A Time and A Season
Episode 4: The Dog Ate My Homework
by Janice

Part One: Honey

Tuesday, September 14, 2004

Honey walked towards the police officers as if in a daze. “Jim? Dead?”

At her words, Brian and Dan moved towards them from the next room. Diana came out of her room and joined the group. There was a stunned silence; each one stared at the officers, trying to take in the news. Honey’s shoulders began to shake, but no one seemed to notice.

Trixie pulled herself together first. “That can’t be right,” she said. “Jim’s here. I’m sure of it.”

“Don’t do this, Trixie,” Mart said, gently. He put his hand on her shoulder, but she violently shook it off. “If the officer says-”

“Go and look in his room if you don’t believe me,” she said. “I’m sure he’s here.”

Obediently, Mart went through to the other side of the house and knocked on Jim’s door. Even from where she was, Honey could hear Jim’s response. Unshed tears began to course down her face as two sets of footsteps approached. In a few moments, her brother had joined them at the door.

“Oh, Jim,” she cried, throwing her arms around him. “I thought you were dead!”

“Why would I be dead, Honey?” he asked, confused. He hugged back, feeling the dampness of her tears through his shirt. “I’m fine, Honey, really.” Someone cleared their throat.

“James Winthrop Frayne?” one of the officers asked. Honey released her brother, but gripped his arm instead.

“Yes, sir,” he replied, noticing the policemen for the first time. The officer asked his address and date of birth, which Jim supplied.

“A body has been discovered, bearing your identification,” the officer told him. “Do you know of any reason why that might be?”

Jim checked his wallet, which was safely in his pocket, its contents complete.

“I have no idea, sir,” he said.

While Jim continued conversing with the officers, Honey sought out her boyfriend. To her surprise, he didn’t seem to be watching the proceedings. He was looking at his sister with suspicion. Trixie was oblivious to her brother’s scrutiny. She was fully occupied with trying to work out the mystery which had practically knocked on their front door.

Later, when she had the chance to talk to him, Honey asked Brian what was wrong. “I saw you looking at Trixie before,” she said. “What were you thinking?”

Brian looked a little embarrassed. “I just had an idea, that’s all.”

“What sort of idea?” Honey asked, utterly confused.

“Well, it’s just that she was so certain,” he said. “As if she’d been with him only moments before. It got me thinking that maybe she’d just come in through the window or something.”

“Through the window?” Honey said, surprised. “Why would she-” Brian laughed at the shocked look on her face. “You shouldn’t think those things about your own sister.”

“I know,” he replied, sheepishly. “Especially since I promised Jim that I’d butt out.”

Honey stopped short. There was something here that she was missing. Surely that doesn’t mean what I think it means, she thought. If Brian knew that Jim and Trixie were… A new thought came to her mind and she blurted it out without even thinking.

“You mean, you know that they’re sleeping together and you condone it, but you don’t want us to even spend time alone together.”

“That’s not it at all,” he replied, his shoulders stiffening and his voice turning cold. “And what they do has nothing to do with us.”

“On the contrary, Brian. It just goes to prove what I’ve been saying all along.”

At that, Honey stormed off to her room. The door closed behind her and the tears fell. Why doesn’t he understand? she wondered. All I want is to not be left behind.

Late in the evening, Honey decided that she could stand it no longer. She simply had to talk to someone, but who? Mart and Di had gone out for the evening, as had Dan. None of them had yet returned. She did not feel that she could discuss this sort of matter with her brother and numerous conversations with Brian himself had gotten her nowhere.

Well, that just leaves Trixie, she said to herself. Maybe we can put aside the brother thing for just this once. Gathering up her courage, she knocked on Trixie’s door.

“Come in,” she heard, faintly.

Timidly, she opened the door a crack and peered in. “It’s just me,” she said. “Can we talk?”

“Sure,” said Trixie, setting aside the book she was reading and patting the bed beside her. “What do you want to talk about?”

“Do you think we can forget that we’re dating each other’s brothers for just a moment?”

Trixie screwed up her face and thought. “I guess,” she said, with a crinkled nose. “Just don’t get too graphic, okay?”

