CHAPTER FOURTEEN

Daniel and Quentin returned to the shop and got a costume for Sam, then the teacher put down the deposit on it and the other costumes, telling the person who waited on them that they'd pick the costumes up on Tuesday.

After getting some lunch, teacher and student decided to go to one of the music stores in town and see what it had in haunted house sound effects records.  They managed to find one record that had various spooky sounds that would work well.

"I can record the sounds we want on tape," Quentin told Daniel.  "I've got a reel recorder at home, and I think I've got a blank reel of tape that should be plenty long enough to last the evening.  Then we can just turn it on and forget about it."  He looked down at his student.  "I was thinking that we should get started on making things as soon as possible.  Wednesday will be here before we know it.  If it's all right with your foster parents, would you mind coming home with me so that we can do some stuff today?"

Daniel smiled again.  "That would be great, Mister Greer."

Quentin called Diane, who said that it would be fine for Daniel to go home with him.  He told her that he'd have the boy back before bedtime.

On the trip home, the teacher and his student discussed how they might go about making the Anubis head.

"If I was handy with a knife, I'd say that we could get a block of styrofoam and carve the head out of it, then cover it with the papier-mache to make it stronger," Quentin said.  "It would be nice and lightweight.  But I'd probably end up carving my fingers more than the styrofoam and make a complete mess of everything."

"Maybe someone else could do it," Daniel suggested.  "You should ask Captain Carter if he knows anybody."

"You know, that might be a good idea.  I should think that someone he knows at the base would be proficient enough with a knife that they could whittle a block of styrofoam.  They'd surely be able to do it without chopping off any fingers."

Daniel glanced at his teacher, then away, chewing on his lip.  "Mister Greer, can I ask you something?"

Quentin looked over at him.  "Of course you can, Daniel."

"Are you doing the haunted house because I can't go trick-or-treating?"

Startled by the question, the teacher did not reply immediately.  He didn't think that anyone had intended for Daniel to know the motivations behind the haunted house, so the boy must have found out accidentally.

"Did someone tell you that or did you overhear it?"

"I heard Mrs. Underwood talking to Mister Underwood."  Daniel's gaze dropped to his lap.  "He thought it was silly that everyone was going to all that trouble just for me.  I don't want people to go to a lot of trouble for me."

Quentin glanced at the boy.  Upon seeing his expression and posture, the teacher found a place to pull over and stopped the car.  He put a finger under Daniel's chin and lifted the boy's head.

"Hey.  You listen to me, Daniel.  It is not too much trouble.  Yes, we did decide to do this because you can't go trick-or-treating, but it's going to be a lot of fun for all of us.  I'm looking forward to it."  Quentin looked straight into the boy's eyes.  "Don't you ever think that you're not worth having people do things for you.  This is your first Halloween, and we want you to have a good one, one that you'll always remember."

Daniel met his gaze for a long time, then, much to his surprise, leaned over and hugged him.  Quentin returned the embrace, giving the boy a tight squeeze.

"Thank you, Mister Greer.  You're the nicest teacher I've ever had . . . except for my mom and dad.  I wish you could always be my teacher."

Quentin's throat tightened.  He swallowed the lump before replying.  "Thank you, Daniel.  That is, without a doubt, the nicest thing that any student has ever said to me.  It means a lot to me."  Putting on a smile, Quentin pulled away and ruffled Daniel's hair.  "So, are we clear on that other thing?  You are worth all the trouble, and don't you forget it."

Daniel looked away, a shy smile on his face.

Half an hour later, they arrived at Quentin's home.  He was looking forward to the meeting between Daniel and his wife, certain that she'd be charmed by the boy just as he had been.  She even had an advantage over him.  When he first met Daniel, the boy wasn't talking.

"Hey, honey.  We're home," Quentin called out as they entered the house, smiling and waiting for the reaction.

"We?" came the response from the laundry room.  Kathleen came out of the room and stopped upon seeing the child beside her husband.  Then she smiled brightly.  "Well, hello there.  You must be Daniel."  She came forward.  "I've heard lots of great things about you.  It's good to finally meet you."

