Part 7 - And More Shopping...

Because Daniel seemed a little cheerier when they left the clothes store, and the kid was getting heavy to carry, not to mention he only had one hand because of the other holding the shopping bags, Jack put him down but kept hold of his brother's hand.

They went into the first shoe store they saw, which had medium-sized kids' section. Daniel was being very clingy, and Jack realised that he should never have pretended to leave him behind. No child should be made to believe they are being abandoned, Jack reprimanded himself; especially one whose life has just been turned upside down.

A middle-aged sales assistant by the name of Bob came over to them as they looked at the range of shoes. "Do you need any assistance?" Bob asked.

"Just looking for some rainboots," Jack replied.

"Of course. What size?" Bob inquired.

"Uh..." Jack looked down at Daniel. "I'm not sure." Just like with the clothes, he had forgotten to check before they had left home.

"In that case, we'll measure the feet," Bob said, smiling at the pair. "Please, take a seat." He gestured to the chairs nearby and then left them.

Jack sat down on the nearest seat and expected Daniel to do the same. However, Daniel remained plastered to Jack's right leg, his thumb in his mouth. "Daniel, hop up onto the chair," Jack instructed. Daniel just turned those big blue eyes onto him and Jack sighed before lifting the kid onto his lap.

Daniel snuggled back against his brother's chest, still a little scared. There were just so many shops and people, and it was all a bit overwhelming. And he didn't want Jack to lose him or leave him behind, so Daniel was planning on sticking very close.

Bob came back with an oblong-shaped measuring device and knelt down in front of the brothers. "If the young man would like to put his foot on here," he instructed.

When Daniel made no move to obey, Jack took the right sneaker off and then parted his legs so that Daniel could stand between them. He kept one arm around Daniel as the kid's foot was measured, then when Bob had the information he needed, Jack picked Daniel up and sat him on his lap again, sensing that the kid needed the security.

"Jack?"

"Yeah?" Jack looked down at his brother.

"What's rainboots?" Daniel asked curiously, remembering to take the thumb out of his mouth before he spoke.

"Rubber shoes that you wear outside when it's raining or snowing," Jack explained; he had forgotten that Daniel might not know what they were.

"Why?"

"So your feet don't get wet."

Daniel was quiet for a moment as he contemplated that. "Is wet bad?" he inquired, thinking of all the baths he had taken and wondering whether that was bad.

"Sometimes," Jack replied, watching the salesman return. "If it's cold like rain or snow, then it's bad."

"What's snow?" Daniel wanted to know next.

"I'll explain later," Jack said as Bob arrived with four pairs of rainboots.

Bob displayed the boots on the floor - black, blue, red, and rainbow were the colours of the four pairs. "Which ones would you like to try first?" he asked Daniel.

"Blue," Daniel said, pointing to that pair.

"Blue, please," Jack corrected.

Daniel glanced at him briefly before echoing, "Blue, please."

"You'll need to stand up," Bob stated, getting the blue pair and putting them in front of Jack.

After taking Daniel's other sneaker off, Jack put the kid on the floor. "Try them on," he told Daniel.

With one hand on Jack's knee for balance, Daniel put his feet - one at a time - into the blue rainboots. They felt strange, and he looked up at Jack for his opinion.

"Now try walking in them," Jack instructed. He sighed when the thumb went back in Daniel's mouth; he was beginning to notice that Daniel did that when nervous about something. In this case, he was probably nervous about what Jack had done earlier - in other words, leaving him behind. "I'll be right here, I promise."

Reluctantly, Daniel stepped away from Jack and walked the short distance to the wall and back again. The tops of the boots kept hitting his legs, which he wasn't used to, but other than that, the boots felt okay.

"Do you like them?" Jack asked as he watched Daniel studiously stare at his feet while walking.

"Do they feel comfortable?" Bob asked immediately after.

"They hit me," Daniel stated to the salesman.

Bob nodded. "They're meant to be big so that you can wear snowpants with them," he said. "Do they hurt your toes? Show me where they are." He put his thumb on the end of one boot.

Daniel wriggled his toes to show the man where they were. "They don't hurt," he informed the man.

"They seem to be a good fit," Bob announced to Jack. "Would you like to try on any others?"

"No, these will be fine," Jack decided. If they fitted and Daniel liked them, then they would do. "We do need some fluffy slippers though."

"Of course." Bob handed the box for the blue boots to Jack, then headed off in search of some children's' slippers.

"Daniel, take those off and put them in here," Jack told the kid, holding out the box for Daniel to see.