“Deal,” said Honey with a giggle. “Not that there’s anything graphic to talk about.”

“So, what can I do for you?” Trixie asked. “Are you looking for advice or just a shoulder to cry on?”

“Can I have both?” Honey asked, in a small voice. “Oh, Trixie, I think he’s going to drive me mad!”

“Well, that’s understandable,” Trixie replied. “He’s been driving me mad my whole life. Is there something in particular that he’s doing?”

“It’s what he’s not doing,” Honey added, darkly.

“I don’t follow.”

In a tumble of words, Honey explained about her ongoing disagreement with Brian. “And I don’t know what to do next,” she finished. “He won’t do what I ask him, but I don’t know how to, um, encourage him.” Trixie shut her eyes tightly for a moment, as if to banish an unwelcome image.

“So, you’re asking me how to seduce my brother?”

“No!” said Honey, then stopped. “Actually, yes. Yes, that’s exactly what I’m asking. So, what’s the answer?”

“I can’t- I mean, I don’t want to- I mean,” she stopped, shutting her eyes again. “Okay, I’m going to pretend that you’re dating a Swedish backpacker called Sven,” she said. “Maybe that will help.”

Honey giggled, helplessly. “Okay, then. How do I seduce the gorgeous, well-built Swedish backpacker, Sven?”

“Hold on, there!” her friend said. “Start at the beginning. How far have you gone with him?”

“Well, we’ve kissed,” said Honey. “He holds my hand; puts an arm around me sometimes. Not much more than that. Sven has, um, honorable intentions and he doesn’t want us to be alone together.”

Trixie squeezed her eyes shut again, murmuring, “Sven, Sven, Sven,” before she asked the next question. “When you’ve kissed, where have you been? I mean, in what sort of position?”

“Standing up? Sitting down? I don’t know.”

Her friend giggled. “You should pay more attention. Sven will lose interest, otherwise.”

“What does it matter, anyway?” Honey asked.

“Well, there’s a bit of a difference between kissing Sven on the doorstep and kissing him in his bed,” Trixie pointed out.

“I thought I’d made it clear that Br-, uh, Sven wouldn’t let me anywhere near his bed,” said Honey, a deep frown creasing her face. “Sven seems to think that I’m too sweet and innocent to do anything like that.”

Trixie giggled. “You are, aren’t you?” She ducked as Honey swatted her with her own book. “Sorry. I know what you mean. Sweet and innocent is a drag.” She thought for a few moments. “If I lend you something, will you swear not to tell ‘Sven’ that it was me?”

Honey nodded enthusiastically and Trixie bent to rummage under the bed. She drew out a sheaf of untidy papers and handed them to her friend. “‘Fifty ways to seduce a man.’ Where did you get this?” Honey breathed, turning pink. “And what am I supposed to do with it?”

“It’s off the internet,” Trixie replied, casually. “And it’s pretty explicit. If you can’t work out what to do with it, you’d better ask someone else, ’cause I’m not going to explain it to you.”

“Do you think they really work?” Honey asked, turning even pinker.

“Some of them do,” her friend replied, with barely a blush. “But I want it back, ’cause I haven’t even tried half of them yet.”

“Thanks, Trix,” Honey replied, hopping up. “I’ll read it and bring it back tomorrow.”

“And hopefully we’ll never have to have one of these conversations, again!” said Trixie. “Honestly, you’d think my brothers were completely clueless!”

Honey was halfway out the door before the significance of that sentence struck her.

“Brothers?” she asked. “Plural?”

“Yes, plural,” said Trixie. “Do you think you’re the only one having trouble with one of my brothers?”

“Well, yes,” said Honey. “In fact, I thought I was the only one of the Bob-Whites with my particular sort of trouble.”

“Just ask Di,” said Trixie. “I think you’ll find that you’re not alone.”

After a few minutes of quiet reading in her room, Honey went up to Brian’s door and knocked, filled with a new confidence. She heard him say ‘Come in,’ and she did just that.

“We need to talk,” she said, looking in awe at his stunned expression. “I’ve thought it through and you’re right. Well, partly right.”

