Summary: The O'Connell triplets decide to make cherry juice.
Note: very special thank you to Shelby (Eviefan) for letting me borrow Elizabeth, Rebecca and Louisa. I will be sure to return them as they were when I got them.
Disclaimer: The Mummy characters, events and anything else do not belong to me. The triplets (however) belong to Shelby. I have made it my duty to send hate mail to anyone who steals them.
It was a hot July morning, O'Connell Manor was in a bustle as Evelyn left for the Museum, leaving Alex special instructions on how to take care of his sisters. He had never babysat before, well, there were a couple times he did, but his parents were still in the house or down the field. Today he was going to baby-sit them alone, while his mother was at the Museum, and his dad was out of town with Sam working on a contracting a crew to build a yacht.
"They're old enough not to have a nap, but they should calm down by about three, I'll be home at about five, so if you guys get hungry for dinner you can have sandwich's. And of course there are sandwich's already pre-made in the fridge for lunch. You know the number of the Museum if you need help, but just in case, it's on the refrigerator and beside the phone. I warned Elizabeth to obey you and they are up in their room right now." Evleyn informed Alex, who was now 13 years old.
"I know mum, I know." Alex laughed. "Don't worry, you can count on me! I'm an O'Connell!" he said proudly.
"That's what I was afraid of." His mother lightened up and smiled at him. Evelyn leaned down and kissed Alex on the cheek. "Be good, and just use your head, alright sweetheart?" Alex nodded, "I love you," She said as she left out the door.
"Oh, mum!" Alex called out.
"Yes?" She spun around, she had an armload of boxes full of books she was donating to the Museum's Library.
"You forgot this, " He held up her brief case, the men of the Bembridge Scholars still mocked her for having one, but it came in handy, and if needed, could be used as quite a good form of self defence.
"Oh, dear. Could you put it in the car for me?" She asked.
~~~~~~
"What do you want to do today?" Elizabeth asked Rebecca up in their room that the three girls shared.
They were now four and very adventurous, at least, Elizabeth and Rebecca were, Louisa was more independent, and liked her privacy, although she dearly loved her sisters, Rebecca was adventurous, but knew when to stop and Elizabeth was just a miniature version of Rick O'Connell him self.
"Let's ask Uncle John to go see picture show." Rebecca suggested.
"No." Elizabeth protested. "Boring, want to go outside?" She asked. Rebecca agreed to that. "Louisa?" Elizabeth asked. Louisa sat on her bed with Victoria her baby and brushed her hair. The girls now each had their own beds. They were singles and they were low to the ground. Alex and Rick has spent a month out in the barn building them and after they were down Evelyn painted them pink and put each girls' name on her bed.
"Louisa?" Rebecca asked when their sister didn't answer. Louisa put her head up and looked at the two who were looking back at her.
"Yes?" She asked.
"Want go outside?" Elizabeth asked. Louisa nodded and the three set out.
"Hey, where are you three headed?" Alex asked when he met up with them in the hallway.
"We go outside." Rebecca informed him.
"You three want to go out and play?" He asked. Elizabeth and Rebecca nodded their heads. "You too Louisa?" He asked again, she nodded too. "Alright, let's go."
The girls were wearing light sundresses, with bare feet and they each had sun hats with large brims that they got over the past weekend. They insisted on wearing their hats and ran outside in their bare feet which was Ok since it was very warm out.
After Rick and Evie realized how adventurous Alex was, Rick built a white fence around the perimeter of the back lawn (at least the part that could be used to occupy a child.) In it, at this point with the girls, were balls and a set of swings, some other toys and a picnic table.
The four siblings spent the whole morning outside having fun, Louisa sat on the swing and Rebecca pushed her, Alex and Elizabeth played with the big blow up beach ball, and after a while coaxed the other two to play with them.
Before they knew it, lunch came and Alex started to get hungry. "I'm going to get the sandwiches for a picnic, do you girls want to come with me?" He asked. Louisa decided to come with her brother and help get the blanket and food, while Elizabeth and Rebecca stayed outside and picked out a place to put the blanket. "Be god and don't get into trouble" Alex told them sternly, they both nodded. They had been left outside hundreds of times for short periods.
As soon as Alex and Louisa left Elizabeth pulled her sister over to the picnic table which sat next to the fence, they climbed on it and Elizabeth started to pull cherries off of a tree that was hanging over from the other side of the fence. "What are you doing?" Rebecca asked confused.
"Help me pick cherries." Elizabeth asked. "Mum and dad want cut down tree. We got to save cherries." She informed her sister.
