“You forgot something, though,” Bruno reminded him.
“MY CLOTHES!” Gil chortled. “I forgot my clothes!”
Bruno put Gil down, letting him drop the last few inches just to make him shriek, and he ran happily off to get dressed.
Bruno watched him go with a twinge of regret. He wanted Gil to have a better life than he’d had and it galled him that his son would be bullied about the same sort of things. There were no armadillos in Montana, and the chance of an armadillo actually passing on leprosy was vanishingly unlikely, but apparently the rumors had followed him here.
Bruno sighed. It was still better to have Gil in afterschool with other shifter kids at the Tiny Paws day care.
“I CAN’T FIND MY OTHER SOCK!” Gil hollered.
“Did you look around?” Bruno asked, marching down the hall to make dinner. “It’s probably where you left it.”
“I FOUND IT!”
“Where was it?”
“In my BOOT.”
“Look there first next time,” Bruno advised.
“What if it’s NOT THERE?”
“Thenyou look in other places.”
“What if it’s NOT THERE?”
Bruno recognized a feedback loop when he was in one. “What do you want for dinner?”
“HOT DOGS.”
“We had hot dogs last night. How about grilled cheese? We’ve got some bread to use up.”
Gil sighed dramatically. “I guess.”
“You can dip it in ketchup,” Bruno said coaxingly.
Gil looked thoughtful. “And pickle relish?”
“Sure.”
Bruno would have agreed to weirder things for a peaceful meal.
Getting Gil into bed was like trying to put a tornado in a butterfly net.
For a kid that was unfailingly cheerful and kind, he was also as obstinate as they came and could lawyer like an ambulance chaser.
“I’m hungry,” he stated, when Bruno had finally gotten him out of the bathtub and into pajamas.
“You had a big dinner,” Bruno reminded him.
“It’s all RUN OUT!” Gil said gravely.
“It doesn’t run out that quickly,” Bruno argued.
“I’m a GROWING BOY,” Gil countered. “I need my ENERGY!”
Bruno recognized the exact words he used to get Gil to eat when he didn’t want to. “But it’s not time for food energy now,” he countered. “It’s time for sleep energy. Let’s plug you into your bed and recharge!”
