John had been concentrating deeply on his book when he heard a car pulling up outside. Marking his page, he placed his book down carefully on his bedside unit and leaned up to look out of his window.
Scott, still fully decked out in his Scout uniform, was running up the driveway, neckerchief bobbing with his motion and his cap under his arm. He glanced up as he ran, waving at John before vanishing in through the front door.
The younger Tracy watched him go, noticing their father locking the car and following at a much slower pace.
A thundering sound on the stairs drew John's attention away from the window and he looked round to see Scott's hurtling towards his open bedroom door.
"Scott? What are…?"
Scott came in, holding a tablet computer, his cap discarded on the banister. "Hey, Johnny!" he said as he sat down on John's bed.
John frowned a little. "Scott, don't call me Johnny," he muttered.
"Sorry, sorry," Scott replied, his hand out in front of him in a placating way. "I wanted to show you something."
John raised an eyebrow quizzically as Scott leaned forward, showing him the tab.
"Look!" Scott said excitedly. "Our troop leader suggested we take a look at the merit badges we might be able to earn over the summer break and look! He actually pointed at me and suggested I might like to do this with Dad but I think you'd like it too."
John wasn't so sure. He held no interest in the Scouts. He'd been with their father once and found it far too full of noisy boisterous boys all running around and yelling while they played their game.
Scott's excited grin slipped a little when he realised John was looking at him sceptically. "I'm… I'm not suggesting you join the troop, John, I know you don't like it. But, well, I was hoping we could work together on these badges. Skip said we might even like to look into some of the badges they do in other countries if we wanted to."
John looked up at him, seeing the look on his face. He knew that Scott took great pride in achieving his merit badges and had already succeeded in being awarded many that even some of the older Scouts hadn't achieved, like Search and Rescue, Aviation and Emergency Preparedness amongst others. "What is it then?" he asked quietly.
"You wanna see? Really?" Scott asked, hope creeping back into his voice. "Cos straight away I knew I wanted, well, I mean, I hoped you'd help me because you're the expert. Hands down. I reckon you're smarter than Dad, you know?"
"Scott, you still haven't told me what badges they are," John reminded him.
"I haven't?" Scott said, then looked down at his tab. "Oh yeah." He tapped on an icon and it brought up the list of merit badges available to his age group. "See? There's an astronomy one and a space exploration one. Skip- You know, the troop leader- he said there are also badges like these in the UK and Dad said he'd speak to his friend- you know, that Lord; Cratey-whatsisface, I dunno, but anyway- if you wanted to, Dad said he'd ask his friend to see if he can get hold of the British badges too. Not that I'll be able to wear them on my uniform, but I can put them on my camp blanket and maybe if you wanted I could ask Skip if you could have some too to put on a blanket?"
"Scott, take a breath and slow down," John suggested. It amused him when Scott became so excited about something that he could barely talk straight.
The elder brother did as recommended and calmed himself down but then grinned at John again. "So, what d'you think? Wanna help me? We got all summer but I gotta make sure I got evidence that I know this stuff and didn't just get you to do it all 'cause that wouldn't be honest." He recalled the promise he'd taken upon being invested into the Scout troop and took pride in upholding its values.
"Naturally," John commented. "Anyway, if you're interested, Grandma saved you some pizza."
"Uh, she did?" Scott said, looking down at his neckerchief, tugging on the ends to try and line it up perfectly.
John rolled his eyes. "Relax, Scott, we had takeout," he replied.
Scott dropped his necker and grinned. "Awesome! Well, should I leave you with the badge stuff so you can have a look?"
John shrugged a little but still nodded. "If you like," he responded.
"Thanks, John!" Scott said. "It's on the merit badge menu at the minute but you're looking for the astronomy badge and the space exploration badge. We'll worry about the other ones another time if that's alright?"
"Okay," John answered, already opening the requirements for the astronomy badge.
Scott smiled at him fondly but John was already engrossed in reading the list of criteria needed to accomplish the badge work, mumbling random phrases from the list.
