Chapter 18

As the day grew to an end, Ashley felt tired and frustrated in trying to take care of Justin and do her job. She actually looked forward to going home and left about a half-hour early. Justin was fussy when she took him inside her home.

"What's wrong little brother? We'll get you something to eat." She went in to fix something and thought, "He's always been so nice. Maybe he misses his mother?"

She put him in the playpen and went to her computer to look up some baby care information. "Let's see. Uhm, well, teething makes them fussy. Check for a fever. Already changed his diaper. OK. Check teeth and fever." When she came back, she found that he had climbed out of the playpen. She tracked him down sitting in the corner playing with her ropes and cuffs. She laughed out loud. "Oh, you're into that bondage at your age? Will you ever be hard to live with!"

She sat down beside him and he seemed to be in a better mood. She felt his head, to find it pleasantly cool. "OK, no fever." He moved the ropes and cuffs around and made soft play sounds as he did. "Well, you seem to be better."

She said, "Justin, can you say "Ashley? I'm Ashley. I'm your sister. Can you say Ashley?" Then, she thought, "Well, he's not interested in that. Should he just call me Sis?" She looked down at him again, "Maybe just 'Ash?' One syllable should be easier."

She went about preparing his food and he crawled around the kitchen floor, quickly discovering Benny's dish. In a second, he had the water on the floor, sitting in the middle of it. "Well, you're just full of surprises." She got some used towels and mopped up the mess, putting the dish out of reach.

She then found some of his toys in his baby bag and set them out to distract him while she fixed the food. It was ready for him in a few minutes and she put him in his feeding chair. Within a few minutes, he was happily eating his finger food and taking bites of the other from Ashley. When she put food in his mouth, he looked up and smiled at her, making her laugh in return. She kept saying, "I'm Ashley," and pointed to herself. "Can you say, Ashley?"

When she finally finished feeding and bathing him and getting him ready for bed, she realized that she had not eaten. "How will I learn to fix my own dinner and keep you out of trouble?" Within half an hour, she had him in bed with his monitor and went about getting her own food ready. She thought, "I'll keep this monitor with me. It would be just like me to go off and forget it somewhere and not be able to find it." She checked on him again before eating and found him to be fast asleep looking angelic.

After eating, she went to her office and began work on her email. Somehow, she hadn't time to do it during the day. After an hour, she let herself open the one from Bill. One of his questions was about Justin. Since it was before midnight in Georgia, she decided to call him and chat for a while.

Just as she reached for the phone, it rang. Natalie asked, "How's our favorite child?"

It took ten minutes of almost solid talking to reveal her total day. Natalie laughed at the story about Benny's dish. "Yeah, it took me a while to get used to his crawling all around. I've had to do some childproofing."

"I will have to get my house in order, too. I forgot how quickly they can get into things!" She changed the subject, "How did your day go?"

"They picked me up at the airport and took me to dinner. We had a good conversation and I felt good about them. If the others are as nice, it would be a great place to work. I know that you don't know this, but not all faculty members are nice."

"Where did you ever hear a nasty rumor like that? Sounds like an urban legend to me." She laughed, and then said, "Tomorrow is the big day! How you feelin'?"

"Just the usual overwhelming anxiety, but other than that, I'm OK."

"Call me tomorrow or I'll call you after you get through."

"We're going to dinner again, so I'll try to fill you in between the end of the interview and when we go out."

When she finished with Natalie, she punched Bill's number.

He asked, "How did you get on with your brother today?"

She related all the antics, including her inability to keep up with him and do her job at the same time.

He asked, "Do you remember when we studied multi-tasking?"

"Vaguely. Walking and chewing gum and the like?"

"You've got it. Mental workload is finite. You have to use up all your working memory on the task at hand. Walking and chewing gum are both automatic motor skills and can easily be accomplished. Thinking about the baby and doing email is much more difficult, since both require mental processing."

"I get your point. Maybe that's why I felt so fatigued."

"Happens all the time. Causes lots of errors, too. People believe that they can talk on their cell phones and drive. They don't understand the mental workload involved in a phone call arguing with their spouse."

"I'll tell you that when he was sitting in that puddle of water from Benny's bowl, I had to laugh at myself. This house is not child-safe. The only thing I would have said into a phone would not be nice."

"You get it! How'd Benny take to him?"

"OK, so far. I left Benny at the House tonight. Lot's of people needed him to distract them."

"Fortunately for you, the wages and hours law doesn't apply to dogs. I'll just bet the Humane Society has rules, though."

"Don't you dare rat me out to those people. My wicked stepmother would love to have something on me."

"My God, I forgot about that. Now, you'll be in more trouble for making Wu work overtime, too."

"She's doing very well. They love her almost as much as Benny."

"You sound good, even after a hectic day."

