Building Baby Brother (continued)

A few hours later, after getting Josh finally to bed, I settled myself at my desk with the intent to pay the bills and deal with other household-related recordkeeping. I glanced at the clock and saw that it was a bit later than I had anticipated. It’s amazing how many excuses (and other delaying tactics) young children will resort to rather than simply close their eyes and go to sleep. It’s probably not as astonishing that there comes a moment when you turn away and then look back to find their head against the pillow and their eyes closed.

I considered putting this off for one more night, but knew that there was no guarantee that the next night would necessarily be any better than this one.

Might as well get it done. Most of these people do like to get paid on time.

I wasn’t really in the mood for music, so I turned on the small television that sat on a low cabinet across from my desk. There really wasn’t anything in particularly that I wanted to watch; I just wanted it as background white noise. I’ve never been comfortable with the house being completely quiet at night.

The screen lit up with a scene from a graphic and bloody police procedural series.

I can catch the late news if I want to see that . . .

I changed the channel. Again. And then again. By this point, I despaired at finding any programming that was not an adult drama or some sort or else comedians-cum-talk show hosts chatting about the latest geopolitical happenings with sparkling celebrities who also dropped in to discuss their latest motion picture, television series, or stint in rehab.

My fingers paused on the remote control when I caught sight of a small doe-eyed boy moving the blue-tinged darkness across a moonlit hillside. I recognized it as a scene from the last movie that Kubrick had done, the one that Spielberg had finished. While it was not among my favorite movies, it would serve as more than adequate for my needs that night.