My eyes flutter open. Morning sunlight shines through a crack in the curtains, casting my bedroom in a soft glow.
That's not right.
Usually when I wake up in the morning, the lights are on. My big sister Lisa is always working on some crazy project in her lab on the other side of the room. Where is she?
"Lisa?" I call as I carefully swing my legs over the bar of my crib. I climb out safely and toddle around my room, wondering where my sister is. She's always right there to change my diaper in the morning. It's starting to make me uncomfortable, so I begin to cry. Life is rough when you're a baby!
Suddenly, my bedroom door opens, and in steps my knight in shining armor. My big brother! "Good morning, Lily!" Lincoln greets, kneeling down to meet my eyes. "Whatcha crying for?"
Temporarily forgetting about my dirty diaper, I smile widely and run up to give him a big hug. "Winky!"
He sure didn't forget. "Whoa there, sis!" he exclaims, holding me at arm's length and wrinkling his nose. "Let's change your diaper first. Wouldn't want to get my nice clean shirt all covered in—"
"Poo-poo!" I babble, clapping my hands. I can't wait to get out of this stinky thing! Why don't the big people have to change their diapers?
Fortunately for my brother, Lisa built a machine that changes my diaper so that she doesn't get her hands dirty. something about "not contaminating the experiments" or some other big grown-up words. Lincoln puts me in the machine, and thirty seconds later I emerge with a new, clean diaper. I don't know where all the old ones go, but then again I probably don't want to.
"There we go, Lily. All clean!" Lincoln coos, picking me up. I wrap my arms around his neck in affection and give a big, slobbery kiss on his cheek as a show of gratitude for changing me.
He laughs. "Aww, you're welcome. Come on, let's go downstairs and get you some breakfast."
"Yum-yum," I agree.
As he carefully carries me up the hallway and down the stairs, I notice that it's deathly quiet. There's no Luna playing her guitar, no Lynn throwing her football, and no Lola driving her princess car. We make it downstairs into the dining room, but it's empty too. No Lori tapping away at her phone, no Luan making funny jokes, and no Lana sticking French toast sticks up her nose. And when we arrive in the kitchen, I notice that there's no Leni trying to remember how to open the fridge, no Lucy giving burnt waffles a funeral service, and no Lisa testing the tap water's chlorine levels.
"Sorry, Lily, it's just you and me today," Lincoln says, noticing my confusion as he puts me down in my high chair. "Mom and Dad took the girls out of town to Lola's beauty pageant. I'd be there for her, but Dad wanted to go to this one, and someone needs to watch you." Then he winked at me and whispered, "Good excuse, right?"
Not completely understanding, I laugh and clap my hands. I'm just happy he's here and not gone like all the girls. I wouldn't want to be alone all day. Who would feed me and change my diaper?
"What does Lily want for breakfast?" he asks in a singsong voice, opening up the fridge. "Applesauce or bananas?"
"Banana!" I reply quickly. I love bananas!
"I thought so," he says with a smile, bringing me the bowl of yellow mush and a spoon. Then, he makes a mistake by turning away to toast himself a waffle.
Of course, I can't let this opportunity go to waste. Now's my chance, while he's not looking!
SPLAT!
Lincoln turns, a knowing smirk on his face. What? I don't know how that glop got on his cheek. Maybe he should have paid attention.
"Hey, don't play with your food," he chides gently, wiping his face with a paper towel.
I just laugh and fire another mushy round from my spoon catapult. But he's quick to dodge, and the banana splatters on the counter.
Lincoln shakes his head. "Lily, that's your banana," he giggles, "not mine!"
I clap my hands again, amused at this new game. I ready the catapult for another shot, but he's expecting it this time and grabs the spoon out of my hand.
"Okay, Lily," he says, a serious tone in his voice. "I want you to eat your banana, or else we won't watch Blarney the Dinosaur after breakfast."
"Blarney!" I demand, banging my fists on my high chair tray. He wouldn't dare deprive me of my favorite cartoon!
"If you want Blarney," he replies, handing my spoon back to me, "then eat your breakfast."
