"Yes. If you'll let go of my hand." Johnny let go. He made a dash for the kitchen, and Claudia said good-bye to Mrs. Hobart. "Everything will be fine," she assured her. "Don't worry." Ill The Hobart boys and Claudia each helped themselves to a lolly. (No way was Claudia going to turn down an offer of junk food.) Then Mathew said, "Let's watch the telly. I like Big Bird and Oscar the Grouch." "Me, too," agreed Claudia, "but do you really want to stay inside on such a nice day?" "I do," spoke up Johnny, who was already a sticky mess.

"He doesn't want to be called a Croc," said Mathew.

"Do the kids still call you Crocs?" asked Claudia.

"Yes, but not as much," admitted James.

"Then let's go out to your backyard," said Claudia. "Johnny, you can bring your new truck out. We'll have fun. Honest." She gave Johnny's hands and face a wipe with a wet cloth.

"We're going out," said James, speaking for himself and Mathew.

"Then I'll come, too," Johnny said finally.

So Claudia and the Hobarts ventured outside, Johnny clutching his truck.

The boys played peacefully for twenty minutes. Johnny steered the truck around the yard, making sound effects as he went. James and Mathew played on a swing that their father had made for them. It was a huge tire suspended from a tree branch by a thick rope. The boys could stand on the tire and swing back and forth together.

"Awesome!" yelled James as he and Mathew swung higher and higher.

"Slow down!" was Claudia's horrified reply. Ever since she was little she had heard that it was possible to swing so high you went right over the top of the swing set or the tree branch, making a complete circle. She had never known if that was true, but she didn't want to find out while she was baby-sitting and have to explain to the Hobarts that their sons had done a three-sixty on the tire.

"Yeah, slow down," echoed a voice.

Claudia turned around.