Page 53 of Abundant Moon
Chapter 29
SUNDAY, APRIL 19TH
By the time Ben, Evan, and the kids made it outside to greet their returning packmates, the parking area was filled with well-wishers. Soon, the rumble of a moving van and car announced the arrival of Tom and Linda Kilburn and their three Beta sons: thirteen year old Dale, ten year old Warren, and eight year old Arlo. With the Kalkaska branch of Natural Homes now being run by Jarrod Hunter, the Kilburns were free to return to Gladstone and their beloved pack. Cheers and clapping filled the air as the vehicles rounded the last bend and they parked in the nearest spaces.
As Tom’s niece, Katrine, Mandy, and the girls stood ready to greet them first. Hugs, tears, and laughter reigned as they got reacquainted, often talking over one another in their excitement. To sweeten Tom’s new position as part owner of the company, his family would be moving into a new home – one of the eight houses to be built at Westside this season. For now, they were housed in one of the empty Quads, with their belongings stored in another.
The greeting party finally broke up, leaving only those who volunteered to help lift and carry. The moving van backed up to the Quads and the procession began. Tom directed those carrying unneeded furniture or boxes to one structure, while Linda oversaw the one they would be living in. It wasn’t ideal, and not nearly enough room for all of them. At least everyone got their own bedroom and Linda had a serviceable kitchen at her disposal. They’d have been willing to put up with much worse for the joy of returning to Gladstone.
Nolan and Garret volunteered to follow Tom into town to return the truck and bring him back. In the meantime, Linda gave the boys a chance to claim their preferred rooms and then sent them on a run with some of the other children and adults. Meanwhile, she and several of the women set about unpacking the essentials and making beds. Perdy and Michelle, who knew Linda best, brought over groceries to fill the small kitchen.
The quad’s shared living/dining room quickly became cramped with empty boxes and extraneous household goods. These were shuttled next door into storage while they found creative ways to fit in a table and chairs, along with the entertainment system and just enough comfortable furnishings to provide everyone a seat. After two hours of labor and lots of help, the place morphed into the Kilburns new, temporary, domicile. With suppertime approaching, Ben invited the family to dine with them and then enjoy dessert with some of the newest members of the pack.
####
EVAN WASN’T USED TOentertaining crowds of this size - thankful the influx of new guests only came for dessert. Cody had assembled three large serving trays with a variety of cookies, brownies, mini cheesecakes, and fruit pocket pies served buffet style. Besides his own family, Lance, and the Kilburns, the guests included Cody, Abigail, and Perry; Katrine, Mandy and the girls; Ash and Robert; and Jack, William and the twins. Linda and Lance were beside themselves with so many babies to hold and spoil.
Inevitably, the littlest ones became the focus of the evening. Even so, Ben and Evan’s children were having a ball interacting with Dale, Warren, and Arlo. Eventually, Lance volunteered to read books and they all gathered round to listen while the adults conversed. Perry, now almost five months old, proved to be a walking, grabbing, babbling black tornado on feet. Nothing remained safe from his attention, including your plate, as Robert found out the hard way.
Noel and Holly weren’t up to Perry’s standard of chaos, but they were inching closer to it each day. Everything went directly in the mouth and they were growing like weeds, as all shifter children did. Bringing them to the shop remained the biggest challenge, and they’d been forced to covert a storage area off the kitchen into a gated playroom. If customers needed help, Katrine put down her brush to watch over the girls until Mandy relieved her. For them, it quickly became an untenable arrangement.
Jack and William kept a sharp eye on the nearly month-old twins as they were passed around the room. Attentive and happy, Marie and Kiah loved to be held and scent all the new people in their orbit. Given the age of their parents, pack members were uncertain how Jack and William would adjust to parenthood. So far, they’d proved all the doubters wrong and acted as though they done it all before. The wild card in their situation was Robyn.
Many people expected her to suffer regret and move back in with Jack and William to help raise the children. It hadn’t happened yet, and according to Jack, never would. Triad and Honor mates were still unfamiliar concepts, and Jack patiently waited for his packmates to accept the unusual conditions exactly as he’d described. Robyn experienced a smooth transition back to her old life, showing the same level of interest in the twins’ welfare as anyone else. Jack believed that once Triad and Honor Mates became commonplace, no one would think the arrangements unusual in the least.
The evening wound down and the new parents prepared to head home for the bedtime routine. Before anyone got away, Katrine brought up a subject she and Mandy wanted Ben to address.
“I can’t speak for anyone else, but Mandy and I need daycare and eventually a school. Have you given it any thought?”
Each parent in the room nodded in agreement, eager to hear Ben’s answer. He smiled at Evan, recalling their recent conversation on the subject.
“I’m glad you brought it up, Katrine. We need both, and it’s time to address the issue. I’ll post a notice for a meeting on Tuesday night for feedback. Evan, Lance and I have already been kicking around some ideas I think you’ll like.”
####
BY THE END OF THE WEEK, Ben had held two open meetings and picked the brains of anyone with teaching or childcare experience – including Lance, Evan, his mother-in-law, Julia, and a dozen other Alphas with large packs. With so many little ones, the need became obvious, yet an even larger number of older children meant they needed a school as well. Michigan allowed for home schooling - the only practical option for shifters. However, not all parents were qualified to instruct their children and the costs of curriculum were prohibitive for many families.
Ben waited until the kids were in bed to share his plans with Evan and Lance. They made perfect sounding boards, providing honest feedback for his ideas. The couple sat together on the couch with Lance facing them in the comfy recliner.
“I agree with our people - we need both a daycare and a school. There’s nothing in this year’s budget for a new building, so I propose we use the two empty Quads instead. I wanted to remodel them this year for guest housing, but it can wait. We’ll charge a reasonable fee for the daycare, though the pack will subsidize for those who can’t afford it. Hours will depend on which families are using it, but I suspect seven to five-thirty should cover most of our parents’ schedules.”
Lance leaned forward to ask a question, scent revealing a measure of concern and dread.
“Who did you choose to head up the daycare?”
Ben knew what he might be thinking and brought the matter right out into the open.
“Let me ask this first – do you want the job?”
Lance blushed at being called out, though it saved him from dancing around the issue.
