Wet Nurse

I used to babysit for two kids who lived down the street. I was a lousy babysitter. I often fell asleep before they did. When it was time to put them to bed, they schooled me on the procedure: ”we get into our beds with our bottles, and then when we’re done we throw them into the hall, and you come up and take our bottles away.” They seemed old to even have bottles, but who was I to judge? I had just stopped sucking my thumb the year before. I’m not sure if the kids really liked me. Sometimes I think they were taking care of me, like when they would leave some milk for me to lick when I removed the rubber nipple from one or both of their bottles.