The night was pitch black and moonless, a fierce wind howling around the sides of the house and pitching the bare tree branches back and forth against the sky. Taylor had opened his eyes while the beam of light from the living room had still shone through the half open door, a sign that Dan and Nora were still up. Taylor glanced over at Zac. He was definitely asleep. Isaac, however, was lying on his side, facing the wall. Taylor wondered if he was up. He decided to go over and check.
The floorboards were cold beneath his bare feet, and Taylor scampered up to the edge of Isaac�s bed, peering over at his brother. "Ike," he whispered, shaking Isaac�s shoulder. "Are ya up?"
"Wha?" Isaac shot up, his eyes wild and disoriented. "What happened?" he demanded, breathing hard.
"Oops, sorry." Taylor giggled nervously. "I guess you weren�t up."
"Yeah," Isaac lay back down, rolling his eyes. "I guess I wasn�t."
Taylor perched on the edge of the bed, looking hopeful. "Ike, can I sleep with you? Can I, please?"
Isaac sighed. He was about to protest, but thought the better of it. "Sure. Sleep next to the wall so you don�t fall out." He moved over to make room.
"Thanks!" Taylor whispered. "I never get to sleep with you anymore. Only with Zac."
"If Zac falls out of bed, he�s gonna cry," Isaac informed Taylor. "It�ll be your fault if he falls out."
"He won�t fall out," Taylor told him. "He�s right up next to the wall."
"Well, if he wakes up and wants to sleep in here, it�s going to be really crowded tonight," Isaac went on.
"I�ll make room," Taylor assured him, yawning.
"You better," Isaac told him, "or I�m kicking one of you out."
"Kick Zac out," Taylor suggested, charitably. "I got here first."
"Yeah, well I got here before either of you did, and I get to pick who has to go sleep in the other bed," Isaac protested. "And you kick."
Taylor shook his head. "I do not kick."
"And you hog all the blankets," Isaac added, grinning.
Taylor scowled. "I don�t do it on purpose. You�re lucky I�ll sleep in the same bed as you, Ike. I could just go sleep in the other bed and leave you all alone."
Isaac rolled his eyes. "The horror!" It was a phrase he�d picked up from Dan, and was now employing with some regularity.
"Yeah," Taylor agreed, earnestly. "If you got scared, I�d be all the way across the room."
Isaac rolled his eyes and shifted onto his stomach. "Taylor, I don�t get scared."
Long after Taylor had fallen asleep, Isaac lay awake . His brother was the worst person to share a bed with in the world. Not only did Taylor change position frequently, he did kick, as well as murmuring things under his breath, and he definitely hogged the blanket. Isaac sighed. It wasn�t really Taylor�s fault. You weren�t really aware of what you were doing while you were sleeping. Anyway, if Taylor woke up and realized that he had the whole blanket and you were clutching onto a corner, he�d start pulling the blanket over to cover you back up again, shaking the whole bed and waking everybody up in the process. Isaac sighed again as Taylor�s bony elbow pressed against his ribcage. At least his brother�s intentions were good.
Zac woke up with a start. His ear hurt and his head hurt and he�d banged his knee on something. The floor. He was on the floor. First he�d been in the bed and now he was on the floor. He looked around, his eyes adjusting to the darkness. Where had Taylor gone?
The night time was scary. There might be monsters in here. There were probably monsters under the bed. Zac�s thumb went back into his mouth. The monsters under the bed wanted to eat him.
He had to get out of the room. The hallway was dark and shadowy. He didn�t know where to go. Zac glanced behind him into the bedroom. He was sure he saw something black and slimy gliding across the floor.
Zac didn�t waste any time after that. He ran, his bare feet slipping on the scratchy carpet so that he could scarcely keep his balance. He hit the ground right in front of Dan and Nora�s door and scrambled to his feet again, certain that a monster was behind him.
He turned the doorknob and padded into the room, closing the door so that the monsters would stay out. Dan was snoring. His bony white feet poked out from beneath the covers, standing out brightly in the moonlight.
Zac put his hand on the edge of the bed and followed the curve of the mattress until he was standing right in front of Dan. Dan didn�t wake up.
Tentatively, Zac stretched one hand over to Dan�s shoulder and patted him several times. "Wake up," he whispered, frantically. "Get up!"
Startled, Dan jolted awake. "Zac?" he murmured. "What�s the matter?" He struggled into a sitting position. "Are you okay?"
"Monsters!" Zac wailed. It was all he could manage.
Dan lifted Zac into the bed. "What monsters, buddy?"
"Dan? What�s going. . ." Nora rubbed her eyes and smiled sleepily. "Hi, Zac. What are you doing in here?"
Zac stretched out his arms and let Nora help him into her lap. "There was monsters, and I fell out of bed, and Taylor wasn�t sleeping with me, and I was running down the hall. . ." he gasped. "And I fell down, and I came in here. . ."
