CHAPTER 5

         Time in the house was just as noisy.

         “Listen to me, Momma!”

         “My turn! Look!”

         “You don’t pay any attention to what I say!” 

         Momma and Papa talked. “Maybe we should divide all attention time the same. It would be equal. It would be fair. We don’t want our children to think we’re not fair,” he said. “After all, that’s our name!”

         Papa went out and bought a timer. “Each child will get 15 minutes of devoted time with us, where we will pay close attention to you.”

         “County gets 15 minutes of undivided attention with us,” Momma explained. “Then it’s Bus’s turn, followed by Itznot and then Exact.”

         County was embarrassed by having his Momma and Papa staring at him. “Well, what do you want to say?” asked Papa. “How was your day?”

         “This is your time, County,” said Momma, trying to ignore the sounds made by the other children in another room. (Bus had started screaming.)

         “Well,” began County finally, “there’s this kid at school that has been bullying me. You see, yesterday he...”

         BUZZ! went the timer.

         “he...”

         “I’m sorry, County, but your time is up. We must go to Bus. We must be equal, we must be fair.”

         It was hard for Momma to leave County’s room, with County looking so dejected on the bed.

         Bus was still screaming when Momma and Papa found her. “What’s wrong?” asked Momma.

         “I fell off my bed and I have a bloody nose. But you didn’t come!” Bus cried.

         There was blood on the floor. On the pillow. On the bed. On Bus’s shirt and face and hands.

         “Oh, I’m sorry! But it was County’s time.” explained Papa. “You must wait your turn.”

         Momma helped Bus to stop the nose bleed. She had just started to clean the pillow when...

         BUZZ! went the timer.

         “I guess I’ll have to clean this later. Your time is up.”

         “But it’s still all yucky!” whined Bus.

         “I’m sorry, Bus, but your time is up. We must go to Itznot. We must be equal, we must be fair.”

         Since Bus wasn’t screaming anymore, it was easy to hear Exact’s cries. Momma knew what the cries meant. Exact had a dirty diaper. But it wasn’t Exact’s time, it was Itznot’s turn to get attention.

         Itznot had fallen asleep.

         “Wake up, Itznot. It’s your time for attention,” Papa said, as he shook Itznot’s shoulder. Momma could still hear Exact crying.

         Itznot woke up, having only slept five minutes. He began to run around the room, full of new energy. He ran down the hall, and out the back door. Papa ran after him.

         Momma closed her eyes and let out a sigh. “I just know he’ll now be up for another four hours.” Momma had had enough.