Hell's Army

Chapter Six- When the Lights Go Out

Mrs Berkley gripped Katie's arm for dear life and said as if it were the single most important thing in the world, "Kevin's bedtime is at eight-thirty exactly."

Katie groaned inwardly. This was her third consecutive attempt to get Mrs Berkley to the door, and every time she dragged up some life or death piece of information Katie absolutely had to be indulged in.

"Not ten to," she continued, her big rabbit's eyes darting back and forth. "Not eight-forty. Eight-thirty. He likes to hear a story before bed, so if he brushes his teeth before-"

"Honey," Mr Berkley said from the door, looking about as impatient as Katie felt. "We have to go."

But Mrs Berkley did not want to go. Words poured from her mouth and somehow managed to get in the right order as she said breathlessly, "Oh, and make sure he has Mr Bear! He can't sleep without Mr Bear. And he gets nightmares sometimes. Just sing him a nursery rhyme, any one will do. He'll be out like a light."

Mr Berkley ran a hand through his thinning hair. "We're going to be late."

"And no sugar. If he wants a snack, give him apple slices. Oh, and if you see Alfie, the dog, bring him inside. He hasn't come home since Saturday." She paused to come up for air, and Katie took her chance to jump in,

"Got it."

"Hailey..." Mr Berkley said, looking ready to throw his wife over his shoulder and run to the conference with her.

"Thank you so much, Katie," Mrs Berkley said impressively fast, brushing a stray strand of hay-coloured hair out of her eyes. "You're such a dear, coming at such short notice like this. Oh! I've got my number if anything goes wrong or if Kevin needs to talk to me-"

"Kevin will be fine, Mrs Berkley," Katie said. "I'll take good care of him." Then again, she didn't know what Mrs Berkley's definition of 'good care' was. Katie's was keeping Kevin safe, well-fed and happy, but Mrs Berkley's seemed to be to forcefully wrap him in bubble wrap and place him in a glass room where the temperature, light and CO2 emissions were controlled at all times.

"Thank you so much," she said, her face slowly reddening from the lack of oxygen she was receiving.

Mr Berkley decided to take affirmative action and pulled her out the door. Katie could still hear her calling out advice as they hurried down the driveway.

She sighed at sat down on the couch, thinking of all the other useful things she could be doing right now. Granted, for her useful meant surfing through TV channels and listening to various Indie bands with overly hairy members, but at least she would be enjoying herself. Ah, well. It wasn't that bad. It would make her mother happy, at least. She'd been pestering Katie all year about getting a job. Katie's mother enjoyed pestering her, probably because she couldn't do it to any of her other children. Anastasia would start crying, and Billie wasn't even old enough to spoon her own food, let alone argue with her mother about where her life was going. Besides, it was only for a weekend. What's the worst that could happen?

Katie trudged up the stairs and knocked on Kevin's door. "You okay in there, bud?" she called.

"Yeah," came the dull reply.

"Ten more minutes, okay? Then I'm turning the light out. You want a story before bed?"

"No."

Katie frowned. She spent enough time with annoying younger siblings to know that was a moody 'no.' Maybe he was missing his mum. She thought about Mrs Berkley and reasoned that was very likely not the case. If Katie had had Mrs Berkley for a mother, she would have locked all the doors by now and refused to let her back in the house.