“Who? Derek?”

“Yes!” he said, pointing at me. “I can never keep them all straight. That one.”

Derek was Brenda and Johnny's fourth child, a two year old who was a bit...spirited.

“Oh, Derek is fine,” I said, waving him off. “He's two.”

“So that explains why he hit me in the shins with a hammer the last time he was here?” he asked “Or why he stole the car keys? It took us three days to figure out the kid had taken them!”

“I'm sure the hammer was an accident,” I said. “And he didn't steal the keys ; . h H e was playing with them. He'll be fine.”

Jake grunted and popped a chip in his mouth. “I'll need to check both our life insurance and health insurance policies if that kid's coming over. And she better not be doing any of that woo-woo organic, save-the-Earth crap with our kids next week.”

Brenda prided herself on never going to the grocery store, buying food from local farms and keeping her home free of dangerous chemicals and toxins, which sometimes meant making her own soap, deodorant and sunscreen. She'd thrown out her microwave oven last year and mounted a food dehydrator in the empty space above the stove.

“It will be fine,” I assured him. “And here's the best part. You won't have to do a single hour of volunteer work at Prism. I can take care of all of our hours next week and we won't have to give it another thought after I'm done.”

The irritated expression on his face softened. “Really?”

I nodded. “Really. It'll all be done and you won't have to spend a second counting change or tearing tickets.”

He considered that. “Okay. I like that. But still. Derek.”

“Derek will be fine,” I repeated. I stepped closer and hugged him. “And the kids will be able to use the microwave to their heart's content when they come home in the evenings. It's all going to be great.”

“Hmm,” he said, looping his arms around me. “Maybe. But I still feel like we shouldn't have to watch all seventy-three of their kids when we're only giving her three.”

“I'll talk to her,” I assured him. “We'll get it worked out.” I squeezed him, then grabbed him by the hand. “Now come on. You have to help me.”

“With what?”

I grinned at him, pulling him toward the stairs. “I wanna go through my closet and find the outfits that will embarrass Emily the most next week when her friends see me.”

TWO

“Okay, so that Friday night works,” I said, making a note on the massive wall calendar I used to keep my life semi-organized. I'd pulled it off the kitchen wall and plunked it down in the middle of the dining room table. “So I think that's five.”

“It is,” Brenda said, tapping away at her phone. “So we're all set.”

It was the Sunday night before my volunteer week and I'd invited her and her family over for dinner so we could get all of the arrangements for the week in place, as well as get her date nights on my calendar for when she and Johnny would be leaving us with her kids. We'd managed to figure everything out and the Kid Swap was complete. The kids were out in the yard, running around, and Jake and Johnny were supervising them.

“Is Emily super-thrilled that you'll be at school all week with her?” she asked with a smile. Her dark hair was clipped back and her brown eyes were lit with amusement.

“Like you can't even believe,” I said. “She's barely spoken to me in two days. I'm trying to decide how miserable I should make her life this week.”

“We drove by Prism on the way over,” Brenda said, raising an eyebrow. “Derek said he saw a police car.”

“At the school?”

“No idea,” she said, shrugging. “For all I know, he could have found a toy police car in his car seat. I wasn't paying attention. He just yelled police car and I looked up a couple seconds later. So no clue.”

The school was in an industrial complex, just behind the main highway that bisected Moose River. They'd purchased the building a couple of years earlier and retrofitted it from an office building into a two-story school. It wasn't the pretties t place to put a school, but my understanding was the building had come cheaply and the location was good for the bus s es.

“Emily is always complaining about all of the safety checks they have in place there,” I said. “Sweeping lockers, banning websites, that sort of thing. For all I know, it could've been some security patrol they hired.”

“Probably so,” Brenda said. “Has Will made any noise about going?”

I shook my head. “No way, no how. I think he looks at school much the same way he looks at going to the doctor. He'll do anything to stay away.”

In fact, the younger girls hadn't shown much interest, either and, if I was being honest, I was glad about that. I'd had this horrible fear that as soon as they saw Emily having fun at school, they'd ditch me for homework, crummy lunches and more homework. I loved having them at home and while I wouldn't prevent any of them from going to school if that was what they decided they wanted, I hoped they'd want to homeschool for at least a little longer.

“Yeah, I asked Melinda if she had any interest in going,” Brenda said, speaking of her oldest daughter. She shifted in the chair and glanced out the window toward the backyard. “Since Emily had such a good first year. She looked at me like I was asking if she wanted to get hit by a car.”

I laughed. “Yeah, I'm not sure what it is about it that Emily loves so much, but I'm glad she likes it. She's happy.”

Brenda nodded. “Good.” The kids' shrieks of laughter wafted through the yard and she gave me a sympathetic look. “I can't imagine what it's going to be like for you next week, spending all that time without the kids.”

“There will be several hundred kids.”

“Yeah, but they won't be hanging on your pant legs, asking for breakfast or to go to the park.”

I nodded, laughing again. It was going to be a different experience, for sure. But I thought it was important that I spend some time in Emily's world, even if she didn't want me to. I wanted to put names with faces and get a better sense of what her day was like. And I also wanted to show her that I wasn't anti-school since it was something she loved. I didn't plan to make her life miserable, no matter what she thought.

I just wanted to understand it a little better.

“Is there anything you want me to do with them next week?” Brenda asked. “I've got a few things planned. We're going to start a compost pile near our garden and I thought we'd make some flour-free muffins, too. And I really want to see about making that n atural ew sunscreen I was telling you about. I think they can all help with that. But if there are any specific things you want me to do, I can.”

I tried not to laugh out loud. Jake had called it perfectly. I had no problem with the kids doing any of those things because they would be learning. But I found it hilarious that Jake had predicted what they'd be doing.

“No, that's perfect,” I said. “Whatever you want to do is fine. They'll be into it.”

Footsteps clamored on the steps to the back porch and the kitchen door opened.

Johnny looked at each of us, running a hand over his short-cropped hair. “You have any Band-aids?”

“Of course,” I said, standing and heading for the bathroom. “Just one?”

“Better make it two,” he said, adjusting his glasses.

I grabbed two from the bathroom and walked back out to the dining room. “Someone bleeding out?” I asked, han g d ing him the wrapped bandages.

He took them. “Derek got into your garage and found the hedge clippers.” He didn't sound alarmed.

Brenda sighed and shook her head, the resigned response of a mother with a two-year-old who, at times, despite being cuter than a button, possessed some demon-like qualities.

I winced. “Oh, gosh. Is he alright?”

“Oh, yeah, he's fine,” Johnny said as he headed back outside. “But he poked Jake in the back of the calf with them.”