Author's Note: Before we begin, let me just give an early shout out to Nairobi-harper, who will be celebrating a birthday on Wednesday of this upcoming week! Happy Birthday Nairobi-harper, I hope you have a good one, and that you enjoy your story request, which, for those of you who are confused, I'm doing an East coast story, because that's what she did for me back in December, with the East coast version of The First Cut. You'll also see, that the one we're doing this time, is very different in a lot of ways from the West coast version. Might point out the differences at the end of the story, but only if they're obvious enough. Also, I sadly, awoke with a soar throat and am not feeling too well today, so hopefully, despite this fact, the story turns out okay. Regardless though, looks like I have to say it again, after having a third of the last multi-chapter story I recently completed, that being, Nell's Adventures in Babysitting, flamed yesterday by user, WhammyPower788, who's been blocked for all times on my account, and as a reminder, if anybody reading this story does nothing but cyber bully me or flame me and or my story, you'll end up on that list too. So, dcan't say anything nice, or find a nice way to point out my mistakes or things that bother you about the story, then keep your dirty little mouth shut, and go away! However, if you think you might find reason to say something nice, then by all means, feel free to read and review the story, and, I hope you enjoy! With that said, let's get started, and, I'll only be presenting the East coast story, this won't be a West to East coast comparison, even though this story does center around Rosie and friends, rather than Reggie.
Feeding Hubert, East Coast Version, Feeding Jeffery
Summary: The East coast version of the season 2 Rugrats episode, Feeding Hubert. When the babies think there's a monster who roams the street eating bags of monster food, it's up to them to make sure he has enough to eat, so they don't get eaten, or will they? Read this to find out! Written in honor of Nairobi-harper's birthday.
Disclaimer: I do not own the original Rugrats characters, even though none will be appearing in this story, better cover myself to play it safe. Rosie and her family, and Bonny are owned by Nairobi-harper, while Hazel is owned by HazelNutSwirl, and I own the OC's of Reggie, Eddie, and Jeffery.
It was a beautiful sunny morning in Boston, Massachusetts, as Rosie was riding along in her stroller down the sidewalk. She, her sister and her mommy were on the way to the park, where Rosie would be getting together with her friends, Hazel and Bonny. However, just as they were about to cross the street to head on over to the park, they not only had to stop for the crosswalk, but something else perked up Rosie's curiosity out of the corner of her eye. Approaching them, was a giant green truck, but something seemed rather odd about this vehicle.
"Move a little bit further Jeffery." A man from the outside of the back of the vehicle called, as the large machine moved closer to a pile of giant dark green bags at the edge of the sidewalk.
"Stop Jeffery!" The man called, as a giant door opened up on the back of the truck.
To Rosie, it looked like a giant mouth, as the man sitting on a seat in the back got out, and loaded the dark green bags inside the giant mouth. Then, she saw it do something she had never seen something on four wheels do before.
"Now crush it Jeffery!" The man called, as the giant door on the back started going up and down, like it was biting down on the bags that were just loaded into the vehicle.
After this was done, the green monster truck on wheels drove through the crosswalk, and it was now Rosie's mommy's turn to go, as next thing she knew, her stroller was being pushed across the street towards the entrance of the park.
"Wow! Jeffery! Incredible!" Rosie thought to herself, as her mother started scanning the park, looking for where Bonny and Hazel were playing.
She then spotted Bonny's mother over on a nearby bench, and close by, were Hazel and Bonny in a sandbox.
"Now you play here Rosie, I'll be back to get you in a little while." Shannon said, patting her daughter's pink hair and ruffling it slightly, before taking a seat over on the bench with Bonny's mother to make small talk.
Mary had gone off to play on some swings as soon as they had entered the park, so Rosie, Hazel, and Bonny were by themselves. Rosie was about to greet her friends, when Hazel cleared her throat and spoke up first.
"I've gotta tell you about this thing I saw while me and Bonny were on the way to the park!" Hazel cried.
