sat down at the table.  Only when
Doug put down a plate of spaghetti bolognaise in front of him did he make
the connection between what the twins were saying and what was for supper.
And the spaghetti, pasketti, whatever, smelt really good.  He pointed this
out to Carol, as she served herself and chopped up the pasta for Tess at the
same time.

"Ah, I'm not much of a cook."

Taking a forkful, Skid shook his head and swallowed.
"Well it's pretty good for someone who isn't much of a cook."

"Thanks.  Kate, here, take a napkin."  She smiled and took a bite herself.

"Spaghetti was the first thing I learnt to cook," Doug said, winding the
pasta around his fork, "Home ec. Class.  My mom took one bite and threw the
rest out - the meat was still raw."  He grinned and Carol and Skid laughed.

"We had to make these scones in fourth grade, and we were meant to put some
cheese on top and grill it so it melted.  But I forgot mine were under the
grill and they caught fire."

"I've been in a fire!"
All heads turned to Kate - tomato sauce from the bolognaise smeared around
her mouth and a strand of spaghetti dropping off her fork into her lap as
she spoke.

"Kate honey, that was a fire drill.  Not a real fire."  Carol wiped Kate's
face, explaining, "The kindergarten had a fire drill a few weeks ago."

The conversation slowed as everyone ate.  As everyone was finishing up, Doug
looked at Skid.
"Hey, I was thinking.  How about you and me take the boat out later?"  He
chased the last bit of meat around his plate with a fork.

A little surprised, Skid raised his eyebrows.  "Okay!"

"Can I come?"

"Sorry Tess.  Boys only today." Doug pointed his fork at her as he got up to
clear his plate, "But we'll go out later in the week, okay?"

"Yeah." Tess smiled and followed him into the kitchen with her plate.  Carol
got up with hers, and went to pick up Skid's.

"No, that's okay." He picked his own plate up, pushing his chair back.

"No, let me!"

Skid smiled in a lopsided fashion, stepping towards the kitchen.  "Only if
you'll let me help wash up."

'Good grief' thought Carol.  She knew that look better than almost anything
in the world.  Except she never expected it to be tacked onto a request to
do the washing up.  She smiled back.
"Okay, but you'll probably regret it!"

Sure enough, a short while later, holding a damp dishcloth, Skid did
remember that he really hated drying up.  But he felt okay about it because
he really wanted Carol to like him.  He felt a little like he'd stampeded
her nice, settled life and so a few reparations were in order.  She seemed
really great and so far they'd gotton on fine -he wanted it to stay that
way.

"You're from Chicago too, right?"

"Yup.  My mom still lives there - I used to work in the same hospital as
Doug."

"Yeah, he said."

"Really?"

"Yup," Skid looked at the dish he was drying with a grin, "he said you came
running out here to be with him, that you just dropped everything like that.
That takes some guts."

Carol smiled, squeezing some more soap into the water.
"I don't know about guts.  I just got to this point where I knew I had to be
with Doug and that it was more important than anything else."

"Cute."

She shot him a look, one eyebrow raised and a smirk on her face.

"No, I mean it!" Skid tried to justify himself.  A loud crash, some quealing
and a deep voice filtered down the stairs.

"What was that?"

Carol tipped out the water and took her rubber gloves off, leaning against
the worktop smiling.
"I think that's Doug playing monster to get the girls out of the bath.  They're
never going to go to sleep if he gets them worked up!"

Several crashes, some more squealing, and a thump later, Doug emerged on the
stairs with a squirming child under each arm and water splashes all over his
shirt.  Putting them down in the lounge, he said, "Now, who's for a bedtime
story?"

"Meeeee!" said Tess, bouncing up and down on the couch in short grey
pyjamas.

"I am, I am!" said Kate at the same time, rolling head over heels onto an
armchair, wearing similar PJs.

"Hey, I'll read to them if that's okay?" Skid asked, coming into the room
followed by Carol.

Taken aback, Doug rubbed the back of his head.
"I, uh, sure!  Girls, how about that? You want Skid to read to you tonight?"

"Yeah!!"

No one seemed to have any problem with that.  Skid cut across the room.
"So, what book do you want?"  Sitting down in the middle of the couch, Tess
produced a giant volume of fairy stories, pointing to Cinderella and moving
closer.  Kate bounced over, coming to a standing halt next to Skid's
shoulder before flinging her legs in the air so she landed with a bump.
"Alright.  Once upon a time there were three sisters."

