Our Boys

Easter Gifts

"Wow kiddo, that is an amazing easter bunny!"

"I wrote on the back too," Ethan told him.

JJ turned the card over. It read 'HAPPY EASTER MR JJ WE LOVE YOU'. A lump formed in JJ's throat, he had to fight to stop tears forming.

"I love you too Ethan," he finally managed to say.

Simon's card was a chick, or at least Simon guessed it was, since it was hard to tell. There was a mass of yellow tissue paper all over it, in places it was scrunched into little balls, in other places the 'balls' were not so scrunched, some were barely attached. There was a random black ball, which he took for an eye, on the edge some orange paper that was presumably a beak. It was clearly made with love though.

"This is great Josh, I can see how much work that took, you must have worked very hard on that." Simon was pleased to see Josh smile as he turned it over. Josh's writing was noticeably worse than Ethan's, although both boys skills were poor, and even though he had almost certainly copied the letters, he'd reversed some letters and misspelled Easter. 'HAPPY ESATER MR SIMON LOVE FROM JOSH AND ETHAN' none of the mistakes mattered to Simon, it was what was there in the words that counted. "I love my Easter card Josh." He bent down and kissed the boy on the top of the head.

Tobi had the honour of having the only joint made card, which was cleverly designed in the form of a maze with an egg at the centre, which the nine year old thought was very cool. Inside it read 'HAPPY EASTER TOBI! THANK YOU FOR LETTING US BE YOUR LITTLE BROTHERS! LOVE YOU.' The boy would never admit it, but both fathers could see the lump that formed in his throat as he read the words.

Unfortunately, the day was cold, with harsh sleet raining down. Typical British weather. The Easter egg hunt the men had planned had to be quickly reorganised for inside the house. This meant telling the boys to stay in their room for a little while after breakfast.

"But why?" Ethan asked.

He and Josh had been awake for some hours before Simon came to their room to find them. He didn't want to go back in there to wait some more.

"It's a secret kiddo, but a good one, I promise." JJ managed to pick up the two underweight boys and head for the bedroom, it was the only thing to do, once Ethan got into a 'but why?' cycle of questions.

Simon knelt down beside a curious Tobi. "Can you keep them from peeking? It'll spoil all the fun if you peek."

Tobi beamed, he basked in his dad's trust in him, and in the responsibility he was given.

"We won't look," he assured.

Some fifteen minutes later the men took them to the to living room. "Right," JJ began. "somewhere in this house the Easter Bunny had hidden sixteen eggs. These are not chickens eggs, these eggs are wrapped in bright shiny paper, in lots of different colours, all you guys have to do, is find them."

"But there are no eggs in our bedrooms, there are none on or in my desk, none in any place you're not allowed to go and none anywhere too high for Ethan to reach - okay? Simon assured them.

"Can we start looking now?" Josh asked.

"Sure, go for it!"

The three boys ran around the house like little mice. Some of the foil wrapped chocolate eggs they found quickly, others took longer. JJ and Simon helped by calling 'warmer' or 'cooler' when they got stuck. Tobi took his new big brother role seriously and let the younger boys get to the egg even if he'd spotted it first, only taking one for himself. Josh was more methodical than Ethan and when the last egg was found, he had ten eggs to Ethan's five. Even before Ethan's bottom lip began to quiver he offered to share the reward equally.