"It's nice to meet you, too, Mrs. Greer.  What great things?"

"Oh, about how smart you are and how nice you are, things like that."  Kathleen grinned.  "My husband is quite a fan of yours.  He thinks you're the best thing since sliced bread."

Daniel's eyes grew wider.  "He does?  He is?"  He looked up at his teacher, who was clearly more than a little embarrassed by his wife's revelation.

Quentin cleared his throat.  "How about a nice glass of juice or milk, Daniel?  I'm pretty thirsty after than long trip."

Along with milk, Daniel also got a piece of the apple pie Kathleen had baked.  As he ate it at the little breakfast table in the kitchen, the two adults went into the dining room.

"I am going to get revenge on you for that, you know," Quentin whispered to his wife.

She laughed softly.  "Oh, but you should have seen your expression.  It was priceless."  She looked over at Daniel.  "You told me all about how bright he is and how sweet he is, but you said nothing about how adorable he is.  He's going to be quite a handsome one when he grows up."

"Yes, he'll probably leave a trail of broken hearts without even knowing it.  I don't think that boy has any idea how special he is.  Oh, by the way, he knows about the reason why we're doing the haunted house."  Quentin told her about the conversation.

Kathleen frowned.  "I don't think I like his foster father very much."

"Yes, I'm afraid that he doesn't sound like a very charming fellow.  Diane Underwood seems like a nice lady, though."  Quentin's eyes went to his student.  "I'd love to have known Daniel when his parents were alive.  He was probably a very happy little boy."

"Well, I guess we'll just have to see about making him a happy little boy again, at least for Halloween."

After Daniel had finished his pie, Kathleen showed him all the things she'd purchased for the haunted house.  The boy identified each of the little statues and explained a bit about who the gods were that they represented.  Kathleen smiled over the Egyptian mythology lesson, already able to tell that her husband hadn't been exaggerating about the child's intelligence.

"So, how would you suggest that we set things up, Daniel?" Quentin asked.

"Where are we going to have the mummy?"

"Hmm.  Good question."  The teacher turned to his wife.  "The smaller spare bedroom?"

She nodded.  "That would work."

Daniel asked to see the room.  It was near the end of a hallway, to the left of the master bedroom.  The room was small, containing only a bed and a chest of drawers.

"We could take the bed out and put it in another room," Quentin said.

"Then you could put the sarcophagus right in the middle of the room," Daniel responded.

"Yes, about that sarcophagus," Kathleen said.  "How are we going to make it?  We don't have that much time, you know."

"How about a refrigerator box?" Quentin suggested.  "We could cut it down a bit, cover it with paper, and Daniel here could perform his magic on it and draw various hieroglyphs and Egyptian figures."

Kathleen nodded.  "Okay.  And the mummy?"

"Well, it is Halloween.  They have those full-size figures that you fill with air.  We could wrap one in strips from an old sheet."

"The material needs to look like it's old," Daniel said.

"Well, I don't know about making it look old, but we could certainly make it dirty.  Toss it out in the mud in the backyard and let it dry, and that should do it."

Kathleen made a face.  "Yes, and then have that dried mud all over the carpet.  I'll get some brown food coloring, add it to a bowl of water, and soak the sheet in that.  We can let it dry on the back porch."

Quentin smiled.  "Great idea.  I always knew there was more to you than just a pretty face."

"And a good thing there is, otherwise, you'd never have survived this long," Kathleen retorted.

Quentin leaned toward her.  "Oh, is that a fact, Mrs. Greer."

"Yes, it is."

He kissed her.  "You're probably right."

Daniel smiled as he watched them, thinking that they were pretty neat.  He could tell that they really loved each other a lot by the way they looked at each other and smiled at each other.  His mom and dad had looked and smiled at each other like that.

Thinking about his parents made Daniel sad, so he chose not to think about them.  "Where are you going to be in your Anubis costume?" he asked his teacher.

"Um, let me see.  Standing in the doorway of the master bedroom or the library would work.  If we kept the lights off in there, I'd be in deep shadow."

Daniel's eyes brightened.  "Library?"