"Once I got him to bed, I could concentrate on you and other important things. A little peace is a necessity. I know how lucky I am compared to those people I try to help."

"Yes, you are fortunate, but you do a lot of good for the community and help get people's lives back together. I admire you for it."

"Thank you. I didn't know how much I cared about them until I saw this woman come in today in a police car. She looked awful. The nurse had to give her something for the pain. I'm glad we could take her. We're almost full again."

"I love you, Ashley and I'm anxious to see you."

"I almost cry when you say that. I love you, too and I'm glad you're coming."

Ashley sniffled for a minute after hanging up. "What is it about him that goes right to my heart? I sometimes think I'm obsessed."

She took her shower and washed her hair. As she did, she remembered when he did it and how good he felt wet and slippery he felt when he moved against her. "I have to quit thinking about him all the time."

She had been asleep about three hours when she heard Justin crying. She went over to his bed to find that he had vomited and was sitting up with it all over him. She took him to the bathroom and undressed him before cleaning him up. He obviously had a fever. She bathed him quickly as he continued to cry, but he did not throw up any more. After dressing him in clean clothes, she carried Justin while she took the soiled sheets to the washer and put them in with his pajamas.

Then, she went to the Internet and tried to look up what to do about a fever. She could have called Natalie, but it was in the middle of the night. He fussed on her lap as she tried to do her search. She finally found a site in the U.K. that had instructions, but she'd need a thermometer. The nurse had one of the ear-type, but Ashley had only an old mercury type for under the tongue, which the site cautioned against. So, now, she had to hold the thermometer under his arm for five minutes and add .5 degree Celsius.

"Well, Justin, we'll see if your sister can get your temperature." Some twenty minutes later, she had managed to get an adequate reading, to discover that she had to convert to Fahrenheit to Celsius, or find a new site that dealt in Fahrenheit. Well, he is 100.2. Maybe I don't have to take him to the emergency room. She remade his bed and put him down in it. He went back to sleep almost immediately.

She remembered that the Internet site said she should check again in two hours. If it increased, she would have to take him in. If not, she could let him sleep. She set her alarm for two hours and went immediately back to sleep. Not more than two eye blinks later, she heard the alarm and managed to drag herself up to find the thermometer. She inserted it under his arm and tried to hold it there. He rolled around and the thermometer came out. In about fifteen minutes, she managed to get another reading of 100.1.

As she stared at the thermometer, she asked, "Is that a reduction in the true temperature, or is it an error of measurement?" She then convinced herself that either way, he wasn't getting worse and went back to bed. She ordinarily set her clock to 7 AM to be at the office by nine. However, Justin cried at six and she had to take care of his diaper. After she changed him, he rolled over to go back to sleep. Ashley tried to sleep, but her mind was racing and she decided that she was awake for the day.

She put on her sweats, turned the coffee on, and went out to get the paper. She sat waiting for the coffee, not really reading. She felt really tired. "OK, I have to get myself dressed, eat, feed Justin, and get him to the daycare. Just maybe I can do that before I die."

She got his breakfast together and then went upstairs to get him ready. When she was packing his bag, she anticipated a relief. Someone else would be responsible for a while. How did Natalie do this every day?

She left Justin at the daycare and as she started out the door, he cried, "Sash! Sash!"

She said to the teacher, "That may be me! He had a fever last night, but I checked him this morning and he was normal."

"That happens all the time. He's fine now. I'll call you if there's a problem."

She felt terrible guilt for leaving him. The teacher came over to her and said, "Every morning, we have that scene. However, as soon as you're gone, he will be OK. Where's his mom?"

"She's in Texas interviewing for a job."

The woman looked at Ashley with a distant stare. "What will she do there?"

"If they choose her, she will be on the faculty of the University of Texas."

"Natalie will be on the faculty? A teacher?"

"Well, yes, she will teach, but they want her because her research is quite good."

The woman looked back. "What does that mean? I thought professors-she will be a real professor?-taught."

"Yes, she will teach. She also has to do research to discover new knowledge."

"Too complicated for me. If she gets the job, we'll miss Justin. He's a good guy."

As Ashley drove to her office, she recalled a conversation she had with Bill earlier. He said, "You know, when I go out in public away from the university, people ask me what I do. I tell them that I work at the university. Then he said, in all my years, the only thing town people ever ask is 'What do you teach." I guess they think that's all we do."

The stoplight turned green. As she drove across the intersection toward her office, she had a small feeling of relief. Justin was in his regular setting and she could devote her mind to those distressed women. She would have almost eight hours of work before having to pick him up.

Her day went well. She was able to place three women in recovery situations with court orders protecting them from abusive husbands. "If only it worked. Those guys find them and beat them up again and the judge will have to send them to jail. They can't work in jail and make money."