"What was it Hazel?" Rosie asked, picking up some sand in her hands and starting to make a sand ball, in hopes to make a sandman.
"On the way to the park, I saw a green monster!" Hazel said.
"Yeah, it was pretty scary. It's gots big wheels and makes lots of noise." Bonny added, taking her plastic shovel and digging it into the sand.
"Yeah, and it's got a big mouth that eats dark green bags on the side of the street!" Hazel commented.
"Wait a minute, you're not talking about, Jeffery, are you?" Rosie asked.
"Yeah we are!" Hazel and Bonny replied in unison.
"I saw it too! That's why me, mommy and Mary were late getting to the park. We had to wait for Jeffery the monster, to drive past so we could cross the street." Rosie said.
"So, the monster don't eat babies then?" Hazel asked.
"Nope, and I think it's thanks to these special bags that it eats instead." Rosie said.
"I wonder what's in them?" Bonny asked.
"Probably special monster food. It just bit down on the bags, but I would have thought it would have sucked the food out of the bags, like how we all suck our baby food out of these pouches that our mommies and daddies will give us sometimes. Though you can see the food inside those, this, I couldn't see the food inside." Rosie commented, placing another ball of sand on top of her first mound.
"Maybe monster food looks so nasty, they don't want us to see it." Hazel said.
"That's probably it!" Rosie cried, as the three little girls went back to playing in the sand, not giving this monster Jeffery, a second thought.
However, over on the bench, where Shannon and Bonny's mother were talking, Shannon had this to say.
"Received a notice on our door this morning. Our apartment complex is planning to start picking up from the recycling truck next week, as well as garbage, so they're encouraging us to get together our plastics, metals, and paper items into blue bins that they'll be providing to us early next week for us to sort the items into for pickup." Shannon said.
"Oh wow that's great! Recycling is much better for the environment. Why throw it all away, when it can be used again." Bonny's mother commented.
"I agree." Shannon said with a smile.
Another week passed, and none of the toddlers thought much about Jeffery, until one day, when Rosie was sitting on the floor of her apartment, when she looked up from her playing, to see her mother carrying green bags, similar to the ones she saw out on the sidewalk on the way to the park the previous week.
"Mommy and daddy put together bags of monster food too? This I've gots to see!" Rosie thought to herself, as she quietly crawled up behind her mother, who was moving at a much slower pace, thanks to the heavy bags of garbage she had in her hands.
Shannon opened the door, and as she was trying to carry the bags outside, Rosie quietly snuck outside, and noticed something in the small yard she had never seen before. Giant blue bins, each one with different things inside. Curious, she crawled over to the bins and had a peak inside each one. Some of them held what looked like empty bottles of drinks that came out of the fridge, while others had paper items, like the stuff she'd see her parents bring in from the mailbox. Her mother set down the two green bags she had in her hands, not noticing her daughter had snuck outside, because Rosie had crouched down on the opposite side of one of the blue recycling bins, where she couldn't be spotted.
In a big city like Boston, while there are plenty of garbage trucks to go around, there are also a lot of people who empty their garbage, requiring the truck to go to the dump a couple of times a day. Because Rosie's apartment complex had their garbage picked up in the afternoons, right after a mid day run to the dump, the truck was pretty empty when it came into her apartment complex's parking lot. Rosie overheard the familiar sound of Jeffery's roar, and slowly turned her gaze towards where the monster was stopping to collect its nourishment. Sure enough, the two green bags that her mother had put out, were placed into Jeffery's mouth, but he didn't touch the blue bins.
"Well Jeffery, they only have two bags, let's move down to the next set of apartments and collect their garbage." The man from the back of the vehicle said, as it drove away.
"Wait! Wait! Jeffery! What about the food in the blue bins?" Rosie asked.
But the monster had driven too far away for Rosie to try to catch up, as just then, she was scooped up in her mother's arms from behind and carried back inside the apartment.