Quentin chuckled.  "I was wondering how long it would take you to ask about that.  Come on.  I'll show you."

The library was directly across the hall from the spare bedroom that would be used for the sarcophagus.  Daniel gazed hungrily at all the books.  He went to one of the big bookcases and scanned the titles there, seeing some that he'd heard of, many other that he hadn't.

Also in the room was a small desk, a couple of comfortable, cushy chairs, and a love seat, and Daniel really wanted to pull down one of those books, sit in a chair, and start reading.

Guessing what the boy was thinking, Quentin laughed.  "Don't worry, Daniel.  You'll have other opportunities to go digging into my library.  I promise."

A bit reluctantly, Daniel left the room.  He looked at the master bedroom, the door of which was at the very end of the hall.

"I think you should stand in the doorway of your bedroom," he said.  "The kids will see you as they come down the hall.  If you stand really still, you'll look a little like a statue.  Then you can suddenly move and scare them."

Quentin grinned.  "Daniel, I like the way you think."

They all went back into the living room.

"Do you think that Sam and her parents might have some good ideas about the haunted house?" Daniel asked.

"They might," Quentin replied.  "Perhaps I should call them."  He got on the phone.  It was Jacob who answered.  "Captain Carter?  This is Quentin Greer, Daniel's teacher.  Daniel's at my place, and we're busy devising our plans for Halloween.  Daniel thought that you might want to be involved in the planning."

"Sure, we'd love to," Jacob replied.  "When would you like us to come over?"

"Any time.  We're going to have pizza for dinner."

All four members of the Carter clan arrived half an hour later and were filled in on what was planned so far.

"Sounds great, except for one thing," Jacob said.

"What's that?" asked Quentin.

"Well, I like the idea of having a mummy, but there's nothing really scary about a fake mummy that just lies there.  It needs to move."

"Move?  How would we do that?" Kathleen asked.

"Easy.  I'll be your mummy."

Everyone stared at him.

"You'd dress all up as the mummy?" Sam asked.

"Yep.  You could put some pillows for me to lie on in that sarcophagus you're going to make, then I can pop out of it and scare the kids."

Sam bounced on her chair.  "Oh, wow!  That would be so funny!"

Quentin laughed.  "Yes, I can see it now.  We'll have every kid who comes in here go screaming out the door."

Up until now, Mark hadn't had any interest in being part of the haunted house, wanting to go out trick-or-treating with his friends instead, but this was sounding like it was going to be a lot of fun.  He wanted to see his dad all wrapped up like a mummy.

"Can I help, too?" he asked.

Jacob and Laura looked at their son, pleased by his change of mind.

"Sure, you can," the captain answered.  "What would you like to do?"

Daniel frowned.  "We didn't get Mark a costume, Mister Greer," he said, worried.  "We should have gotten him one, too."

"That's okay, Daniel," Laura responded.  "We can figure something out."

The brainstorming began in earnest, everyone contributing thoughts and ideas.  As it turned out, Jacob did, indeed, know someone on the base that he figured would have the skill to carve a piece of styrofoam into a crude likeness of Anubis' head.

"I'll call Ralph tomorrow and ask him about it," he said.  "He's talked more than once about the things he's whittled out of wood.  We'll see how good he really is."

"We're really going to be pressed for time on that head," Quentin said.  "We need to get it early enough that we can cover it with papier-mache, let it dry, then spray paint it black.  I doubt that we'll be able to get the styrofoam before Monday.  No shop that would have blocks that big would be open on Sunday."

"How about getting smaller blocks and gluing them together?" Laura suggested.  "I know of a couple of department stores that have blocks of styrofoam in their crafts section."

Jacob nodded.  "That might work."

Kathleen smiled.  "Looks like we'll be doing some more shopping tomorrow."

By the time the Carters left that evening, there was a concrete plan for what would be done and what part each of them would have in the execution.  Kathleen would be going in the morning to shop for styrofoam, spray paint and several other things that they'd need, whereas Jacob would be seeing about trying to find a refrigerator box in good condition.  Laura would be with the kids, getting started on making things and tearing up a couple of old sheets for the mummy wrappings.  She'd volunteered to be in charge of dyeing the material to the desired brown color.  As for Quentin, he was going to be busy making the tape of spooky sounds and voices.