“I am?”

She took him by the hand and drew him away from his desk. “Let’s sit down.”

Brian looked suspiciously from Honey to the bed and back again. “What are you trying to do?” he asked.

“I want us to move past the stalemate,” she said. “So, sit, okay?”

Brian smiled and did as he was told. “You have my full attention,” he said, still smiling gently. “What did you want to talk about?”

“First of all,” she said, “I’m sorry for all the arguments we’ve been having. I’ve behaved childishly and I’ve realised that now.” She took a deep breath. “Secondly, there’s something I’d like you to do for me.”

“What did you have in mind?” he asked, intrigued by her shy expression.

“Well, you must admit, it’s been a pretty stressful evening, and I’ve spent so much time today studying and, well, I’ve got this ache,” she said, twisting around to point at a spot on her lower back, “right about here, and my shoulders feel like someone’s been hitting me, I’m so tense, so I was wondering if you could…”

“Give you a massage?”

“Yes,” she breathed. A moment later, she rushed on. “Skin on skin?”

His eyes widened ever so slightly and he contemplated her for several moments, unmoving. “You mean that?” he asked, after a long pause.

Honey nodded. “Please, Brian,” she said. “Let me get closer to you. That’s all I ever wanted.”

For several moments more he searched her face. “Okay,” he said, leaning in to kiss her. “We’ll do it your way.”

The next day, Honey awoke to find Trixie tapping at her door and asking to be let in. “Go away,” she said grumpily, pulling the covers over her head. A moment later she heard the door open.

“Late night last night?” Trixie suggested, cheekily. “Get up. We’ve got things to do.”

Honey pulled the covers down fractionally and opened one eye, asking, “What things?”

“Our latest case, of course,” her friend said, coming right in and sitting down on the bed. “Someone has been pretending to be Jim, and I intend to find out who and, more importantly, why? So, get up!”

“I don’t want to,” Honey said, her voice plaintive, as it emerged from under the covers. “Can’t you take Jim, instead?”

“He’s gone to a study breakfast, if you’ll believe it, and he left over an hour ago. Now, do I have to drag you out of there? Or threaten to throw you out of the agency?”

The covers shifted slightly, then Honey meekly emerged. “I don’t know why I’m doing this,” she said, as she gathered something to wear. “You owe me big time. And you have to give me time for a shower and a cup of coffee.”

Trixie grinned. “Coffee will await you in the kitchen. And dress down. We might be getting a bit dirty.”

Three quarters of an hour later, Honey was feeling as if it would have been better to stay in bed. Trixie had managed to find out where the body had been found and she took them to an adjoining property with a view to finding out more about the incident. The car drew up at the top of a steep slope, edged with a broken down fence and littered with rubbish. Through the scraggly bushes Honey could make out the police tape right at the bottom of the hill.

“Why are we here?” she asked, frowning.

Trixie hopped out of the car and went around to open Honey’s door. “We’re looking for clues,” she said, cheerfully. “In there.”

Her friend sighed. “I was afraid you’d say that.”

With a laugh, Trixie locked up the car and stepped over the broken fence. “Just imagine that you’re Lucy Radcliffe, trying to track down your archenemy, Gros-ven-or,” she said, with exaggerated clarity.

“It’s GROVE-nor and you know it,” Honey replied, stepping over the fence after her. “And I don’t care if GROVE-nor has left piles of clues here. I’d still rather be in bed.”

Trixie grinned and started down the hill, with Honey following disconsolately behind. “Careful, here,” she whispered, as they neared the bottom of the slope. “The surface is kind of loose.”

Honey nodded distractedly. A moment later, her feet shot out from under her and, the next thing she knew, she was hurtling towards Trixie. “Look out!” she cried, but it was too late. They collided, tumbling over and over to the bottom of the hill.

“O-h-h-h,” said Trixie. “That hurt.” She brushed herself off and stood up. “You kicked me right in the butt.”

Despite herself, Honey giggled. “I’m sorry,” she said, rather insincerely.

