Cedric jolted to attention upon hearing that! He shot out of bed, and grabbed his glasses.
"What? Now?" he asked. "Are you sure?"
"Yes!" Sophia shouted.
Cedric began to panic just then. He had no idea what in the world he was going to do now.
"Well . . . . uhh, what do we do?" he asked.
"My guess is we go to the hospital," Sophia said.
"Right! Right!" Cedric shouted. If he wasn't so nervous, he would have probably figured it out.
Sophia grabbed an already packed suitcase (she'd been packed for weeks, for just such an emergency), and she and Cedric started down the stairs and out of the mansion. Unfortunately, Cedric was so panicked, he wasn't paying attention to where he was going, so he didn't see Cyril's dog, Snag, sleeping on the stairs. Cedric tripped over him, and they both started crashing down the stairs.
"YIPE!" Snag yipped when Cedric hit him.
"Whoa!" Cedric shouted, as he tripped.
Cedric and Snag fell down the stairs and landed with a loud CRASH! All the commotion woke Cyril up from a sound sleep, and he wasn't too happy.
"What's going on out here?!" he shouted.
"Cedric, are you all right?" Sophia asked.
"Yeah, I'm okay," Cedric said. He rummaged around for his glasses, which had fallen off during the trip downstairs.
"I'll ask it again," Cyril said, becoming a little impatient. "WHAT'S GOING ON OUT HERE?!"
"Sophia's going to have the baby, Pop," Cedric said.
"Oh is that all," Cyril replied. "Well, if that's the case, then I won't keep you."
Sophia wondered how in the world Cyril could stay calm in a situation like this, and Cedric was a wreck. In any case, Sophia went downstairs as carefully as she could. She didn't want to trip and fall herself. Cyril followed, just to see what was going to happen.
Cedric fumbled around with the car keys for awhile. His hands were shaking, and he was sweating.
"Cedric, are you sure you can handle this?" Sophia asked.
"Sure I'm sure," Cedric replied. "No problem!"
Cedric continued fiddling with his keys, until he dropped them. Nervously, he picked them back up, and dropped them again.
"I think I'd better drive," Cyril said, taking the keys from Cedric. "Come on, let's get this show on the road."
That was all there was to it. Cyril took over, much to Sophia's surprise. They made it to the hospital in under a few minutes. Once there, they were directed to the maternity ward. Cedric had to fill out some paper work. Of course, he was so nervous about it, he could barely hold the pen!
"I'll do that, Cedric," Cyril said, taking the clipboard from his son. "The way you're hand's shaking, they won't be able to read it!"
"Thanks, Pop," Cedric said. Then he went to the nearest pay phone to make a few phone calls.
The first call was to the Raccoondominium. Bert wasn't to happy about being woken up at around three in the morning.
"Who is this?" he asked, somewhat sleepily.
"It's me, Bert," Cedric said.
"Cedric? What are you calling at three in the morning for?"
"I'm calling from the hospital. Sophia's about to have the baby."
"What?! Right now?! I'll be right there!"
Bert promptly hung up the phone, and ran to wake up Ralph and Melissa.
"Ralph! Melissa! Come on! We've got a situation here!" Bert shouted.
"If you're waking us up to tell us we're out of peanut butter, go back to bed," Ralph said. "We'll pick some up tomorrow morning."
"Hey, this is bigger than peanut butter!" Bert shouted.
"Bigger than peanut butter?" Melissa repeated, not sure if she heard right.
"Bert, to you, nothing is bigger than peanut butter," Ralph replied.
"Not even Sophia having her baby this very minute?"
That did it. Ralph and Melissa shot to attention, and began racing around. Ralph began a mad search for his camera. They dashed out the door of the Raccoondominium and headed for the hospital. When the Raccoons arrived at the maternity ward, they found Cedric pacing back and forth like crazy, and Cyril just sitting there, leafing through some business magazine or another.
"What happened, did we miss anything?" Melissa asked.
"Did she have the baby yet?" Bert asked.
"Not yet," Cedric said. "I don't know how long it's going to take."
"It won't be for awhile," Cyril said, not bothering to look up from the magazine he was reading. "We could be in for a long wait."
"How do you know?" Bert asked, in a sort of challenging tone of voice.
Cyril looked up from his magazine and glared at Bert. Bert realized that Cyril definitely would know about this subject. He blushed, cleared his throat, and walked over to Cedric.
"I'll just, uhh, help you worry, Cedric," he said, and he began pacing around the waiting room.
Three hours went by, and there was still nothing to report. Cedric just started to pace faster and faster, and so was Bert. At one point, Cedric changed directions in pacing, and he and Bert bumped into each other without even paying attention to what they were doing. Both of them ended up on the floor.
"Sorry about that, Bert," Cedric said.
"No problem," Bert said.
Both of them got up, and continued to pace.
"I can understand Cedric pacing," Melissa said. "But why are you so nervous, Bert?"
"Sympathy nerves," Bert replied. "Besides, Cedric's nerves are making my nerves nervous!"