"Okay." Daniel sat on the floor right next to Jack's feet and took the boots off. Then he stood them up in the box. "They don't fit!" he exclaimed, seeing that the lid wasn't going to go on.

"Yes, they do." Jack rearranged the boots and then put the lid on the box.

Bob came back with some fluffy slippers that seemed to be in the shape of animals. Daniel immediately saw ones that had monkey faces and pointed to them. "Those ones, Jack," he said, smiling at the funny-looking faces. He had seen monkeys in Egypt and thought they were funny animals. "Please," he remembered to add.

"Try them on first," Jack instructed him.

Still sitting on the floor, Daniel put the slippers on, then got up and walked over to the wall in them without being told to. He was so busy watching his feet that he ran head-first into the wall. "Ouch!" he exclaimed, rubbing the top of his head.

Jack had to smile at his brother's antics. "How do they feel, Daniel?"

"Good," Daniel said happily, walking quickly back to Jack. "Can we get these ones please?" he asked, looking pleadingly up at his older brother.

"Sure." Jack ruffled Daniel's hair; the kid looked cute in the monkey slippers. "Now, take them off so that we can buy them."

Daniel hurriedly obeyed, then put his sneakers on. "Jack?"

Jack lifted Daniel on the chair next to him before tying the shoelaces. "All ready?"

"Yep!" Daniel hopped down from the chair, almost bouncing with pleasure at getting slippers with monkey-faces on them.

Having organised the shoes, Jack took Daniel to the nearby toy store. Jack figured that he needed to keep the kid busy and out of his hair, so a few toys wouldn't go astray.

First, he led Daniel to the section with the bath toys, going down a number of aisles until to find it first. They finally found the bath toys, and Jack told his brother to pick out two; Jack only had limited money being a Captain, and couldn't afford too many toys, especially if Daniel wasn't going to be staying with him.

Daniel solemnly surveyed everything, amazed at the number of toys he could see. There were no such places like this in Egypt where he had lived, so this was an exciting - and slightly daunting - experience. There were so many toys to choose from!

Eventually, he had it narrowed down to three: a boat; a bright orange fish called 'Nemo' with a moving tail that could actually swim; and a man wearing diving gear. Daniel's eyes flicked between the three, unable to decide which two he wanted the most.

"Come on, Daniel," Jack urged, getting tired of waiting. How hard could it be?

"I can't decide," Daniel stated, still looking at his choices. The man would be good because he could go diving for lost treasures, but the fish looked pretty cool too.

"Can I help you?" a female voice said from behind the pair.

Jack turned to see a young blonde woman with clear blue eyes, obviously a shop assistant as she was wearing a uniform with the name 'Sara' on it. "Uh, Daniel's just trying to decide which toys he wants," he said, feeling a tug of attraction towards the woman. Early twenties, Jack decided, which was just the right age for dating.

Nodding in understanding, she crouched down beside Daniel and said, "Hi, I'm Sara."

"Hello," Daniel replied, putting his thumb in his mouth; here was another strange woman trying to be nice to him.

"So which ones do you like?" Sara asked, smiling at the cute little boy.

Daniel pointed to the three items so that he wouldn't have to take his thumb out of his mouth.

"Nemo, the ship and the diver?" Sara queried, making sure she had the right ones. When Daniel nodded, she continued, "So how many are you allowed to choose?"

"Two," Jack replied for his brother.

"I see," Sara said, looking briefly up at Jack then back at Daniel. "They're all pretty cool, aren't they?"

"What's 'cool' mean?" Daniel asked, the thumb briefly coming out of his mouth when he spoke.

Sara smiled at him. "It means really good," she explained.

Daniel mentally filed that word away for future use. "In that case, they're very cool," he decided.

"And it's pretty hard to choose between them, isn't it?" Sara received another nod. She leaned in conspiratorially and said in a loud whisper that Jack was meant to hear, "Do you think we could convince your dad to get all three?"

Daniel looked thoughtfully up at Jack for a long moment, then whispered to Sara, "He's not my daddy, he's my brother."

"Oh." Possibly available then, Sara thought before turning her mind back to the matter at hand. "Well, do you think he would be nice enough to get all three for you?"

Jack rolled his eyes at being neatly manoeuvred into a corner; there was no way he could say 'no' now, especially not if he wanted to get a date with Sara.

This time, the look Daniel gave Jack was uncertain. He remembered the smack Jack had given him, and the way his brother wouldn't play with him, and he wasn't so sure that permission would be given to get an extra toy.

