Challenge #5                         Marie Ia.lerum                                              Keep your day job ”Evan?” Joe called as he sat down on the edge of Evan’s desk. ”Yeah, can I help you Joe?”  Evan turned away from the computer screen. ”I need a huge favor.” ”Anything. Shoot.” Evan looked eager, contemplating the extra cash he’d earn on one of Joe´s off-duty cases. ”Can you baby-sit Lucia tonight? Maybe you and Cassidy can do it together?” A pleading smile spread out over Joe’s face. ”It’s the mayor’s big bash tonight and our regular sitter’s bailed on us.  Inger just called. Lucia loves you Evan; you know that. It’ll be a walk in the park.” ”I don’t know, man. I don’t know much about 7-year-olds Joe.” ”Come on, Evan. It’s just for a couple of hours. She goes to sleep at eight anyway and then you’ll have the place to yourselves.” Joe was practically begging by now. ”Oh, all right then I guess.”  Evan couldn’t resist Joe’s steam-roller technique. ”Great, I’ll tell Inger. See you at 5.30 then. Thanks, man, I owe you.” Beaming, Joe hopped off the desk and went to call his wife. Harvey had followed the conversation from his chair and flashed Evan a big smile as he looked up. ”Oh, you’re in way over your head here, man,” he chuckled. ”You’re going in on her turf.  She’ll have you bound and gagged, so to speak, in 5 minutes flat. Don’t you know she’s the empress in that family?” He shook his head. ”And if she complains to daddy in the morning and says you weren’t nice to her he’ll come down on you like a ton of bricks. Just you wait and see.” ”You think it’ll be that bad?  Nah, Cassidy’ll help me out. It’ll be fine, I’m sure.”  Evan’s self confidence never failed him in  time of need. *   *   *   *   * By 7 o’clock Evan was exhausted. He had only been alone with Lucia for an hour.  An hour that seemed endless.  Lucia’s demands for attention  were incessant;  she wanted food and drink constantly. The only activity that appealed to her was playing cards; they had played ’Go Fish’ more times than Evan wanted to do for the rest of his life. He had tried to distract her with the TV, but she was not interested.  And to top it off Cassidy was running late, too.  She had promised to be there no later than 6.30, but there was no sign of her. Evan was sure she stayed away on purpose, to spite him. She had not been thrilled at the idea. ”My baby sitting days have long been over.”  Those were her exact words when Evan broke the news to her over the phone.  In the end he had managed to persuade her with the promise of ample compensation; they would spend the rest of the weekend doing things Cassidy wanted to do and nothing else. The doorbell rang, Evan jumped up eagerly to answer it. Cassidy was finally here. ”Noooo, I want to answer the door. It’s my house!” Lucia ran past him and threw the door open. Outside stood, not Cassidy, but Harvey and Jerry. ”Hi Ev. Having fun?”  Harvey grinned at his partner and pushed Jerry before him through the door. ”Hello, Lucia. This is Jerry, remember? Can he come in and play for a bit?” ”Hi, Harvey. Hi, Jerry. Let’s go to my room.  Evan is boring; he only wants to play ’Go Fish’. The two children went off in search for better entertainment and closed the door behind them. Evan and Harvey both laughed. ”That’s what I get for my efforts.” Evan raised his palms and sighed. ”Do you want a drink or something Harv? Cassidy’s not here yet and I’m sure glad for the company.” ”No, Ev, I’m afraid I can’t stay. I’ve been called in on a case and there’s no one else to watch Jerry for me.” ”What? I know Nash is at the mayor’s dinner too, but Michelle can go instead of you.” ”I can’t get a hold of Michelle. She has switched off her cell and she’s not at home, I’ve checked.  You’re my last resort, man. One more kid won’t make a difference. I’ll be back as soon as I can, you know that.”  Harvey rose to leave as his phone rang. ”Leek. Yeah, I’m on my way now. Give me 15 minutes.”  He stopped in the doorway and turned to Evan. ”Let them play for as long as they want.  That’ll tire them out and they’ll go to sleep like lambs.”  With a small wave of his hand and a smile he closed the door behind him as he left. Evan could not believe what had just happened to him.  His partner had ruthlessly dumped his kid on him too! Well, at least they were playing quietly in Lucia’s room for now. He wasn’t about to disturb them anytime soon, that was for certain.  He went into the kitchen and poured himself a fresh cup of coffee, took the cup to the couch and sat down, switching on the TV. *   *   *   *   * He woke up suddenly. What had awakened him? He sat up on the couch and rubbed his face in an attempt to clear his head. ”What time is it?”  His watch told him it was almost 10 o’clock. ”Oh, boy. I wonder what the kids are doing. With any luck they’ll be asleep on the floor. And where is Cassidy anyway?” He went to the kitchen, where there were traces of the children; they had poured themselves some soda and spilled some. They had also found a cookie jar in a cupboard and raided it, but no big mess there either.  He followed the trail of crumbs on the floor towards Lucia’s room. When he opened the door, it was empty. ”Where are they? Man, I hope they haven’t run away!”  He heard a faint sound coming from the bathroom.  Evan crossed the hallway and looked inside.  He felt like running away himself instead. ”What’s going on here?”  he yelled at the two children, who had been amusing themselves as best they could while he was sleeping. The scene in the bathroom was priceless; Lucia had gotten out her mother’s large make-up case and tried just about every product it contained on her face.  Around her on the floor were tresses of hair, but her hair showed no sign of being newly trimmed. Evan frowned.  He looked over in the corner. There was Jerry, with an interesting hair cut, in the bath tub. ”What are you doing?” Evan asked him as he crossed the floor, carefully avoiding stepping on the hairs.  When he came closer he could see exactly what Jerry was doing; he was skating in the tub.  Jerry had taken a family size bottle of shampoo and smeared the contents all over the inside of the bath tub. ”Oh, man! What am I going to do?”  Evan lifted Jerry out of the tub and turned on the water in an attempt to clean it out.  ”Now you two have to help clear things up before your parents get here. You have to wash your face properly Lucia.  And when you have wiped off your feet, Jerry, we have to pick all the hair up off the floor.  How are we going to explain your new hair style to your dad?” They were all interrupted by the doorbell. Lucia ran to open, her face still full of make-up. ”Hi there, Lucia. I can see you’re having a good time tonight.”  Evan could hear Harvey’s amusement as he took in the apparition before him. Jerry ran out of the bath room too, as he heard his father’s voice. ”Hi, dad!  Are we going home now?”  Jerry tried to climb his dad’s legs as if they were a tree trunk. ”What happened to you?”  Harvey stared at his son’s head.  ”Evan. How am I going to explain this to Anna, can you tell me that?  She’ll crucify me. What have you been up to?”  He stared accusingly at his partner.  ”You had better not quit your day job, partner!” END