"Rosie! You shouldn't be out here sweetheart, it's much too dangerous." Shannon said, carrying her daughter back inside and placing her down in the living room on the floor.
Rosie couldn't help but feel disappointed that Jeffery wasn't interested in the items that were inside the blue bins, and she started to worry that he wouldn't get enough food to eat, as she closed her eyes and started to have a very disturbing daydream. In her mind, it was the middle of the night, and a full moon was in the sky. She was awakened from her slumber by the familiar roar of Jeffery's motor, when all of the sudden, a loud, booming voice, spoke to her from outside her window.
"Your mommy and daddy aren't feeding me enough!" Jeffery bellowed, his giant mouth in back going up and down, looking pretty angry as he spoke.
Rosie gasp, as the one-year-old toddler glared out her window, really afraid.
"But, we put out lots of food, just, some of it's in blue bins." Rosie called.
"I don't like it in blue bins! I only like it in green bags! Come on little girl, either you feed me, or I'll eat you!" Jeffery boomed, laughing evily, as Rosie came out of her daydream, trembling nervously.
The following day, Hazel and Bonny came over to play, where Rosie explained to them everything she had seen. How Jeffery came to her house, looking for monster food, and how her mommy had only put out two bags of food.
"But why doesn't Jeffery eat out of the blue boxes?" Hazel asked.
"I don't know. Maybe, it's because, he finds them harder to eat out of. Kind of like how it is for us sometimes. Mommy and daddy are always wanting us to eat with a spoon, but sometimes, it's easier to eat out of those pouches or even better, picking up the food with our fingers and licking them off. Maybe eating the food out of the green bags is easier for Jeffery." Rosie suggested to her friends, as she paced around the living room.
"But if your mommy and daddy are only putting out two bags of food, doesn't this mean Jeffery's going to go hungry?" Bonny asked worriedly.
"Yes, and if he goes hungry, then he'll be more likely to want to eat us." Rosie said, just as an all-too familiar cackle came up behind her.
She turned around on the carpet to see Reggie staring down at her.
"Who's gonna eat you?" Reggie asked.
"Jeffery, the big green monster who eats green bags of monster food that our mommies and daddies put outside on the sidewalk and in the yard. We're thinking of finding other goodies for him to eat so he won't eat us." Rosie replied.
Reggie's smile only widened, as an evil thought crossed his mind.
"Oh I don't know, I bet you baby ladies, would taste delicious!" Reggie said, cackling evilly.
"Maybe you think so Reggie, but I don't." Bonny said, gazing at him and crossing her arms across her chest, as she stood up and stared angrily.
"Ha! Go ahead and try to help Jeffery, but only know this. He won't pay attention to you babies, he'll just eat you." Reggie said, stomping away.
Hazel and Bonny gulped nervously, while Rosie looked more determined than ever, to prove Reggie wrong.
"Come on ladies, follow me." Rosie said, as she walked towards the kitchen, thankful to see it deserted at the moment.
She gazed up towards the counter, where in the back corner, sat a box of those green bags she had seen out on the sidewalk.
"Now, all we've gots to do is get those green bags, and on the nextest day it's our turn to feed Jeffery, we put everything in the blue bins into those bags, so he'll have lots of yummy monster food to eat." Rosie said, climing up the drawers like they were a step ladder, pulling them out little by little so she could use them to make her way up to the counter, where she reached up and grabbed the edge of the box of green garbage bags, and pulled it down to the floor.
"And hey! Maybe Jeffery would like some real food too!" Bonny suggested.
"Good idea! Maybe if we put some real food in the blue bins, he can lick it out with his long tongue or something." Rosie said.
"Does Jeffery gots a long tongue?" Hazel asked.
"I'm not sure, but if he's gots teeth to chew up the green bags, he must have a tongue too, everybody does." Rosie said, looking towards the refridgerator.
"And, just to be safe, why don't we find stuff we don't play with no more, that we can put into some of these green bags for Jeffery to eat." Hazel suggested.