"Explain what light pollution is and how it and air pollution affect astronomy," he muttered. "Finally, someone gets it. I've been trying to tell Scott that for ages."
Scott grinned and walked out, pulling the woggle down the hanging lengths of his neckerchief and tucking it into his shirt pocket. As he got to the top of the stairs, he slipped the necker off and hung it over the banister next to his cap and jogged down to the kitchen to see if his younger brothers had really managed to leave him any pizza. Their Scout lodge was sufficiently far away that their father often stayed to work at the local internet café rather than drive all the way home so the others stayed at home with their grandmother.
He walked into the kitchen, his shirt undone revealing the tshirt beneath it and looked around. Little Alan had been put to bed already and Grandma was just cleaning Gordon up ready to go up too.
"Scotty!" the young boy called, running up to him and hugging his legs.
"Hey, Squid!" Scott said, crouching to hug him properly.
"We had pizza!"
The eldest brother laughed. "I can see that, you got puree round your mouth, Gordo," he said, reaching out and wiping a smudge of it away. "Isn't it past bedtime though?"
"Wanted to see you," Gordon muttered.
Scott smiled happily and stood, his little brother perched carefully on his hip. "Well, here I am. But Grandma's waiting to put you to bed. She doesn't get to do that as often as Dad and I do, right?" He smirked slightly as the young blond yawned widely. "And look, we could sail one of your toy submarines into that yawn!"
Gordon giggled and hugged him.
Grandma Tracy stepped forward and lifted him carefully from Scott's arms and nestled him against her own hip. "Time to say goodnight to Scott," she said, wiping his face to remove the last of the tomato puree.
"Nunight, Scotty," Gordon said, waving as their grandmother took him up the stairs, stopping only to let Gordon kiss his father goodnight.
Scott grinned again and went to the dining table to retrieve his dinner. "Virge? You doing okay?" he asked, seeing his middle brother sat at the table. He was surrounded by pastels.
"Hmm?" The dark haired boy looked up at him and Scott couldn't help but chuckle a bit at the smudge on his cheek. "Oh hi, Scott. How was Scouts?"
"It was fun. It's a shame it's the last one until we go back to school after the summer break though. But I'm gonna see how many badges I can get before then. John's gonna help me with some spacey ones."
"Cool," Virgil said, his attention focused mostly on his picture but was still listening to his brother.
"What about you? What you working on?"
"Just drawing," he said. "I finished my homework so Grandma said I could use the pastels."
"Yeah, you got a smudge on your cheek," Scott said, reaching out to rub his face gently. "Just there. You'll need a wipe."
Virgil rubbed the indicated place with the heel of his hand. "Thanks," he muttered. "Pizza's in the microwave."
Scott shook his head in amusement and went to find his food.
Having had his fill of pizza and helped Virgil clear away the art supplies for the evening, Scott went into the den where his father was working on his laptop.
"Hey, Dad," he said, heading in and sitting down next to him.
Jeff looked round at him. "Oh, hey, Scott," he answered, removing his glasses and looking over at him. "Everything alright?"
Scott nodded. "Mmm hmm, just wanted to come and say goodnight. I'm gonna head upstairs now."
"Alright, Son," Jeff responded. "Did you have a look at your badges?"
"Uh huh and John's gonna help me to do those space ones too."
Jeff chuckled. "Why am I not surprised?"
Scott grinned then yawned. "Anyway, I'm going up. Night, Dad."
"Goodnight, Son," Jeff replied, hugging him gently as Scott scooted closer to him.
Scott smiled at him as he stood up again, waving over his shoulder as he left the room.
He got to the top of the stairs and noticed John's door was still open, dim light spilling onto the landing floor. Going over quietly, he looked into the room and saw him sat hunched over the tab, the bright illumination from the device lighting up his face far more than the small desk lamp beside him.
"John?"
The younger Tracy looked up. "Oh, hey, Scott," he said then looked back down at the screen. "This doesn't look like it'll prove too difficult."
"Really?" Scott asked hopefully. "So, you'll help me?"
