Mark walked in, looking kind of sheepish, “Sorry I sort of couldn’t help overhearing…” he trailed off at the end and stood there looking pitiful.

“Oh, hello Mark. I forgot that you had come over.” Mom said.

And as if absolutely nothing had just happened, she asked him, “Would you like to stay for dinner?”

“Uh no but, thanks for asking. I’m supposed to be home in a few minutes, so I best get going.” Mark said, still acting sheepish and uncomfortable.

“Uh, hang on Mark. Let me get my stuff together and…” I stopped and looked at mom, “I’m going to walk Mark home if that’s okay, then I’ll head over to Bill and Gladys’s house.”

Mom nodded her approval and then said, “Remember to put on your neck thingy.”

Out on the street, the two of us walked toward Marks house while we talked over what had just transpired.

“Oh man Max, that is seriously messed up!” Mark said, punching his fist into the palm of his other hand.

“Tell me about it! Can you imagine being Damien’s age and having both of your parents in jail?” I said.

“I don’t think I will ever complain about my ‘rents again.” Mark said.

“Geese, I feel so bad for the little guy.” I started to say, “Don’t get me wrong, he’s an evil little…” I caught myself before saying the ‘B’ word, “…daemon, but I guess he’s got a reason to be.”

Mark adopted a cheerier attitude, “And besides, it will be kind of like having a younger brother, except you won’t have to deal with him all day, every day, but only for a few hours a week.”

I thought about that for a moment, “Yeah, it will be like I’m his big brother.”

After leaving Mark at his house, I continued to walk to the park. I had time before I needed to be at Bill and Gladys’s and I wanted to do some thinking. Plus, since wrecking my bike, I hadn’t had a whole lot of time outside, so it was kind of nice to be in the cool fresh air.

When I arrived at Bill and Gladys’s, I didn’t even make it in the door before I was blindsided by Damien, but not in a bad way. The front door to their home opened and a blur launched itself at me.

At first, I was scared and would have jumped but the extra weight of Damien’s body wrapped around my leg kept my feet planted on the porch. Damien was sobbing like… well, like a child and mumbling something that was completely unintelligible. His arms were wrapped around my leg, his face was buried in my thigh and his legs were wrapped so tightly around my ankle that I could hardly feel my foot, which he was sitting on.

Bill appeared at the door a moment later, smiling and motioning for me to come in. Damien finally loosened his grip and slid off my feet. His face was red as were his eyes. He was still crying big huge crocodile tears and he sobbed what I took as, “Max, please don’t be mad!”

I bent down in front of Damien and took hold of his face, the way my mother does when she is trying to say something really important to me. “Damien, what could I be mad at you for?”

Huffing and sobbing he said, “For biting you right there!” he pointed to my shoulder and then began to howl. I’m talking sad ol’ hound dog howling with big tears and snot running out of his nose.

I glanced over to Bill. He lifted Damien up and carried him into the house.

Damien wouldn’t stop crying until I promised that I wasn’t mad at him. Once I did, he ran to his room still huffing and sniffling.

Bill and Gladys sat me down at the kitchen table and explained the situation to me; maybe even more than I thought they should have, but it was cool that they trusted me with so much of their family secrets.

So, starting tomorrow, I am going to be stopping by to get Damien every weekday morning to walk him to school, and I’ll be waiting outside his school at the end of the day to walk him home. Apparently, I’m doing that because, for the past few weeks, Damien had been skipping school quite a bit.

And then, I’ll be staying with Damien at their house until Gladys gets home at 5:30. That means, I’ll be watching Damien for 2 hours, Monday through Thursday after school. Now, the one part of this whole deal that I didn’t much like was the fact that, they want me to watch Damien each Friday from the time I pick him up until about 9:00 at night. The only problem I see with this is, Friday nights are typically the night that Mark, Sean and I have sleepovers, but I guess we’ll have to only have those on Saturday’s.

The three of us talked for a very long time, and it was dark outside by the time I was ready to head home. I said I’d be fine walking home on my own, but Bill insisted on giving me a ride. I gave in simply because I didn’t want to cause any more trouble.

Before I left, I asked if it would be okay if I went up to say goodnight to Damien. I found him not in bed, but sitting on the far side of the bed, jabbing a broken pencil through several sheets of notebook paper. I knocked on the door softly so as not to startle him.

“Max!” He squealed and jumped over the bed to get to me. “I thought you already left!” he said, happy to see that I hadn’t.

“Nah, I wouldn’t leave without saying goodbye.” I said, bending down to his level. “It looks like you and I are going to get to spend a lot more time together!” I said coyly.

Damien got the wildest look in his eyes. He leaned toward me, cupped his hand over my ear and whispered. “Does that mean more diapers?”

I pulled away from him and saw that he was beaming and smiling so wide, I could have counted every tooth in his mouth.

Instead of answering him, I smiled as I asked in a serious tone, “Did you brush your teeth yet?”

Damien clapped his hands over his mouth and started to run for the bathroom to brush, but I stuck out my arm and caught him around his middle. I pulled him into a backwards hug but he managed to wiggle himself around so that he could hug me back. Then I said, “I want you to brush your teeth, get your pajama’s on and go to bed. Okay?”

Damien lifted his head from my neck and kissed my cheek. “Okay, I promise.”

“I will be here before school tomorrow to walk with you, okay?” I said.

“Really?” he beamed again.

“Really, really!” I said back. “Now, go brush!”

When Bill dropped me off at home, I said thanks for the ride and headed into the house where I found Mom and dad were waiting for me.

“Where have you been young man? Do you know what time it is?” Dad barked at me before I was even three steps into the house.

He scared me so badly that I nearly fell over the coffee table on my way in.

“What? Mom knew where I…” I started to say but then dad cracked a big smile to let me know he was messing with me.

“Gosh dad! Don’t do that! You nearly gave me a heart attack!” I exclaimed.

Dad put me into a headlock, not tight because my head was still a bit tender, but I managed to wiggle out of his grip before he could do it. Dad swung at me playfully but I swatted his hand away.

“Come into the kitchen a minute, would you? Your mother and I want to talk with you.” He said.

“Am I in trouble?” I asked with half a laugh.

“Uh, should you be?” dad countered.

“Oh, no you don’t! The rules state that you have to catch me doing something wrong to punish me!” I said laughing.

“Rules?” dad started to say in an absolutely horrid Mexican accent, “I don’t need no stinking rules!”

My sister was coming out of the kitchen as the two of us were walking in. She looked at me and stuck her tongue out at me.

“No thanks, I use toilet paper!” I said to her.

“Oh, that’s real mature!” she said, acting like she was going to barf.

Then she did something that surprised even my parents. She gave me a hug and kissed my left cheek.

“What was that for?” I asked, as I instinctively reached up to wipe away the kiss.

“What? A sister can’t show her baby brother some love without it being turned into a federal case?” she argued and then went off to her room.

“What was that all about?” I asked mom and dad.