I don't own any rights to Thunderbirds, Granada Television do. Thunderbirds and the Tracy Family were created by Gerry and Sylvia Anderson.
Thanks as usual to my beta readers for corrections and suggestions.
BATH NIGHT FRIGHT
Ruth Tracy had spent a long, hard day baking in the kitchen, getting everything prepared for a special party tomorrow. She'd had plenty of time to spend making a birthday cake and other treats knowing she wouldn't be disturbed by one or another of her permanently hungry grandsons coming in and sneaking away one or two of those treats. They had been out on a rescue for several hours and now they were home, tired and relaxed after having eaten a hearty meal. Tin Tin had taken herself off on a shopping trip earlier on in the day, so there had only been Ruth and Kyrano to do all the work in the kitchen.
Knowing that her grandsons were back home safely, all she wanted to do now was have a nice long soak in the bath to ease her aching muscles and have some relaxation herself. 'Showers in each of the bedrooms are okay for a quick wash but nothing beats a long hot soak in the bath tub to relax and soothe away the aches and pains,' she thought.
Gordon Tracy had played a major part in the rescue, now he felt the need to have a good swim in the pool. He left Scott and Virgil in the lounge with their father after Tin Tin had returned. Now she and Alan were going to see what she had bought him for his birthday. Gordon planned to spend some time in his room later to perfect a prank he'd been devising to play on Alan for his birthday that needed a few finishing touches to.
After having his swim Gordon thought life felt a lot better and all thoughts of the rescue were washed away. After swimming his usual number of lengths in the pool, he collected his towel and robe and went back into the villa to go to his room and get dressed.
He passed his grandmother in the corridor as she headed towards the bathroom she shared with Tin Tin carrying her bathrobe and towel.
"Hi, Grandma, enjoy your bath," he smiled at her as he went upstairs to his own room.
"I aim to, sweetie," she told him.
"I've been for a swim," he told her. "Now I've got some things to do in my room. See you later."
She went into the bathroom and over to the cabinet to get her favourite soothing bath oil and soaps then she went to the tub to fill it with nice warm water. While it was filling up she got undressed and removed her glasses.
She poured the oil into the water and swished it around in the tub before getting in and noticed the tub was already full enough. "Strange, that soon filled up," she said out loud.
Suddenly she cried out in pain as something sharp seemed to have caught one of her fingers. She quickly withdrew her hand from the water, held it up and saw that her finger was bleeding slightly. She went over to get her glasses and examined her hand. She saw that she had a small cut on her finger and ran it under the water in the sink. She wrapped it in a small towel before going back to the bath tub to look inside. To her horror a baby alligator was swimming around in the water.
"Gordon Tracy! This is one trick too many!" she said out loud. Her finger was not bleeding so hard now although it was still sore. After quickly getting dressed she went
upstairs to confront her prankster grandson and let him know what she thought of his latest little practical joke.
Hammering on his bedroom door she yelled, "Gordon Tracy, I know you are in there! You'd better let me in if you know what's good for you."
Gordon quickly hid under his bed what he'd been devising for Alan and wondered what trouble he was in now with his grandmother. Judging by her tone of voice he was going to find out soon anyway so he went over to the door and let her in.
Puzzled by her angry expression he asked her, "What's up, Grandma? I thought you were taking a bath."
"I was going to take a bath," she replied in a low tone of voice that he knew would get louder any minute. "You knew what was in there didn't you and thought it would be a good joke to play on me."
"What was in there, Grandma?" Gordon asked in all innocence. "I don't know what you mean."
"Don't you play the innocent with me, young man, it's got your hallmark all over it," she replied. "I don't suppose for one minute that you thought your little joke would be dangerous." Then holding her hand up she said, "Look, it bit me."
"Bit you, Grandma!" Gordon exclaimed. "What was in there that bit you?"
"You know what it was," she began to shout. "A baby alligator that you probably thought was a good idea to bring back here after that rescue you went to. You thought it would be a good joke to scare somebody with it. Well you should have thought better than to scare me."
"Grandma, please believe me. I've seen enough of alligators today to last me a life time and the last thing I would do is bring one home with me," Gordon pleaded. "Are you sure it was an alligator in the bath tub?"
"I may be old but not that old that I don't know a baby alligator when I see one, and right now one is swimming around in the bath tub," she said to him. "Come and see for yourself."
Gordon meekly followed his grandmother downstairs to the bathroom and saw for himself that a baby alligator was swimming around inside the tub, enjoying the warmer and deeper water inadvertently provided for it. "I wonder how it got in there," Gordon said looking puzzled. "I never brought it here, Grandma."
"Well you'd better not be lying to me, Gordon Tracy," Ruth answered with a threatening voice. "You just remember what happened to Pinocchio when he lied. His nose started to grow long and all the birds used it as a perch and pecked at it."
"I'm not lying, Grandma," Gordon pleaded. "Anyway that couldn't happen to me. Pinocchio was a puppet, remember? I'll get this thing out and put it in a bowl or something. Then you can enjoy your bath."
"Okay, sweetie, I believe you," his grandmother said in a calmer tone. She knew Gordon well enough that he would admit being caught out in a practical joke and that he was no liar. "I'm sorry for accusing you if you are innocent. There's a bowl in the bottom of the closet you can use but I don't feel up to having a bath now. I'll just have a shower in my room instead. While I'm doing that you can find out for me just who did put that thing in there. So let me know that I will be having a word or two with him about it."
