Ethan and Josh's first holiday with their new family doesn't go quite as planned.
Ethan and Josh stood just behind JJ's legs. It had only been a month since they had come to live with their new guardians; Josh had only been out of hospital for three weeks and only allowed out and about for the last ten days. The boys hadn't even started school yet but Simon and JJ, working with the boys doctor and counsellor, had decided to wait until after the Easter holiday before attempting to pass that milestone.
The two boys had to deal with a lot of upheaval in four short weeks. First they were rescued, then Ethan moved in with the young couple while Josh was in the hospital. Josh had been released from the hospital and also moved out to the farmhouse with them. They'd both had to get used to living in a proper house and interacting with their new older brother Tobi. They seemed to like him well enough, but were still learning to trust him. All that was more than enough for two small, traumatised boys to deal with in just four weeks.
It was the Thursday before Easter. Ethan had informed everyone that the next day was 'Good Friday' but he wasn't sure why it was good. Callux had told them that today was called Maundy Thursday. Why it was called that was apparently not important for small boys to worry about. Simon, JJ and all some of their friends didn't have to work on Friday and the boys had been promised a long weekend of fun. Simon had asked one of the guys who looked after the horses to give them a lesson. When he'd first heard the house came with horses, he'd meant to sell them straight away, but then JJ had thought they were cool and then Tobi had come along and thought they were awesome, and now the two seven year olds thought they were the best thing in the world. There was also to be an Easter egg hunt and on Sunday, they were promised a feast.
They had taken the boys into a nearby town for some food. They had greatly enjoyed their lunch with their new guardians and their friends at the Chinese restaurant, before spending the afternoon at a local day care centre with Tobi. JJ had come up to collect them early. He hated to admit it, but he missed the little ones when they weren't around, particularly the little chestnut haired one who seemed to almost match JJ for craziness.
"Hi guys, we're here," JJ announced as he walked into the YouTube headquarters in London. "Where's Simon?" he asked, knowing Josh and Ethan would be anxious to see their guardian and saviour as soon as they got there, and more than a little surprised to see that he wasn't there to greet them.
"He was called up to see someone" Deji informed him. "Said he wouldn't be long."
JJ looked down at Josh, who looked crestfallen. "Hey, none of that. He'll be back soon. Come on and sit over here."
He lead the two boys over to a waiting area with rather cluttered but kid-friendly desk while Tobi ran over to one of the pool tables to watch a game. "Now, what would you like to do to pass the time?"
Ethan frowned, then turned to Josh and whispered in his ear. Josh smiled then nodded.
"We made cards in that care place today," Ethan began to explain. "For Mr Cal and Mr Deji. Can we give them out?"
"We made cards for you too," Josh explained quickly.
"But we want to give them to you on Sunday, when it's the real Easter," Ethan finished.
"Well, you know all the guys are coming over to the farmhouse on Sunday, to watch football, remember?"
Josh chewed his lip, then looked at Ethan. There was another whispered conversation, before two sets of big eyes looked back at JJ. "We wanna do it now," Ethan announced solemnly.
"Well alright, you go ahead."
The two boys headed off towards Callux, who was just chatting with an up and coming vlogger.
"Hi," the boys greeted in unison.
"Hi boys, you had a good day?" Cal responded, excusing himself from the conversation so he could face the boys more easily and bend down to their level.
"Uh huh, we made you something," Ethan told him. "Both of us together."
"Well that's very kind of you."
Josh pulled off his Pokemon backpack and pulled out the card they had made. It was in the form of large egg, covered in hundreds of small balls of scrunched up tissue paper, forming bands of bright colours. On the inside, Ethan had written 'HAPPY EASTER MR CAL FROM ETHAN AND' then Josh had added his name in his more hesitant hand.
"Wow boys!" Cal gushed. "That looks sick! That's much better than what I could ever do."
"It's for Miss Sarah as well," Josh added solemnly.
Cal smiled. "And she'll love it, I promise you. Now..." Cal lowered himself down even lower and whispered to the boys.
JJ had been watching from a distance, but confident that the boys were in good hands and enjoying themselves, he let them be. He was vaguely aware that the boys had moved around to the small cafe, sometime seeing them coming back out of the room with Deji, both grinning happily.
By the time Simon walked back into the waiting area, the boys were standing in front of Cal's laptop, playing an Easter egg hunt game he'd found on the internet.