Needless to say, Sunday was a busy day for everyone.  Knowing that they needed to have them ready as soon as possible, Kathleen got the styrofoam blocks first and worked on glueing them together.   As soon as that was done, Jacob took them over to Captain Ralph Freeman's house, along with the statue of Anubis for him to use as a reference.  The man promised to get started on it right away.  He said that he should have it done by Monday afternoon since it was not a very complex carving job and didn't need to have much in the way of details.

"You're lucky that I'm off-duty tomorrow, Jacob," he said.  "You should hear my wife, though.  She wanted me to fix the stove."  The captain grinned.  "You saved me from that chore . . . at least for a little while."

Jacob had succeeded in getting a refrigerator box.  After Daniel pointed out that sarcophagi stood quite tall, it was decided not to cut it down.  Instead, they would pile plenty of cushions and pillows inside to make a bed high enough for Jacob to lie on and be seen when he sat up.  The sides had been covered with light brown posterboard, and Daniel was now busy drawing hieroglyphs and images on it with crayons.  There would also be a lid for the sarcophagus.

As Sam and Mark ripped two old sheets into strips, Laura had the messy job of dyeing the strips a muddy brown color and hanging them up on the clothesline.  Instead of doing it on the back porch, they'd decided to use the garage so that they wouldn't have to worry about the wind.  The clothesline had been strung from one end of the garage to the other, a thick layer of newspaper laid underneath it to catch the drips.

As Kathleen walked into her house after her second shopping trip of the day, she heard a deep voice speaking a foreign language coming from the library.  She went to the room and watched her husband from the doorway.  He was speaking into a microphone, which was attached to a cassette tape recorder.

Seeing her, Quentin stopped recording.

"That sounds pretty good," Kathleen said.

"Well, I don't know how accurate the pronunciation is.  Daniel didn't have much time last night to teach me the words.  But he's the only one who's going to recognize any mistakes I made.  I could speak complete nonsense, and, as long as it sounded like ancient Egyptian, everyone else who heard it would be convinced."  Quentin smiled.  "But you heard Daniel.  He wants me to say real words."  He shook his head.  "He didn't tell me before that he could actually speak ancient Egyptian, although he made a point of explaining that we don't really know exactly how the language sounded, that a lot of it is educated guesswork."

Kathleen also smiled.  "Hearing him last night I sometimes had a hard time believing he's only eight.  He really is quite something."

"Oh, I didn't tell you what happened at the costume shop."  Quentin recounted the incident with the employee and Daniel's explanation of all the mistakes in the costumes.  Kathleen was laughing as he finished with the description of the guy's hasty retreat.

"Well, I can certainly understand why you kept talking about how remarkable he is," she said.  She studied her husband's face.  "You haven't talked about the fact that he'll be leaving your class in only a couple of months.  How are you feeling about that?"

He paused before answering.  "I know that, educationally, it will be the best thing for him.  He could be put in the sixth grade if it wasn't for the fact that it would be terribly hard for him to cope with being so much younger than all the other kids in his class."

Kathleen came up to him.  "Quentin, I'm not asking about your views on it as an educator, I'm asking how you feel about it."

Quentin sighed.  "I'm going to miss him."

"That's what I thought."

"I've had a lot of great kids in my class over the years, but Daniel. . . .  I know I've said it before, but he's special.  He's so bright and so eager to learn.  He's constantly keeping me on my toes, trying to find ways to feed that brilliant mind of his.  I know that not all teachers would welcome that kind of challenge, but it's been great.  On top of that, he's a really sweet kid with no attitude at all when it comes to his intelligence."  Quentin met his wife's eyes.  "He told me that he wished I could always be his teacher."

Kathleen gave a sad sigh.  "Oh, Quentin.  He is going to be so sad when he's told."

"Yeah."  Quentin looked down at the recorder.  "Well, I need to get this finished, then get back to work on the other tape, the one with the haunted house sounds."