There was no reply. Trixie was staring hard at something in the middle distance. Not far away, a policeman was trying very hard not to laugh. Honey noticed him with a start. She grabbed her friend’s arm and pulled her back towards the car. “Let’s get out of here. I don’t think we’ll find anything out, now.”

“Oh. Yeah. Okay,” Trixie replied, letting herself be led away.

When they reached the car, Honey stood waiting patiently to be let in. “Are we going?” she asked, after a minute. “Or do you want to stand here all day?”

Trixie did not appear to be listening. “I think I know why he was there,” she said softly. “But, I don’t understand how he came to be dead.”

“What?”

She looked up suddenly. “Honey, you can see our house from there. When I stood up again, I could practically see in my bedroom window - and Jim’s.”

“What?” Honey repeated. “You mean, you think he was spying on us? But why?”

“That’s what I want to know.”

Part Two: Bobby

Saturday, June 26, 2004

To Bobby, it seemed that everyone was making a lot of fuss over nothing. Ever since his mother had told him that his father had lost his job, the whole family had gone completely mad, in his opinion.

Dad was tense and quiet; Moms always seemed tired; Brian had taken an overdose of “serious” pills; Mart was spending way too much time at work and Trixie - well, she was the weirdest of the lot. His whole life, Bobby had not seen his sister cry so often as she had since that day.

“Will you stop that?” he said to her, angrily, the previous evening, after finding her crying in the guest room. “Stuff happens. Get over it.”

She had not been happy with that piece of advice. Even now, Bobby cringed as he remembered her response. Shortly after that, Moms had told him that his father would be working away from home for the next six months.

“Okay,” he said. “We’ll visit him, though, won’t we?”

“Of course we will,” Moms said. “Any time you like.”

“Cool,” he replied, his mind already on something else.

Now, he was bored. The house was quiet and he had been sent outside for making too much noise. It just didn’t seem fair. He threw his basketball and it thumped against the backboard but missed the hoop and bounced away.

“Stupid thing,” he muttered, stomping off to retrieve it.

The ball had rolled down the slope a little way and stuck in one of Moms’ shrubs. Frowning, he crawled underneath. The sharp end of a small dead branch scraped his arm and he swatted it away with an angry gesture. Just as he did so, an object came into sight just in front of him.

Curiosity was something of a Belden character trait and Bobby had his fair share of it. He picked up the brown, plastic thing and turned it over in his hand. A thoughtful frown crossed his face as he wondered how a hair clip came to be in the garden.

It’s probably just one of Trixie’s, he decided, with a reluctant shake of the head. No mystery here. He pulled out his ball and headed for the back porch. The clip landed on the table there and he let the ball roll underneath, before slumping onto the porch swing. Nothing exciting ever happens to me.

It was more than a week before Bobby remembered to tell his sister that he’d found her clip. It completely escaped his mind as the regular routine descended into the turmoil of his father’s departure. Her reaction, when he did tell her, was not what he had expected.

“That’s not mine,” she said. “I’ve got one like that, but mine’s right here - in my hair.”

Bobby looked at it with a frown. The clip in her hair certainly looked the same as the one in his hand. It was a little difficult to tell, due to the way her curls covered it. Trixie had a habit of just grabbing handfuls of hair, shoving the clip on and hoping for the best, or that was how it seemed to Bobby.

“But if it’s not yours, how did it get into our garden?” he demanded.

“It’s probably Di’s,” she replied.

“Duh, Trixie,” he said. “Di does not crawl around in other people’s gardens.”

“It probably fell in there,” she said, taking it from him. “I’ll give it back to her tomorrow when I see her.”

Bobby frowned. It didn’t just fall there, he thought. But if Trixie doesn’t think there’s anything strange about it… An uneasy feeling stole over him and would not go away.

The next blow was Brian’s decision to go to Winter Rock to help Jim. It was bad enough that Mart and Trixie were both working. With Brian gone, Bobby found himself all alone for a good deal of the time and bored for much of it.

“Moms,” he complained in the afternoon of the day that Brian left. “Why can’t I go somewhere. It’s boring here and there’s nothing to do.”

