They'd both actually been able to get showers before the boys woke up. Bill was in his underwear when Paul cried. He got there before Paul woke John, shoved the nuckie in, and started to change him. He wasn't happy, but being wiped off pacified him for a moment. Carolyn came in in her nursing bra and nothing else. He handed a temporarily dry Paul to her and went to the crib for John. He was as wet and messy as his brother had been, but not quite as awake. He shoved in another nuckie and started on the diaper. That was done long before Paul was satisfied. He played with John, snapping his fingers to one side of his face and then to the other, scratching a fingernail along the changing pad while John tried to follow the sound, grabbing a foot and then a hand.

"Are you done?" Carolyn finally said to Paul, "or do you think you're merely taking a break? I've got news for you. You're done." On that word, he turned for Paul. He kept the back of his legs against the desk the entire time. He supported his neck with one hand and lifted him by the diaper with the other. When Paul had been laid temporarily beside his brother, it was John's turn. Bill lifted him with the same care, turned, and put him in his mother's arm. He didn't let his leg move away from the edge of the desk until he was facing Paul again.

He'd had Dan's help baby-proofing the room and moving the desk. Dan had told him that both his children had learned to roll over on the changing table while Gladys's attention was off them for an instant. Well, if his kids were going to pull that stunt, they'd run into him. And the desk was now solidly against the wall on two sides. Accidents could happen, always, but restricting the possibilities was the part of common sense.

Paul, when he brought him closer and checked, was thoroughly wet but only slightly messy. After waiting for him to finish, he changed his diaper again. Then, using yet another diaper for a spit-cloth, he burped him. He couldn't pretend that changing kids was pleasant, but burping was. You had a warm body against your shoulder, and he couldn't imagine that the love in that encounter only went one way. When John was done, he laid Paul in his crib and burped John. He was -- for a wonder, and a certainly-temporary wonder -- dry.

Carolyn dressed more fully in the kids' room while he cooked her breakfast. Then he took over baby watch while she ate and finished dressing. He cooked and ate his breakfast while she dressed the kids for their baptism. Carolyn trusted him to change diapers, but not to dress them in finery, and certainly not to choose the finery. John celebrated his beautiful costume by taking both a major dump and a monumental piss. The result overflowed the diaper, and -- when he'd changed that -- Carolyn dressed him again in a second-best suit of clothes.

Finally, the kids were in their carriers with a blanket tucked around each and another blanket draped over the entire carrier. Carolyn waited with them while he got the car. Leaving the heater on high and the back door open seemed wasteful, but he met her in the entranceway and took one of the boys -- he hadn't noticed who was covered by that blanket.

He helped her offload at the church and then drove to find a parking space. When he got to the front of the church, the choir and several others were gathered around the kids.

"Wasn't it clever of her to have twins?" One of the female singers asked. "Now, when Bill is holding a baby, she has one to hold herself." Really, he'd never keep a baby from Carolyn -- let alone that she had the guaranteed access of breast-feeding.

"I don't think I had anything to do with their being twins. I think that's Bill's fault."

"Fault?" Gladys said. "They're adorable. But does one parent determine it? Bruce?" Bruce was a professor of biology as well as a choir member.

"Well, really, it's the wrong family -- not the Pierces, Mammalia. I'm a herp. Lizard females lay eggs and any males in the vicinity fertilize them externally. Are they identical or fraternal?" Presumably, he meant John and Paul rather than the lizards.

"Fraternal." Carolyn told him.

"Then, I'm afraid, you can't put the blame on Bill. Fraternal twins come from two separate ova. The female -- you -- produces two ova the same month."

"Now!!" the organist said. They went into the choir loft. Gladys and Eric Stewart, one of Carolyn's friends would come down to be godparents of Paul.

He and took the carriers into a pew near the front. When the Hashimoto family got in, Alice raced down to see the twins. He held Paul's carrier so she could look in and see him.

"Look, but don't touch." She didn't look like she was about to touch his face; she looked slightly scared.

"Now, Alice," Nancy said, "don't bother the Pierces. Although," she said to him, "turnabout is fair play."

"And I don't mind her looking." He'd looked at baby Alice, and touched her, too, a few years ago.

"Is that John?" The kids were still wrapped up, and he could understand Nancy's difficulty in telling them apart. John would be her godchild -- hers and Dan's.

"No. Paul."

"Their noses look alike." She was right, although their eyes and mouths could be seen, the way they were wrapped up covered some of their faces and all of everything else.

Carolyn sang every hymn, although she didn't touch the hymn book. The kids slept through the sermon, luckily. In twenty years, that would be considered rude of them; it would be considered rude of him right now. But they could get away with almost anything at this age.

As the service came to an end, Carolyn started unwrapping John. He took care of Paul. The baptism was scheduled to be the last activity of the service. They had the kids ready well before Pastor Lawrence called for them to come forward.

Gladys and Eric came down in their robes. Nancy and Dan came forward. He and Carolyn had a smaller distance to walk, but they had to manage the babies. They all arrived more or less together. By now, the kids were awake and Paul was shifting slightly in his arms.

When John was baptized, he howled. Paul, never willing to let his brother have all the attention, joined in. He was startled enough by the water on his forehead, however, to stop for an instant. When Pastor Lawrence handed him back, Bill stuck a nuckie in his mouth. By the time they were back in the pew, both boys were quiet. After the close of the service, they had another audience. When they thinned out, he went for the car.

Again, he turned the heater up to high, despite the short drive. When he got to the bottom of the church steps, Carolyn started out the door. Dan was handling one carrier for her. She arranged the carrier she had, then backed out of the car again. While she was doing this, Dan lifted the carrier he had and pulled back the blanket.

"Be good for Mama, John." Then he kissed the baby. Carolyn arranged that carrier and got into her own seat. As he drove off, the fussing in the back seat quieted.

Back home, Carolyn fed the kids while he cooked for him and her. It was Dinty Moore beef stew, not what he'd prefer to feed her. He should be going out to get a delicious take-out meal from one of the restaurants he favored. He should be in there with her, caring for and entertaining the child she wasn't feeding. But there was only one of him, and in the kitchen he was within call if something went wrong. And he was fixing food. He often feared that she was too busy to eat enough when he was gone. And, sure enough, Paul cried while he was in the midst of his meal preparation. He turned off the stove and went in and changed him.

"Has he eaten?"

"Yeah." So he gave him a nuckie and put him in his crib. John finished a few minutes later. He changed him, put him in his crib, and went to wash his hands. Carolyn stayed with the kids until he called her to dinner. By some miracle, the boys slept through the meal. Maybe their adventure had worn them out. Maybe the baptism had exorcized the demons that inspired them to annoy their parents.

"I love you," Carolyn suddenly said at the end of the meal. She didn't say that very often, even less often without his saying it first.

"I love you, too," he responded. "And I love them, and -- really, you know -- you love them, too." Despite how frazzled they made her. She kept sitting there at the table while he washed the dishes. She had nothing to do that instant, which must have been welcome respite.