AN: Ah, chapter 3.
Something was wrong. Peter knew it. but he wasn't sure what he knew. It was dead quiet in the house. Gwen hadn't come to check on him this morning. And no one had said anything about her going visiting. Where could she be.
He heard foot steps out side his door. "Twen?" Peter asked looking up at the door expecting the Head maid to open it at any second. But she never did. It was around this time that he realized that there was more than one person on the other side of the door, Two middle-aged maids talking amongst themselves.
"It was so sudden...she was so healthy...then that heart attack came on..." One of them said softly.
"Hush, you'll frighten the child." Said the other maid.
"Oh, he can't hear us through the wall can he?" He could but neither maid thought so.
"I suppose not. But, Adele, I do pity the soul who has to tell the child that Gwen wont be looking after him anymore." The maid answered.
"Eliza, maybe we should. Someone has too." Adele pointed out.
"Not us! Goodness knows, in most cases I wouldn't bring bad news to a grown up never mind a child." Eliza argued. "I don't think the child even knows what death is...to have to explain it...no, we'd best leave it to the new head-maid. She arrives tomorrow."
"Who is she anyway?" Adele asked. "I mean, why aren't one of us moved up to Head-maid? It's not fair I work..."
"Be careful what you wish for, do you want to be stuck with that child as if you were his mother until he's grown? The head-maid will be." Eliza reminded Adele.
Adele shuddered at the thought. "No, I don't want to raise him."
"Then be a good, grateful miss, and clean the room, see if he's all right then get out." Eliza opened the door. Peter who'd had his ear pressed against it had to jump out of the way as soon as he saw the knob turning.
Eliza thrust a tray of food into Adele's hands and pushed her into the room. "Good morning, little master...what was you're name again dear?"
"Peter." He frowned at her. He was really beginning to hate people who forgot his name. It really wasn't that hard to remember!
"Oh really?" She looked confused. "I thought you where called James or John or Jacob...I must have been mistaken."
"ty tame's Peter." The little child glared up at her looking much angrier than usual.
"I'll come back for the tray later." Adele told him. "Try not to choke on anything so we don't get in trouble, alright? That's a good boy." She gave him a pat on the head and let the room.
Back then Peter was too young to understand what had happened to Gwen. He felt sad that she never returned but it wasn't until he was a bit older that he knew that she wasn't just not coming back, but was dead. No one bothered to explain it to him. Not really. The new head-maid was twenty-three. She didn't do anything short of make sure he didn't poke his eye out with this or that. She wasn't interesting. And her name isn't important in the story. For she did almost nothing. Though she was twenty-three she was as sleepy as if she was seventy-three and was always falling asleep in the rocking chair in the down stairs nursery while Peter played on the floor.
On one such day when she sat with her head back and mouth open snoring very loudly, Peter noticed a window was open a crack. The window was pretty low. Low enough for him to push up a little more if he stood on his tip-toes. Soon it was open wide enough for him to crawl out.
The world seemed like a much more interesting place than the Burke house was. What good was a big house when you were a prisoner inside of it? When if you wandered anywhere, someone bigger than you and stronger than you always picked you up and put you back in a little room by yourself all alone? No good. But outside seemed appearing. It was big and spacious and he'd been out here but only in the fenced in yard. But the world behind the window had no fences. It was open and free. So Peter climbed out looked around. He was on a side lawn with lots of emerald green grass and a red sign. Peter wondered why the piece of cardboard was there. He didn't know how to read yet so the markings seemed very strange and he never thought it could possibly mean something as boring as "Stay off the grass or you will be sued"
On the other side of the lawn, there was a street. It wasn't very busy at that time of day, so a small boy had no problem crossing it and going over to what looked like another lawn only much bigger. It was a park. And as Peter had never been taken to one before, he was thought it was the most amazing thing he'd ever seen. There was a playground but it wasn't on the side Peter had entered by, the side he'd gotten into was the nature-walking area. Upon exploring, he found an enclosed spot where the trees were nicer and the grass curiously shorter and tamer despite rarely being cared for. There was also a stream running through it. Settling down under a tree, Peter decided this would be his spot.
At the end of the day, Peter went back home and climbed back in through the window. The head-maid was talking in her sleep now. "Watch out for that! No, go over there! That's glass, don't touch that..."
Peter sighed and shook his head. She was bossy even when she was asleep. The door opened causing Peter to jump a bit. Thankfully he'd just gotten his other leg on this side of the window but that point.
It was that nice big-nosed lady! The one who called herself Auntie. Peter was very happy to see her. Other than his mother and Gwen, she was the person he wanted around the most. He noticed she was a good deal more pump than she'd been the last time she'd visited. Her belly was quite large now.
"Hello Peter." She smiled at him and carried in a stack of picture books.
"Auntie!" He smiled back.
"I have something for you." The woman smiled and pulled out some picture books she'd brought for him. "I figured they'd give you enough toys to keep you busy but I thought they might forget to get books for you. That's Elise. Always forgetting things." She turned to the head-maid. "Hey, no sleeping on the job, wake up!"
The maid opened her eyes and frowned. "What? I can't take a nap now and then?"
Auntie looked at the window. "For goodness sake, look how wide you left that thing open! Peter could have crawled right out of it!" She closed the window as Peter looked through the wordless books.
He pointed to things and asked Auntie what they meant. "That's a pig." She told him.
"Tis?" (Meaning "This?") He pointed to a cow.
"That's a cow, that's where milk comes from." Auntie explained.
Milk was good, so cows must be good, Peter decided. He looked at another book and pointed to a picture of a yellow fish.
"That's a fish." Auntie told him. "They swim in the ocean. They make good meals."
"Tish?" Peter pointed to another picture. This one was of half woman-half fish.
"No, that's a mermaid." Auntie said. "Mermaids are half human like me and you, and half fish. They live in the water and have beautiful long hair that flows out behind them. They're so lovely that sailors fall in love with them." She pointed to a picture of a sailor on a boat looking over at a rock where a mermaid sat.
Peter thought that was rather funny. Think of a sailor diving into the water because he saw a pretty fish-lady! He decided he didn't like mermaids. I'm certainly never going to fall in love with one, He thought to himself.
The door opened again. "Hello?" It was Elise.
"Mum!" Peter's face lit up and he ran over and hugged her.
"Let go, you're ruining mommy's best skirt." Elise told him unwrapping his arms from around her calves. Then she turned to Auntie. "I wanted to tell you that there is chicken for dinner tonight."
"Elise, when was the last time you came to visit him?" Auntie asked noticing that Peter was fairly beaming at her as though he hadn't seen her in a year.
"A couple months ago." Elise said in a bored voice. "Why?"
"Elise!" Auntie looked horrified. "You didn't visit you're poor son for two months?"
"Why? He has everything he needs. He's cared for." She said. "Nothing worth getting upset about."
"What he needs is his mother!" Auntie protested. "A child can't grow up not knowing who the mother is."
"He knows I'm his mother." Elise said in a slow How-dumb-are-you? tone of voice. "Now I'm off. I need to check on something upstairs."
"Elise!" Auntie looked very angry. "I can't deal with her!" This was why she hated coming to visit her sister. (She was Elise's Sister but she had the last name Burke as well because she was married to Jacob's brother) She always left upset. "Goodbye Peter." She said. "I hope some day something can be done about this."
Peter hoped so too.
AN: So? Did you like it? I want to know. So review.
