Glancing at the clock and seeing it was almost five, Arthur continued to rock Nicole and thought about the boys. After they had gone to sleep that first day, Arthur hadn’t had the heart to wake them up so he’d just let them sleep in his bed.
It had been forever since Arthur had slept with a kid and memories came flooding back of Joseph beating him and Wendy to death in the bed. The three boys had flipped and flopped throughout the night. After getting a bruise on his thigh, Arthur had moved to his recliner when it was time for Nicole’s four o’clock bottle.
He’d made up one of the guest rooms upstairs for the boys that had a queen-sized bed. When he had put the boys in the bed last night, Arthur had been ready for some good sleep in his bed alone with Nicole on his chest.
After he’d woken Nicole up for her first bottle of the night, Arthur could do it by memory. When she gave her burp, he just cradled her to his chest. Not long after that, he had felt something burrowing under him. Waking up to pop one of the dogs, Arthur had found that it was Jim burrowing under him.
Looking across the bed, he saw Pat and Kirk sound asleep. Not wanting more bruises or one of them to hit Nicole, Arthur had gotten up and headed to the recliner.
All day yesterday the boys followed him around, learning how to feed the animals and take care of them. It only took Arthur a few seconds to realize the boys had never been around any farm animals. When he saw young Jim running for his life from two small lambs chasing him, Arthur gave a sigh realizing this was going to take some time.
The boys were scared of the big dogs for a little while, but they had been around dogs. To Arthur’s disgust, the boys loved Mickey and Minnie and lugged the cats around the house. He found out they’d had cats at their house and Arthur told them to stay away from all the cats outside because they were more or less wild.
Feeling Nicole snuggle into his neck, Arthur smiled as he closed his eyes in bliss. Getting up, Arthur put Nicole in the baby carrier softly and buckled her in. Grabbing her blanket, Arthur covered her up.
Picking up the carrier, Arthur headed to the bedroom and set Nicole on the dresser. “Time to get up, boys,” Arthur said softly. Moving over to the bed, he shook each one until they opened their eyes. “We have to feed the animals before we leave.”
Hearing ‘leave’, the boys sat up rubbing their eyes. “I’m up,” Kirk yawned.
“Make sure your brothers get up,” Arthur said, grabbing the baby carrier. “I’ll start breakfast.”
Hearing ‘food’, Kirk shook the others, “Breakfast, come on,” he said, bouncing across the bed until he reached the edge. He stopped as he got off the bed and saw three neatly folded outfits. Seeing one was his, Kirk moved over and started dressing.
“It’s dark outside,” Pat yawned, looking at the window.
“We are big now and have to get up early,” Kirk huffed, pulling his pants on. “Get Jim up.”
Shaking Jim, “Quit being a baby, Jim,” Pat said, then climbed out of the bed.
Hearing the boys, Arthur chuckled as he started breakfast. Jim and Pat looked up to their older brother. “I’m not a baby,” Jim pouted out in his small voice.
“Come on, boys,” Arthur called out, looking at Nicole to make sure he wasn’t too loud. Only seeing Nicole twitch, Arthur continued gathering stuff on the kitchen island. Yesterday, the boys had watched in wonder as Arthur had made each meal.
When Jim had asked, “Where are the boxes?” Arthur had busted out laughing.
It’d taken some explaining, but the boys had finally got the concept down of cooking from scratch.
Kirk walked in, rubbing his eyes and Arthur smiled, “Wash your hands and let’s start on the biscuits.”
Taking off for the sink, Kirk stood up on his toes to turn the water on. Hooking a step stool with his foot that Wendy used to reach the top shelf in the cabinets, Arthur pulled it over to the sink. “Thank you,” Kirk said, climbing on the stool.
Pat and Jim followed as Kirk stepped down and they ran to the sink to wash their hands. Even with the stool, Jim had to stretch hard to wash his hands. Arthur could’ve prepared breakfast much faster on his own and without them in the way, but he needed them to learn and learn fast, just in case he wasn’t immune or something happened to him.
Holding up a strip of raw bacon, “Where does this come from on a pig?” Jim asked and then laid the strip in a pan very neatly.
“I’ll show you soon,” Arthur grinned. He didn’t want to introduce them to the real world too fast.
When breakfast was done, the boys helped him clean up. Arthur fed Nicole her bottle, letting the boys wipe the island and table down because the next part required him. The boys didn’t have toothbrushes but luckily, Wendy had boxes of them.
Yesterday, Arthur had watched the boys trying to brush their teeth and had shaken his head. Taking each one’s toothbrush that he had given them, Arthur had brushed their teeth, one at a time, explaining how and what he was doing. Then Arthur promptly put electric toothbrushes on the list to pick up.
Today wasn’t as bad, but Arthur still had to brush after each one.
Gathering up his weapons, Arthur put the baby sling on and moved Nicole over. When she was in the sling, Nicole looked
