Episode 4:

Cry Baby

Kris comes out of the bathroom carrying Tracy in a towel.

"OK, remember our deal.", she says to Rick as she hands Tracy to him. "I bathe her and you dress her."

After Kris leaves, Rick carries Tracy to her room and puts her down. Taking two shirts out of the drawer, Rick holds them up and asks her, "OK Tracy, what shirt do you want to wear, Baby Girl? Doggies or Duckies?"

Tracy, pointing to the shirt, replies, "Duckies."

Rick dresses Tracy in a yellow sweat shirt, with white furry ducks with orange noses on them. Yellow sweat pants that say 'Duckies' going down the legs in white writing that's trimmed in orange.

"Can I have a pony tail in my hair?", Tracy asks.

"You can ask Mommy to put anything you want in your hair.", Rick replies.

"No, Pop do it."

"Doing her hair is also part of dressing her.", Kris calls from the other room.

"OK.", he says as he carries Tracy to the bathroom, where he takes a package of ponytail holders out of the cupboard.

"I want 'dis' one.", Tracy announces, pointing to one of the holders.

"This is purple.", Rick tells her. "It doesn't really go with what you're wearing. How about an orange one instead?"

"Yeah, orange.", she agrees.

Rick puts a ponytail in Tracy's hair with an orange ponytail holder.

"OK, you're all dressed.", he tells her.

" 'Tank OOh', Pop.", she says as she gives him a hug.

"I love you.", Rick says softly, wrapping his arms around her.

Ozzie and Harriet are getting ready to watch a movie on TV. They're in the kitchen, where Harriet is making pop corn, and Ozzie is pouring a bottle of King Sized Coke into cups of ice.

"I love these King Sized bottles of Coke.", comments Ozzie. "Because, look. Once you pour..." he pours some in his cup of ice, "There's still much more." He pours the rest of the Coke into Harriet's cup of ice.

Harriet is finishing up the pop corn, by pouring butter over it, when the doorbell rings.

"Rick?", she calls.

"Hi Mom. Kris is waiting in the car, so here's Tracy.", he says as he picks her up and gives her to her grandma. "Here's her diaper bag and her bottle." He then turns his attention to the child. "OK, you be a good girl for Grandma and Grandpa.", he says as he gives her a quick kiss good-bye.

He's about to leave, but Harriet stops him. "Just a minute. Come back here."

"Mom, I'm kind of in a hurry.", Rick objects.

"OK, just one quick question."

"What's that?"

"When did your Dad and I agree to watch Tracy?"

"Don't you remember? A couple weeks ago... I called and told you that tonight I had an important meeting at the fraternity. I told you that Kris is going with me, so I asked you if you could watch Tracy, and you said 'OK'."

"I'm so sorry Rick.", his mom says. "I completely forgot. OK, you and Kris go to the meeting. Your Dad and I will watch Tracy for you."

"Thanks Mom.", he says as he leaves, rushing out the door.

The minute he leaves, Tracy starts crying hysterically.

Once Tracy had been crying for about ten minutes, Harriet gets the idea to show her something. She brings out a photo album, sits on the couch with Tracy on her lap, and tells her, "Look at the baby. That's your Dad."

"No it's not.", objected Tracy as she studied the picture. "Pop's big.", she says as she stretches her arm as far as it will go.

"He is now, but he was a baby once."

Turning the page, she tells her, "There's Grandpa holding your Dad when he was first born."

"Look, Pop got water on 'Gampa's' 'sirt'.", Tracy says pointing.

"That's not water, sweetheart.", corrects Ozzie with a smirk.

Dave comes into the malt shop.

"Hi, Jack.", he says.

"Hi Dave, what can I get for you?", replies Jack.

"Give me a hamburger with just ketchup, onion rings, and a strawberry sundae."

"I don't usually see you here at the dinner time hour.", he says as he sprays whipped cream on the sundae.

"Yeah, lately June's been on this health food kick for dinner and it's starting to get on my nerves.", Dave told him. "Tonight, she's making tofu burgers." His face wrinkles in disgust at the mere thought.

"I had one of those before. They're actually pretty good.", Jack offers, continuing to prepare the order.

"Jack, please, I came here to avoid health food in every way possible."

"Sorry."

"It's OK." He's about to carry his tray of food to the table when he remembers something. "Oh Jack, one more thing. June has no idea I came here, so I'd appreciate if you wouldn't say anything to her about it."

"Your secret's safe with me."

"Thanks.", he says and goes to sit down with his tray of food.

Wally and Ginger are at a play that just ended and now the audience is clapping.

"I really enjoyed that play, didn't you?", she asks.

Time passes, but she hears only clapping. She looks next to her, where Wally is sound asleep in his chair.