"Hi boys!" he greeted.
Josh instantly abandoned his game and ran to Simon, who for his part dropped the plastic bag he was holding onto the corner of the closest table, and scooped up the slight boy - backpack and all - into his arms.
"Wow, you're getting heavy," he commented. "You got bricks in that bag?"
Josh grinned, then shook his head.
"Ready to go home?"
This time Josh nodded. Every time Simon said that word 'home' it gave him a wonderful warm feeling. In those months living in an shopping centre, and before that living on the streets and in the group home, eating out of rubbish bins, trying to look after Ethan, all he wanted was a real home, with someone to look after him and make him feel safe. In his imagination, it was a home in the country, far away from the madness of the city. Now all his dreams had come true.
...
On Saturday the weather was kind to them, it was dry and sunny, though cold. They went riding. Tobi was confident enough to ride on his own now and charged off ahead of them. Ethan rode on Neil in front of one of the stable hands, Josh rode, albeit on a lead rein, on Illuminate, a black, blaze faced pony of about fourteen hands. The horse had rarely been ridden since Simon had moved in and turned out to be something of a 'character', but he and Josh had made a connection and in just two weeks the two were firm friends.
In the afternoon, as it got darker and colder, they retreated inside to toast marshmallows over the open log fire, play games and watch movies. Finally, the boys were tucked up in bed, bathed and fed and happy. JJ sat on the floor beside the two beds and read Matilda, while Simon leaned against the wall and just listened, enjoying the sights and sounds before him. JJ had always been the storyteller. Simon used to read to his nephew; having the boys in the house kept bringing back memories of the boy and his older brother, but though these memories were often emotional, they were not painful.
...
Sunday morning - Easter Day - the boys ran into the kitchen when they were called to breakfast, cards in hand. Ethan's card was clearly a bunny; it was neatly made with grey tissue paper, with a pale blue collar, white tail, pink nose and black eye. Remembering the neatly made egg cards the boys had given out on Thursday, it was clear to JJ who had done most of the work on those ones. Clearly the boy had something of an artistic streak.
"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.
"You can have one egg each now, one this afternoon and one this evening," Simon told the two seven year olds. Each egg was 30g and there was no way they were letting the boys eat over 200g of chocolate each.
Josh picked out a blue egg and Ethan a red. Both boys eagerly peeled off the foil and popped the eggs into their mouths. Then they watched cartoons while JJ did some work on his computer and Simon began to cook the lunch: lamb chops followed by apple pie - made the day before by young Zoe.
The food was cleared away just as Deji and Callux arrived to watch the big football game on TV. Cal, though interested in the outcome, was distracted enough to leave the TV and play with the boys, showing them some simple magic tricks he'd learnt as a boy. The first sign something was wrong was when the game was over and Simon produced the chocolate cake Cal had brought with him.
Ethan played with his cake, not really eating it. Josh began to eat his, but little by little he slowed up, until he was just sitting there looking at it. JJ and Simon looked from one boy to the other.
"Hey there kiddo, you not hungry? I thought you liked chocolate cake?" JJ asked Ethan.
Ethan looked up at JJ, and instantly his foster father knew something was wrong, the boy was positively grey.
"Ethan? You feel sick?" JJ asked, fear creeping into his voice.
Ethan nodded, his hand coming up to his face. JJ didn't stop to think, he stood, grabbed Ethan and began to run for the bathroom; he almost made it, got within three feet of the door before Ethan's stomach rebelled. The inevitable smell wafted back to the others in the living room. Deji, having anticipated this and the possible consequences had dashed for the kitchen, grabbed a plastic bowl just managing to get it under Josh's chin, before he too, lost the contents of his stomach. In the next hour both boys vomited several more times, the mess was cleaned up, the air refreshed and all the food put out of sight.
...
Finally the boys were snuggled up on the sofa and chair respectively with their new fathers, sipping water, and looking very sorry for themselves.
"What do you think guys?" Simon asked. "Should we take them to the hospital?"
Cal pulled the thermometer out of Ethan's ear. "Well, they both check out fine, so I think it's just too much chocolate and all the excitement."
"We've only let them have one small chocolate egg so far," JJ pointed out. Then he looked at Ethan. "Ethan, did you two eat all the others eggs you found?"
"No," Ethan said, but there was something in the way he said it that set alarm bells ringing.
"Ethan?"
