Chapter 7, Another Stu Pickles Disaster
That night at bedtime, Tommy and Dil entered their bedroom, to find a new surprise where Tommy's bed once stood. Rather than his usual single bed he had been sleeping in since a short time before Dil was born, now stood what looked like one of those blue plastic inflatable pools, the kind with thick sides, and in the center was a mattress, made up with Tommy's favorite Reptar sheets. Didi shortly followed the boys into the room and noticed that Tommy's old bed had been stored away in Lou's old room across the hall, and staring over at the new contraption that replaced Tommy's old bed, Stu, who was kneeling on the opposite side of the bed, getting some last minute adjustments made, smiled up at his wife and kids when they entered the room.
"Oh, good, you're just in time." Stu said, standing up with a proud smile, ready to show off his invention.
It was somewhat of a rush job, so he only hoped it worked.
"Well, I now present, the Stu Pickles, ultra water bed." Stu announced.
Excited, Tommy ran over to the bed to check it out.
"I don't know Stu, as I mentioned back when we bought Tommy his big boy bed, I told you how I felt about water beds, them being very dangerous, and I still feel that way now." Didi commented, looking a bit unsure about this whole invention that her husband had in mind.
It was true, back right before Dil was born, she, Stu, Peter and Tommy all took a trip to the furniture store to pick out a big boy bed for Tommy. Upon getting there, Tommy ran off in the direction of the water beds, but he didn't get far, as Peter caught up to the toddler quickly, after Didi pointed out to him and Stu about how she personally felt about water beds, after hearing about some of the horror stories of the heaters in them overheating, causing fires. Unable to move as fast because of being very pregnant with Dil, who they thought would be Trixi at the time, Peter gathered up Tommy before he had a chance at checking out one of these water beds, and they went over to the section of beds where Tommy picked out the bed he has now, or at least, until tonight, when Stu hoped to change his son's life forever.
"Relax Deed, this water bed has the latest and greatest technology. It's not only a water bed, giving Tommy the latest in auqua robic relaxation, but it also incorporates massaging technology as well. And not to worry about overheating elements. I've created a safety mechanism that allows for the heater to shut off once it reaches a certain temperature." Stu explained, pointing to a set of controls that pulled out from beneath the bed on a panel, showing her what each knob did.
"This one turns on the massager." Stu explained, pointing to a green knob on the far left.
"This one turns on the heat." Stu said, pointing to a red knob in the middle.
"And this one allows you to to pump water into the bed." Stu explained, pointing to a blue button on the far right.
"And how does the bed receive water?" Didi asked.
Stu pointed to a hose that connected to the head of the bed from the wall, where he had rigged it directly to the pipes.
"This bed is directly connected to the water pipes, ensuring water directly to the bed without any issues." Stu explained.
"Well, that would explain why I had to feed the boys leftovers. I was going to make something new, but the water was turned off." Didi said, rolling her eyes at her husband.
"Sorry about that Deed. I've since turned the water back on. You should be fine to clean up from dinner, but first, check this out Champ." Stu said, gesturing to the bed, where Tommy climbed on to it and checked it out.
He had never been on a water bed before, as he checked out the mattress.
"It's like a squishy trampaleen." Tommy thought to himself, as he bounced up and down on the bed, giggling playfully.
"Now now Tommy, let's not jump on the bed." Didi said, but Tommy wasn't paying attention at this point.
Stu went around and turned on the massager, which started making the water bed vibrate, activating the massagers beneath the mattress, giving it the similar feeling to one of those expensive massage chairs. At this point, Tommy lay down on the bed, feeling relaxed by the vibration, as he started to calm down, looking about ready to fall asleep.
"Wow Stu, it looks like we might have a winner here." Didi said, noticing how relaxed Tommy was at this point.
She really wanted to change him out of his clothes and give him a bath, but decided against it when she saw he was growing comfortable, about ready to fall asleep. She and Stu got Dil ready for bed, and before they all knew it, everybody was in bed for the night. Little did they know that once again, another Stu Pickles disaster would be on the way.
Being in a hurry to put this invention together, Stu went to the recycling plant, and picked up an old inflatable pool to use as the frame for his masterpiece. This sadly meant that the rubber around it was old, and while he had thought about how to prevent fires from the heater, he did not think about the other potential problem with water beds, leaks. After everybody had been in bed for roughly four hours is when it happened. Tommy was rolling over in his sleep, when part of the corner of the rubber edging gave away, causing a huge whole to form, and a spoud of water to come shooting out of the whole like a fosset, getting water everywhere. This awoke both boys as Tommy and Dil screamed, when Tommy was hit in the face with some water.
"What's going on?" Dil asked, peering out of his crib at the watery mess that lay before them on the carpet.
"I don't know Dilly but we gotta get out of here." Tommy cried, as he ran over to the dresser, pulling open one of the drawers, where he pulled out his and Dil's bathing suits, and their floaties.
While he could still walk, he got over to Dil's crib, where he tossed him the screwdriver.
"Quick!" Tommy instructed, as Dil let himself out, and Tommy helped him down, careful to keep him from putting his face into the rising water.
Then, they climbed on to Tommy's bed, which was shaking violently now, no longer feeling like a nice massage, but an earthquake, and a hot earthquake at that, as the heater had come on, and felt quite hot.
"This is hot!" Dil cried.
"Hold still Dilly, we've gots to put on our swimsuits." Tommy said, changing into his and putting on his floaties.
