A Rest For Alan Part 1
Alan stopped short, "I should probably get some rest... shouldn't I, Henry?" he guessed.
"Very perceptive!" Henry said.
Alan slowly trudged to his bedroom.
"Alan has got to stop staying up all night!" Flip observed.
"Ah, but when something around here needs repaired," Tom observed. "Alan is our go-to guy to repair it."
"Tom, it wouldn't hurt you to try to fix a few things around here, you know, just try to give poor Alan a break when he needs it." Suzie advised.
"Suzie, you know that I know nothing about electronics and mechanical things!" Tom protested.
"I'm going to take Anne's breakfast to her in bed." Henry said.
Henry gathered up the plate of buckwheat banana pancakes, whole wheat toast with hummus, and the tall glass of orange juice with a mint sprig and put them on the wooden tray for Anne.
Anne was in her room reading a new mystery novel she got from the bookstore about a brilliant female detective named Sam Owens.
When a knock on her door startled her from her reading.
"*Cough cough* who is it?" Anne asked.
"It's me, Henry," Henry called through the door. "I have your breakfast, Annie!"
"Come in, Henry, *achoo*!" Anne called.
Henry entered Anne's bedroom with her breakfast on the tray.
"Here's your breakfast, Annie," Henry said. "I made buckwheat banana pancakes, whole wheat toast with hummus, and orange juice for everyone this morning... but only in your orange juice... I added a sprig of mint."
"Why is that?" Anne asked Henry.
"It is because out of you, Suzie, Nancy, and Mimi, you are my favorite," Henry told Anne. "don't tell either Suzie, Nancy, or Mimi I said that."
"My lips are sealed, Henry, and," Anne said. "is that why you won't let me play ice hockey?"
"Yes, I know girls can do anything and everything boys can and boys can do anything and everything girls can," Henry said to Anne. "but I love you too much to see you either get hurt or killed."
"Is that the reason why you handed your old hockey skates down to Stanley on your twentieth birthday?" Anne asked Henry.
"Yes." Henry answered Anne.
"I would hug you right now, Henry, but I wouldn't want to get you sick." Anne said hoarsely.