“Honey!” He feels his wife shaking him awake. “Honey. Those kids are so loud.”

Joe looks at his clock. He thinks to himself, “One in the morning! What are those kids doing?” He folds back the covers and swings his feet over the edge of the bed. He rests for a moment, then stands. He walks toward the door, then realizes that he just has his skivvies on. He walks to the closet and grabs his bathrobe. Then, he finally lumbers out the door and down the stairs.

Joe hears the kids scramble around the room. They must have heard him coming down the stairs. He stops half way. “Hey. You kids settle down down there. Your mother is trying to sleep. If I hafta go down there, I’m gonna kick all your butts, whether you live here or not. And all your parents said I could do it.”

Joe listens. He hears a peep or two, but decides that his message has gotten through. He turns around and walks back up the stairs and into his bedroom. He folds his bathrobe and places it on top of his wardrobe. He climbs back into bed.

“Thanks honey.”

Joe grunts and falls back to sleep almost immediately.

“Joe. Joe. They’re at it again.”

Joe looks at his clock. It has only been half an hour. His dream was in full swing though.

Joe folds back the covers and swings his feet over the edge of the bed. He rests for a moment, then stands. He walks toward the door grabbing and donning his bathrobe on his way. He walks three quarters down the stairs and stops. The little squirts did not hear him as quickly this time and are still racing toward their creeping bags. Somebody slips and falls. Thud. Joe does not smile. But he does not check to see if the fallen is okay either.

“I thought I told you boys to settle down. Like I already told you, if I come all the way down there, I’m gonna kick all your butts and then you will go to sleep.

Joe listens to the silence. He is sure that nobody is even breathing.

He turns and walks back up the stairs. He lets his bathrobe fall to the floor before climbing into the bed once more. His wife has fallen asleep already. He figures that she just needed him to go down, and she would be okay. Either that or she was so tired, she did not care anymore.

Joe’s wife did not need to wake him the third time. He just hears his and his brother’s pipsqueaks horsing around. They always liked to get into trouble together anyway. Joe swipes the covers away and swings his legs over the side of the bed in one movement. He nearly trips over his bathrobe and just kicks it away. No use putting it on. He stomps all the way down stairs, kicks everybody’s butts, then goes back to bed.

Joe smiles as he lies down with the covers tucked around him. He hears a few sniffles from downstairs, but Joe goes back to sleep in an instant.