"No more tantrums?" Jack queried, his tone implying that there better not be or there would be no toys at all.

"Promise," Daniel agreed quickly, although he was embarrassed that Jack had mentioned 'tantrums' in front of the lady.

Resisting the look in those wide eyes was difficult, Jack decided as Daniel stared beseechingly up at him. "Just this once," he stated. What was an extra twenty bucks when it came to keeping Daniel busy - not to mention possibly getting himself a date?

Daniel quickly got the toys before Jack could change his mind, surprised that he was being allowed all of them. He had to hand one over to his brother, his little arms not big enough to hold all three boxes. "Thank you, Jack," he said, happy again.

"Do you need anything else?" Sara inquired, amused at the long-suffering look on Jack's face. She liked him but could tell that he wasn't used to dealing with children.

"I was thinking about some colouring books," Jack stated; after all, didn't all kids that age love to colour in pictures?

Daniel's eyes lit up at the mention of books. Sara saw this and led the two of them to the colouring book section. Daniel picked up the closest book and his face fell. "There's no words!" he exclaimed.

"That's because colouring books are meant for colouring," Jack told him - patiently, as Sara was nearby.

"Can I have books with words?" Daniel asked, dismissing the whole colouring concept; he liked to draw but had never 'coloured' in pictures in books such as these.

"I take it you like reading, Daniel?" Sara questioned, already going through the possibilities in her mind.

"Uh-huh." Daniel nodded his head as well.

"What about puzzles?"

"Yep." He did a lot of them in Egypt when he was helping his parents at the dig sites.

Sara grinned. "Follow me then." She led them down another aisle to the jigsaw puzzles. "Have you ever tried one of these?"

Daniel read the description on one of the boxes and then shook his head. "But I once put a broken bowl back together," he stated proudly. He didn't mention the fact that his father had helped him.

"Well, you're going to love these then," Sara enthused. She crouched down beside him and said, pointing to a number of boxes, "Those are the beginner ones, so you'd be best picking one of them to start with."

As Daniel stepped forward to choose a jigsaw, Sara stood up and moved back to Jack. "How smart is he?" she asked quietly.

"Pretty smart, I think," Jack replied, very aware of Sara's proximity. "He's only been with me for less than a day, so I don't really know, but he can read pretty well, and knows a couple of languages." If swear words in Arabic counted.

"He'll enjoy the puzzles then," Sara said, smiling at Jack, well aware of the impact it had on men.

"I'm sure he will," Jack responded with a smile. Then deciding to make the most of the opportunity, he asked, "Listen, I don't suppose you'd like to go out on a date?"

"I want this one, Jack," Daniel interrupted, pointing awkwardly - since he was carrying two other boxes - to a jigsaw of the Great Pyramids.

Seeing that the puzzle had five hundred pieces, Jack stated, "I think that might be a bit hard to start with, Daniel. How about something easier?"

"But I don't like any of them," Daniel complained. He wanted the one that he knew, that reminded him of home.

"Well, if you want a jigsaw, you're going to have to pick an easy one," Jack pointed out firmly.

Hearing the warning in Jack's tone, Daniel turned back to the puzzles and picked out a Mickey Mouse one with forty-two pieces. "That one," he said, pointing to it since he didn't have enough hands to actually get it.

Sara picked it up for him. "That's a good choice," she praised. "I love Mickey Mouse."

"Why?" Daniel queried; he had never heard of the character.

"I don't know, I just do," Sara replied. "You'll have to get your brother to get you some of his movies sometime."

"What's a movie?" came Daniel's next question.

Jack caught Sara's slightly puzzled look and explained, "He's been living in Egypt for the last couple of years."

Sara nodded, her expression clearing. "I'm sure your brother will be able to explain it to you," she said to Daniel, who was waiting patiently for his answer. "Do you like drawing?"

"Yes!" Daniel exclaimed.

They all went around to another aisle, where Sara helped Daniel choose a sketchpad and some crayons. Then they finally headed up to the front of the store to buy the items.

Jack quickly fished around in his wallet for a card with his phone number to give to Sara. "If you decide on 'yes', give me a call," he said, handing her the card.

"Thank you," Sara replied with a smile; she would definitely be calling him soon.

After Sara had left, Daniel looked up at Jack. "Why did you give that lady a piece of paper?"

"I'll tell you when you're older," Jack stated, not wanting to explain dating to a four-year-old. Then he smiled to himself; things were looking up.