Sleeping late and waking up on time for taking care of the school days' routine is not a big deal for any household that has a school going child. Dr. and Mrs. Pascal Mendez had done that numerous times for the obvious reasons and also because of the professions they were practicing. Even though both slept so late the night before because of Pascue's disclosure of family secret to his wife, both had obligations to their professions and for the mother to complete the morning routines of sending children to schools on time.

Rosie did just that. She woke up finished her morning routine in the bathroom and stepped out in the corridor leading to the children's rooms. As a routine she softly called out her daughter Silvia to wake her up but to her astonishment, she did not hear the usual, "I'm up mummy; good morning." When she pushed the door it opened right away. The bed was not only empty, it was not slept in.

Bit alarmed by the absence of her 10 year old daughter in her bed, she rushed to check out Mark's room without calling him out. To her astonishment, she found no one in that room but found the evidence of two individuals having slept in one bed and a neatly folded bundle of bed sheets , blankets and a pillow on the chair.

"Oh my God! They both slept here with the Grandpa sleeping on the floor." She concluded and then heard the sound of giggling coming from the dining room bellow. With a quick glance she made the assessment that Mark had collected his school paraphernalia when he left the room and assumed that Silvia must have done the same. Hurriedly she descended the flights of steps and reached the living room and heard the conversation between the three absconding culprits:

"Come with us to bus stop grandpa; I want you to meet my friends; they are dying to meet you." She heard Silvia pleading Frank and then, "No, he is going to meet my friends first; I asked him last night." Mark insisted on exercising his rights on the grandpa because of a promise made to him before her.

"Now, both of you finish your pancakes and milk first and then we will work out something." She heard Frank the mariner trying to placate both.

"How am I going to handle this?"
That was the first thought popped in her mind. With his stories of high sea adventures and a natural friendliness gift, he had captured their attention, fired their imagination and gave that special love, one without conditions or imposing any conditions like not sleeping in each other's bed or staying up late on a school days of the week.

Out of curiosity may be, she remained silently eavesdropping on their chat. Then the sound of munching and slurping indicated that the kids were busy gulping down the food and in the next moment a soft sound of singing and humming came floating towards her. She moved forward to catch a glimpse of that scene. That happy Grandpa and his grandchildren having a unique moment of bliss indeed riveted her to the spot. No doubt, a touch of envy present in her mind made her to concentrate on the spying on them and she failed to hear her husband approaching from behind.

"What's going on darling?" Pascue spoke into her ear. Startled, she reacted with a gesture of silencing him.
"Watch them together. He has wrapped them up in his palms!" She whispered.

Parents watched the interactions between them for some time and finally realized, the time was of importance for all except the grandpa that morning. Pascue moved in with a morning greeting to Frank:

"Good morning father; you are up and about already. You could have slept little longer."

"No; I couldn't do that. I promised to accompany them to their school bus."

"They walk by themselves father." Pascue retorted without thinking.

"Well, they want me to meet their friends you see; and I agreed to that. First to Mark's bus, that I believe leaves before Silvia's and in half an hour it will be her turn. We are going out together."He informed them with a beaming smile on his face.

Now it was the mother's turn to say something about the old man's taking over the morning routine which otherwise wasn't as exiting as it was that morning. The humdrum stuff like grabbing a cereal bole, quickly finish the breakfast, take the lunch box from the housemaid Marisa and run out of the door after a hurried kiss to mom.
This morning, it was the grandpa who made pancakes for them before they came down. Normally that sort of sit at the table and eat breakfast was reserved for the weekend. On a week days the busy schedules of parents and children, no one had time to go through that sort of luxurious and slow pace routine and above all, feeding fatty foods before getting to class rooms was not considered a good idea according to a nutrition conscious and knowledgeable mom.

Well, Rosie's comprehension about the father in law's influence upon her darlings had began to take hold of her instincts. " You better do something about this routine breaking and discipline wrecking iron ball now," her subconscious mind warned her.

"Frank, today it is fine to drop them off to bus-stop, but they are used to doing their routine independently and I prefer that routine. Besides, their morning diets are also set for them to be successful in the classroom and not fall asleep." She not only addressed him by his first name, but there was an edge to her voice.

Pascue did not miss that and it surprised him that a gentle and considerate woman like Rosie would ignore the love and affection of the old man towards his grandchildren; at least for now, and sort of admonish him for doing something special for them on their first breakfast. He just couldn't come up with anything to jump in and soften the harshness in the developing conversation. Luckily, Rosie recovered from her nervous fit and walked up to old man and gave him a hug and planted a kiss on his cheek.

That flash of sharpness followed by an affectionate gesture, worked well for three adults and children's anxiety about not getting to take their adventures grandpa to meet their friends, disappeared with the smiling faces of the adults in the dining room.
"Common grandpa; we got leave now." Mark addressed Frank and that diffused the situation. Both the parents moved to finish their coffee and headed for their bedroom to get ready for the day.

When they got in the car, Pascue opened the topic of grandpa and his soon to be -May be adopted grandchildren.

"It's going to be a tough act Rosie to deal with the truth for all of us, if we do not decide how we can tackle this situation soon. Mark and Silvia appear to be deeply engaged with him; I mean emotionally attached."

"Yes, I see it and agree; we have to nip this in the bud. I can't afford to bring one upheaval after another in our life. First the uncle with adventures of Amazon and now grandpa to take them over to the Sindbad's voyages. Their focus, I am afraid will shift from the studies. I hope you will try and bring this affair to a satisfactory conclusion tonight if not by this weekend."

Yes dear; I get the point. I will come up with a plan and we will hash it out tonight. By Sunday, Francis ought to return home and we will settle the entire business of establishing a generally acceptable plan for living as an extended family or whatever next best thing that may emerge. Later we could set up a conference call with Alice in London and Emanuel in Mumbai."
He put the vehicle in the gear and they joined the traffic."

Each became detached from the domestic issues and focused their minds on the day's tasks of taking care of patients.