"Wake up, Fatso!", she says as she hits him on the arm.

Wally wakes up in surprise. "Honey, I must of dozed off for a minute there."

"Try through the whole thing.", Ginger snaps at him angrily. Face red, she hopes those around them hadn't noticed his snoozing.

"Now, now.", he corrects. "Not through the whole thing. I did hear a couple songs."

"And what was one of the songs they sang?"

"Uh... Somewhere Over the Rainbow.", he guessed.

"No."

"Oh, then it must of been in my head."

"I guess the things I want'a do are boring, huh?"

"Now honey, I didn't say that."

"No, but, you sure inferred it."

"How did I do that?"

"By falling asleep through the play."

"Well, I'll tell you what.", Wally offers, rubbing the sleep from his eyes. "You can pick the next place we go to and this time, I promise, I wont let you down."

"OK, how about a movie next weekend? And you better not fall asleep or anything."

"Oh, don't worry. You can count on me."

Tracy had now been crying for a whole hour. The grown-ups' heads were pounding like a pair of bass drums. This had to stop! Harriet tried giving her a bottle, only to have Tracy throw it down in a fit.

"Do you need to be changed, Darling?", the woman asks, trying to hide the irritation in her voice.

"If you do, tell Grandma. That's her department, not mine.", Ozzie quickly chimes in.

"Tell Grandpa he's a chicken."

Harriet is in the other room with Tracy, when the doorbell rings and Ozzie answers the door.

"Rick, your Mother's in the other room changing Tracy.", Ozzie says as he gestures his son into the house.

"Pop!", Tracy exclaims as she runs to him excitedly.

"Hi.", he says as he picks her up.

"She heard you out here and was so excited about seeing you.", Harriet says, following the girl into the room. "I had to tell her to lay still, so I don't poke her."

"Were you good?", Rick asks Tracy.

"Yes."

"Let me confirm that with Grandma and Grandpa." He glances to the other adults in the room. "Was she good?"

"She was good, but she cried alot.", Harriet told him.

"Are you tired?", he asks his daughter.

"I go home and 'seep' in your bed.", says Tracy.

"No, you have a crib to sleep in."

"No! Crib yucky!"

"You said that same thing when you were her age.", Harriet recalled with a slight smile. "And your Dad and I let you sleep with us in our bed."

It seems Tracy found a little backup from Grandma.

"OK, well it's fine with me, but we need to ask Mommy first.", Rick agrees.

"Mommy!", Tracy shouts at the top of her lungs.

"Tracy, stop that.", he says firmly. "Please, not in Pop's ear."

"Sorry."

"Well, Mommy's waiting for us, so we better go. Tell Grandma and Grandpa bye-bye."

"Bye-Bye.", she says as she waves her hand up and down.

"Bye." Harriet says. "Say 'hi' to Kris for us."

"I will.", he says, then he and Tracy leave.

June was doing laundry and as she was loading the clothes into the washer, she found strawberry syrup on Dave's shirt from the strawberry sundae.

"Dave, this is the shirt you wore the other day.", she says, holding it up for him to see. "Where did this strawberry syrup come from?"

Dave notices a coloring book on the kitchen table. "I told Danny time and time again, when he's done with a coloring book, or anything, put it back. Do you have any idea why he doesn't do that?"

A good form of evasion, but not good enough.

"I'll answer that question after you answer mine about the strawberry syrup.", June tells him.

"OK, I admit it. I went to the malt shop for dinner the other night. The strawberry syrup is because I had a strawberry sundae. I'm sorry, but I got annoyed by how you've been on this health food kick for dinner every night."

As silence falls between them, Dave finds himself expecting the worst.

"I'm tired of it too.", June admits, much to his surprise. "In fact, I was gonna tell you that it's your choice what you want for dinner tonight."

"If it's my choice, then how about tofu burgers?"

"You do realize that's health food, right?", June points out.

"I know, but Jack told me they were pretty good, so I was curious to try one."

"Whatever you say.", she replies with a shrug. "I'll start on those right now."

Harriet is in the kitchen making lunch when Kris comes in through the back door.

"Hi Mom, do you have any strawberry jelly?", Kris asks her.

"Sure, help yourself."

"Thanks, I'll take the one that's already been opened. I was making Tracy a peanut butter and jelly sandwich for lunch. All we have is grape jelly, but she insisted on having strawberry jelly. Actually, her exact words when I brought out the grape jelly were, 'I want red jelly'. When she said that, I knew she meant strawberry, since both she and Rick love strawberry jelly."

Kris, jar in hand, heads back toward the open door. "Thanks, I'll see you later."

"OK, bye.", Harriet says with a friendly nod.