"Alright." Rebecca agreed and started pulling hands full of cherries off of the branches. They then put the cherries into their buckets on the ground. They were just topping off the second bucket when they heard the door open and Louisa came skipping out holding a blanket, followed by Alex who held the picnic basket.
"So, where are we going to sit?" Alex asked his sisters as they jumped off the table.
"Over dere." Rebecca pointed to the side of the house. Alex liked that idea, now he could lean on the wall. He helped Louisa spread the blanket and they all sat down.
~~~~
After lunch Louisa was getting tired and wanted Alex to read her a story. The book she wanted him to read was Peter Pan, and that particular book was a very old and very delicate book, so he'd have to read it inside. "Do you two want to hear the story?" He asked.
"No, we pay outside." Elizabeth told him.
"Alright, but you two have to be good do you pinky swear?" He asked, they did.
When Alex and Louisa once again left, Rebecca and Elizabeth went over to their cherries again. "What do we do wiff them?" Rebecca asked.
"Make juice." Elizabeth said.
"How do we do that?" Rebecca asked.
"We put in water ,and mush up cherries, then we add sugar." Elizabeth informed her sister.
"How do we get water?" Rebecca asked.
"I can," Elizabeth ran inside, Alex and Louisa sat on a couch in the parlour.
"What are you doing?" Alex asked. He could hear her, but he couldn't't see her as she was in the other room.
"Getting water." Elizabeth yelled to him.
"Do you need help?" He asked.
"No." She went to the kitchen and pulled the stool to the counter, she reached in the cupboard and pulled out a large mug and filled it up with water, as she backed down the stool she spilt the majority of the cup and so went at it again. She finally managed not to spill any on the floor and carefully brought the mug outside.
She dumped the water into the bucket and stepped inside. "What are you doing?" Rebecca asked in surprise.
"Squishing them silly!"
"Oh, Ok." This looked like fun to Rebecca. "Let me try." She said, reluctantly Elizabeth moved aside and let Rebecca try, she started to squish the berries and they felt cold and funny on her feet. She started to laugh. "I want my own." She said as she got out of the bucket and let Elizabeth back in. "I go get water."
Despite the red stained water on her feet, Rebecca went into the manor to get her own water. She heard her brother call, and she informed him of what she was doing, and that she didn't need help.
She also spilt the water a little bit, but this water turned red as it mixed with her footprints she was tracking on the tiled floor. She went back outside and poured the water in her own bucket and the two sisters made their cherry 'juice' together laughing and playing. After a few minutes the door opened ad Louisa came outside, seeing what they were doing she inquired as to exactly what the point of this activity was.
"We make Cherry juice, you help." Elizabeth got out of the bucket. "Taste." She said.
Elizabeth went over to the sandbox and got a shovel to use as a spoon and cleaned it off as best she could. She then handed it to Louisa who in turn dipped it in the pulp filled mixture of water.
She sipped a little bit of it and made a face, "Sour." She said as she puckered her lips.
"That's cause we need sugar." Rebecca remembered. "Louisa please go get sugar?" She asked. Louisa agreed.
Alex had to clean his room, and so he went to do that as al three girls played outside, he trusted that at least if one of them were doing something wrong, he would be informed, so he didn't really worry about them.
It was free for Louisa to go to the kitchen and get the sugar, she knew where it was kept because she liked cooking dinner with her mum, and that included baking for afterward.
She opened the pantry and spotted the big bag of sugar, it was too large for her to carry so she went over to the kitchen table, climbed up onto the chair with her red stained hands and got up onto the table, she got the fruit bowl, emptied it of fruit, and climbed back down.
There weren't any spoons so Louisa used her hands to scoop the sugar powder, most of it ended up on the ground, and in time it mixed in with the wet foot prints left by her sisters.
When she left she forgot to put the bag away and so the paper bag lay on the floor outside of the open pantry.
"I got sugar" Louisa called out as she walked outside with the bowl in her arms. Rebecca and Elizabeth ran over and took the bowl from her arms and brought it over to the buckets.
"Mmmm." Elizabeth said as she looked at the sugar. She licked her finger, dipped it in and ate some.
"I wanna try!" Rebecca said as she did the same.
"Me too me too!" Louisa insisted and came over and took and little handful. They all started eating the sugar, until finally Elizabeth told them to stop.
"We need some for cherry juice." She informed her sisters. "Follow me with your bucket." She said to Rebecca, they both stepped into their own buckets and started squishing the cherries. "Now, Issa, pour in the sugar."