Carol joined Doug, standing a little way away from the couch, watching them.
He put an arm around her, kissing her forehead and then pulling his wet
shirt away from his skin, grimacing a bit.  Carol smiled contentedly, then
looked up at him.

"He's really good with them," she whispered.

"I know," he whispered back.

"Reminds me of someone." She rested her head against his side.

Some minutes later, Skid shut the book loudly.  Carol, now standing by
herself after Doug went to change his shirt and check the boat, looked at
the three of them.  As Skid had been reading, the twins had calmed down and
got progressively closer to him, as they were apt to at this hour.  Tess had
pushed her head up under Skid's arm to see the pictures, so that his arm
rested around her.  Kate was leaning against his right hand side with her
thumb in her mouth.  It made quite a picture - it was clear that even though
they had only known of their brother for less than a month, there was a
bond.  Carol blinked and checked her watch, realising that it could well be
that she was over-dramatising.  It was, after all, late for the girls and
they probably would have collapsed on the nearest body irrespective.

"Bedtime," she announced over the back of the couch.  Despite the hour, Tess
and Kate managed a short protest before being hustled up the stairs.  On the
staircase, Carol turned back to Skid.
"Thanks.  You have a way with them."

"Yeah.  They're great kids."

She carried on up the stairs.  For a few moments, Skid sat lost in thought.
He couldn't help but remember reading to Becka once.  He missed her more
than he would have thought, and now he knew his own sisters, he wanted to
make sure he always made the effort with them.  It's not every day you can
maybe gain something you lost.  Snapping out of it, he stood up and went to
a window.  At the decking, Doug was doing something with ropes, and Skid
followed him outside to see what was going on.

"Hey." Skid walked up to the jetty, hands in his pockets.

"Hi.  Can you pass me that.thanks.  Alright, here we go.  Hop in."

Climbing gingerly into the little boat, feeling it rock under his feet, Skid
wondered if he should have mentioned to his mom that he wanted to be
cremated.

"Here ya go, put this on."  Doug dropped a life jacket into his lap, which
Skid put on with relief.  Sitting down, Doug pulled at the chain of the
seaboard motor a couple of times before it caught and pushed the boat off at
a steady pace.

"Don't look so nervous, I've done this before," Doug grinned.

"Uh huh," Skid looked around at the all-consuming water, the house on the
bay, the trees in the distance, "but I haven't."

Doug ticked his head to one side. "First time on a boat?"

"Yeah.  Well, one this small anyway."

Doug nodded and looked off into the distance where the sun was falling
behind the light clouds, dappling the sky with deep pink and orange.
"The girls really like you.  You're a pro with them."  He smiled at his son.

"They're cool.  It's nice to have sisters.  Barney and Bruno would never
stay still long enough to listen, and they're kinda old for that now
 anyway."

"Well, you'd never know it.  Sounds like you've read quite a few bedtime
stories before.  First time I had to do it, I skipped pages by accident.
And I'm normally okay with that kind of stuff!"

"Yeah, I read.used to read to my buddy's little sister sometimes when I was
babysitting."

"Babysitting?!"

"Just doing Rob a favour - he's got like, a million brothers and sisters and
sometimes he just needs a break ya know?"

"Sure.  You're a good friend to him.  Hey look while we're on the topic, I
gotta ask you something on behalf of me and Carol because we found out today
that we've got some shift collisions with work next week.  Normally the kids
would just stay at their nursery for the afternoon session, but."

"You want me to watch them next week?"

"We were wondering if you'd consider it - it'd just be a few hours here and
there while we finish or start shifts, the crossover time."

"That's cool.  No, really, I don't mind.  I'll do it."

"You will? Well that's great.  Thanks a lot, buddy."

"No problem.  Actually, I kinda wanted to ask you something too."

Doug looked at him questioningly.

"I was thinking it'd be really cool if you'd let me build Kate and Tess a
tree house.  I saw this great tree for it, right in the yard, and I really,
really want to do something for them.  I helped my mom's boyfriend build one
for my brothers, it's easy."

Doug grinned broadly at him. "They'd love that!"

"Are you sure?  I mean, it's not really a girl thing is it?"

"No, they really would.  They're too young to care about that stuff anyway
and, you know, equal opportunities all that crap now.  I'm not letting my
girls grow up thinking they have to behave in a certain way."