His mother sighed. “You could start with cleaning your room,” she suggested. “And if you have nothing to do after that, there’s work in the garden, the garage could do with a clean up, you could help with the laundry-”

“Wait!” he cried, horrified. “I’ll find something.”

He stomped outside with a frown. There’s got to be something to do around here, he thought. For a few moments, he searched his mind for someone he could invite over. At school, he spent a lot of time with the Lynch twins, but he had not seen them in weeks. Somehow, he felt uncomfortable about calling them. No one else came to mind.

Bobby did not make friends easily. He did not have his sister’s outgoing personality, or his eldest brother’s self-sufficient nature. Neither did he have any memorable characteristics, as Mart did, which would make him stand out in a crowd. A lot of his classmates considered him something of a spoiled brat. In the privacy of his own mind, Bobby agreed with them.

With a self-pitying sigh, he called out to his mother that he was going for a walk and began to wander aimlessly. A short time later, he came to the boundary of the Belden property and pushed his way through the hedge onto Jim’s land.

I could have my own secret club, he thought, if I could find anyone to be in it, he added, gloomily. And the summerhouse could be our secret clubhouse, if I could find it. The toe of his sneaker scuffed across a patch of bare earth and he looked around, trying to find the little building which he had only ever heard about, but never seen.

A hole in the nearby tangle of vines and bushes caught his attention and Bobby bent over, trying to get a better look. Just visible under the cover of the untidy vegetation, a path led away. Without a second thought, he started to follow it.

After a few uncomfortable minutes of crawling, he found himself just outside a weather-beaten door. A gentle push sent it swinging open with a loud creak. He held his breath, but nothing happened. I guess I should just go in, he thought, suddenly afraid. It’s kind of gloomy, though. I wish I had a flashlight.

He ducked under the last few vines and stood up. It was dim inside, but he could make out a scattering of abandoned objects across the floor. On one side stood a rickety chair, facing the window.

That’s strange, Bobby thought, gingerly sitting down. The chair creaked ominously, but held his weight. Hey! You can see our house from here! For a few long moments, he just sat and thought. Through the thick vegetation and grimy window, he dimly saw his brother, Mart, cross the yard and enter the farmhouse. Finally, deciding that the position of the chair must be a coincidence, he got up to leave.

If I ever get any friends, he decided, feeling gloomy all over again, we can come up here together. That settled, he made his way back to the farm.

Early the next morning, the monotony was broken by Brian’s sudden arrival home. For a fleeting moment, Bobby wondered why his brother would return so soon after leaving. When he found out that he would be spending the day with Jim, the thought was driven out of his mind. Brian and their mother would be going to visit their father that day. Bobby didn’t understand why, but it didn’t seem important, either.

Jim was one of Bobby’s favourite people. Not only did he really listen when Bobby talked, but he loved to do active things outdoors and did not mind others tagging along. Suddenly, instead of another monotonous day, he was looking forward to one full of activity.

“So, what do you want to do first?” Jim asked, as the door closed behind Trixie. “Any ideas?”

“Well,” said the boy, screwing up his face in deep thought, “I’d like to go swimming in the lake, or for a walk deep into the game preserve, or for a bike ride, or shoot some hoops, or-”

“Whoa!” said Jim, laughing. “How about we start with that walk, then head to the lake?”

“Great!” yelled Bobby. “Let’s go.”

Soon, the two were on their way. Jim led them onto one of the smaller paths, where Bobby would normally not be allowed to go, and the woods closed around them. They kept up a steady pace, following the winding path up hills and down gullies.

“We must be miles from home,” Bobby said, slightly puffed, as they neared the top of a particularly steep section of track. “I bet nobody ever comes up here.”

“I wouldn’t say that,” Jim replied, with a laugh. “Just look where you’re standing. Those footprints must have been here since just after the last rain.” He watched the younger boy’s face fall. “And look through the trees.”

“Hey! That’s my house! Are we nearly home?”

“I thought you wanted a swim in the lake?”

Bobby set off down the hill at a jog, calling behind himself, “Well, what are you waiting for?”

Jim followed, knowing that this would be a long day.