John looked up at him then back at the screen. "Alright," he replied quietly.
Scott's smile lit up his face. "Aww, man, John! Thanks!" His instinct was to launch forward and hug him but he knew John wasn't fond of hugs like his youngest brothers. Instead he reached a hand out and slowly took the tablet from him, drawing his gaze. Scott's smile was soft and meaningful. "Thanks, John."
John nodded at him. "You're welcome, Scott," he said quietly, a small smile curling his lips.
With a quick and gentle pat on the shoulder, Scott stood up again. "Goodnight, John," he said, heading to the door.
"Goodnight, Scott," John replied, looking around and only now realising how much the night had drawn in.
"Good morning, Scott," John said brightly the following morning. He walked into Scott's room, holding his own tablet computer and went and sat on the end of his bed. "So I've put together a provisional plan of how we can achieve those badges for you and I also went onto the internet myself and investigated the equivalent badges in the UK for you and they seem to be pretty interesting actually…" He looked round at his brother and tilted his head. "Scott?"
The older Tracy had wriggled further under his blanket and put his pillow over his head. "'M sleepin'," he mumbled. "Go'way."
John frowned slightly. "Scott, it's morning," he said. "The sun's up, why aren't you?"
"Because it's Saturday and in the summer the sun is up before even Gordon and Alan are!" he said, taking his pillow off his head and looking at the clock. "It's not even 8am."
"But that's breakfast time," John pointed out.
"On a school day, John," Scott replied. He sat up, realising he wasn't going to be able to convince John otherwise. His immediate younger brother slept far less than any of his siblings but still always seemed to function during the day. He rubbed his eyes and looked over at him. "Alright, I'm up," he said. "What'ya got?"
John handed over his tablet and started to explain in detail how he'd checked weather reports so they could carry out the night observations in the best possible conditions and even looked up information about the local observatory.
"And in those British ones, I found the Cub Scout astronomer badge and the Scout astronomer and astronautic badges and they looked particularly interesting," John continued. "I think the suggestion of using marbles in sand to replicate how craters are formed is an excellent idea! We could use your marbles and just take them outside because the ground is so dry the dirt is pretty much the same consistency as sand at the minute and so the effect would be relatively similar."
Scott smiled as he watched John explain how each and every requirement would be achieved for not only his own badges but also the three British ones he'd found as well. As much as it would be so cool for John to join Scouts with him – because he was old enough – he knew that it just wasn't for John at all. These two badges wouldn't be enough to make him change his mind.
They made it through breakfast before John broached the subject again. "Scott? You've got marbles, right?"
Scott shrugged. "Pretty sure I lost them a long time ago," he said with a small grin as he looked over at him.
"You did?" John asked. "Oh, I thought I'd seen them on your nightstand this morning."
Scott opened his mouth to respond that he'd just been joking but shook his head. "Never mind, yeah. I do. Why?"
"Well, I thought you might like it if we started with one of the experiments from the UK astronautic badge criteria. It could be, uh, fun."
"What do marbles have to do with astronautics?" Virgil asked, listening in with interest.
Scott frowned slightly, trying to remember what John had said earlier on while he was still waking up. "Something about craters?"
"Exactly. If thrown at the correct velocity and direction, marbles in sand, or in our case the dry dirt outside, can replicate the effects of meteorites, for example, on the lunar surface."
"Huh?" Gordon asked, the young boys carefully picking the fish shapes out of his cereal and putting them on the table so he didn't accidentally eat them.
"He said we're gonna throw the marbles at the floor to make it look like the blobby bits on the moon," Scott translated.
"Oh! Why didn't he say that?"
"I did," John said.
Scott just chuckled. "Don't worry about it. You go outside and pick the right place and I'll go find my marbles." He looked round at his father. "Dad, can we get down from the table, please?"
Jeff looked up from his seat at the head of the table where he'd been perusing the day's news on his tablet as he slowly drank his coffee. "Sure," he said, watching Scott run off upstairs and John wander off outside, mumbling to himself about positioning. He'd been listening in and was amused by their day's plans but was impressed at how quickly John had taken to this task for Scott. He put his coffee mug down as a thought occurred to him and opened an email, addressing it to Lord Creighton-Ward. Hopefully he'd be able to help with their little mission.
