I messed up on the other chapter. It was supposed to say "I had gotten a job" instead of "I hadn't gotten." And Hailey's age is wrong. She's supposed to be 10.

A couple of weeks passed and everything at school seemed to get better. The kids settled down after the first week or so and we started getting into the swing of things. Soda left for California after the first week of school. He said that he would be back in a couple of weeks if everything went well. We haven't heard from him since. Steve came to town just like Soda said. He was shocked to see the twins. They were babies when he last saw them.

I was picking Davanee up one day when her teacher pulled me aside.

"Has Davanee been sick recently?" asked the teacher. Her name was Mrs. Carson. She was a nice, older women who had been teaching 3rd grade for a long, long time. She reminded me a lot of my grandma.

"No, why?" I asked.

"She's been getting really dizzy lately and she seems to be confused a lot. She understands what we're talking about in class and her grades are good but outside of class she seems to get confused and disoriented easily. She's had to go down to the nurse a number of times because she hasn't been feeling well. I'm not saying you should worry or anything, I just thought you should know" said Mrs. Carson.

"Ok, thanks Mrs. Carson" I said, smiling. I liked her. I liked that she actually cared about her students. Some teachers don't. Once I got Davanee, we went to pick up the twins. They were all the way on the other side of the building so we had to walk a little ways.

"What did Mrs. Carson talk to you about?" asked Davanee.

"She told me you've been sick. You've had to go to the nurse a couple of times. You wanna tell me about it?" I asked.

"I dunno. I get really shaky. Sometimes everything gets really blurry. Please don't take me to Dr. Irene, she'll give she me a shot" said Davanee.

"I don't know. I might have to if this doesn't stop" I said. By that time we were at Mercy's room. She was in the middle of painting a picture when we showed up. Her hands were covered in pink and yellow paint.

"Daddy!" shouted Mercy, running towards us.

"Hey, sweetie" I said, picking her up, "how was your day?"

"It was good. I made a picture" she said, smiling and holding up the still wet picture.

"I can see that" I said, putting her down, "why don't you go wash your hands and then we'll go get Scotty."

"Ok" said Mercy. She handed me the picture and ran to join the other kids at the sink. She was in a class of about 25-30 kids. It was big for a first grade class. I wouldn't like to handle so many 1st graders. Two were enough for me. After Mercy was done washing her hands, we went to get Scotty. We found Scotty sitting at a table, reading a book. She learned how to read over the summer. Mercy knew how to read too but she didn't read as much as Scotty. Mercy liked looking at all the pictures.

Scotty threw the book down when she saw us standing in the doorway.

"How was your day?" I asked, giving her a hug.

"It was good. I made new friends" said Scotty.

"Oh really. What are their names?"

"Cameron and Katie" said Scotty.

"Do you eat lunch with them."

"Yep. They live in our neighborhood."

"I made a new friend too" said Davanee, "her name is Stacey. She just moved here from Georgia. She lives next door to us." I do remember a family moving in next door over the summer, but I didn't see any kids with them. They were an older couple.

"Honey, are you sure Stacey lives next door?" I asked.

"Yeah. She lives with her grandparents. Something happened to her mom and dad and she had to come here. I'm glad she did. There aren't any kids where we live" said Davanee.

"Well, you got your sisters" I said.

"Dad, they're six. I need to play with kids my own age, not babies" said Davanee.

"Hey, be nice" I said, unlocking the door to my room. Davanee went right to work on her homework while Mercy and Scotty looked at books they brought home from the school library. Surprisingly, Scotty actually finished the book. She had a short attention span and couldn't sit still for more than a couple of minutes at a time.

We went home about an hour later. Instead of going home, we went to the park. I graded summer reading papers while the kids played. I really didn't want to grade papers but I had to. I could tell from these essays that a lot of the kids needed help. They understood the complicated stuff like how to write a thesis statement but not the easy stuff, like where to put a comma. I used to struggle with that too. I was terrible at grammar when I was a kid. I always hated when we reviewed grammar in English.

"Dad look" said Davanee. I looked up to see her hanging upside down from the monkey bars.

"Davanee, be careful" I warned.

"I am" said Davanee, smiling. She had just lost her two front teeth so there was a big hole in the front of her mouth. I watched as she slowly climbed down and ran to go with Scotty and Mercy on the tire swing. Scotty and Mercy sat on the swing while Davanee pushed. She started out slow but got faster.

"Davanee, don't push them too fast" I said.

"Why not?"

"Because they get sick and then they'll throw up all over you" I said, which wasn't true.

"Dad, can we go see Uncle Soda at work?" asked Davanee.

"Nope. He's in California, remember? Besides, tonight we're going over to the house to have dinner with Uncle Darry" I said.

Davanee stopped pushing and the twins climbed off. Scotty and Mercy went to play in the sandbox while Davanee sat down next to me. Davanee just stared at me before she said anything. That was her way of getting your attention.

I put my pen down and asked "why aren't you playing with your sisters?"

"I don't want to. You know, you're not like other dads. You're not like Hailey's dad" said Davanee.

"Why's that?" I asked.

"You're not as old as most dads and you're not as mean as Hailey's" said Davanee. She had been over to Hailey's house a couple of times. She didn't really like it over there. She claims that Stephen was really mean to her and said that she was a bad influence. How an 8 year old as sweet as her could be a bad influence was beyond me.

"Why don't we head over to the house" I suggested, quickly changing the subject.

"Ok. I'll go get Mercy and Scotty" said Davanee walking away with her head hung a little low. She was disappointed that I didn't tell her more. If I had told her then, she wouldn't of understood.