He then helped Dil do the same, and together, they got down on the floor, where Dil got caught on part of the bed, and when Tommy got him unstuck, another whole was created, as well as the hose coming out at the head of the bed, only making the water leak even worse. That night, not only had Stu put this new bed in the room for Tommy to sleep on, but upon leaving, they closed the door, placing one of those child proof doorknob holders on to it that turns with wholes in it so adults can reach in to open the door, but it makes it harder for toddlers to escape. And while ordinarily, this would have been a good thing, as even with his clever skills of busting open playpens and cribs, this was one child proof item that Tommy hadn't figured out, it was a bit unfortunate, when they were trapped in what might soon become their first, indoor swimming pool, second if you count the one Angelica tried to create in the living room a while back with the garden hose when she thought the sky had fallen and the world had ended, leaving her and Tommy, Chuckie, Phil and Lil as the only survivors.
Luckily, Didi had to get up to go to the bathroom during the night, when she noticed some strange noises coming from Tommy and Dil's room. Curious, she headed down the hall and opened the door to find her boys dressed in their bathing suits.
"What are you boys doing in your bathing suits?" Didi asked.
Her question was quickly answered, when she stepped in the room, water coming up to her ankles and soaking her slippers.
"Stu!" Didi screamed.
By this time, the water was leaving the room, entering the hall, as Stu overheard Didi's scream, and noticing she was down the hall and no longer in bed, he awoke in a panic to see what was going on. When his feet touched the wet hallway where the carpet was becoming soaked, he saw where the water was coming from, and was less than amused.
"Uh oh." Stu said.
"What is it Stu?" Didi asked.
"Looks like I created another Stu Pickles malfunction." Stu said.
Didi let out a sigh of disappointment, as she took the boys downstairs, in hopes there was some laundry still down there that hadn't been put away, and that was dry for them to change into.
"What are we gonna do Deed?" Stu asked, upon reaching the bottom of the stairs.
Didi, standing in the doorway of the kitchen from the downstairs hall, put the boys down in the kitchen, then, with her hands on her hips, she glared at her husband.
"You mean, what are you going to do? This is your mess, you'd better have it cleaned up by tomorrow afternoon. In the meantime, I'm getting me, Tommy and Dil changed into some dry clothes, and come sunrise, we're spending the next day at my parents." Didi said, disappearing into the kitchen.
"But Deed!" Stu cried, but it was no use.
He had known his wife to get upset over his inventions before, like the time she felt neglected back at the Easter Fifi and Spike had their first litter of puppies when he became preoccupied with his errigation system, or the time they separated for a time after Tommy fell ill with the Gray Plague, all because his voice activated GPS system caused them to not make it back in time for Tommy to get vaccinated against the dreadful fatal disease. He was just lucky to survive it in the end, and to finally get a shot around the time of his second birthday. However, now, here poor Stu was left, to get this mess cleaned up in a day's time.
The disaster was so bad, nobody could sleep for the rest of the night. Tommy and Dil played with their toys downstairs, while Didi, now wearing flippers for the pool, headed into the watery bedroom to pick up anything she could take for the boys that wasn't ruined by the disasterous water bed, then packed for herself. Stu in the meantime, turned off the water for the house, saw to disconnecting the water bed entirely from the wall outlet and saw he'd not only need to fix back the pipes to their original form, but that he had a whole in the wall to patch up, and carpet to replace. Realizing all of the work he had ahead of him, he went down to the basement, where he had a good cry in frustration.
No sooner was the sun rising, when Didi had Tommy and Dil in the car, now wearing clean dry clothes, along with everybody's overnight bags in the way back.
"We're leaving." Didi called, but Stu never heard her, because he was still down in the basement.
All he heard was her tires screeching, as she left, and Spike and Spiffi barking from outside. He came upstairs to look out at the driveway and see that Didi's car was gone.
Meanwhile, after the car had headed down the road a short ways, Dil fell asleep, but so did Tommy. Ordinarily, he would stay awake when going to a destination, but thanks to his daddy's failed invention, he and Dil were both up half the night, only ruining Tommy's chances of sleep normality, once again, as they had themselves a nap in the car while Didi drove to her parents place.
Back at the Pickles residence, Stu headed to the phone in the kitchen, praying that he wouldn't awaken Peter at this early hour of six-thirty in the morning when he picked up the phone in the kitchen and dialed his number post getting Spike and Spiffi some breakfast.
At Peter's castle, he had luckily, just stepped out of the shower and was drying off with a towel before getting dressed for the day when he heard his phone ring. Worried, as it was rare for him to get calls before seven o'clock in the morning unless it was an emergency, he wrapped his towel around him, ran over to his bed, and answered the phone.
"Hello?" Peter said into the phone.
"Peter, it's me, Stu. Help!" Stu cried into the phone.
And this, ends chapter 7. So, what will happen at Boris and Minca's where Tommy and Dil are concerned? What about Stu's invention and the house? Will he get it back in one piece within a day's time? And what does he want Peter's help with? Find out, come the next chapter.
Author's Note: I've actually slept in a water bed before that one of my friends had when I was little, and they're quite nice. However, since then, I've heard of some of the horror stories with fires starting, making me somewhat afraid of them to this day. I also don't know if such combination water beds and massage vibrating beds exist now days, but I always thought about what if Stu tried to invent one, what might go wrong, and while the leaking might have been a bit exaggerated here, and usually, Stu's inventions explode, well, I wanted to not only do something different, but also create some damage that could be just as bad. Anyway, sorry for another short chapter, but we're almost halfway through this story, as I see this story totaling 15 chapters in all, and oh yeah, I made a small reference to the Rugrats episode, Bow Wow Wedding Vows, as well as my first Fan Fic, Rugrats and the Gray Plague in this chapter. Hope you all enjoyed it, regardless of its short length, and hopefully, I'll have more chapters up, sometime soon.