"We didn't eat the eggs we found, honest."
Disgusting as it was to think about it, the physical evidence did indicate chocolate.
"Little man?" Simon asked Josh. "Did you have some other chocolate?"
Josh looked at Simon and then at Deji, but said nothing.
"Josh?"
"Si," Deji spoke up. "I gave the boys some chocolate."
JJ and Simon's heads shot up and looked at their friend. "You?" JJ asked. "When?"
"At HQ on Thursday, sorry. You see Thorntons had these chocolate Easter cards, you could have any name you want put on them, I got them one each, with their names. Sorry."
"How big was this bar of chocolate?"
"About 200g," Deji admitted.
JJ looked back at Ethan. "Did you eat the chocolate Deji gave you?" Ethan nodded. "Well, I guess that much chocolate is a lot for a little guy."
"Um, it may have been more like 400g of chocolate," Cal admitted.
"Not you too?" Simon asked.
"I have a friend in Paris, we were talking and I mentioned the boys. She offered to send me some Easter chocolates for them, there's a shop near where she lives - they make these boxes of chocolate chicks and ducklings."
"How many chicks and ducks are we talking here?" Simon asked.
"Eight to a box, I think."
"And how big are these things?"
"About 5cm high, each box weights about 250g."
Simon looked at Josh; "Did you two eat Deji's chocolates as well as Cal's?"
Josh nodded sadly.
"Oh shi...damn."
Tobi cleared his throat. "Oh no, not you too," Simon exclaimed.
The boy smiled sheepishly. "Sorry Dad, I might have gotten them a Lindt chocolate bunny each. I saved up my pocket money, I just wanted to give them something."
"Don't tell me, 200g?"
"Near enough," Tobi admitted.
Simon looked at his friends and son. "That's very kind of you Tobi, just tell us next time, okay?" he said gently to the nine year old. "We will talk about this tomorrow," he warned the others, and for once his glare was matched by JJ's.
"I think I speak for all of us, when I say we're very sorry," Cal assured.
"We'll talk about it tomorrow," Simon reiterated. "Now I think it's time these boys had some sleep."
...
As a very guilty duo left the house, two rather miserable boys were put to bed.
"Is Mr Cal in trouble?" Ethan asked.
"Not really," JJ assured. "We just need to get some rules sorted out, so this doesn't happen again."
"Boys, I know chocolate is nice, but I hope you remember this day. Too much chocolate isn't such a good idea," Simon said softly.
"You know guys," JJ continued. "You're safe here with us, no one is going to steal your chocolate."
Ethan looked up at JJ with huge blue eyes. "We know, but everyone told us it was special Easter chocolate."
Simon shook his head. "They meant you couldn't eat it until Easter, not that you had to eat it all at Easter."
"Oh." Ethan smiled up at the men. "I feel okay now."
"We know you do kid, but it's bedtime. Tomorrow, we can start again. Love you."
"'K. Love you."
The two moved to stand next to the other bed and looked at Josh, snuggled under the duvet with the blue cat in his hand. "You okay?" Simon asked.
"Yep."
"You know where we are if you need us?"
Josh nodded.
"No one is angry with you or Ethan, okay? It was just a misunderstanding."
"I know," Josh whispered. "Don't be mad at Mr Deji, Mr Cal and Tobi please."
"I'm not really mad at them, I know they were only trying to be nice to you, too. They really care about you guys," Simon assured.
"We know."
"Good boy, now you get some sleep. Love you."
"Love you too Simon."
JJ kissed both of them goodnight then stood up and smiled at them. "Night little monkeys."
"Night."
Ethan was already asleep, so Simon just smiled down at him as he whispered, "Sweet dreams, Ethan."
Once out of the room, leaving the night-light on, the two men stood and looked at each other for a long time. Both had heard Josh call Simon 'Simon' with no 'Mr' in front of it. This was the first time he'd ever done that. Ethan called JJ plain 'JJ' on occasion, more and more often in fact, he'd even called Simon, 'Simon' a few times, but Josh was more cautious.
"He..." Simon began.
"I heard babe," JJ assured.
Tears welled up in Simon's eyes.
"I..."
"Yeah, I know, come on, I think we owe ourselves a drink, a real drink. Might even have some more of that cake, it is an Easter cake after all and it is still Easter."
Had to write this after seeing Easter eggs filling up the shops already XD