Kathleen gave him a hug and a kiss.  "Okay.  Let me know if you need anything.  I'll be in the kitchen working on my own projects for this thing."

By the end of the day, a lot had been accomplished, which was a good thing since the next day was Monday, meaning that the majority of them would either be at work or at school.

Diane decided to drive Daniel to school in the morning instead of having him ride the bus.  She knew that she was probably being silly, but she was still worried about him being exposed to cold and flu germs.  Obviously, that couldn't be completely avoided, but she figured that in the enclosed space of a bus, the threat would be higher.

Daniel was more than a little surprised by what greeted him when he entered the school grounds.

"Is it true that you got pneumonia and almost died?" a little girl asked him.

"I got pneumonia, but I didn't almost die," Daniel replied.

It was not the first question about his illness that he had to answer.  It appeared that quite a few of the children in the school were under the mistaken belief that he'd been at death's door.  Several kids, most of whom had never talked to him before, came up to Daniel, wanting to know all about it.  It was very disconcerting, and he escaped to his classroom as quickly as he could.  He had hoped to see Sam this morning and say hi, but the incessant questions made him decide that seeing her could wait till lunch.

"Well, good morning, Daniel," Quentin greeted with a smile.  Then he frowned, seeing the expression on his student's face.  "What's wrong?"

Daniel told him what happened.  "Why does everyone think I almost died?"

Quentin chuckled.  "I'm afraid that's the way it is with gossip, Daniel.  Things often get blown way out of proportion.  I wouldn't be surprised if some kids even thought that you did die."

"Really?"

"Yeah.  But don't worry about it.  Now that you're back at school and everyone can see that you're fine, this will all quiet down.  I bet that by tomorrow or the next day, not another word will be spoken about it."  Quentin smiled again.  "So, other than being pestered with questions about your illness, are you glad to be back?"

Daniel nodded.  He brought some sheets of paper up to the desk.  "Here's the book report on the American history book and all my homework.  I did a book report on The Second Jungle Book, too."

"You did?  That's great.  I'll look forward to reading it."

"Are you still going to give me a test on the history book?"

"Yes, but we'll do that later in the week.  I want to read your report first.  There's no sense in me giving you questions on points that are covered in your report."

Just then, Kenny Robinson came in.  He smiled brightly when he saw Daniel.

"You're all better!  I was worried that you wouldn't get better.  A lot of the kids said that you were so sick you might die."

"No, I was never that sick."

"I missed seeing you at lunch," the black-haired boy said a little shyly.

"I missed seeing you, too.  We can have lunch together with Sam today, if you want to.  Nathan, too."

Kenny smiled.  "Okay."

Shortly after that, the other kids in the class started coming in.  Many of them talked to Daniel, asking how he was.  Some seemed to genuinely care, which surprised Daniel and made him feel good.

Daniel enjoyed his morning back at school.  He noticed Mister Greer smiling at him every now and then, so the teacher must have been happy that he was back, too.

At lunch, Daniel, Sam, Kenny and Nathan all ate together.  Daniel kept looking at Sam throughout the meal, searching for some sign that she was upset or jealous, but she seemed to be enjoying herself as much as he was.  He made an extra effort to make sure that he talked to her at least as much as the two boys and included her in every conversation.

After class ended for the day, Mister Greer called Daniel up to his desk.

"You'll be coming home with me today, if that's all right with you," the teacher said.  "I called your foster mother, and she said it was fine.  We're supposed to get that Anubis head this afternoon, and I figured that you'd like to help papier-mache it."

Daniel smiled.  "Okay.  That would be great.  Can Sam come, too?"

"She could if I'd cleared it with her parents, but it would be too late now.  She's probably already heading for the bus."

"I know which bus she takes.  I can go get her."

Quentin nodded with a smile.  "Okay, go see if you can catch her."

Daniel ran off to find Sam.  She was a few feet from the bus when he spied her.

"Sam, wait!" he called.

She stopped and turned to him.  "What's wrong?"

Daniel explained to her about him going home with Mister Greer.  "Would you like to help with the papier-mache?"

"Yeah, that would be great!  But I'm supposed to go home on the bus."

"We can call your mom and tell her."

