By eight, the kids were conked out. The full day had finished them off. After their baths, they’d insisted their plastic badges be clipped to the collars of their jammies. Deciding on a sleepover, Bobby was on the bottom of Zach’s bunk bed, Zach on top.
They’d thought instead of having the gnomes in bed with them, they’d put them out on the front stoop to watch for the newspaper man. They believed the newspaper appeared on the doorstep by magic. I kept trying to explain about the newspaper man delivering the papers early in the morning, but they didn’t buy that logic, especially since they thought everyone else was asleep when they were. It was magic something akin to the tooth fairy. So, they left the gnomes out front to watch and see what really happened.
The windows were open, which b
