The next morning, after a well-deserved sleep, Harry and I worked on his schooling together. First, I sat down and checked out my computer with Harry's curriculum on it, along with a list of rules and guidelines for caring for Harry.

First was Harry must take his medications four times a day: 8 AM, 12 Noon, 4 PM and 8 PM. Failure to adhere to this schedule may result in serious side effects or behavioral issues. No wonder Harry thought he was going to die if he didn't take his meds on time. Some dipshit nanny probably told him that because of the way this was worded. I did take mental note, though, to stick as closely to the schedule as possible.

Harry must obey the nanny at all times. If Harry disobeys or disrespects the nanny, he is to be sent to his room for 24 hours of solitary confinement. The nanny is not allowed to talk to him or interact with him in any way during this time.

No way was I going to subject the kid to solitary! He'd had enough of that in his life.

Harry must eat all food that is served to him. He is not allowed to complain about flavor, color, texture, or taste.

Well, I would just make sure to serve what he likes, including some healthy choices, of course. And I made a note to ask Theodore if Harry ever joined family meals, with what little family he had.

Harry must maintain good hygiene; shower or bathe every day, brush teeth three times a day, keep fingernails and toenails clean and neatly cut.

That made sense, although brushing three times a day seemed a bit stringent. I wasn't sure if he'd had a shower or bath since I'd arrived so I'd be sure to check with him after we were done with school.

Harry must engage in some physical activity for at least two hours every day.

No problem. Playing outdoors had been a lot of fun, although I wasn't sure how things would go once the winter came. Perhaps Theodore would allow us to work out in the home gym. I would need it to get through the winter blahs myself.

Screen time must be limited to one hour per day.

Normally, I would agree with this, especially meaningless TV shows or video games. But screen time might be Harry's only glimpse into the outside world, so I made a mental note to stockpile some educational websites and shows to round out his learning experiences.

Harry must be supervised at all times when using the computer; he is never allowed to use the internet.

Ugh, so much for educational websites, but as with all the rules, I'd take this with a grain of salt. If he was on an educational site that I'd assigned, then I was sure it would be fine. I'd be damned if I was going to enforce this entire "code" in all of its strictness. Certainly, I would make sure he was learning to be a disciplined, responsible, respectful person, but I could never, in good conscience, subject a child to 24-hour solitary confinement. If it became an issue, I would certainly draw on my experience and schooling to try to convince Theodore to adopt some more lenient standards towards his son.

The final "rule" was this: Harry is never allowed physical contact with the nanny so as to avoid any confusion on his part and any attachment of an inappropriate nature.

That fucker. I was tempted to report him for neglect with this bullshit. I simply deleted that last one and pretended it never existed. If Theodore had a problem with me hugging Harry, then he would definitely have a fight on his hands.

Eventually, I moved on to Harry's curriculum. I was surprised to find all first-grade materials. Yes, Theodore had said Harry was at the mental level of a seven-year-old, but in the few short days I'd spent with him, he seemed further ahead than that. With a little digging into the computer's files, I discovered curricula up through sixth grade. That would keep us busy for quite some time.

What I didn't find were lesson plans. Of any kind. Nothing that showed what Harry had already been taught, how well he had learned it or what he was supposed to do next.

After digging through some file cabinets, I found copies of worksheets for first grade math. I got out some manipulatives and decided I'd try to get a feel for Harry's math skills.

I set them out and called him over from his computer where he'd been playing a video game. As soon as he saw the worksheets, he beamed. "I love math!"

"Okay, Harry, we're going to start-"

He had already grabbed the pencil and began filling in the answers to the worksheet. I watched to see if he would complete the whole sheet accurately and he did. Then I switched my tactic a little to make sure he didn't just memorize that particular sheet, not knowing how many other teachers had begun with the same one. I wrote equations from the sheet onto index cards and had him answer them in a different order, and he breezed through. Next, I gave him some verbal problems and again, he excelled.

