Page 38 of The Bachelor's Dilemma

By ten o’clock, Zack had tired of playing in his room, didn’t want to watch cartoons, and yelled at Anna that he wanted Myles to play with.

She put him on time-out for five minutes for yelling at her, but felt sorry for the little guy. She wouldn’t mind Myles stopping by to visit herself.

In desperation, Anna bundled him up, and they went to the grocery store. The closest one didn’t have all the things she wanted, but she bought two full bags of groceries, including chocolate chips. She and Zack could bake cookies when they got home. It beat having him drive her crazy.

“Hello, Anna, dear,” Edith said, coming around the end of the aisle and seeing the Tuckers.

“Edith, how are you?” Anna looked sharply at her neighbor and babysitter. The older woman looked pale.

“Not feeling so well. I’m sure I’ll bounce back and be right as rain tomorrow. Oh, dear,” she said with a slight grimace. “Rain today isn’t so right.”

“I wish you’d told me you needed something from the store—it would have saved you coming out in this nasty weather,” Anna said. “Can I help you home with your things?”

“I bought plenty of soup. Just in case. If I’m not better in the morning, you may need to make other arrangements for Zack. I don’t want him to get sick.”

“Don’t worry about that. You concentrate on getting well. Let me help.”

Anna carried the bag with Edith’s soup cans, plus her own items. Zack was subdued, and Anna hoped he was being attentive to her situation and not coming down with something himself.

“Thank you, dear,” Edith said when they reached her apartment. “I’ll just put the food away and then lie down.”

“No, you go lie down now. I’ll put things away and make you some of this soup. When did you eat last?”

“I couldn’t eat anything earlier. A small cup of soup sounds nice about now,” the older woman said, taking off her raincoat and laying it across the back of her sofa.

Anna knew she was sick. Edith was fastidious about caring for her things. Normally, she’d never put a wet raincoat over her sofa.

Anna hung it up to dry in the kitchen and quickly put away the few items Edith had purchased. She then prepared a cup of soup for her and carried it into her bedroom.

“Here you go,” she said. Edith had already changed into a nightgown and was beneath her covers.

“Thank you. I shall be fine in short order,” the older woman said. She still looked pale.

“Maybe not. Even if you are, you won’t want to watch Zack tomorrow. I’ll see if I can find another sitter, or stay home with him myself.”

The fact her child-care provider didn’t argue showed Anna how sick she truly was.

“Do you need anything else?” Anna asked, resisting the urge to feel her forehead to see if she had a fever.

“I’ll be fine.”

“Well, I’ll check back later.”

“Thank you, Anna, you run along now.”

Her lids were already dropping. Anna waited long enough for her to finish the soup and took the cup.

“You were a good boy, Zack,” she said when she entered the kitchen and found her son gazing out the rain drenched window.

She was proud of how well he could behave when the chips were down.

“Is Edith going to die?” he asked, looking worried.

“No, honey, not for a long, long time. She’s just a little sick. Come on, we’ll head for home and make our cookies. We’ll come back down in a little while to check on her, okay?”

“’Kay,” he said, climbing down from the chair and looking closely at Anna.

“You won’t get sick, will you, Mommy?”

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