Total pages in book: 86
Estimated words: 80660 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 403(@200wpm)___ 323(@250wpm)___ 269(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 80660 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 403(@200wpm)___ 323(@250wpm)___ 269(@300wpm)
Her hand moved over his chest, stroking him, soothing him. “You don’t think that thing in Wuhan is going to be a big deal?”
There was a bunch of talk about some new virus, but then wasn’t there always?
Charlie sighed. “I think we had Ebola right here in Dallas a few years back and it turned out okay. I mean, how bad could it get?”
Yeah, they always said there was a pandemic right around the corner and they always took care of it. He yawned again. “Baby, you’re going to have to do the work tonight.”
She huffed and sat up. “Sleep, Ian.” She kissed him and then turned out the light, climbing under the covers. “We’ll have a lot to do in the morning.”
He closed his eyes and warmth surrounded him.
He was home.
* * * *
Month One
“What do you mean school is closed?” Charlie paced the floor. “Avery, how could they close the schools? We need the schools. I just got them in school.”
Ian sat at the breakfast table, strangely fascinated by how neatly Seth ate. He was three and tried to use a baby fork on Cheerios.
Bud whined, sitting under the high chair.
“Yeah, I don’t think he’s going to help you,” Ian told him. The poor dog wouldn’t starve because the girls were still messy.
“Why can’t we go to school?” Kenzie was still in her pj’s.
Charlie kept up her pacing. “How is that supposed to work? I can’t get them to sit down long enough to tie their shoes, much less do an actual school lesson.”
“You’re still going to school. You’ll just do it from home.” The situation was worse than he’d thought. The world was changing. He could feel it. Perhaps not changing, exactly, but the dangers that were always there seemed to be pulsing to the surface. Charlie was upset the schools were closing, but he didn’t mind keeping the girls close. At least until he got a lay of the land.
“But I like home,” Kala complained. “Home is where I don’t have to do schoolwork.”
Tasha had gotten dressed. She looked oddly incongruous in her unicorn T-shirt and pink jeans. It had been weeks and she was still wary.
She’d started school ten days before, and it seemed to have made her even more quiet than usual.
“How about you, Tash? You upset about missing a couple of weeks of school?” He wanted to know where her head was.
Tasha shrugged and gently bounced Travis’s seat. Travis kicked his legs and looked up at her with a worshipful stare. Tasha paid a lot of attention to the boys. Seth toddled after her because she always found a way to include him.
She was such a good kid. He just had to find a way to reach her.
“The other kids make fun of her,” Kenzie said.
Tasha went a bright red. “I do not care about this. They do not matter.”
Suddenly a lot of things made sense. “Is this why Kala threw dirt at the second grade boys?”
That had been a fun call, and all Kala had been willing to say was she didn’t like those boys. It had gotten her detention. For his kindergartener.
“They made fun of her accent and she cried, and no one makes my sister cry but me,” Kala announced.
“You do not make me cry,” Tasha said with a hint of a smile that disappeared when she looked up at him. “I am working on my accent. I think my English is good enough that we do not have to speak Russian anymore.”
Oh, he was not letting that happen to her. “There is nothing wrong with your accent. And those boys are dumb. They can only speak one language. It’s important to speak at least two, and how will Seth and Travis learn if you don’t help them?”
If there was one thing he’d learned, it was that Tasha felt most comfortable when she was helping someone else. It was a trait that he and Charlie had talked a lot about. It was wonderful to want to help, but Tash had to learn how to be okay with the things she needed, too. Her selflessness was a survival tactic. But it could be useful at times. He wasn’t going to allow some asshole eight-year-olds to make her give up her heritage.
“I can help them.” Tasha started singing to Travis, a Russian lullaby.
Maybe a couple of weeks off would be good for her.
He winked Kala’s way. “I knew there was something behind that particular incident.”
Kala smiled, a rare occurrence. “I won’t let them make fun of her. It’s not fair, and the teachers don’t do anything about it. All they do is talk. They said we should mind our own business and let the second grade teachers handle it, but she’s my sister.”
Tasha didn’t look over, but she relaxed as though hearing the words helped make them real.