"Apart from behaving in a good way, of course," Skid said, smiling.

Doug chuckled. "Yeah, I don't plan on raising criminals, but you know what I
mean.  I don't want them restricted by their sex.  Anyway, how about you an
me go down to the hardware store tomorrow, get some wood, we'll have it up
in no time."

"Thanks."

There was a brief gap in the conversation as they looked at the surrounding
area, and Skid leaned over, letting water run over his fingers as they
glided over the surface of the lake.

"So, in between babysitting and tree house building, how's the baseball
going?"

"Ah, you know.  It's okay.  Out team is pretty much middle of the league.  I
got a scholarship offer from Lincoln."

"You did?"

"Uh huh.  But I kinda want to go to the University of Illinois.back to
Chicago.  They have a really great engineering department."

"Yeah?  But turning down a baseball scholarship?!"

Skid shrugged.

"You gonna play varsity at Chicago then?"

"Well I'm gonna try!"

"Okay, I'll let you go then."  Doug grinned.

"Do you miss Chicago?"  Skid studied his father.

"Ahh, I don't know.  I don't miss the weather!"

"No, I mean, you were there for ages right? And then you just suddenly
 left?"

"Yeah, well I pretty much needed the clean break, but yeah I suppose I miss
it sometimes."

"I really like it there.  I went back about a month ago, with Rob," he threw
a bit of lint from the floor of the boat out into the water, "because he had
a basketball match in the interstate tournament.  Took Cody too.  Had a
blast."

Doug nodded.  "You still dating Cody?"

"Yeah, kinda.  She's working away this summer at camp in Dakota.  The
relationship's on hold, so to speak.  Same with Rob, but not that kind of
relationship, y'know?"

"Huh?" Doug had previously been concentrating on steering the boat around in
a loop to head back to the jetty. "You got problems with Rob? Thought you
guys were best buddies?"

"We were.I guess we are, but Rob's a little screwed up now.  Remember one of
his sisters had that thing with the fluid in her lungs?"

"Cystic fibrosis, yeah."

"Yeah, that.  Well, she died a few months ago - she was the one I used to
babysit sometimes."

Doug nodded. "I'm sorry."

Skid shrugged. "Ever since then, Rob's been all messed up.  He's been thrown
off the basketball team and getting drunk, and he decked a girl a week ago.
I got so angry about that, everyone knows you don't hit girls and he didn't
even give a shit, and I went around to his house that night to bawl him out
about it.actually, I gave him a black eye, but anyway we haven't really been
speaking much since.  I don't know what his problem is any more."

"Well, you know," Doug looked out over the lake to the horizon, then back at
Skid, "people deal with death in different ways.  Maybe that's his way of
grieving."

"Well it's a stupid way.  He's ruining his life.  Why can't he just cry or
something, like everyone else?  I mean, it's not like I knew Becka very well
or anything, but I felt like crying when I heard."

"But you didn't, right?"  Doug looked at Skid, who didn't acknowledge this.

Doug grunted and looked away, one corner of his mouth turned up, not in a
smile but in an unreadable expression.
"When I was sixteen, I had this dog, okay, I know it's not the same but just
hear me out.  I had this dog called Ray, after my dad.  Had him since I was
five, my dad had bought him for me on one of his trips, he was a cross
between, oh I don't know, a German Shepard and some sort of retriever.  And
anyway, Ray got old and when I was sixteen, he got hit by a truck and died.
I felt lousy and I felt like crying, because that dog was pretty much a
substitute father half the time."  He looked at Skid hard, then away into
the distance. "But I didn't.  Because I was the man, y'know?  You're not
meant to cry over dogs dying, you gotta be the strong one.  All I'm saying
is, Rob's probably feeling like he doesn't know how to deal with this, he
doesn't know what to do and he's gotta vent somehow.  He'll come round
eventually.  Trust me, okay? Okay?"

"'Kay.  It's just difficult."

"I know."

Doug cut the motor and they glided into the spot by the jetty.  Gesturing at
the deck and holding out a length of rope, he said, "Jump out there and loop
this around the pole.  Then we won't lose the boat in the night."
Skid took the offered rope and climbed out, wrapping the strong fibres
around the end of the pier.  He shook the life jacket off as Doug joined
him, dropping it back into the boat.  They walked back to the house,
stopping to look at a tree Skid pointed out.