you two have a lovely day at school?”    

“Yeah, we did,” Jeffery said, grinning slyly at Kit. “Kit had cafeteria duty today; he didn’t have a good enough excuse getting out of it this time…”

Jeffery ran as Kit made a dash toward him, he didn’t get far though before Kit caught him and had him under a headlock, giving him a well-deserved nuggie.

“Kit…” Jeffery said, laughing and squirming. “I was just joking, cuz.”

Kit laughed. “I know you were, but I don’t use my brother as an excuse to get out of anything, and besides…” he smirked as he gave Jeffery another good rub on the top of his head. “You had this nuggie coming to you for a while.”

 Jeffery continued to laugh until Kit let him go.

Melissa was laughing the whole time she was watching them, thinking of how much similar to brothers they were acting.

“Okay, dears, settle down,” she said, her eyes still twinkling. “And have these nice sandwiches I fixed for you boys.”

Just then, Baloo walked into the kitchen, yawning and stretching.

“Oh, hey there, Lil Britches,” he said, clapping Kit on the back. “How was yer day?”

“It was fine, Papa Bear…” Kit said, looking a little worried. “Look, I’m sorry about this morning, I just wanted to—”

“I know, Lil Britches, I know,” Baloo said gently, hugging Kit. “But Chris went through going to da doctor just fine.”

“Oh, that’s good,” said Kit, looking relieved, then he appeared anxious. “How did he handle getting those shots?”

Baloo frowned. “No worse than you did, Lil Britches.”

“Did he cry?” Kit asked, looking annoyed at being reminded of his shots from Bagheera.

“Well, yeah,” Baloo said nervously. “He almost refused to take his third shot, but what kid doesn’t cry at their first—”

“Three shots?” Kit interrupted disbelievingly while Jeffery looked thunderstruck behind him. “You see? I told you I should’ve went with him, but since when do you ever listen to me?”

“Now, that’s going a bit too far, Lil Britches.” Baloo said indignantly. “I listen to ya more than I listen to Becky, and that’s saying something, kiddo.”

“Yeah, but you don’t listen to the important stuff I had to say!” Kit shouted, stomping his foot in frustration. “Just like you didn’t listen to me when I said no to the request to ‘borrow’ my fifty dollars! And my brother’s far more important to me than money; please don’t take that from me too.”

“Kit, I—” Baloo said, but Melissa shook her head at him, giving him the ‘shut up!’ look.

“Kit dear,” Melissa said, smiling down at him. “Chris is upstairs in Jeffery’s room, why don’t you go up and see him? But be careful not to wake him up if he’s still napping.” 

“Thanks, Aunt Melissa.” Kit said, still glaring at Baloo, then he ran from the kitchen, Jeffery following behind him.

Melissa waited until the boys were out of sight before rounding on Baloo, deciding to let this overgrown oaf have it.

“You are so tackless!” she shouted at Baloo. “Couldn’t you see that Kit is upset because he felt that he couldn’t be there for his brother when he needed him?” 

“Millie, I—”

“DON’T CALL ME MILLIE!” she yelled, and in the next moment, she kicked Baloo like a large football out of her house, literally. Baloo flew over the steps to the house and landed painfully on the pavement. “And don’t worry about the boys, I’ll keep them overnight!” and she slammed the front door shut before poor Baloo could protest.

Later that night, Melissa came up to Jeffery’s room, baring a tray of cookies and milk.

“Time for bed, boys,” she said as she walked in on Kit and Jeffery wrestling around on the floor, with Kit on top, pinning Jeffery to the floor. He was wearing one of Jeffery’s spare pajamas.

“Aw, Mom…” Jeffery whined as Kit got off of him. But made no further protest as he and Kit climbed up into the top bunks. He knew better than anyone not to argue with his mother, they just can’t win against her.

Chris was sitting on the bottom bunk with a pained expression, holding his arm, which had been bothering him ever since his shots from the doctor that morning.

“Is it still hurting, dear?” Melissa asked sympathetically as she set the tray onto Jeffery’s desk                                                                                                       

Chris whimpered as he nodded.

 

“Oh you poor baby,” Melissa said softy as she got down on her knees and hugged Chris. “I may not be a doctor, but I still say Dr. Bagheera made an error. Really, two booster shots and a blood-drawing all on one arm, he should’ve done the blood-drawing on the other arm.”

 

“Yeah,” Chris agreed, a slight tear sliding down his cheek. “Then my arm wouldn’t be hurting me this bad.”

 

Melissa hugged him and kissed him, before laying him back onto his pillow. She then reach toward the tray and picked up a couple of pills and a glass of milk as she forgot to bring a glass of water too, but for now, the glass of milk will have to do. 

 

“Here, dear, take these.” Melissa said gently, holding a pill under Chris’ chin. “They’re Tylenol; they will help with the pain in your arm.”

 

Chris opened his mouth and Melissa popped the pill into it and sipped the glass to his lips, letting him take a drink before repeating the process with the second pill.

“Good boy, Chris.” Melissa said proudly, letting him hold his glass as she took a cookie from the tray and handed it to him.

“Thanks Aunt Melissa,” Chris said, smiling before taking a huge bite out of the cookie, munching on it happily.

 

“You’re welcome, dear.” Melissa said, smiling and then she stood up so to give Kit and Jeffery their cookies and milk.

                                            

 “Thanks, Mom,” Jeffery said, munching happily on his cookie just like Chris.

 

“Yeah,” Kit agreed but taking a more reasonable bite out of his cookie, savoring it. “Thanks, Aunt Melissa.” 

 

“Oh you’re welcome, dears.” Melissa said, kissing each of them on the cheek in turns. Then she bent down to kiss Chris on the bottom bunk.

 

“Wait, don’t go!” Chris said, grabbing hold of her arm after she kissed him goodnight. “Stay here, at least until I fall asleep.”

“Why, Chris dear?” she asked curiously. Chris blushed as he told her in a low voice that he was scared of the dark. “Oh, of course I’ll stay for a few minutes. But I think Jeffery have a nightlight, don’t you, dear?” she asked, looking up toward Jeffery’s bunk. 

 

Jeffery blushed a little as his secret was out: he sleeps with a bunny rabbit nightlight from time to time.

 

“Um, yes I do, Mom.” And he climbed down from his bunk, took a bunny rabbit nightlight from a desk drawer and plugging it in. 

 

“There you go, dear,” Melissa said to Chris. “Now the nightlight will scare away the boogie monsters.”

 

“It still won’t scare away Oogie Boogie,” Jeffery said, shaking his head.

 

“Well, if this Oogie Boogie knew what was good for him, he’d leave my boys alone.” Melissa said, playing along with Jeffery and was doing a good job of it by looking fierce. “Now, it is time for bed, good night.” She made to get up but Chris pulled her back down.

“Please,” he said, “could you s-s-sing me a lullaby?”

 

“Of course I could, dear,” she said and she settled herself in a comfortable sitting position on Chris’ bed. “Your Mom—my sister, Rebecca taught me this one shortly after she had Molly, would you like to hear that one?”

 

“Yeah!” Chris said eagerly.

Melissa begins to sing in a soft soothing voice while stroking Chris’ head with the gentlest touch. Chris felt himself relaxing to just her touch alone.

 

Home is where the heart is,
Wherever you may be.
There'll always be a home for you,
Here inside of me.

  

Home is where the heart is,
And whatever you may do
There'll always be a part of me
Here inside of you

 

Four walls may surround you,
And protect you from a storm.
But my two arms around you,
Will keep you safe and warm.

 

She gathered Chris in her arms and hugged him to emphasize the last part of the song. Kit and Jeffery were

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