The desert heat could not have been more unbearable.

120 degrees Fahrenheit and humid; sweating your clothes off was a normal thing.

But not me, no sir.

I confined myself to my small apartment, an apartment that had luckily acknowledged the need for an AC. The temperature on the thermostat was not to be lowered below 77, otherwise the contraption would find the opportunity to magically combust and refuse to supply me with cold air.

I turned on the lamp, which limply hung from the ceiling, allowing its mane of bright lights to illuminate the living room. An old brown couch sat in front of the small SANYO flat screen, it's faded silver buttons shimmering slightly as I took my seat on the left cushion. I placed my elbow onto the armrest , checking my watch.

Ten minutes until eight.

I sighed and looked around for the remote, but the smug little bastard didn't want to show itself. "I swear Nicky hides it from me on purpose."

Again, the old silver button shimmered faintly, calling out to me. "But I don't want to get uuup..." I whined.

I slid down the couch into a lazy pile, and crawled to the TV screen as if I was was crawling through thick puddles of hot tar. It might as well have been tar, that took too much damn effort. "Nicky, tell my pillow I love him, tell my bed I cheated on him, tell Freddie he needs to lay off the chips, tell Patty that dress really did make her look fat-"

KNOCK, KNOCK!

I twisted my head in the direction of the door, smiling, "Who's there?"

"It's the Ether Bunny, I ran out of eggs!" A giggle erupted from the other end of the door, this time I had my ear pressed against it.

"The Ether Bunny? Gosh, I wonder what he wants?" I grinned and watched Nicky through the eyehole, watching as she glanced at a confused Mrs. Perez. Nicky giggled and put her fingers to her lips, the elder woman nodded and repeated the gesture.

"The Ether Bunny wants your eggs, raaawr!"

I opened the door, and swept my giggling Nicky off of her feet. "Oh do you now!"

"Thank you Mrs. Perez for looking after her today, I thought my boss would never let me out of there, but there was a fire in his office and we got to leave 13 minutes early!" That's what he gets for trying to sneak in a cigarette into the shop!

"It's quite alright, Sarah." She ruffled Nicky's red hair. "I would babysit this adorable child for you any day. She keeps my Rosalinda company too...It's getting a bit late isn't it?"

The small woman pinched Nicky's cheek softly before turning to leave,
" Well, I have to go finish grading some tests Sarah, have a wonderful night!Sweet dreams!"

"Bye!"

"So, my little Ether Bunny, how did it go?" She grabbed her favorite flower undies and ran after me, hopping on one leg trying to put the other in the leg opening.

"Mrs. Pear took us to McDonalds, but we didn't go outside, we took our Happy Meals to the park. You know the one with the ducks?"

I laughed as I pulled one of my long black t-shirts over her head, "Ooh, that sounds fuuun! Did you feed 'em?" I picked up the towel and hung it on my bedroom door, it was basically my towel rack. Poor thing.

"Mrs. Pear said that the ducks would steal my fries, and I wanted my fries so I didn't. But Rosie threw her fry at a big white one and it chased her. Then it started chasing me and then I ran and ran, as fast as I could. Which is really fast because I'm fast. And I climbed the tree and it couldn't get me, and then Mrs. Pear scared it away and we ate."

We brushed our teeth together and I went to go turn off the closet light. "Wow what a lucky bunny, all I did was scoop ice cream..."

"Yeah, but that's cool! You get to be around ice cream all the time, and you get free tubs too! That's waay cooler Sarah!"

"Aw my sweet little bunny, you always know how to make feel better..."

I pulled her up onto our bed, and she stood up proceeding jumping on the mattress. "Yeah!"

"Nicky, sleepy time! The Sand Man won't give you sweet dreams if you don't go to bed!"

She looked at me with wide eyes, pausing her. mid-jump, "Really?" I nodded, my eyebrow arched.

"Now come here darling... "

"If I get under the blankie can you tell me one of your stories?"

"Sounds like a deal missy."

I shook her hand and pulled the blue blanket over her shoulders, propping my chin on my hand, " Once upon a time, there was a boy named Jack Frost... He... Was a winter spirit and he made the snow fall here in the valley every winter, he would make snow forts for everybody and have the snowballs ready. Everyone knew who he was, some people even claimed to see him, but one night that all changed. One night, Jack Frost never came back. Lots of people said he hit his head on one of his own icicles and forgot about us..."

"What! That's so sad Sarah, what a mean icicle! No wonder it has snowed in foreeeever!"

"That's why some people say he ended up living in Antarctica, but we all know that isn't true...you can't have snowball fights with penguins!"

She grinned, and nodded emphatically. "Go, go!"

"Now, after Frosty here had forgotten about us and had gone to some place far,far away Christmas came to cheer everybody up. Yeah Nicky, Santa gave everybody presents and everybody lived happily after!" I finished up the story in a way that would satisfy Nicky and make it short. Presents for everybody was the only thing I could come up with ok? Geez.

"Yay!" She started to jump, but face-planted into the pillow after the third one.

I looked over her shoulder to see if she was okay, but she was snoring away counting sheep and what not. I kissed the top of her head and rolled over, "Sweet dreams Nicky."