On that last subject he once asked me if I had any idea of how Jan was doing on her sex ed stuff on the Net. I honestly told him that I'd made her stuff hidden, and that I really had no idea what she was looking at or learning – and pointed out that I suspected that neither one of particularly*wanted* to know, when it got right down to it. That earned me a wry laugh, along with his agreement.

When he finally did have to leave, though, it was a doozy: 3 full days, and most of a fourth, in late June.

I had just finished a big project, and had several days before I needed to start on the next one, so Paul and I agreed that I would just go ahead and stay at his place. It simplified the logistics, and most important, didn't leave the kids without someone to turn to in case there were any problems.

As usual on his multi-day trips, he had promised the kids that he'd call each night to talk to them.

Things went along just fine – all the kids had something to do during the day, so I only had to make a couple of pickups and deliveries of warm bodies. That meant that I was able to take a couple of naps, and just generally laze about. Even the evenings went well, at first. The boys would get wrapped up in a movie on cable TV, and by the time it ended, they were ready – if not necessarily willing – for bed. Jan would have a friend or two over (with her dad's permission and my approval), and they'd normally spend most of the evening in her room, chattering about teenage girl stuff (boys, clothes, boys, school, boys, and whatever else they could think of). I'd either watch TV with Leo and John, read a book, or just sit outside on the patio with a beer, and watch the world go by.

It wasn't until the last evening – before Paul was to get home – that things changed.

To start with, each of the boys had been invited to spend the night with one of their friends, with them to be returned early the following morning. Paul had Okayed it, so I was fine with it, as well. It was a relatively quick trip to get each of them delivered to the appropriate place – along with a (possibly futile) admonition to behave themselves.