Page 50 of Ignite

Jazz stared at the words. She got it. Parents were still human and sometimes needed space from their kids. Liz worked about twenty hours a week at the corner convenience store, and preschool plus day care was super expensive for three kids. She was with the boys almost all the time. Leo paid child support but hadn’t stepped up to do anything else in weeks. Ian, Ivan, and Isaac spent more time with their grandparents than their father.

“Looks like we’re going to have a pajama party,” she told them as she pulled up Wolf’s number and fired off a quick text about the boys being at the house.

Jazz: My nephews are spending the night. Careful of little bodies on the floor when you come home.

The dots didn’t move. That was odd, as Wolf usually answered within seconds. Jazz slipped the phone into her back pocket and turned to the task of finding enough bedding. “All right, munchkins, let’s see what we can build.”

“I’m hungry!” The declaration came from Ian as he jumped and executed a front flip from the couch to the floor, making the whole house rattle.

Ivan chased Freya into the bedroom and yelled, “Me too!”

Jazz put a hand to her head. She had little kid food other than cereal. “Umm, it’s pretty late. Shouldn’t you guys be in bed already?”

Ian paused. “Mama doesn’t make us go to bed. We stay up as late as we want.”

Jazz blinked. “How do you get enough sleep?”

The boy didn’t answer. He climbed on the back of the couch to flip himself again, this time knocking over a model of a Klingon warship. Jazz cringed as the fragile neck snapped and the round bridge compartment rolled under the couch.

Maybe food would be a good distraction. “I have Cheerios. Would that be okay?”

“I want pizza!”

“Yeah! Pizza!”

Jazz watched as Ian started stomping around in a circle, punctuating each syllable. Ivan joined him. Isaac woke up and started crying. No wonder Liz needed a break from this chaos. Then again, a lot of it was her own making.

Jazz shook her head. No, she wasn’t a parent, but it seemed like the boys should be on a more routine schedule and would benefit from a little discipline.

She opened her phone and typed in an order at her favorite delivery place that was still open. “Pepperoni?”

“I want cheesy sticks too!”

“Yeah, cheesy sticks!”

Isaac’s cries increased. Jazzy fired off an order on the app, then hurried over to pick the baby up from the porta-pen. One whiff told her what the problem was. “Whoa, that’s a serious-smelling fart blossom, kid.”

There was no place to change the baby but on her bed. Jazz didn’t want to leave the other boys alone in fear of her furniture surviving their energetic play, but the wails weren’t stopping until that dirty diaper was gone. “Yinz need to calm down for bit. Pizza is on the way. I’m gonna change the baby, then after you eat, it’s bedtime.”

Ivan paused and cocked his head to the side. “How are we supposed to go to bed when we don’t have any here?”

“We’ll build a blanket fort. There’s a card table in the closet. Thinks you guys can pull it out?”

The pizza mantra changed to a blanket fort chant as the two rug rats ran to take care of the task.

That will keep them busy for a little while.

Isaac chortled and put a grin on his face once the messy diaper came off his bottom. Jazz tried not to gag at the amount of shit that came from that little body. Even his clothes were covered. “Not a fart blossom. More like an Old Faithful gusher.”

Isaac cooed and grabbed at his toes. Jazz used half a box of wipes to get the small body clean. Since there wasn’t a change of clothes, she grabbed one of her smallest T-shirts just as something crashed in the other room.

Are you guys okay? What happened? Anyone hurt?“Hurt okay?”

“Auntie J? How much did those big glasses with the phone booth on them cost?”

Jazzy closed her eyes and gave a moment of silence for her collector Tardis beer mugs. “Don’t touch the glass. I’ll clean it up when I’m?—”

An arc of pee sprayed across her chest, surprising her with its warmth. Jazz looked down at the gurgling baby. “Proud of yourself, aren’t you?”

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