At home.
"Come on, J. J., you can do it!" Ned encouraged his youngest.
Since J. J. had been able to hold his own head up for a while, he had an interest in crawling.
Sally had spread a blanket on the floor and put her youngest on it, tummy down.
J. J.'s hands turned into fists and he tried to push himself up.
Ned and Sally watched with anticipation. It had been a while since J. J. was able to turn himself onto his back, so now it was time for crawling.
Or at least try to start.
With JoJo, their oldest, every milestone was their first as well. The first time he smiled, his first time turning onto his belly or back, his first taste of solid food, his first crawl, his first steps, his first word (Yopp?).
Even his first diaper change and first spit bubble was exciting for the first time parents.
96 kids later and they weren't as exciting as the first, but they still shouted "hooray" as a baby daughter would successfully follow their commands of "come to mommy!"
And now that they decided that J. J. was going to be their last baby, they wanted to make every moment count.
J. J. successfully got his arms to hold him up.
"Come to mommy, baby!" Saly said, holding out her arms, trying to encourage her second son to crawl. The sooner he can crawl, the sooner she wouldn't have to hold him on her hip so much.
A lie she told herself for years.
Ned always reminded her that her hip permanently had a groove in it from carrying a toddler or two on her hip for 15 years.
Sally was surprised that her arms weren't as big as a bodybuilder's from carrying toddlers.
J. J. put a hand off the ground and put it further away from him, and closer to his beloved mommy.
"That's it!" Sally encouraged.
J. J. tried with the other hand...
And promptly slipped like a deer on ice.
Sally went into protective mode and scooped up her baby. "It's okay." She said, even though her baby was more shocked than hurt.
"He'll get there." Ned said.
"I hope so." Sally said, patting J. J.'s back.
J. J. clamped a fist on his mom's shirt and tried to pull it down.
"I think he's hungry." Ned said, hiding a chuckle.
Sally got up, rolling her eyes. "Men, they all want the same thing."
Ned watched as she got ready to breastfeed.
With spring break over, classes were in session and JoJo logged into his laptop to get some work done.
Listening to his teacher explain calculus made him yawn.
He desperately wanted to escape. He only went to the observatory once since his close call with the police. His mom was furious when it happened, but dad calmed her down.
He kind of wanted to go back, but he had school work.
The teenaged boy made his decision to go as soon as his pre-test was over.
JoJo aimlessly clicked on each answer, writing his answers on a slip of paper.
"Find the difference, that's 12.8, find the radius, it's 6.4, and the angle of this acute triangle is 72 degrees." He said to himself as he clicked.
He watched the rainbow wheel appear on the screen for a few minutes as the laptop graded his test.
82%
B
Not bad.
JoJo logged off and closed the laptop.
He went downstairs and saw his parents cooking stuffed bell peppers.
Mom was cooking the meat mixture and dad was stuffing the vegetables with it before sprinkling cheese on top.
Dinner was going to be a few hours at most.
"Can I go to the observatory?" He asked.
Ned asked. "Did you finish your work?"
"Yes."
"Did you do your chores?"
"Of course."
"Did you do good on that test?"
"Aye." JoJo said, acting smug. "I got a B, matter of fact."
"Be back by 7, please." Ned answered.
Within a minute, JoJo was on his way to his special place.
The streets were quiet and it felt like a ghost town. He saw maybe 2 people. Usually, a stroll to the abandoned star study tower cost him to see at least 10 people during the day.
Now it was as quiet as night.
Taking the bucket and umbrella, putting a rock on the boulder for balance, taking the slingshot, and putting the key in the lock of the door gave him a sense of familiarity, but he still felt uneasy.
He opened the door, and looked around.
Nothing had been touched since he was last here.
And that was the problem.
Dust covered everything! Moths flew everywhere like bats in a cave. The air was thick with dust.
JoJo sighed and went to the closet. He grabbed a spray bottle and a rag and got to work.