We walked from the park to the house. I thought for sure Darry would eventually sell that place but I was wrong. He hasn't sold it yet. After all these years the house still looked pretty good aside from the paint chipping in a couple of places. The girls ran inside ahead of me. Darry wasn't home yet. Normally he doesn't work late but there are those occasional times.

Davanee helped me make dinner while Mercy set the table. Scotty was too busy running around the living room. Out of all of my kids, Scotty was the one who went to time out the most. It's not that she was a bad kid, it's just that she was very hyper and she burned off the energy by doing stuff like running around the house or jumping on the bed when I told her not to.

Mercy on the other hand was pretty behaved. She hardly ever went to time out, and when she did it was because Scotty was doing it and it looked like fun.

Davanee was too old to go to time out. She just got things taken away from her like TV or her record player. She could live without TV but she couldn't live without music. I was the same way. I didn't really care about TV but I liked music.

Darry came home about 30 minutes later. Dinner was ready and the table was set. Scotty stopped running around once she saw Darry. I know this may sound a little crazy, but Scotty actually liked Darry more than Soda. Don't get me wrong, she absolutely loved Soda but she loved Darry more.

"Uncle Darry!" yelled Scotty, running up to him and giving him a hug.

"Scotty, long time no see" said Darry, picking her up.

"Guess what" said Scotty.

"What?"

"I made new friends at school" said Scotty.

"That's good. What are their names?"

"Cameron and Katie" said Scotty as Darry set her down at the table. As soon as he set Scotty down, Davanee and Mercy gave him a hug. It had been a long time since we'd seen him. With school starting, we really didn't have time for anything else. Davanee would be starting piano and dance next week. She's been playing piano and dancing since she was 3. Mercy played piano too. She and Davanee had the same teacher. Scotty on the other hand showed no interest in piano but she loved dancing. For a 6 year old she wasn't that bad.

Dinner was filled with talk about the first week of school and work. Darry was now the owner of the roofing company. The old owner retired a couple of years ago and left the business to Darry. I always knew someday he'd have his own business. I know he really wanted to get out of Tulsa eventually, but I don't think that will happen. I wanted to get out of Tulsa too, but that was almost impossible. As the kids get older, it will be harder to leave. They'll get wrapped up in there own worlds and I wouldn't want to take that away from them.

I remember when I was 14 I used to dream about getting out. I couldn't wait to leave, but that all changed in one night, well two nights actually. The first night was at a party and the second night was about nine months later. I went from going to movies and hanging out with friends all day to changing diapers and 3 am feedings. Honestly, I was ok with that. I must say being a teen parent wasn't too terrible. Sure, it had it's ups and downs, but that's what makes it exciting, right? Can you imagine how boring everything would be if everything was perfect?

We ended up spending the night. Our original plan was to walk home when dinner was over but it started pouring down rain. The last thing I needed was for everyone to get sick. I was walking past the guest room when I noticed Davanee, Mercy, and Scotty laying on the bed, reading a story (we kept a couple of books and toys at the house). Davanee was laying in the middle with Scotty on one side and Mercy on the other. Davanee was reading Green Eggs and Ham.

"Why don't you read?" asked Davanee, handing the book to Mercy.

"But I'm not a good reader" said Mercy.

"Of course you are. I've heard you read before. You're very good" said Davanee.

"Ok" said Mercy. "I would not like them here or there. I would not like them an…..an"

"Anywhere" said Davanee.

"Anywhere. I do not like green eggs and ham. I do not like them, Sam-I-am."

"See, I told you you where a good reader. Now it's Scotty's turn" said Davanee. Scotty happily took the book from Mercy and picked up where she left off.

I liked hearing the kids read to each other. Davanee read to Scotty and Mercy most of the time but occasionally she would let Scotty or Mercy read.

Once they were done, Davanee put the book up and they fell asleep in the guest room. I covered them up with a blanket and turned out the light. I ended up sleeping in my old room. It had been years since I had slept in there. The room still looked the same with a couple of minor changes. One being the fact that Soda wasn't there. I couldn't get to sleep that night. I just laid there, spinning my wedding ban on my finger. It had been six years since she died and I still hadn't taken it off. I didn't want to. Call me crazy, but I wasn't ready. I know she would want me to move on, but I didn't.

I was almost asleep when I heard the door creak open. I looked to see Mercy standing in the doorway.

"Mercy, what's wrong? What are you doing up?"

"The thunder scares me. Can I sleep in here?"

"Yeah, sure" I said.

Mercy smiled and got into bed.

"Night Daddy" she said, giving me a kiss and snuggling up under my arm.

"Night sweetie."

Mercy was asleep within minutes. She could fall asleep just about anywhere at any time. I wish I could do that.

I was almost asleep when the door creaked open again. This time it was Scotty.

"Scotty, what are you doing out of bed?" I whispered so I wouldn't wake Mercy.

"The thunder's scary. Can I sleep in here?"

I sighed and said "yeah, come on."

Scotty climbed in and snuggled up under my other arm. She gave me a kiss goodnight and fell asleep after a couple of minutes. I could already tell I wasn't going to get any sleep that night, but I guess that's all part of the experience. I can't begin to tell you how many nights I've lost sleep because someone was sick or they wouldn't stop crying or they were having a bad dream.

I thought for sure I was going to fall asleep this time when the door opened again. I didn't even have to look to know who it was. Davanee absolutely hated thunderstorms.

Instead of laying down next to Mercy, she fell asleep near my feet. She was asleep within seconds. I finally fell asleep that night around 3 with Mercy and Scotty under each arm and Davanee at my feet. Oh, the joys of fatherhood.