“I don’t have Cheerios.”
“I’m not taking off my pants, Shiloh.”
“I’ll go downstairs, and you can throw them down.”
Cary sighed. Shiloh shoved the baby into his arms.
When she got downstairs, she plugged in the iron. “Come on, Cary!”
His pants landed with a wet whump at the bottom of the stairs.
“I have ten minutes!” he shouted down to her. “Tops!”
“I’ll do my best!”
Shiloh focused on the inseams of his pants, where the damp would be most uncomfortable. Wisps of steam came up from the fabric.
Shiloh had done this for almost a year when their dryer was broken and her jeans weren’t drying fast enough hung over the banister.
She was a little worried she might scorch Cary’s only work pants... but so far, so good.
Shiloh didn’t hear her mom come in, but she did hear her say, “What the hell is going on here?”
“Shiloh?” Cary sounded panicked.
“Mom!” Shiloh ran to the end of the steps. She knocked over the iron and ran back to it. “Mom!” she shouted. “I’m just ironing Cary’s pants!”
“Why isn’t Cary ironing his pants?”
“He was afraid of burning them! Can you give him a ride to work?”
She could hear them talking upstairs. Cary must bedying. Was he hiding behind something? What was there to hide behind upstairs?
“Mom!” Shiloh shouted, more insistent. “Will you give Cary a ride?”
“Yes!”
“Cary, I’m going to put your pants in the dryer for twenty minutes!” There was time enough now. Her mom threw his shirt down, too.
Shiloh didn’t actually see Cary before he left. She stayed in the basement and brought his clothes up to the top step when he had to go.
Her mom gave him a ride to work, then came home and helped Shiloh keep Angel and Jesse alive. Her mom gave Jesse a bagel.
“Cary said he could have Cheerios,” Shiloh said. “Not a bagel.”
“Oh, that’s right, Shiloh—you had a dozen siblings once, but I killed them all with bagels.”
Her mom picked Cary up when his shift was over. “I guess it’s the least I can do for that kid. He does drive you to school every day.”
Jesse needed a new diaper by then, but Shiloh decided to let Cary worry about it.
“I owe you,” Cary said, when he came in for the kids. With his red necktie knotted neatly at his throat and his name tag on.
“You don’t owe me,” Shiloh said. “You could never owe me.”
Twenty-Four
Shiloh decided to take the kids to the grocery store while she had them in the car and they were sated.