That evening, just as the food was being put on the table, Brian returned alone. A worried frown creased Bobby’s face, as he saw his brother. Where was Moms? Brian apparently saw the look, because he came straight over and started to explain.

“Moms and Dad have some things that they need to work out,” his eldest brother said, in his usual serious tones. “Until they’ve done that, Moms is going to stay with Dad and Mart and Trixie will look after you.”

“Are you going back with Jim, then?” the boy asked.

“In the morning, I think,” Brian said, with a nod. “If that’s okay with Jim.”

What’s going on here? Bobby wondered, feeling worried. Why isn’t Moms here? Shouldn’t she be looking after me? Another thought followed, try as he might to stop it. Maybe she doesn’t want to be around me, either. He kept his worries to himself.

The next morning, as they were cleaning up after breakfast, the telephone rang. Mart was at the sink, suds almost up to his elbows, so Trixie went to answer it. Only a moment later, she turned it over to Bobby.

“It’s for you,” she said, taking the dish cloth from his hands. “It’s Moms.” He picked up the receiver and said hello.

“I’ve got something I need to ask you,” his mother said, after enquiring how he was. “Something very important. You’ll need to listen very carefully.”

“Okay, Moms,” he said, somewhat impatient. He always hated conversations with Moms that started that way. It meant that she was going to say something that he didn’t want to hear.

“Now, I know this will sound a little strange,” she went on, “but, your father and I have decided that you’re old enough to make some of your own choices. You don’t need to give us an answer right away. Just think about it and you can tell us another time.”

“What do I have to decide?” He could hear her take a deep breath. “Moms?”

“You understand that your father will be living here until the end of the year, don’t you, Bobby? Well, we’ve decided that I’ll be moving here, too.” There was another pause. “What you need to decide is, do you want to live here with us, or do you want us to find someone you can stay with?”

“I don’t want to change schools,” he replied, feeling his heart beat faster at the very thought. It was even more scary than the idea that he wasn’t wanted. “Please, don’t make me do that, Moms.”

“We’re not going to make you do anything,” she replied. “That’s why we’re giving you the choice. Are you saying that you’d rather stay with someone?”

“Yes,” he said, almost desperate. “Please, don’t make me leave! I’ll stay with anyone!”

“You’re sure?” she asked. He told her that he was. “You can spend the weekends here, with Dad and me, and you can change your mind any time you want. Do you want me to go ahead and arrange it?”

“Yeah, Moms,” he said. “Just don’t make me leave.”

“All right,” she said, a smile evident in her voice. “How about if we ask the Lynches first? Would that be okay?”

“That would be great,” he cried. “Thanks, Moms!”

After a few more minutes talk, he turned the phone over to Mart and went off to think about what had just happened. Would he really stay in Sleepyside when the rest of his family was gone? It didn’t seem quite real, but deep down, Bobby knew that this was where he belonged.

Two days later, Moms still had not returned. It was Sunday, so neither Mart nor Trixie were working. After lunch, they offered him a choice of what to do.

“I’m going in to Sleepyside to pick something up,” Mart told him, as they cleared away the lunch dishes. “Either you can come with me, or you can go to the Manor House with Trixie.”

“If I go with you, I don’t need to help you carry anything, do I?” he asked, with a frown.

“Nah,” said Mart, suppressing a smile. “I’ll be fine. Come on, then.”

The two got into Mart’s beat up old car and headed into town. Bobby frowned at his brother’s choice of radio station, but did not dare to do anything about it. He had learned that lesson long ago.

“So, what are we going to get?” he asked.

“Just some stuff for work,” Mart replied. “It was supposed to be delivered on Friday, but they sent it to the wrong address. You can just wait in the car while I get it.”

Bobby nodded. Just typical, he thought. ‘Just sit in the car, Bobby.’ ‘Do as you’re told, Bobby.’ ‘Be a good boy, Bobby.’ They pulled up outside a building and Mart got out. A few minutes later, he returned with a package and dumped it in the back seat.

“We’ll just drop it off at work and then we can do something you want. How’s that?”

“Okay,” he replied.

