Page 38 of Proslo

She smiled at him. “Thank you, Akoni.”

“No problem. You know what to tell her now to get her to stop.”

She laughed. “Yeah, I do. Thanks again.” She waved at me and I returned my attention to the story I was reading our youngest son, another classic recommended by the library app. This one was ‘The Adventure of Jimmy Skunk’ and followed the woodland antics of Jimmy and a host of anthropomorphized animals in an Earth woodland as they lived their ordinary lives.

A message appeared in the corner of the tablet, letting me know that Betty had started ‘Winnie the Pooh’.

When I finished the chapter I was reading, Maui was still awake, though drowsy, so I pulled a picture book from the nearby bookcase and left him to look at it with the lights dimmed.

“Good night,” I said, pressing a kiss to his head.

“Good night, Daddy,” he murmured tiredly back. I hummed happily as I left the room. He’d be asleep in no time. Betty emerged a minute later and seeing Maui was still awake, she went in to kiss him goodnight once more, the first one having been as he came out of the bath.

“She asleep? I asked, tilting my head towards Mo-mo’s door.

“Yes. I barely got through three pages before she conked out. Don’t go in case you wake her.”

I’d kissed her goodnight on the way to her bath as I took Maui to his room, but disappointment still filled me. I couldn’t get enough of showing our young affection, loving the way they soaked it all up.

We both went into the living room where we found our eldest two children playing with Pumpkin, waving a wand that dangles a felt fish stuffed with catnip. They were giggling at the cat’s antics as he sat on his hind legs, batting at it with an intense expression that reminded me all too much of that day he’d gotten the catnip induced zoomies.

“I’m beat,” Betty said. “I’m going to grab a shower and read in bed.”

“I’ll make us all some hot chocolate," I replied. “I’ll bring you yours once you’re out of the bath.”

“Thanks, babe,” she replied gratefully, brushing a kiss across my lips before withdrawing.

“I’ll help,” Kaia said, following me.

“I’m just going to replicate it.”

“I can take it to the table,” she insisted.

“I’ll get some cookies to go with them,” Akoni announced, coming in and began looking in the cupboards. “Result! There’s Oreos!”

“Can we have whipped cream and marshmallows?” Kaia asked me. “I’ll be extra careful brushing my teeth.”

I smiled at her before replicating her cup just as she wanted it. She beamed in reply, taking it from the replicator and carefully carrying it to the dining table.

“No marshmallows on mine,” Akoni requested and I obliged, making us each one with just whipped cream.

“Mm, this is good,” Kaia said, sipping hers.

I knew she meant the hot chocolate, but this moment here really was. Families had their ups and downs and we’d weathered them all so far, from Kaia’s illness to Mo-mo’s tantrum.

“It sure is, honey,” I agreed.

25

PROSLO

“It’s fine, Betty,” the twins’ K-4 teacher, Pok, assured her. “They can have lunch with the regular Kindergartners and then join me for the afternoon K-4 class. I’ll just offer that class the alternate enrichment worksheet and coloring pages for today’s alphabet work. That way, they won’t get the same ones twice today.”

“Are you sure?” Betty asked her.

“I’m positive.”

“It really will be okay,” I promised her.