We played with manipulatives for a while, creating problems from the blocks, both adding and subtracting until the problems became pretty complicated and he still breezed through them. By the time we finished, I was fairly certain the he was at least on a third grade level for math, possibly fourth grade. I decided that I would pull some more advanced materials from the computer later.

"Are you ready for a break?" I asked Harry.

"I like doing school," he smiled, his eyes twitching a bit, betraying his statement. It seemed he was getting a little tired or perhaps stressed. "But I'm hungry."

He followed me to the kitchen where I made a plate for him with granola bars, fresh peaches and a glass of milk. I grabbed another peach and sat next to him. "That was fun," I said after taking a few bites.

He nodded quickly, mumbling with his mouth full. "Everything's fun with you, Nanny Jules." I tapped my finger to my lip to remind him to swallow before he spoke, which he did. "Sorry," he said sheepishly.

"I don't know," I teased him. "I can be kind of a meanie sometimes if you don't do your work."

His face changed drastically. Shit, wrong thing to say.

"Oh, no Harry, I'm kidding. I'm not mean," I said, patting his arm. "Sometimes I get impatient just like any other person, but I promise I won't be mean to you."

He still eyed me warily even though he nodded as if he agreed and understood. Poor kid. I felt terrible for him and what he must have been through without a mother or a father who cared much about him at all. It broke my heart and I hoped I'd be able to find ways to heal some of that brokenness in him in my limited capacity as his nanny and teacher. Most of all, I resolved to try my absolute best to never raise my voice at him or treat him in a "mean" way and to give him lots of verbal praise, hugs, and encouragement.

Harry was pretty exhausted after lunch, so he went down for a nap easily and slept solid for two hours. That was a good thing, I figured. It meant he was challenging his brain.

When Harry woke up from his nap, I was listening to one of my favorite 80's playlists on Spotify. I had my phone connected to a small speaker and I was dancing around to it as I dusted the TV room. I sang quietly along with Erasure's A Little Respect, not realizing I had an audience.

"What's this?" He asked, his face overjoyed.

"It's one of my favorite songs." It's true, 80's retro was my absolute favorite, especially techno pop. "It's called A Little Respect."

Harry didn't waste any time, joining in the fun, moving his gangly legs back and forth to the music with a gigantic smile plastered on his face.

That song faded away, giving rise to Take on Me by a-ha. We continued dancing around the TV room, grabbing each others hands or pointing at each other to do some silly move. Never Gonna Give You Up, I Need You Tonight, Tainted Love, and If You Leave rounded out our impromptu dance fest.

I was about to turn off the music when The Final Countdown started and Harry's eyes got wide. "Oooh, what's this one?" He asked. I told him the name and turned it up for us to listen. He was enamored, not moving a muscle while he soaked it all in.

When I finally turned my phone off, I said to Harry, "You really like music, don't you?"

"Uh-huh," he nodded emphatically.

"Do you have anything special you like to listen to?"

He got up and went to the stereo cabinet, flinging the doors open wide. There were many, many CD's and from where I sat, many of them were children's music. Harry pulled one CD out and showed me. "I like this one," he said and I saw that it was The Four Seasons by Vivaldi. He had a large classical collection in addition to children's titles, but nothing contemporary or even classic like the Beatles.

I decided there and then that Harry and I would definitely study music, at least genres of music and maybe I could teach him some piano since there was a small upright one in the learning room. It didn't look like it had ever been touched.

"When I listen to these," Harry said, pointing at the songs on the Vivaldi case, "I feel like I'm flying. And the music...the music is like the wind, it carries me everywhere the music goes."

Holy shit, that was kind of deep. "Music is a wonderful thing, Harry. I think we'd be lost without it."

I had to laugh when Harry maturely said, "I agree, Nanny Jules."

* * * * *

Seems like Nanny Jules found the perfect situation. What do you think?