"Great idea! Okay, so here's the plan. I'll look in the fridge for food for Jeffery to eat out of the bins, while you and Bonny go all over the partment, and get together things you know we no longer play with no more." Rosie said.
And so, everybody got to work on their plans. Using a chair, Rosie scooted it over to the fridge, where she pried open the doors. She reached in and pulled out containers of several leftovers, which included vegetables, mash potatoes, and some containers of pudding and apple sauce. She then pulled out the carton of her favorite flavor of ice cream. She almost hesitated and put it back, and then decided, it would be better if Jeffery had plenty to eat. Once she had all of the food out on the kitchen floor, she put it all together in one of the green bags, then drug the bag off to her room where she stashed it under her bed, so none of the grown ups would spot what she was doing. When she arrived, she found Hazel and Bonny had made a nice collection of several items that thankfully, she and her friends no longer played with anymore. This included teething rings, some old rattles, and Bonny did something nobody expected. Running back to the living room, she pulled her plush bear of Jelly Bear from The Dummi Bears out of her diaper bag, and brought it back to the bedroom to put into the pile of food to feed Jeffery.
"What's Jelly Bear doing here Bonny? You sleep with her every night! Are you sure about this?" Rosie asked, spotting Bonny with Jelly Bear in her hands, about to toss it on top of the pile.
Bonny let out a little sigh, being slightly unsure of this plan, but then stepped away from the pile, not laying another finger on her beloved stuffed animal.
"If it means not getting eated by Jeffery, then I'll feed Jelly Bear to him. I'm sorry Jelly Bear, but I've gots to do this." Bonny said, as a tear silently trickled down her cheek.
Rosie admired her for her bravery, and together, the three toddlers put together their pile of old toys into the other green bag from the kitchen, and stuffed it beneath the bed next to the bag of food. As the days passed, Rosie and Mary couldn't help but notice their room was starting to smell, but neither one of them could figure out what was going on. Finally, it came time to put operation, feed Jeffery, into action. Bonny and Hazel had come to play that day, though when Shannon was getting the garbage together, she couldn't help but notice she was out of green bags.
"Wow! I had no idea I was that low on garbage bags. And seems our food supply has been low too. I could swear I didn't throw anything out last week. Oh well, I guess I can put out the recycling, it's better than nothing." Shannon said, as she prepared blue bins of plastic, glass, metal, and paper items to put out for the blue recycling truck, that would be coming around later on in the afternoon, after the garbage truck had been by.
Noticing her mommy with blue bins, gave Rosie the signal to her friends.
"Ladies, it's time. Follow me." Rosie said, leading Hazel and Bonny to her room, where they got the two bags out from beneath the bed.
Poor Bonny had to hold her nose, as the one filled with food was pretty smelly, not to mention, the ice cream had melted, leaving a puddle on the floor as the girls drug their green bags of garbage out the front door, which Shannon had left open, having her hands too full of recycling bins to be able to close it behind her. Once outside, Rosie spotted where her mother had set down the blue bins, but to her surprise, there were no green bags.
"Good thing we got some food together for Jeffery, or else he'd go hungry for sure!" Rosie cried, dragging the green bags over to the bins.
Not noticing what was going on, Shannon had her back turned, as she headed back inside the apartment, unaware her daughter and other charges were outside, about to have an adventure of a lifetime. At that moment, the three girls saw to dumping the contents of the blue bins on to the grass, while Hazel, who had some extra green bags stored away in her diapers, pulled them out and started putting the items into the green bags, while Rosie saw to opening the smelly bag of food, and dumping its contents into the blue bins, hoping this would get Jeffery to eat out of the blue bins. No sooner had she dumped the container of leftover, now moldy mash potatoes into one of the bins, when some all-too familiar footsteps came outside into the small front yard. Worried it was one of her parents, she looked up to see it was her sister Mary, who was still on summer vacation, thus, school hadn't started back up yet.