"Okay."

The kids went back inside and to Daniel's classroom.  Quentin took them to a phone, and Sam called her mom, telling her what was going on.  She gave her permission for Sam to go to the teacher's house with Daniel.

As it turned out, Captain Freeman had finished the Anubis head and was going to be bringing it over soon, so Quentin went to the Carters' house with the kids to pick it up.

"Well, here it is," Laura said, lifting the head.

Not surprisingly, Daniel was the first one to make a move to take it.  He studied it carefully.

"So?  How'd he do?" Quentin asked.

"It's good.  The ears are shorter than they should be, but only a little bit."  Daniel turned it upside down and looked at the hollowed out area.  "Is it going to fit you?"

"I sure hope so.  Let's see."

Quentin took the Anubis head and slipped it over his head.  It settled onto his shoulders a bit snugly, and he figured that it would need more hollowing out on the inside.  There were no eye holes yet, so he couldn't see a thing, and little bits of styrofoam were getting inside his nose, making him want to sneeze.  He removed the head, brushing pieces from his hair and face.

"It's a little tight, but I think we can fix that ourselves," he told the others.

"It needs holes for your eyes," Sam said.

"Yes, we'll have to do that ourselves after it's covered in the papier-mache."  Quentin turned to Laura.  "Thank Captain Freeman for this.  It'll work beautifully."

The teacher and the two kids went on over to his house.  This time, Kathleen knew that Daniel was coming.  She didn't know about Sam, however.

"First one kid, now two," she said with a smile.  "I expect you'll be bringing the entire school next time."

"No, that won't be till Halloween," Quentin told her with a twinkle in his eyes.

"Quentin, you had better hope that we don't get your entire school coming to our house that night.  Otherwise, you, mister, are going to be hiring a maid service to clean the place afterwards.  I'm tempted to have you do that anyway."

Quentin's expression turned thoughtful.  "Hmm.  Do any of them wear those cute little maid outfits with the short, frilly. . . ."  He noted the look on his wife's face.  "Well!  Come on, kids.  We need to get busy on this Anubis head."

Quentin managed to make the hole for his head bigger without severing any digits.  They then got to work on making the papier-mache paste.  Having never done it before, Daniel watched carefully as Sam mixed the ingredients.

As was usually the case when working with papier-mache, neither the children nor the work area remained clean.  The adults stood back and simply watched as Daniel and Sam covered the styrofoam head with strips of paper . . . and themselves with the paste, the sound of giggles frequently filling the room.

As the last strip of paper was put in place, Sam, grinning wickedly, took her dripping hands and planted them right on Daniel's face.  The boy let out a surprised squawk.  He stared at his friend for about five seconds . . . then plopped his hands on her face.

With a squeal, Sam dipped into the paste mixture, picked up a glob, and splatted it on Daniel's nose.  He did likewise.

Seeing a disaster brewing, Quentin rushed forward to prevent the kitchen from being turned into an abstract art gallery of papier-mache paste.  His timing was a wee bit off, however, and he ended up with a blob of paste right in the middle of his chest.

Both kids gasped, then held their breath, worried that he'd get mad.  Quentin looked down at the paste oozing down the front of his shirt.

"Go out on the back porch, please," he said calmly.

Now really worried, the kids did as they were told.  Quentin came out a moment later.  He was carrying the bowl of paste.

"So, what are we going to do about this situation?" he asked.

"We're really sorry, Mister Greer!" Sam exclaimed.  "It was an accident."

"Oh, I know it was, Sam.  However . . ." he scooped his hand into the bowl, "this isn't!"  With that, he flung the handful of paste right at Sam, hitting her square in the chest.

It didn't take long for the contents of the bowl to decorate Daniel, Sam and Quentin from head to toe.  Kathleen was laughing so hard her sides hurt as she watched the three of them chasing each other around the backyard with handfuls of the gooey stuff.  She almost toppled over, breathless from laughter when, in the end, her husband found himself wearing the nearly empty bowl on his head, courtesy of Sam.

The three dripping, sticky people came walking up to her.  Quentin looked her up and down.