Scott had his net of marbles in his hand as he wandered outside, the glass clinking together as he looked around. He spotted John crouched down by the fence along the track carefully patting the ground to flatten it while Virgil sat next to Gordon, little Alan sat on his lap.
Virgil looked down at Alan as Scott approached and removed the tall grass blade from his mouth. "No, Allie, you can't eat the grass," Virgil admonished fondly.
Scott chuckled as he approached. It was already warm, despite it still being relatively early. "So, uh, what you guys doing out here?" he asked as he sat with them. "John and I are gonna do sciency space stuff." He noticed John frown a little at the way Scott described what was a passion to him.
"But you said you're gonna throw marbles, we wanna throw marbles, too," Gordon said.
"We're not just throwing marbles," John said. "We're carrying out an experiment to try and replicate the way craters are formed."
"By throwing marbles," Gordon said.
John huffed slightly. "Fine, yes, but for the purposes of this experiment they're not marbles, they're meteorites."
Scott couldn't help but laugh as he put the bag of marbles in front of his brothers. "Take turns, guys," he said. "Ok then, prof," Scott said with affection as he handed one to John. "Care to demonstrate the correct technique?"
John took the marble and stood up, consulting the notes he'd made on his tablet. "I spoke to Dad earlier while I was waiting for Scott to come down for breakfast regarding the speed of atmospheric entry on earth and the moon and based on his information I drew up a table calculating the angle we should be throwing our meteorites and also the speed to simulate the different environments. So, I think we should be aiming approximately to throw them like this," he said, throwing it down hard at the dusty floor.
Alan laughed, clapping as the marble thudded into the floor, leaving little dents as it went.
Gordon grinned. "You mean we can throw them as hard as we can?"
Scott bit his lip, trying not to smirk at Gordon's enthusiasm. "Let me have a go," he said. "This is for my badge, after all."
"Actually, Scott, it's for one of the British ones, remember?"
Scott shrugged. "I know, I just wanna go next."
They all had a few turns each at throwing them with the younger brothers laughing as they tried to throw not just as hard as they could but then as far as they could.
"Uh, guys, I don't really want to lose my marbles," Scott said, as he came back from retrieving them again. "And Virge? Alan's eating one."
Virgil looked down at Alan and gasped slightly, putting his fingers into his mouth. "No, Allie! You can't eat marbles! No grass, no marbles!" He pulled a face as he tried to slip the marble from his mouth. "Eww, gross. He's so dribbly!"
"Dad said he was teething, remember?" Scott said, trying not to outright laugh at Virgil as he yelped.
"Yeah, he's got at least one!" Virgil said, dropping the marble to the floor where its wet surface instantly coated it in dust while Virgil wiped his hand on Alan's shirt.
Alan looked up at Virgil, pouting. "Want," he said.
"You can't have marbles, you'll choke," Virgil said.
"Want!" he repeated, looking sadly at him.
Virgil looked up at Scott. "Maybe we should stop," he suggested. "It's not fair if he can't join in."
Scott looked down at him thoughtfully. "You wanna play too?"
"Play," he said, reaching out to Scott.
Scott lifted him up and sat him on his hip then looked round at John. "Could we adapt this?"
"How?" John asked. "It's not like we could do it on a bigger scale so he doesn't choke on it. The dust on the floor is too thin for a soccer ball to be an acceptable substitute."
"Oh, I wasn't thinking bigger. I was thinking edible," Scott said.
"Edible?" Gordon asked, his curiosity piqued.
Scott grinned at him and lowered his hand to help him up. "I think I know just the thing," he said, hoisting his second youngest brother to his feet. "You guys coming?"
Virgil nodded eagerly, following them while John brought up the rear, looking confused.
Scott led them into the kitchen where he handed Alan to Virgil and went over to the pantry.
"Scott? What are you doing?" John asked.