Another three hours passed. Ralph and Melissa had fallen asleep. Cedric kept pacing. Bert was sitting on the floor, making a cat's cradle out of a piece of string that had been hanging off his sweater. Cyril was going through the business section of the newspaper.
"Any news yet?" Bert asked.
"Has the nurse or doctor come out yet?" Cyril asked.
"No."
"Then shaddup!"
Bert threw Cyril a dirty look, and continued to play with his cat's cradle. Cyril looked up from the newspaper and watched Cedric for about two minutes.
"Cedric, you've been pacing for six hours," he said. "Sit down, and relax!"
"I guess maybe you're right, Pop," Cedric said, sitting down. He took off his glasses, and started to clean them. "Were you this nervous when I was born?"
"Slightly less so," Cyril admitted, going back to the newspaper.
Cedric nodded. But, unfortunately, he couldn't sit still. He began fidgeting, and then twiddling his thumbs. Then he got back up and began pacing all over again.
Cyril had been making notes about how long it was taking. By the tenth hour, there still wasn't any news. Bert had fallen asleep right on the floor, and now Melissa was pacing along with Cedric. Ralph was checking the clock on the wall every two or three seconds.
"How long have we been here?" Melissa asked.
"Since three thirty in the morning," Cyril said, checking his notes.
"And what time is it now?"
"One fifteen. We've been here for almost ten hours."
"What could be taking so long?" Cedric asked, nervously.
"Cedric, you took sixteen hours before you came out," Cyril said. "Trust me, this is normal."
"I guess he would know," Melissa said with a shrug. She walked over to Bert, and nudged him. "Wake up, Bert."
"Awww, five more minutes, Mom," Bert answered, sleepily.
"Maybe we should all just go back home and come back later," Ralph replied.
"I'm staying here," Cedric said.
"I might as well stay too," Cyril said. "Try and keep Cedric from exploding with anticipation."
"You're very calm about this, Cyril," Ralph said. "I'd think you'd be a nervous wreck yourself."
"Hey, someone's gotta keep their head around here," Cyril said with a shrug, and he went back to his paper.
Ralph nodded. He, Melissa, and Bert ended up staying. A few more hours went by. Cyril had fallen asleep in the middle of re-reading the business section of the newspaper. Bert and Ralph were playing a game of Tic Tac Toe, to keep their minds off things. Melissa was leafing through a magazine, not really paying attention to it. And Cedric was (you guessed it!) still pacing back and forth the waiting room nervously.
Finally, at five twenty-six that evening, a nurse came out of the delivery room.
"Mr. Cedric Sneer?" she said.
"Yes?" Cedric asked, practically racing over. The Raccoons followed, waiting for the news, nervously.
"Congratulations, Mr. Sneer," the nurse said, smiling. "It's a boy."
"It is?" Cedric asked, like he couldn't believe it. "It's here? I mean, he's here?"
"That's right," the nurse said.
"Hey, all right, Cedric!" Bert shouted, giving Cedric a thump in the shoulder.
"Congratulations, Cedric!" Melissa shouted.
Cedric felt a little faint, but relieved at the same time. After thirteen and a half hours, he was now a father. The Raccoons were all talking at once about it. Cyril woke up from his little nap, wondering what all the commotion was about.
"What's going on?" he asked. "What happened?"
"He's here, Pop," Cedric said.
"Who?" Cyril asked, slightly disoriented.
"The baby! It's a boy!"
"Oh."
Cedric wasn't sure what to make of his father's lack of enthusiasm, but he didn't care. The nurse led him, Cyril, and the Raccoons to the nursery window. Cyril, who was still half asleep, was looking around inside the nursery at all the babies in there.
"So which one is he?" he asked.
"The one with the long nose," Bert said, a little annoyed.
"Oh yeah," Cyril said. "I knew that."
"I think your brain could use a jump start."
Cyril ignored Bert's remark after that. The nurse wheeled over the baby aardvark. He was fast asleep when they all saw him.
"There's a definite resemblance to his dad," Ralph said.
"Yeah, a chip off the ol' block," Bert said.
"He looks exactly like you, Cedric," Melissa agreed.
Cedric didn't answer. He couldn't. He was just so overwhelmed that he fainted right there in front of the window.
WHAM!
The others looked down at him, not knowing what to do or say.
"Well," Bert said, finally. "At least we're in a hospital."
Everyone else groaned and rolled their eyes.
Cedric came to his senses a few minutes later, and the nurse led him to Sophia's room. She was exhausted.
"Hi, Sophia," Cedric said. "How are you feeling?"
"Tired," Sophia admitted. "But it's now all over."
"Yeah. So, what do you want to name him?"
"Well, I thought about this for awhile. I thought maybe we could name him Forest."
"Forest Sneer. I like the sound of that."
The nurse returned to the room, with the baby. She gave him to Sophia, and she and Cedric looked over him.
"Yeah," Cedric said. "He looks like a Forest to me."
"Welcome to the world," Sophia said to her baby. "Forest Sneer."