They drove the short distance to Mart’s work and, once again, Bobby had to sit and wait. Outside the window, only a short way away, a couple were kissing passionately in the doorway of a nearby building. Eww! he thought, as the dark-haired man pulled the blonde woman closer, one hand on her bottom while the other ran through her curls. Why can’t they do that somewhere else?

Turning away, he noticed one of his classmates walking along the opposite side of the road. His palms started to sweat as the other boy noticed him and started towards him. He wiped them irritably on his pants before winding down the window.

“Hey, Bobby,” said the tall, dark-haired boy. “Whatcha doin’?”

“Hi, Todd. I’m stuck waiting for my brother,” he said. “He works in there and he had to drop something off.”

Todd looked in the direction that Bobby pointed, realisation dawning across his face. “So that’s where you get all that cool stuff,” he said, looking at the window display of the town’s best sporting goods store. “I’ve never seen him there.”

“He works upstairs - it’s the regional office,” Bobby explained. “He gets staff discount, though, so he gets me stuff sometimes.”

“Well, I’ve gotta run,” the other boy said. “Maybe we can meet at Wimpy’s some time. You’ve got to tell me what there is to do out there, where you live. My dad’s got a new job and we’re moving out there in a couple of weeks.”

“Okay,” said Bobby. “See ya.”

As Todd ambled away, the driver’s door swung open, giving Bobby a start before he realised that it was Mart. To cover his reaction, he slowly wound up the window.

“Who was that?” Mart asked.

“Just someone from school. Can we go home now? I’m hungry.”

With a laugh, Mart suggested a trip to Wimpy’s and the two went on their way.

When his mother returned from Poughkeepsie, Bobby suddenly found out that things would never be normal again. He was out in the back yard, playing ball with Reddy, when Mart came out looking as if he’d seen a ghost.

“What’s up?” he asked, not particularly caring what the answer was. His older siblings were always acting weird.

“Moms wants to see you,” Mart said, heading for the bicycle path. “You’d better go in.”

Bobby threw the ball angrily and stomped up onto the porch. “Moms!” he yelled through the door. “Do you want me?” Not hearing a reply, he threw open the door so hard that it banged against the wall.

“Come inside, please, Bobby,” his mother called from the living room. “And don’t bang the door.”

“I hope this is important,” he grumbled, scowling darkly. “I was busy, you know.”

“Sit down here,” she said, patting the seat beside her. “There’s something that you need to know.” Gently, carefully, she explained to him about the baby until, finally, he could contain himself no longer.

“No way!” he cried. “Moms! You can’t do that!” He screwed up his face at the thought. “That’s just too weird.” He stood abruptly, started pacing and muttered, almost to himself, “What will the kids at school say? I’m never gonna live this down. I can’t believe they’re doing this to me.”

“I’m sorry, Bobby,” Moms said, her voice firm. “That’s just the way things are. I’m sure that you’ll cope with whatever the other kids say to you.”

“But Moms,” he wailed, “nobody has brothers and sisters that are ten years older and ten years younger. I’ll be a freak!”

“You’ll be very special,” his mother said, smiling softly. “No child of mine is a freak, Bobby.”

He groaned deeply. Now I know what was wrong with Mart, he thought, turning gloomy. He’s just found out that he’s about to become a freak, too. With a muttered excuse, Bobby went back outside to Reddy.

The dog was only too glad to see him. He dropped his ball at Bobby’s feet, ready to recommence their earlier game. The boy threw the ball and Reddy bounded away, full of enthusiasm.

“I can’t believe this,” Bobby muttered, as his dog brought the ball but refused to let go. “Drop it, Reddy. Drop it. Oh, forget it.” He slumped down on the grass and the red setter dropped down next to him, tongue lolling out of his mouth. The ball rolled away, forgotten.

“I’m supposed to be the youngest,” Bobby said to Reddy. “They can’t have another baby now. It’s just too weird. I’ll be a freak.” He ruffled the dog’s soft fur. “They’re too old to have babies! It’s just wrong.”

Big brown eyes looked lovingly into blue ones. All at once, Bobby felt better.

“You’ll still want me, won’t you, boy?”