"Shh. . ." Nora rubbed his back, smiling over at Dan. "You�re shaking, baby. You must have been really scared."
"Really scared," Zac told her. He could feel himself calming down. "I was really, really, really scared. And my ear hurts."
"Your ear hurts?" Dan felt Zac�s forehead. "Nora, does he feel warm to you?"
Nora felt Zac�s forehead. "Yeah." She frowned. "Your ear hurts?"
Zac was worried they might kick him out of bed if he was sick. "I don�t think I gots germs," he said. "So you don�t have to worry that you�ll catch it or anything."
"Honey. . ." Nora held Zac closer. "Don�t worry about that."
"My ear hurts lots and lots of times," Zac said, "but Ike and Tay never get it. So you probably won�t get it."
"Buddy, we don�t care if we get it," Dan said. "If you have an ear infection, though, the only thing that�ll make it go away is antibiotics. Medicine."
"I never tooked medicine before." Zac looked dubious. "Not anabotics or nothing."
"They make ear infections go away faster," Nora said.
"Is it the kind of medicine you have to go to the doctor�s and get it?" Zac asked.
Dan smiled. "Why go to the doctor�s when you�re sitting in one�s lap?"
Zac looked up at Nora and smiled.
Five minutes later he was sitting on the counter in Dan and Nora�s bathroom, while Nora peered into his ears with an auroscope. "Ow. . ." Zac gripped Dan�s hand as the pressure built. "Ow, ow, ow, ow, ow!"
Nora winced. She felt terrible about hurting him. "I�m sorry, sweetie. I know it hurts. It�ll be over soon."
"Do I have a ear perfection?" Zac asked.
Dan guffawed. Nora held back a grin. "Yeah, honey, I think you do. I can�t get you any medicine for it until early in the morning, though."
"That�s okay." Zac lied. "It doesn�t hurt so bad."
"Do you want to go back into your bed?" Dan asked.
"We�ll give you some Children�s Tylenol," Nora agreed, "and then we could tuck you in again." She sighed, wishing she had some antibiotic samples, which drug company representatives seemed to disperse so freely when you didn�t need them, on hand.
Zac shook his head, terrified. "Don�t make me go back into that room! I don�t want to go back in there!"
"Okay. It�s okay." Nora lifted him onto her hip. "You can sleep in here, if you want."
"Yeah," Zac murmured. "With you."
"I don�t think we�re supposed to get to attached," Dan whispered, "or let him get too attached.
"That room�s all the way down the hall, Dan," Nora pointed out. "If he called, we�d never hear him."
Dan nodded. "Just this once, Zac. Tomorrow night, if you feel better, it would be better to sleep with Isaac and Taylor."
"I will," Zac promised.
"Okay." Dan nodded. "If you get scared, wake us up."
"Dan! Dan, Dan, Dan!" Zac whispered.
Dan opened his eyes. The bedside clock read 4:02. "What�s the matter, Zac?"
Zac sighed. "I can�t go to sleep. My ear hurts too much."
"Okay," Dan whispered. "Do you want to go down and watch TV?"
"In the middle of the night?" Zac asked.
"It�s what I do when I can�t sleep," Dan told him.
"Okay." Zac agreed. "Let�s go downstairs."
"We have to be really quiet though," Dan cautioned him, "because Nora has to get up early for work tomorrow."
"Okay." Zac was silent as Dan lifted him out of bed and tiptoed out of the room.
"We�re going to get the blanket from your bed, okay?" Dan asked. "So you won�t be cold."
"Okay," Zac whispered. He tightened his grip on Dan�s neck as they entered the darkened bedroom. "Monsters," he thought.
Luckily, there weren�t any. Taylor and Isaac were in the other bed, fast asleep, with Taylor hogging most of the blanket. Dan lifted the comforter from the empty bed and he tiptoed down the stairs. When a floorboard creaked, both he and Zac grimaced.
"Shh. . ." Zac whispered. "You were the one who said be quiet."
"I was," Dan agreed. "Sorry."
Zac nodded. "It�s okay."
Dan grinned. "Thank you for being so understanding." He felt Zac�s fingernails dig into his skin as they stepped into the undiluted blackness of the living room.
"Something could be hiding in here," Zac whispered. "And then it�ll jump out and kill us."
"No it won�t," Dan assured him. "There�s nothing in here."
"Maybe they�re being quiet," Zac proposed.
"Nah." Dan shook his head. "Monsters could never be that quiet."
He set Zac down on the couch and fumbled around for the TV remote control. It was on top of the TV, exactly where it was supposed to be, though of course that was the last place Dan checked. "Do you have anything in particular you want to watch?" he asked Zac, stretching out next to him on the couch.
Zac looked over at him. "Do you?"
"Hey, at four AM, it does not make much of a difference to me," Dan observed.
Zac shook his head. "Me either."