"You, my dear, are entirely too clean."  With a meaningful look, he scooped off some of the paste adorning his hair.

Kathleen backed up, holding her hands out before her defensively.  "Don't you dare!"

Quentin paid no attention to her words, and the paste went flying to go splat on her neck.

"Get her!" he cried.

Daniel and Sam dashed forward with messy hands and bodies.  Kathleen shrieked and ran away into the yard.  Her retreat was futile.

Ten minutes later, the four very messy people went into the house.

"No one steps a foot on the carpet until they're clean," Kathleen commanded.  She went into the laundry room and got a change of clothes for herself and her husband from what she'd washed that afternoon.  What the kids were going to wear was tougher.  She picked out a couple of Quentin's T-shirts, figuring that they'd have to do.

"Okay, Sam and I get to wash up and change first," she said, glad that there was a sink in the laundry room.

As the girls washed and changed, Quentin looked around at the mess in the kitchen and on the floors.

"Me thinks that we're going to be doing a bit of house cleaning after we're changed," he muttered.

"I'm sorry we made such a mess, Mister Greer," Daniel said.

"It's okay, Daniel.  Doing papier-mache is never a mess-free thing," he chuckled, "although I wasn't expecting a war to break out."

Daniel smiled.  "That was fun."

"Yes, it was, but we're going to have to put your pants and shirt in the washer.  I don't think your foster mother would appreciate you being sent home with dried on paste all over your clothes."

Daniel studied his teacher.  "You're a lot different from Mister Underwood."

"Oh?  In what way?"

"You play with us and do things with us, like my dad did and like Captain Carter does."

"And your foster father doesn't?"

Daniel shook his head.  "After he gets home from work, he just watches TV, or reads the newspaper, or fixes up his old car."

Sadly, Quentin was not surprised.  "Does he ever hug you or anything like that?"

"No.  I don't think he's very interested in kids."

The teacher sighed.  The one thing Daniel needed above all else was love, and he ended up in a household in which one adult was completely uninterested in the kids under his care.

When Sam and Kathleen emerged from the laundry room, it was with relatively clean, damp hair, clean bodies and clean clothes.  Quentin's T-shirt came well past the little girl's knees.

"Your turn," Kathleen said.

A while later, with everyone clean, all the paste-spattered clothes were stuck in the washer.

Kathleen looked around at the mess.  "You know where the mop and bucket are, Quentin," she said, her tone telling him that he'd be the one mopping the floor.

And that's what he did.  As he took care of the floor, the two kids cleaned the kitchen table while Kathleen rinsed the bowl the paste had been in and the utensils used to mix the stuff.  The Anubis head had been placed in the laundry room sink, where it would dry without making more of a mess.

Once the place was clean, they all retired to the living room with glasses of soda pop.

"Do you think the one layer of papier-mache will be enough?" Kathleen asked.

"It'll have to be," Quentin replied.  "It will take several hours for it to dry, and we still need to paint it.  I doubt that one coat of paint will be enough.  Tomorrow's the last full day we have for doing everything.  I'll have to put the first coat on before I go to class in the morning and the second coat after I get home."

"I can do the second coat if it needs it," Kathleen said.

"What about the eyes?" Sam asked.

"I guess we'll have to cut those out tomorrow afternoon, then do a bit of touching up on the paint."

As they waited for the kids' clothes to get finished in the washer and dryer, they all worked on other things for the haunted house.

"Maybe I can come over tomorrow and help some more," Daniel said hopefully as the time came for him and Sam to go home.

Both Quentin and Kathleen smiled.

"We'd like that," the woman said.

"Can I come over, too?" Sam asked.

"Sure, if your parents say you can," Quentin answered.

The teacher dropped Daniel off first, then went to the base.

"So, how did it go?" Jacob asked the teacher.

"Fine, very, very messy, but fine.  We'll be finishing up the Anubis head tomorrow, and there are still a few other things to do as well.  I'll be bringing Daniel home with me again after school.  Sam said that she'd like to join us, if it's all right with you."

"Sure, I don't see why not.  And if you need more help, give us a call in the evening, and the rest of us will come over."

"Will do."

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