"Okay little miss, arms up," Patrick said as he lifted Angela's dress over her head and put her nightgown on. "Now it is time to wash up."
"Noooo."
"Yes, mummy wouldn't like it if you went to sleep dirty."
Settling together on a chair in Angela's tiny room. Patrick opened the book.
"Alright now, let's see…'It is said that the effect of eating too much lettuce is "soporific.'"
Dad, lettuce what? That makes no sense," Timothy was standing in the entrance to Angela's room listening to Patrick read to her.
"Tim, I means drowsy...now let me get on with it."
"Flopsy!" Angela said.
"Let's see...here…'the Flopsy Bunnies went across the field to a rubbish heap, in the ditch outside Mr. McGregor's garden.'"
"uh-huh mista grega...bunnies...bunnies, mumma bunny, daddy bunny."
"That's my girl you tell Daddy the story," Patrick said.
"Flopsy, bunnies, mista grega…" Angela continued while yawning.
Aware of how tired she was Patrick added, "The End...Let's get you all tucked up. Goodnight my sweet girl," he added as he kissed the brow of his almost asleep child.
Following behind Timothy back to the sitting room, Patrick could tell Tim was laughing.
"What is so funny?"
"You reading to Angela."
"Whyever is that funny?"
"Because you never ever read to me when I was little."
"I missed a lot when you were little. Mummy did most everything while I was busy getting the National Health up and going in Poplar."
"Now Mum is out delivering Mrs. Henderson's baby and you are reading about Flopsy bunnies."
"Tim, I wish I had read to you about Flopsy."
"Dad, thank goodness, you didn't. I can't understand why she like those stories so much."
"I seem to remember you were partial to Mother Goose. I read to you plenty when it was just the two of us."
"Yes, we always seemed to read all the sad stories like Charlotte's Web."
"and Old Yeller," Patrick added, "They gave you an excuse to cry."
"I seem to remember that you were the one crying."
"Me?" Patrick ask incredulously, "perhap you should find your old Mother Goose book, so we can all take a break from Flopsy bunnies."
"Dad, if squirrels scare her how is she going to handle spiders, black birds snipping noses, and broken crowns?"
"Good point. Flopsy it is then."
"I sometimes wondered if you were fixing broken crowns while you were on your housecalls"
Patrick laughed and thought about the years he and Tim were on their own. They read books that were not sad like Treasure Island and Peter Pan. Well perhaps Peter Pan was a bit sad when the lost boys wanted a Mum.
Surprisingly he found comfort in sad stories. They gave him a different reason to be sad if only for a bit. He and Tim had survived and on the other end of the dark tunnel was one caring individual who pulled them out of the darkness. Shelagh pulled him away from all the sad stories and into the light.
"Tim, I think I'll just pop over and check on how Mum is getting on."
"Okay, I'll be here reading this book that is not sad at all," Tim said with a smile.