She picked up her unused robe and towel and left Gordon to the task of removing the baby alligator from the bath tub. The poor alligator was not happy with the idea of being removed from its new home. It swam hastily away whenever Gordon thought he'd caught it and snapped at his fingers once or twice in an effort to fight him off. It was after several attempts that he suddenly remembered what Tin Tin had said to Alan when she came back from her shopping trip. She had a birthday present for him and that present had been in the bathroom.
"So get me into trouble would you?" he said to the alligator in one final effort to catch it and put it into the bowl. "Come here you green scaly excuse for aquatic life." With that he seized the small reptile by the tail, fished it out and dropped it into the bowl where it began to swim about in a frenzied circle.
Smiling with pleasure at the thought of what was to come to Alan, Gordon carried the bowl into the lounge. Brains was in deep in discussion with Jeff, Scott and Virgil around Jeff's desk. They stopped to look at him when he entered the room and walked over to them.
Feigning ignorance, Gordon put the bowl down for them all to see.
Then he said, "Virgil, hey guess what? One of those alligators must have been brought back accidentally from that swamp and made its way into Grandma and Tin Tin's bathroom. Grandma found it when she was about to take a bath. She got scared out of her wits especially after it bit her. She thought I was playing a joke on her."
"It bit her!?" Jeff asked full of concern. "Is she okay?"
"Well she is now and has gone to her room to have a shower instead," Gordon replied. "She sure is mad though and I got the blame as usual for putting it in the bath tub."
"That's Alan's birthday present from Tin Tin you have there, Gordon," Scott told him gazing at the alligator still doing frenzied laps around the bowl. "That's what she wanted to show him in the bathroom earlier."
"Well why in thunder did he not take it out of there after he saw it?" Jeff yelled. "I thought the two of them would have more sense than to leave it there."
Just then Alan and Tin Tin came back into the room after the walk they had been enjoying outside.
"Is something wrong?" Alan asked as all the faces in the room stared at him.
"I'll say something is wrong, Alan," Jeff began in a low tone that everybody knew would get louder any minute. "Take your new pet and put it somewhere safe where it can't bite little old ladies who are about to climb into bath tubs, not expecting to find an alligator in there with them."
"It bit Grandma?" Alan asked contritely. "Gee I'm sorry, Dad. I didn't know she was about to take a bath just yet. Tin Tin and I have been looking for somewhere suitable to make a home for it. We think we have found one."
"I'm sorry too, Mr. Tracy," Tin Tin said, her face blushing with embarrassment at the trouble her birthday present had caused.
"It's not me that either of you should be apologising to," Jeff said in a louder voice. "Now take this reptile out of here before your grandmother comes back. Put it somewhere safe and well away from any place that she normally goes to around this island."
"Yes, Dad, We'll do it now," Alan said as he picked up the bowl carefully from the desk.
"Boy she sure was mad," Gordon said to rub the salt in the wound a bit more. "It's going to take a lot to get back into her good graces considering the state she was in when I last saw her."
After they left the lounge Tin Tin said to Alan, "I'm so sorry, Alan. I did not think my getting you this for your birthday would get you into trouble with your grandmother."
"Well after we put the alligator in her new home," Alan said looking down at his newly acquired pet, "I guess we'd better go and find Grandma and apologise to her and get it over with."
They went into one of the storage buildings next to the gym and got out a large old fashioned aquarium that had once adorned the lounge. They both considered it large and suitable enough. It had long since been discarded since all the fish had died and were never replaced. Alan set the aquarium up again in the corner of a room that John had converted into a small observatory. The roof was made of glass panels so plenty of warm sunlight could shine through. They both filled it with water and then Alan placed a flat stone inside for a resting platform. "She'll be safe in here," Alan said as he poured the water from the bowl and the alligator into the aquarium. "Grandma never comes in here for anything and it's nice and sunny."
They watched as the alligator swam around her new home and was free from the confines of the small bowl. "I think she likes it," Tin Tin said. "We'd better give her something to eat and choose a name for her."
When they got back to the lounge Ruth Tracy was waiting for them and Gordon was relieved that this time it was not him in deep trouble with his grandmother. Alan and Tin Tin went straight over to her.
"I'm sorry for what happened, Grandma," Alan said looking at his grandmother with the big blue eyes that he knew always won her over when he'd been in scrapes before. "We didn't know you were going to take a bath or we would have removed my alligator immediately."
"I'm sorry too, Mrs Tracy," Tin Tin said. "I didn't mean for the present I got Alan to cause so much trouble. We have put the little alligator in a safe place now and it won't do you any more harm."
"Well if what Scott tells me is true and you never set out to deliberately play a joke on me," Ruth Tracy said, "Then I accept your apologies. That thing did give me a scare though and your poor innocent brother got a tongue lashing for something he was not guilty of for once. Why on earth you should buy Alan such a thing beats me though. Why couldn't you just have bought him a sensible birthday present? We'll forget the matter for now seeing as it's your birthday tomorrow, Alan, and we all want to enjoy that."
"Thanks, Grandma," Alan said and gave her a kiss on the cheek.
"Now that that's settled, Alan, you'd better go and get ready to bring John down here for your party tomorrow. He's been waiting long enough as it is, and Scott's ready now," Jeff told him.
"Sure thing, Dad," Alan said as he went to get ready for the trip up to Thunderbird Five.
When Scott and Alan were alone inside the control room of Thunderbird Three and soaring into space, Scott could contain his curiosity no longer. "Okay, Alan, just where have you and Tin Tin put that reptile now?"
"She's safe enough, out of Grandma's way and that's all that counts for me," Alan said with a smile. "Mind you I know of another member of the family that is going to have a nice surprise soon when he meets her."
The End