"What are you doing?" Mary asked.
"We're feeding Jeffery." Rosie replied.
"Okay, who's Jeffery?" Mary asked, giving her younger sister a confused look.
Rosie went on to explain about the green monster they saw on the way to the park a couple of weeks back, to which Mary responded by exploding with laughter.
"And you girls thought he was going to eat you if mom and dad didn't put out enough food?" Mary asked in between her fits of laughter.
"Well yeah! Even Reggie said so." Rosie replied.
"You girls are so silly! Jeffery is a garbage truck. Those bags that mom and dad put out are of garbage we throw away, like your dirty diapers, old tissues, stuff like that. The blue bins hold items we're recycling, and they're picked up, by another truck that's blue." Mary explained.
"Are you sure about this Mary? And what's recycling anyway?" Rosie asked.
"Recycling, is where they take the items we put in the bins, old juice and milk cartons, papers that come in the mail and so on, and take them off to some place, where they're turned into new bottles, papers, and so on, to be used again at a later time. The garbage, just gets thrown out." Mary explained.
"You mean, eaten by Jeffery." Hazel said, obviously not paying any attention to Mary's explanation the first time around.
"There is no Jeffery!" Mary screamed.
"You mean, he's not gonna eat me?" Bonny asked.
Mary shook her head no.
"In that case, I'm getting Jelly Bear back." Bonny said, tearing open the bag she had drug outside, that had all of the old toys inside of it.
However, she couldn't spot Jelly Bear immediately when she peered into the bag, having to crawl into the bag herself. She was just about to grab the one item in the bag that felt furry to the touch, when Jeffery approached the curb. While Bonny's legs were sticking up out of the bag, the wind blew at that very moment, causing part of the open bag to blow on top of Bonny's legs, covering her up. The garbage truck people mistakenly grabbed up the bag where Bonny was, thinking she was trash. Rosie oversaw this, and ran quickly to the back of Jeffery.
"I must save Bonny!" Rosie cried, climbing into the back of the truck, grabbing at Bonny's leg.
Unfortunately, at that moment, the door on the back of the unit closed and the truck drove away, with Rosie and Bonny inside. Overseeing everything and scared, Mary and Hazel went inside to alert Shannon of what happened, while Rosie and Bonny, had one frightening, and smelly ride.
"So this is what a monster's tummy looks like." Rosie said.
"I don't know, it smells so bad, I can barely breethe." Bonny said, starting to cough, like she was going to throw up from all of the awful smells the garbage was omitting.
Sure enough, before Rosie could get out of the way, the truck went over a speed bump, and Bonny threw up all over her.
"Now, let's find Jelly Bear and hope we can get out of here soon." Rosie said, tearing into the bag that Bonny once occupied, tossing out all of the old teething rings and other toys all over the back of the garbage truck cab, until she found Jelly Bear, which she handed over to Bonny.
The brounette girl didn't care that some of her spitup dribbled down on to the bear. She knew her mommy could wash it later, she was just glad Jelly Bear was safe. Now, how to get home was the only question on these two little toddlers minds, as the truck made a stop and the motor turned off. It then hit them for the first time that Mary was right. This was no monster at all. It was just a garbage truck. Though if this was the case, then who was Jeffery?
Their thoughts were soon answered, when two men opened up the back of the truck, and started taking bags out to be tossed away at the city dump. Once they saw they could make a break for it, Rosie and Bonny climbed out of the vehicle into unfamiliar territory, scaring the two men half to death.
"AAAHHH!" The two men screamed, jumping half a mile out of the way.
"AAAHHH!" Rosie and Bonny screamed in unison, jumping out of the garbage truck.
"Jeffery! Where did these two little girls come from?" The man who Rosie had seen putting bags inside the truck in the past asked a slightly older man with dark brown hair, slowly turning gray.
Both men wore green suits with white badges on them, which read their names.
"I don't know Eddie, but we'd better find their parents right away." Jeffery said.
