“Oh, dear,” Mrs. Penn. “We need those new clothes right now. Okay if I leave now so I can pick up some things for the boys?”
She was talking to me, so I nodded. I could already see, as I stared in at the bathroom, that there were towels and an almost new bar of soap on the rim of the tub. Someone had even placed shampoo in a caddy in the corner.
“Wait here, boys,” I said. Then, I headed back to the bigger of the three rooms and searched through the drawers. Mrs. Smith had an entire drawer full of nightgowns. If I could talk the boys into wearing one after their shower, that would provide them with something to sleep in.
Carrying two of them, I returned to the boys who were standing in the exact same spot, still gawking at the bathtub.
“Officer Krugle, do you think you could help the boys with their baths?” I asked, since he was standing there in a daze and not doing anything.
I could see he wanted to dodge that bullet, and Frances was shouting out that he was too big to need someone to bathe him, but I figured it would be easier on the boy’s pride if a man assisted this operation than a woman.
Apparently, the officer came to the same conclusion. He took the nightgowns from me with a raised eyebrow, recognizing that they were for a woman and not two little boys, but then he nodded, which I guess was a sign of approval.