The Little Boy and the Teenager

The detective could not understand why he was having such a hard time finding a babysitter for the little boy. Every time that he thought that he found one, they quit or moved or was too busy to baby-sit again. He just did not understand it. This Friday, he had a stakeout that he could not get out of, and so Simon had 'volunteered' his son, Darrel, to babysit. After all, it was only for a few hours.

The teenager was not happy to be spending his Friday night babysitting a four-year-old. In his mind, four-year-olds were like one step above an infant. The kid would probably spend all night crying and wanting to watch annoying shows like Barney. And so, it was with a huge sigh that the teenager knocked on the detective's door.

The detective greeted the teenager at the door and introduced him to Blair. The four- year-old peered out from behind the detective's legs and eyed Darrel warily. There had been a steady stream of new people coming over to watch him--none of them had come back. He wondered why these people hadn't liked him--he was used to being around new people and usually made friends fairly quickly. He just could not understand why none of these new people that he had met had come back to visit him. With these thoughts running through his mind, the little boy watched the detective leave then turned his big blue eyes on Darrel.

The teenager eyed the little boy anxiously. He was not sure what to do now and was desperately hoping that the little boy didn't start crying.
"So....ummm....what do you want to do?" he asked.

The little boy considered this question very carefully. He knew from past experiences that storytelling didn't usually go over very well, nor did Twenty Questions. Worrying his bottom lip, the little boy continued to think. 'Scientific experiments' really really hadn't gone over well, he thought with a frown--he hadn't known that someone could scream that loud. And Ms. Pierce had been in near tears when he had played hide-and-go-seek with her--though she really hadn't specified that he had to hide inside. Some people, the little boy thought, just didn't know how to specify.

The teenager watched the little boy as he thought. Getting tired of waiting, he asked, "Do you want to watch something on TV?"

Startled, the little boy blinked in surprise as he had been very deeply in thought. TV, he decided, would be alright. And so, he nodded.

And so the two sat on the couch. Darrel handed Blair the remote and braced himself for a brain-numbing kiddie show. "I can pick any show I want?" Blair asked, turning to him.
"Yep, any show," Darrel answered.
Blair slowly flipped through the channels, then stopped on the Discovery Channel where a documentary on African lions was being shown. He cautiously snuck a glance at Darrel, and when no objection to his choice was made, settled back to watch the show.
Darrel jumped when two lions started attacking each other, and quickly looked over to see how Blair was taking it.
"You OK over there little guy? Maybe we should change the channel," he suggested.
"I'm alright," Blair answered, "....but we can change the channel if you want to." he added, giving Darrel the puppy dog look--obviously not liking that option.
Darrel eyed him skeptically.
"They're just fighting over their territory," Blair explained, pointing to the screen, "When I went to Africa the elders told us about it--but I didn't get to see it 'cause lions are dangerous and eat little boys."
"You really went to Africa?" Darrel asked, impressed.
"Uh, huh," Blair said nodding.
"Cool," Darrel said with a grin.
Blair smiled back, and bouncing in his seat and waving his arms animatedly, started to tell Darrel all about Africa.

That evening, when Jim got home, he found Blair sleeping on Darrel's lap on the couch. Hearing the door close, Blair sleepily sat up and yawned. His eyes widened with surprise when he saw Jim and he ran to give him a hug.

"Thanks for watching him," Jim said as Darrel stood up.
"No problem," Darrel said smiling.
"Are you going to come back some time," Blair asked quietly, turning his baby blues on Darrel. "Sure thing," Darrel answered as he ruffled Blair's hair, "you're a pretty cool little dude." Blair beamed.

And that was how little Blair spent his first day with the teenager.
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