Rosie stared in shock. Jeffery wasn't the monster, he was the man driving the truck. And wherever they were didn't look like no dinner buffet. She stared around, noticing piles among piles of those green garbage bags, while there were other piles of clear bags filled with leaves and old twigs that had fallen off the trees at one time or another. It was obvious they were miles from home, and Bonny was shaking nervously, clutching on to Jelly Bear for dear life.
"Rosie, where are we?" Bonny asked.
"I don't know, but hopefully, somebody comes soon." Rosie said.
While Rosie was all for adventure and exploring, this place even gave her the creeps. Not wishing to worry Bonny though, she held tightly on to her friend's free hand, that wasn't clutching on to Jelly Bear for the moment, not moving a muscle, hoping somebody could find them. Unknowing to either little girl or the sanitation workers, as soon as Mary had broken the news to her mother about what had happened, she put Hazel into the car and they caught up with the garbage truck on route to the dump. Once they saw the truck turn into a special area of the dump reserved for garbage trucks to go, they went around to the parking lot where people who didn't work in sanitation could park and dump items like leaves and sticks, and they headed towards the junk yard.
"Do you see them Mary?" Shannon asked.
Mary peered around, when suddenly, she spotted the green garbage truck, and her little sister along side Bonny.
"There they are!" Mary cried, running through a mess of garbage bags over to where her sister was.
"Rosie!" Mary cried.
"Mary!" Rosie and Bonny cried, as they ran up to Mary, giving her a huge hug, as she fell over backwards into a pile of garbage that fell over upon impact.
Just then, Shannon made her way through the rubbish and approached the two sanitation workers.
"Thank you for keeping my daughter and her friend safe." Shannon said to the men.
"These two little girls belong to you?" Jeffery asked.
"They sure do. They must have gotten outside while I was trying to put out some recycling, and, oh, I'm so glad I found you. Never in a million years would I purposely throw my daughter away." Shannon said.
Jeffery and Eddie had a good laugh, as they saw to helping Shannon get her daughters, Hazel and Bonny back over to her car. Once Shannon had the three toddlers securely fascened into their car seats, she saw to driving away from the city dump and back to her apartment, where she gave them all a bath. While she left to get them towels for drying off, Rosie turned to her friends who were having fun in the tub.
"Well ladies, I'm glad to have learned that Jeffery isn't a monster." Rosie said.
"Me too!" Hazel said.
"And I'm glad, I was able to get Jelly Bear back, even if I did take the scariest ride in my life. No way will I grow up to be like Jeffery. Once in a garbage truck, was enough for me." Bonny said, splashing some bubbles on to her head.
"Me too! I love a good aventure, but I'll leave it up to Jeffery to dump my diapies into the biggerest trash can in the whole wild world by himself." Rosie commented, as she and her two best friends, splashed one another in the tub and had a good laugh.
The End
Author's Note: Well, obviously, that story played out a lot differently from the original episode. I mean, the babies in the original Feeding Hubert, never found out what it really was, as they still believed in Hubert two seasons later during the episode, The Mattress, when they saw to having it take Lou's monster in the mattress away. Also, I don't work for sanitation, nor am I an expert on how it all works, though I know things work differently in different places at various locations, so apologies if I got anything wrong where the colors of the uniforms, the colors of the vehicles, or how things are done, was wrong. Just saying that so nobody can flame me. And yes, I do believe that in actuality, Hubert is the name of the garbage truck driver, not the truck itself, as the babies thought. I also like how I portrayed Reggie, and had Mary tell the babies the truth, kind of like how that episode out West would have probably played out, had Susie been in the episode. And I personally feel that Angelica was somewhat out of character in that episode, actually agreeing to help the babies put together a can of monster food, while Reggie on-the-other-hand, decided to scare the babies into thinking that Jeffery would eat them if he didn't have enough to eat. So anyway, I hope you all enjoyed how things played out East, and I hope to be back with more material, sometime soon.