A week after Roxanne's Sophomore college year finished, my friends had lots of business trips to go to. PJ had to go to Dallas to open his latest restaurant, which was his sixth one, and now that he was a celebrity TV chef, the opening was going to be on live TV. Going with her partner to Dallas, Lucy had finished her third poetry book and she had to go to bookshops to promote it and sign copies for her loyal fans. Lisa had to go to New York to host a very special fashion event sponsored by Gleaming and there was going to be a lot of special guests, including supermodels, famous actors and other super rich celebrities among them. Bobby had to go to Los Angeles to see one of his popular rock bands, Nature Walkers, perform a very special live concert at the Hollywood Bowl. Stacey was needed in Washington D.C. to help the FBI with a very dangerous criminal who was refusing to talk. And Lauren was asked to go to Virginia to help with a community theater.
Because they were all very busy, my friends asked me to look after their children while they had to go and do their business trips. They didn't know how long they would be, but I agreed to looked after my godchildren all the same and they were very grateful for it. Even though they forgave me for not communicating with them after Mona betrayed me, I still felt I owed it to them and that was why I agreed to do it, as well as for other reasons like trying to help my friends and getting to know my godchildren more.
I didn't ask Roxanne to help me with my godchildren because I didn't want to make her do anything she didn't want to do and they were my godchildren, not hers, so they were my responsibility, but she did want to help me and I was very happy that she did. I knew she was studying to be a teacher and I knew she was very good with kids because of her excellent grades from her classes at Spoonerville College and the very high praises she received from her teacher and the principal, the staff and the parents of the students at the Unique Flowers School, so I never doubted her that she was very good with kids, but her helping me to look after my six godchildren was concrete proof to me. Also, looking after them reminded us both of being camp counselors at Spoonerville Summer Camp last year, only we had six kids to look after instead of more than a hundred.
Roxanne was a massive help while helping me with my godchildren. She was very good with Alicia, who was very shy and lacked confidence and was the opposite of her twin brother Benny, who was sometimes too confident and too energetic for his own good. Patrick and Penelope were the most well-behaved of my godchildren. They were very helpful and polite. Sabrina and Regina were never afraid to speak their minds, but they still meant well and was helpful when they had to be. As we looked after them, Roxanne and I agreed that our friends had done a very excellent job of raising their kids and they were very excellent parents.
Roxanne and I had a great time, looking after my six godchildren and getting to know them more. It was hard work, but not as much as either of us thought it would be. And my godchildren seemed to like my house a lot and I was glad they felt at home. While at my house, we would feed them for meal times and they liked the food we gave them. After they finished eating, there were always empty plates and bowls and no complaints about the food. They liked the games we played, whether it was my board games, like Twister or chess, or my video games inside, or playing soccer, basketball, rounders or playing in my swimming pool outside. The girls even took an interest in cheerleading and Roxanne had a few sessions with them and taught them everything she knew about it and she showed them some easy moves they could start practice and join their the cheerleading teams at their elementary school and they were very fast learners. When it was time for bed, the kids would always go straight up to clean their teeth in my bathroom and go to bed in their rooms. Bennie and Alicia shared a room, Patrick and Penelope shared a room and Sabrina and Regina shared a room. There were a couple of nights when we allowed Alicia, Penelope, Sabrina and Regina to have sleepovers in one room and they were no trouble. The boys, Bennie and Patrick, were happy to have their rooms for themselves for a change.
We all had fun in the town of Spoonerville as well. I remember how much fun we had on the days when we went to Spoonerville Park and had lovely picnics and the kids would play in the playground.
One day, we went to the movie theater and we saw the Pixar movie, Ratatouille, which we all enjoyed.
I remember the day when we went to Spoonerville Beach and we had a great day there, watching the kids build sandcastles, digging holes, paddling in the sea and body boarding, while having hot dogs, burgers, fries and ice cream for lunch.
I remember the day when the carnival came into town and we had plenty of fun going on the Ferris wheel, the swing ride, the roller coaster and the ghost train among the other attractions we had fun on.
I also remember the day when we rented a boat and rode it on Spoonerville Lake. I drove the boat while Roxanne watched the kids. Some of the kids – Bobby, Patrick, Sabrina and Regina – even tried water-skiing and wakeboarding and they were very good at it and Roxanne was very good at being the spotter when they did it.
After two weeks, our friends arrived back at my house to pick their children. They were very delighted to see them again and they were very impressed with how Roxanne and I looked after them. They stayed for cups of teas and cookies and sandwiches while Roxanne and I told them what we had been up to and how fun and well-behaved their kids were. They were very happy to hear all that.
Then our friends told us what they had been up. PJ said that the opening of his sixth restaurant was a real success, Lucy's third poetry book was her most successful one yet, Lisa's Gleaming-sponsored special fashion event was the magazine's best one yet, Bobby's business trip in LA was very successful, Stacey managed to get the dangerous criminal to confess his crimes and even spill the beans about his friends in the criminal empire he worked at, which helped the FBI an awful lot and Lauren managed to save that community theater in Virginia by buying it and making sure that everyone there could keep their jobs and put on shows the public would want to see, starting with the musical Hairspray.
Before they left with their children, their friends gave me and Roxanne some souvenirs from their trips to thank us for looking after their children. They thanked us again for looking after their children and they said I was a great godfather and they even asked Roxanne to be their godmother because she was so good and helpful with them. She was very honored just as I was when they asked me to be their godfather and she immediately said yes. They also told us that we would make great parents. Then we said goodbye to them and their kids and waved to them as they drove away.
What our friends said about Roxanne and I being parents got us thinking. Roxanne quickly liked the idea of having children and wanted some in the future, but I was still unsure. I didn't want to let Roxanne down, but I was worried if I would be a bad dad. But Roxanne and I agreed not to rush into it. Roxanne still needed to complete two more years of college and that would give us plenty of time to think and talk more about having children and how we were going to raise them if we did have them.