Louisa did so, and the other two squished everything together with their feet.
Now, with sticky, red, wet feet Elizabeth and Rebecca got out and asked Louisa to taste again, she picked up the shovel, dipped it in and slurped up the sticky pulp. After a coughing fit (because of a piece of cherry) Louisa shook her head again. "Too sour." She said.
"Well that cause you guys eated all the sugar!" Elizabeth said.
"Nooo, you eated sugar too." Rebecca defended.
"Not as much as you!" Elizabeth yelled back. She picked up a handful of mush and threw it at Rebecca. After she did so. She realized what she had done. "Me sorry Becca." She said to her sister who stood looking down at her now wet and red dress.
Rebecca slowly looked back at Elizabeth, and a huge grin appeared on her face. "CHERRY JUICE FIGHT!" She yelled out as she grabbed a handful of the 'juice' and chucked it back at Elizabeth. Louisa took the shovel, and scooped out the pulp which she then flung at her sisters.
They were laughing and playing and having not a care in the world. That would be why they didn't see their brother come out the door. "Oh dear God. What have you three been doing?" He asked, normally he would laugh, if he wasn't the person in charge.
"We make juice, and it taste icky. Want some?" Elizabeth help out a handful of pulp and water.
"Umm, no." Alex declined, "Well at least it's not that bad. " He said. "Now, you girls have to do something for me. Take off your dresses." They did so, with little help required until they were just in their underwear." "Now you all have to go up to your room, and I want you to put on something else. Can you do that?" He asked. They all nodded, as they were walking away he saw how red the undersides of their feet were. "Wait!" He called out.
Ten minutes later all three were set out for their room, they all had garbage bags strapped to their feet and slipped and slidded on the ground.
Alex set to work with a scrub brush, he had to try and get as much red juice off of the picnic table as possible.
He had instructed his sisters to go into their bathroom and to wash off their feet with a cloth rinsed under the sink. And if worse came to worse, put on their indoor shoes.
He got almost all of the 'juice' off of the picnic table, and he went out back and dumped the buckets into the back ditch.
As he went to go back inside, something caught his eyes, little footprints leading toward the dining room. Red footprints.
"Oh no," He said as he slowly followed them, there were three sets, all leading in and out again.. They went through the dining room, and into the kitchen, and when he got there he let out an expletive at the site. There were not only footprints, but hand prints all over the counter, lots of water, and a bag of half empty sugar which was being saturated into the water. He thought about calling the girls down, but this would probably have them running down the carpeted stairs with dirty feet.
He picked up the bag of-now- wet disgusting clumpy sugar, and threw it out. Making sure the bag was well hidden in the bottom of the bin. He then got out a mop. It took a while, but he managed to get most of the water soaked up, and the red was smearing across the floor, which meant that it would easily lift off when he got out more towels.
As he got the last bit of red off of and floor, he heard his sisters coming down the stairs, at times like these they sound more like a pack of wild animals. They ran into the kitchen and came to a halting stop when they saw the look on their brother's face.
"You said you were getting water." He said to Rebecca and Elizabeth in a deathly low and steady voice.
"We were, for the juice." Elizabeth said.
"You told me it was to…" Wait, they hadn't told him what the water was for. "Help me clean the rest of this up." He said finally.
Louisa and Elizabeth got to work drying off the floor, while Alex and Rebecca swept up any access sugar.
~~~~~~
The clock struck five as Alex, Rebecca, Elizabeth and Louisa gave the dining room one lest scrub, they had gotten everything cleaned, and were getting pretty hungry.
"Anyone home?" They heard someone call in from the front hall.
"In here!" Alex called to his mother who came walking in.
"My, you all are very quiet. I was afraid something was wrong." She said with concern.
"We made-" Elizabeth was cut off by Alex's cold glare. "Sandwiches." She finished.
"Well, did you already eat them?" Evelyn asked, "Because I stopped at the pizzeria and got us some dinner." To this all eight eyes lit up.
"We're starving! We didn't eat that much anyways." Alex informed as the three girls agreed.
"Good then." Evie laughed. I'll go get the pizzas out of the front hallway, and you set the dining room table.
Ales was placing the plates around the table as Evie came walking in with two big boxes, "Where should I put them." She asked as she couldn't really see over them that well.
Alex ran over to push away the plates, as he did so he noticed the red handprints on the wooden chair. He dove over even faster, and sat down on the chair, then he moved the plates. "Hungry?" Evelyn asked a little surprised.
