Redhawk Caldera And the two of us went up in smoke

Her next question was a completely valid one. Although Elwood had mentioned Eljay at the start of this conversation, he hadn't given much detail on their son's opinion about this subject. And Finley was right -- the youth was quite needy, and it wouldn't have been at all out of character for him to worry that his parents were replacing him with a new batch of children.

But when they had spoken of it at length, Eljay had been quietly contemplative. He hadn't seemed to be frightened or angered by the idea, which was why Elwood had decided to run with it. He had the approval of one of his family members -- now he just needed Finley's agreement.

"No, I don't think he would worry about that. He seemed to like the idea of having little brothers or sisters to help raise. In fact, his biggest concern was that they would be mean to him -- and I assured him that wouldn't happen," he said with a chuckle. If anything, Eljay would have the opportunity to push his siblings around as the big brother, but he knew that wouldn't be the case. Eljay was much too kind hearted.