Author's note: I don't own the rights to DQMW or anything. They belong to Beth Sullivan and CBS. I'm simply borrowing the characters for a while to play with. I promise to put them back where I found them when I am done.
For days Dr. Mike's been looking for that Xyster! I'd wake up in the middle of the night and she'd be going through her trunk again, or that shelf, or one of the drawers. Honestly! Once a month she takes inventory with me helping her that she's got everything, put away each in it's own place. Normally everything is, but this time the Xyster was missing. I tell you every spare moment has been for looking for that thing! I now know that clinic ten times better now with how much Dr. Mike's been having us look, then I ever did when we lived there back when it was Ma's boarding house. Matthew used to lead us through expeditions looking for hidden treasure that he said had been left by the man Ma had bought the building from.
It was friday night and we were sitting down to dinner. I cooked nothing fancy, just beans and bread with squash. I asked Brian to pick me the squash when we arrived at home. But he sure complained. Wanted to work on his project. That project! He won't let anyone near it, and it takes up so much space in the homestead. It isn't as though the homestead is large.
Dr. Mike helped with dinner but she was so distracted, I was afraid she'd burn the homestead down. We were just about to sit down when Sully came by. Dr. Mike had sent him off who knows where in search of that thing. He looked tired and cold, I shivered with the draft that came in with him, we all did. Dr. Mike already had a place ready for him. He comes by most days, but he isn't expected. It really is sweet the way Dr. Mike & Sully are. Brian wants them to hurry up and get married, so we can have a ma & pa again, but he knows that he'll never hear the end of it from Matthew and I if he starts pestering them again. Honestly when Brian asked Sully to marry Dr. Mike for her birthday last winter that man nearly ran for the hills.
After dinner Brian and I got to work on our school projects. We're presenting them next week. Brian spread his project out on the table. I managed to claim a corner of the table, going over my part of my project I'm working on with Becky. We're writing a play about the Lewis and Clark expedition. I half had to work on my lap though there wasn't any room left. Matthew took the rocker, working on fiddling a new doll for one of Ingrid's sister's birthday. Ingrid's going to make a dress. I like Ingrid, she'll make a good sister-in-law one day. Sully took to the bed. Dr. Mike says that where there are other options, sitting on a bed is not acceptable, but out here in the west, there isn't a lot. We make do with what we have. Dr. Mike even said once that you sleep in a different bed if you're taking a nap then if you're sleeping at night. But we don't have day beds, or sofas. Becky's family has one in their parlor. One day Becky and I went in there just to look around.
I tried to work. Really it's hard though, with Dr. Mike ruffling through this and that, opening things, closing, it makes a lot of noise searching. "Can't you do something else Dr. Mike?" I asked. "We already know its not here."
She smiled at me. "Colleen, but I might have missed one little corner."
"Ma it is distracting!" Brian joined my argument. "I can't work if I'm worried you might see my project."
Sully laughed and sat his book down. "Hey why don't you come and read with me, before you drive everyone crazy?"
She sighed. "all right." We finely got some form of quiet. No more searching noises. I looked up once from my project. Matthew had the head nicely carved. Dr. Mike & Sully were seated on the bed, resting their backs against the wall, setting the book between them. An occasional soft laugh. I wondered what they were reading. Brian was busy at his end, what ever he was up to.
The clock struck nine when Brian got up saying he was done with homework for the night. He might be nearly done, but I had more to do. He hadn't been spending as much time as me looking for that silly Xyster. He went back to our alcove where his and my beds are.
It was past ten when I decided I could get some sleep. I looked up from my work. Matthew was still whittling way, busy trying to finish the doll soon. Ingrid couldn't make a dress for the doll until he'd finish it. Dr. Mike & Sully were still reading. No, they had fallen asleep reading. How long? I don't know. Any ways, it was rather sweet. Dr. Mike had her head rested on Sully's shoulder, and his head rested on her head. Their hands were nearly clasped on top of the forgotten book. I really hope one day they stop beating around the bush and start courting.
Matthew and I held a quiet conversation at the other end of the room. What to do? Wake them up? Leave them? "Let's leave them Colleen." Matthew decided. "It's cold outside, I'd stay in here too if I didn't have to go out any ways to bed the animals down for the night. At least I've got someplace warm to sleep. With Sully outside, he might get frostbite or something."
"That's true, frostbite isn't any good." I thought of when I had gotten frostbite last spring. "If he'd left earlier it wouldn't have been so cold. We'll leave them, any ways if Dr. Mike wakes up she'll just spend the night searching and no one will get any sleep." So we did. I laid the blanket from the rocker over them, whispered goodnight, and went to get the first night of sleep in days without the ruckus of Dr. Mike tearing up the homestead, because she's swears she last saw it there.