"Starving." Alex said with a smile. He started to shift back and forth, hoping that he could wipe the stain off of the chair, Evelyn caught sight of this and gave him a peculiar look. "Um, I'm itchy." He said.
"You'll have to ask your father about that." She said with a look.
Alex gave a little laugh "Yeah." He said.
As the family (minus one) ate, Rick appeared in the doorway. "Daddy!" Rebecca cried out as she jumped off the chair and ran into his arms.
"Hello love." He said as he lifted her up into the air.
They ate dinner as a full family now, which was the first time in a couple of weeks. Evelyn made mental note to confront her husband about trying to keep more business around home.
Before the family knew it, it was already time for bed. "I'll go up and start the baths." Evie said, as she noticed Rick Alex and the Girls were enjoying themselves very much that she didn't have the heart to interrupt them, just yet.
She went upstairs and into the girl's bedroom. As soon as she set foot in the room she could smell something peculiar, something fruity. She shrugged it off, and went into the bathroom, where on the floor lay 6 garbage bags, Evie picked one up and looked at it, it smelt fruity too. And there was the most peculiar red liquid on it. She put the bags into the garbage and summoned the girls up to their chagrin.
Afterward as Rick tucked his three little princesses in bed Evelyn found Alex heading down the hallway to his room. "Alex, may I ask you something?" He stopped and gave her his attention. "There were six garbage bags on the floor in the girl's bathroom, do you know what they are?" to this Alex sighed.
"I let them play upstairs and when I came back down I found them all making cherry juice. They had picked cherries off of the tree and were squashing them in buckets with their feet. They had managed to get water to pour in the buckets, and while I was upstairs, they got sugar." He said with his head to the ground. "I'm sorry." When there was no answer he looked up, to find his mother laughing.
"Well, that's amusing." She said as she started laughing harder.
"Well at least I cleaned it up!" He said.
"You know your brother and I tried to do that once." She informed Alex.
"Really?" He asked.
"Yes, only we tried to plant cherries, and so we'd peel off the outer fruit with our hands, and bury them in the mud. That was worse, because after we were filthy we went into the kitchen to get water."
"Oh yeah? You think that's bad, well one of them tracked red foot prints into the kitchen, actually, I think all of them did, there were three sets. Anyway, one of the little brats actually got out the sugar, spilt half of it on the ground and left the rest to soak in the water." Alex told his mother as she started to laugh really hard.
"And what were the garbage bags for?" Evie asked.
"Well, that was the only way I could get them through the house without leaving red footprints on the carpet, I tied garbage bags to their feet." He told her.
To this Evelyn laughed uncontrollably.
~~~~~~
Later that night Evie and her husband lay in bed, after a long moment of silence: "Evie?"
"Yes darling."
"Do the girls wear make-up?" He asked with concern in his voice.
"No, why?" Evelyn asked puzzled.
"Well, because when I gave them all kisses, I swear I could taste cherry on my mouth afterward." Evelyn started to laugh. "What is it?" Rick asked.
"Never mind, I'll tell you later." Evie said as she lifted her head and took his lips in a kiss that left little time for him to think of anything accept for the need to spend a wonderful night with his wife.
~~~~~~
As the clock struck six, Mr. And Mrs. O'Connell were awoken by their three daughters. "Mum mum mum mum dad dad dad dad!" They yelled out in almost unison.
Rick and Evie, still groggy, sat up to see Elizabeth, Rebecca and Louisa holding up a tray, on it, there was bread, cereal, two apples and two glasses of juice.
"What kind of juice is this?" Evie asked fully aware of the pulp floating around inside.
"Cherry juice." Rebecca said, "Homemade."
Evelyn bent over and explained to Rick, what she had meant to tell him the night before, his eyes grew large.
"Um, mmm looks good, what kind of cereal is this?" He asked trying to keep away from the beverage.
"Wheat" Louisa said.
"Well why don't you three come up here, let me take that." Rick reached over and held onto the tray as his three princesses climbed up on the bed.
Him and Evie started eating their breakfast, all the while avoiding the juice, until in the end, all that was left was the juice. "Now you got drink juice." Rebecca said, Rick and Evie exchanged glances.
"I don't think it's cold enough, I think it should go back in the refrigerator." Evie grasped for excuses.
"No, drink now." Elizabeth said, "It good for you."
~~~~~~
After a week Rick and Evelyn were feeling better. The doctor had said it was something they ate, well they knew that. Alex had gotten double his pay, Evelyn realized how horrific cleaning up the juice was, her and her husband had done the quite a few times when they missed the toilet.
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No Cherry trees were injured in the making of this story.