He returned with a light coloured packet and a big bag of icing sugar which he placed down in the middle of the kitchen table then went to locate a tray.
"Scott, I don't see…" John started but then looked at the candy bag properly. "Oh. Yes. I do see. Scott, that's pretty clever."
"Why, thank you, John," he said, returning to the table. He put the tray down in front of John and pushed the icing sugar towards him. "Would you please recreate our lunar surface?" he asked.
John smiled a little as he took the items from him, nodding.
"I don't get it," Gordon said.
Scott turned the other packet round, revealing the front of it.
"Whoppers!" he said happily.
Scott nodded. "These are gonna be our marbles, and the icing sugar is gonna be our dust."
Virgil chuckled. "So then it doesn't matter if Alan eats them."
"Well, obviously as long as he doesn't eat too many," Scott said, opening the packet. "Though we can definitely start with one each to eat, right?" He offered them the packet each, handing one to Alan himself. "But still, Virge, we gotta keep an eye on him. You know, just in case."
Virgil nodded. "I know."
Scott turned back to John and noticed he'd put his chocolate down on the countertop while he continued to make sure the icing sugar was just right. "Are we ready?"
John looked round at him. "Yeah," he said. "I think we are."
When Jeff came in search of coffee later on, he had to stop in the doorway to watch his boys while they all played together. He couldn't bring himself to disturb them.
"Stop, stop! I need to measure the impact craters," John called out, reaching out for the tape measure. "Gordon, no! Don't lick it! How can I take an accurate measurement if your tongue has smeared it!"
Alan was sat on the countertop with Virgil stood right behind him, his arms protectively round his waist. The youngest had chocolate round his face and kept trying to reach for the tray while Virgil patiently kept him from spoiling the mock landscape too much.
"Scott, can you pass me another meteorite?" John asked, not looking up.
"No can do, John," Scott said. "Alan ate them all."
John dropped the tape measure and looked up at him. "What?"
"Well, he didn't eat all of them, we might have helped," Virgil said with a smirk.
"But how are we going to finish the experiment?" John asked.
"I think we've pretty much nailed how impact craters are formed, John," Scott said kindly.
Jeff smiled as he unfolded his arms, pushing himself off the doorframe. "You boys look like you've been having fun."
"Moon!" Alan said happily, pointing at the sugary landscape they'd created.
Their father chuckled, the sound rumbling deep in his chest as he leaned on the counter. "Yes, it does look like the moon," he said. He looked around. "Hmm…" He went over to the draining board where there was the shiny silvery tin from a takeaway that had been washed up ready for recycling. He squashed the ends together, leaving the centre bigger than the sides. "Not as artistic as your lunar surface, but this is the best I can do," he said, placing it into the sugar. "No moon is complete without Shadow Alpha Base, right boys?"
Scott grinned. "Right, Dad," he said. He glanced over at John, watching him reposition the metal structure slightly.
Alan clapped delightedly. "Choc'lit!" he said.
"No more, Allie," Scott said. "It's all gone."
"Oh," he said, pouting slightly.
Jeff smiled, lifting him off the counter. "You need to get cleaned up, little man," he said. "Come on, we'll go find a cloth while your brothers go back outside so I can tidy this up."
Scott grinned at him. "Alright, Dad!" he said, already making his way to the front door. "Thanks!"
Jeff stood at the back of the Scout lodge, watching with a proud smile as he watched Scott standing at alert with his patrol at the end of the meeting. John stood quietly beside him, preferring the way they all stood quietly in front of the flag than when they were running around.
"Finally, Scott, would you come forward?" Skip called from the front of the room.
Scott broke from his patrol and walked forward purposefully, his head high and a bright smile on his face.
"Now, Scott really took the suggestion of working on his merit badges over the summer. He has not only achieved his Family Life, Fire Safety, First Aid, Lifesaving and Safety badges over the break, but he also involved his younger brother to achieve the Astronomy and Space Exploration badges, knowing that it is something his brother particularly enjoys." As each was named, he placed them into Scott's hand.