The tone in his voice leaves no room for negotiation. Besides, I am genuinely hungry. So, as he sits down to his breakfast, I happily chow down on mine. Bananas are my favorite! The one downside to banana is that somehow, no matter how hard I try to be clean, it gets all over my face, and forehead, and hair. Well, maybe I wasn't trying, per se, but I didn't exactly want to get cold, sticky banana mush all over me.
"What a mess!" Lincoln laughs, throwing his arms up in the air. "Now I have to clean you up!"
"Yucky!" I squeal, throwing my arms up over my head like my brother did.
With near superhuman speed, he's standing over me with a damp cloth in his hand and a sheepish grin on his face. "Sorry, sis. I know you don't like this, but I gotta wipe your face."
The cloth is cold against my skin, forcing me to clench my eyes shut and recoil. Gah, I hate it when the big people wipe my face! It's cold and wet, and it blocks my eyes! After a good twenty seconds of scrubbing, Lincoln removes the cloth from my face. Glad that's over.
"There we—Lily, how did you get banana in your ear?"
Oh, brother, not again!
Actually, the cloth doesn't feel too weird on my ear. It tickles a little, which makes me laugh.
"Hey, hold still!" Lincoln chuckles. "I'm almost done." Carefully, he uses his finger under the cloth to wipe away the remaining gunk from my ear. Now I'm all nice and clean!
After tossing the used cloth onto the counter, Lincoln lifts me up out of my high chair and starts carrying me to the living room. "All right, Lily, let's go watch Blarney!"
Of course, I don't really want to watch Blarney the Dinosaur. I-it's for Lily, I swear! I outgrew that stupid show years ago.
It's not like I'm actually paying attention to the green dinosaur and his big purple belly, singing along to the stupid theme song with a big, stupid grin on my face for the last hour. What am I, some kind of baby?
I bounce my baby sister on my lap to the rhythm of Blarney's theme song as the millionth episode in a row begins to play (gotta love Webflix). She laughs and claps her hands. "Blarney! Blarney!"
See? It's not for me, Lily enjoys it!
A couple minutes into the episode—some spiel about sharing—I hear a soft little yawn. "Is somebody tired?" I ask, craning my neck to look at Lily.
"No," she insists, shaking her head for emphasis. Her drooping eyelids suggest otherwise.
I grab the remote and shut the TV off before turning Lily around to face me. "I have a hard time believing that," I say with a smile. "How's about your big brother tells you a story to help you fall asleep?"
"Story!" she echoes.
"All right," I reply, setting her down next to me. She snuggles up to my arm, making my heart flutter a little. "Ready?"
"Story, story!" she insists.
With a small laugh, I begin. "Once upon a time, there was a little princess named Lily."
Lily smiles, interested. "Ooooh."
"The beautiful Princess Lily woke up one morning and found that she was all alone. Queen Mommy and King Daddy were nowhere in the castle. And neither were the nine pretty serva—I mean, helpers." I don't think I want to paint Lily the picture that our sisters are servants. That wouldn't go over very well if they found out.
"The only other person in the castle was the brave knight, Sir Lincoln. Their Majesties Mommy and Daddy trusted Sir Lincoln to take care of Princess Lily while they took the helpers to the royal ball. When the princess couldn't find any of the helpers, she got very sad.
"But then, Sir Lincoln appeared. He helped the princess get dressed, and he made her breakfast, and he even took her to a puppet show about a dinosaur. They had such a good time!"
I hear another yawn, and upon looking down at Lily I find that she's teetering on the edge of consciousness. Thinking quickly, I stand up to grab Lily's blanket on the other side of the room. Upon covering her with the soft lavender fabric, I continue the story.
"In fact, they had so much fun that Princess Lily got really, really sleepy. So Sir Lincoln gave the princess her blankie, and sent her off to sleep with a big kiss." I give Lily a kiss on her forehead, and to my delight she is fast asleep.
The warm, fluttery feeling in my chest makes me smile as widely as I ever have.
"Night-night, Princess Lily," I whisper. "Linky loves you."