Sick Day

Sick Day

The smell of death hung over the little house like a cloud. Well, perhaps not death exactly. It was more like the smell that lingers after someone has been sick with the flu for a couple of days.

Jimmy stood a couple of feet from the bed, watching the doctor intently. The little old man fluttered quickly around the bed making random "humphs" and "ahs!" Finally the doctor turned to face the man of the house. Pushing his glasses back up onto his nose, he stuttered, "W-well, she'll have to s-stay in bed for a day. B-but, she should be feeling b-better soon. Yes…"

Jimmy nodded and looked back at his wife asleep in the bed. "Thanks Doc." He replied, distracted.

"One full day," the doctor emphasized. "No distractions, no loud noised, no nothing. She needs her sleep!"

"Huh? Oh, yeah." Jimmy said nodding. "One full day, got it!"

The doctor quickly left the room, leaving Jimmy alone. Jimmy watched his wife worriedly for a moment more before leaving the room. But the minute he closed the door, he was tackled.

He looked down at his legs and sighed. Two pairs of eyes looked up at him, full of worry and concern. He tried to walk but quickly gave up, mostly due to the force being exerted on him by his kids.

"When can we see Mommy?" The oldest of the twins, Ethan, asked him.

"Yeah, when?" His sister, Elise, echoed.

Jimmy sighed again and reached down to pluck each kid from their death grip on his pants leg. He then walked through the house with one twin thrown across each shoulder. When he reached his destination, he set them down firmly on chairs in the kitchen.

However, little Elise, clearly upset that her father had not answered their questions, jumped off the chair, stomped her foot, and screeched, "I WANT MY MOMMY!!"

Her father straightened himself up to his full six feet height, turned around and told her, "Well you can't see her until tomorrow. Now calm down and don't get snippy."

Elise glared at her father. She turned away from him, crossed her arms over her chest, and started to pout. Her brother Ethan started to panic. "A WHOLE day? Who's going to feed us, get us up in the mornings…"

"And take us to school and put us to bed!" Elise added.

"I will." Their father stated.

The twins turned to him wide-eyed. Both stared at him for a very long time. Finally Ethan said in contempt, "But you can't even cook!"

Jimmy stopped rummaging through the cabinets to look at his kids. "I can't cook? Well then, how do you think I survived before I married your mother?"

"Mommy says you lived on frozen waffles and Chinese takeout." Elise replied matter-a-factly.

"Ha ha." Jimmy said sarcastically. "Ethan, will you go get out the syrup?"

The following morning found Jimmy found himself at the stove, his brows furrowed in concentration. He was so involved with his task; he didn't even notice his son walk into the kitchen. Well, at least until his son asked him, "What's that?"

Jimmy looked down into the pan. "Scrambled eggs."

Ethan scrunched up his face in disgust. "Are you sure?" A quick look from his dad sent him rushing to the table.

"Daddy!" Elise squealed as she skipped into the room. "I'm ready for school!"

"Alright," her father started turning around. "Than go sit for…" He went into a state of shock when he was what his daughter was wearing. Her outfit, if you could call it that, consisted of a lime green plaid shirt, bright purple pants with yellow polka-dots, and hot pink cowboy boots. He really didn't know what to say. "Sweetie, it doesn't… match."

His daughter looked up at him in confusion. "It doesn't?"

"No, it doesn't." Jimmy sighed. "El, everything else you've worn matches. Why doesn't this?"

"Uh, dad?" Ethan interrupted. His dad shook his head.

"Because Mommy always helps me!" Elise explained.

"Dad!"

"Do you want me to help you?" Jimmy asked her.

"NO!" Elise screamed. "You can't pick out clothes either!"
"But dad!"

"What makes you think that?" Jimmy responded.

"Because you take Mommy with you when you go shopping. DUH!" His daughter said in annoyance.

"DAD!" Ethan shouted.

"WHAT?!"

Ethan pointed to the stove. "The eggs are on fire."

Jimmy whipped around, and seeing that it was true, swore.

"Oohh!" Elise squealed covering her mouth with her hands. "Daddy swore! I'm telling Mommy on you!"

"What? No you're not!" her father ordered. "Go change while I take care of this!"

His daughter sighed but obeyed. Jimmy could hear the clomping of her cowboy boots as she stomped up the stairs.

Meanwhile, his son ran from the room shouting, "Don't worry Dad! I'll get the fire extinguisher!"

"Ethan, no! I don't need it!"

But is efforts were in vain as his son ran back in, fire extinguisher in hand. Then with the flip of a switch, he proceeded to cover the entire kitchen in layers of white, fluffy foam.

"Ethan!" Jimmy shouted trying to ford the foam sea. "Turn it off! Turn it off!"

But Ethan couldn't hear his father very well over the noise that the extinguisher was making. He looked at his dad in confusion. "Turn it up? Well, gee, if you insist."

"What? NO! Not up! Off! Turn it off!" Jimmy yelled as he fell to the floor, whacking his head on the linoleum. He desperately tried to get back up but found that he could not.

By this time, the pressure exerted from the fire extinguisher had become too much for the little six-year old to handle. Ethan had no choice but to let it go. This caused him to be thrown into the sea of foam and the extinguisher to go crazy on the floor.

Both Jimmy and Ethan tried to grab hold of the extinguisher, but both failed miserably. Jimmy was actually hoping that, sooner or later, the extinguisher would run out, but that didn't seem to be happening.

Both were rather surprised when suddenly the madness stopped. They stood up and looked around with confusement on their faces, but stopped when they say who had shut off the fire extinguisher.

The blonde coughed into her hand. "Jimmy, what are you doing?"

Jimmy put on a sheepish smile. "Nothing sweetheart." He tried to assure his wife. "We just had a little…accident."

"With a fire extinguisher?" Cindy asked slowly, trying to comprehend what was going on.

"I told you they were up to no good!" Elise told her mother.

"Yes, dear. You did say that." Cindy said, patting her daughter's head. She turned to her son and husband. "Go get cleaned up! Both of you!"

Jimmy and Ethan started to object but Cindy cut them off. "NOW!"

Both scrambled to their feet and ran up the stairs. Cindy sighed and looked around her used-to-be-cleaned kitchen.

Her daughter looked up at her and said, "See Mommy. This is why Daddy married you. He needs someone to clean up after his messes."