Searching for worthwhile entertainment at this hour of the morning was futile. There were scores of infomercials, old TV repeats, sappy commercials backed by tinny Christmas carols. Some guy was hacking people to bits with a buzz saw on Channel 46. On MTV, scantily clad young girls gyrated around a middle aged man dressed in shiny black sateen and weighted down by gold chains.
Finally, Dan hit a Brady Bunch rerun on some second-rate cable station he�d never even paused upon before. The Brady Bunch, he thought. As banal as they are, at least they won�t corrupt him.
The two of them sat through fifteen minutes of inane banter relating to Marcia�s plans for a slumber party before Zac, who had inched on to Dan�s stomach and was resting his head on his chest, sighed hugely.
"Who are these people?"
"The Brady Bunch?" Dan asked.
"They�re stupid," Zac complained. "I hate them!"
Dan chuckled. "Any particular reason?"
Zac nodded. "They are," he scowled, "too happy."
"I have to admit, Zac," Dan agreed, nodding. "that you�re right."
"Why? Do you like �em?" Zac asked.
Dan shook his head. "Nope."
Zac rolled his eyes. "Then why are we watching this?"
Dan sighed. He didn�t feel like channel surfing again. "Because there�s nothing else on."
"Is there a TV station that has all cartoons on, even in the night?" Zac inquired.
"Not to my knowledge," Dan informed him.
"They need one," Zac sighed. "Only cartoons would be boring at night."
"Why?" Dan wondered.
Zac yawned. "Because all of the people would just be sleeping. Would you want to sit there and watch people sleeping all night?"
"These people aren�t sleeping," Dan nodded at the TV set. The Bradys were crowded around their kitchen table, laughing at something Alice had done.
"Oh, Alice!" giggled Mrs. Brady.
"You�re so funny!" added Cindy.
"Oh, Alice" Zac mocked, in a high pitched squeak, "you�re so funny!"
Dan guffawed. "That�s the Brady Bunch, all right."
"The reason how come they never sleep," Zac went on, "is because they�re stupid."
"Oh," said Dan. "That makes sense."
"Yeah," Zac agreed. "That�s how come."
By the time the sky had lightened to a dull gray, washing the walls in dim early morning light, Dan and Zac had both fallen asleep, the TV blaring "6:00 with Terrance Lewis," a sort of early-early show, featuring a bouncy, low rent version of Richard Simmons. Terrance Lewis, dressed in a tight black unitard and high cropped, tight white shirt, his permed black hair held back with a head band, bounced across the TV screen to a scratchy, pop-sampled soundtrack. He waved his arms around, shaking his head back and forth.
"C�mon people!" Terrance squeaked. "It�s time to get up and do some dancin!"
Dan yawned and opened his eyes. Zac was still lying on his stomach, fast asleep, and Dan didn�t want to wake him. He closed his eyes again and concentrated on going back to sleep. Today was going to be a long day.
It suddenly occurred to Dan that a month ago he never could have seen himself in this situation. It was only a few weeks ago he�d handed out Halloween candy to little kids dressed as dragons and witches, Wonder Woman and Mickey Mouse, thinking to himself all the while that if he and Nora got a baby this year or next, it would be three or four years before he�d be taking someone trick or treating. He�d never imagined having such close contact with a little kid. . . any little kid. . . for quite awhile. These past few weeks had been entirely out of the blue.
And yet, he knew they�d have to end. These kids weren�t his kids. Their mother would rehabilitate herself, and they�d go back to live with her. Dan wondered if he should have held back, keeping himself from forming such a tight bond with the boys. He didn�t want to compete with their mother. He didn�t want to make the inevitable separation harder on everyone. Maybe it was wrong to allow someone to trust you, and then cast them back out into the world again, as if they didn�t mean anything to you, as if they never had.
That wasn�t the message Dan wanted to send. He wished there was some way he and Nora could hand the boys over to their mother without completely disinvolving themselves, at least until Kathleen was strong enough to provide more emotional support. It would definitely be hard for her at first. Maybe she would appreciate it if Dan and Nora took the boys for the day every now and then, maybe for a weekend.
Dan sighed. He wouldn�t let himself think about it. When the time came, he would do what he had to do, but for now it was just him and Zac, lying on the couch while Terrance Lewis bounded around in a wild state of exertion.
Dan closed his eyes. Maybe he could get a few more minutes of sleep. . .
"Dan?" Taylor whispered. "Dan, are ya up?"
"Mmh?" Dan murmured. "Wha?" He glanced at his watch. It was 6:15.
"I was looking for Zac," Taylor explained. He grinned at the TV screen. "I love this guy! Sometimes I get up early, and I see him on TV."
"Shh. Don�t wake up Zac," Dan whispered.
"Okay," Taylor agreed. He smiled again at Terrance Lewis. "Time to wake up and get energized!" he parroted. "Start yer day the Terrance way!"
Zac�s eyelids flickered open. "Not this guy!" he groaned. "I hate this guy! Turn him off!"
Dan smiled to himself. Another day had begun.