The young Tracy beamed proudly at him, slipping them straight into his shirt pocket so he didn't lose them.
"And to top it off, he also took up the suggestion to celebrate our heritage by investigating badges from other countries. Again with his younger brother, Scott worked on and achieved the British Astronomer and Astronautics badges which I can now present to you as well due to a friend of theirs hearing of Scott's efforts and sending them over for him."
A little colour was rising in Scott's cheeks now, but his smile stayed firm as he looked up at his troop leader, reaching out to shake his left hand when offered.
Skip smiled at him, then directed his gaze to the back of the hall where John and Jeff stood with the other families. "And seeing as young John helped Scott to achieve these badges, and at his brother's request, we have some badges for you as well, if you'd like them, John?"
John looked up at Jeff who nodded encouragingly at him, walking with him over to Skip.
The leader smiled down at him and handed over the badges to him. "I know we're all a bit loud for you, but you'd always be welcome if you did ever decide you wanted to join," he said kindly.
"Thank you," John said quietly.
Jeff led him back out of the circle of Scouts to the rear of the room. "Scott really wanted you to have some too seeing as you'd helped him so much with all the stuff he had to do."
John looked up at him and nodded. "I… enjoyed it," he replied quietly, returning his attention to the boys in front of him.
"Troop dismissed!" Skip called and watched as his group dispersed to their families.
Scott ran back over to Jeff and John, grinning madly. "Did you see? I did it! I got them all! More than anyone else over the summer break!"
"You did, well done!" Jeff said proudly.
"I wouldn't have got all of them without your help though, John," he added, smiling at him. "Thank you."
John looked from him to the two small badges he held then back. "You're welcome."
Scott was sat on his bed, looking out of the window, watching the clouds drifting across the moon when he heard a knock on his door. "Come in," he called out, wondering if the others were having difficulty sleeping as much as he was. The rescue hadn't been too troubling but it had been a long one and Scott found he just couldn't wind down.
The door opened slowly, light from outside spilling in and a silhouette appeared in his doorway. "Hey," a voice said.
Scott tilted his head and reached for his bedside light, his eyes having not adjusted properly. That sounded like John. He blinked a few times and looked again. It was John. "Hi," he said, surprised. "I didn't realise you'd come back down. Everything alright?"
John nodded, walking in and sitting down on his bed. "You didn't call me after the rescue like you do normally and I was worried."
Scott smiled at him. "Oh, I see. I'm sorry, John. I guess I had a lot on my mind."
"Want to talk about it?" John offered.
"It's nothing serious. The rescue was pretty straight forward, it just seemed to take forever. What about you? Normally you'd just pester me until I answered."
John shrugged and looked down at Scott's bed. He ran his fingers over the badges carefully stitched onto the old blanket. Scott was always meticulous when it came to his blanket, so worried that if he didn't frequently check the stitching, the badges might come loose and he'd lose them. "I guess I… I just wanted to come down."
"You? Come down? John, are you sure you're alright?"
John fixed his gaze on the little badges Lord Creighton-Ward had sent over for him. "I was looking at the blanket you gave me."
"The one I stitched your badges onto?" Scott smiled when John nodded. "D'you remember when we went to NASA and you saw their gift shop had badges?"
John looked back up at him. "I begged you to sew it on for me," he said, fondness in his eyes as he recalled.
"Come on, I reckon both of us will sleep better if we unwind a bit."
"Unwind?" John asked.
Scott nodded, getting up and going over to a drawer in his desk where he pulled out a net of battered old marbles. "It's a clear night, moon's bright. Shall we go make some craters on the beach?"
John got up and went over to him, looking down as Scott took his hand and tipped some marbles into his palm. He let them roll around on his hand then looked back up at his brother. "Perhaps we could see if there are any Whoppers afterwards?"
Scott put his arm round John's shoulder gently, pleased when he let him and led him out with a bright smile. "You're on," he said, and the two walked downstairs, heading out to the moonlit beach where they sat together, taking turns throwing their marbles into the sand.