Sibling bonding time
November 6 1985
He took a deep breath, held it for a few seconds, and blew out the candles on the cake. His family was clapping, he smiled, Yakko was now 4 years old.
The lights turned back on, Yakko was excited, he knew it was now time to eat cake.
His dad handed him a knife.
"Now be very careful", he said," the knife is very sharp".
Yakko took the knife out of his father's hand. He held his hand steady, trying to hold the knife straight. His hand was shaky, the last thing he wanted was to drop the knife, especially on his hand.
Being as careful as he could, he slowly cut once slice into the cake. He was impressed with himself, for a first timer he wasn't so bad.
"Good job", he heard his dad say," keep going".
Appreciating the encouragement, cut another slice into the cake on the other side. Everyone clapped, Yakko smiled, he felt very grown up at that moment.
He felt his dad pat on his back, a sign that he was proud.
Yakko watched as his father took the knife he had used, and used it to lift the cake off the tray. He then placed the cake on the plate next to him.
Yakko reached for the fork on the right of him.
"Hold on, I need a picture", his aunt suddenly said.
A bit annoyed about the sudden interruption, placed his arm back down by his side. He smiled, trying not to accidentally blink as the camera flashed.
"Ok, you can eat your cake now".
Yakko grabbed the fork beside him, stabbed the fork in the slice of cake, and shoved it into his mouth.
As he ate his cake, he watched as his mom gave his brother a small piece of cake.
"Here you go Wakky, you get cake too".
Wakko opened his mouth slightly, his mom shoving the piece into his mouth. Yakko saw a confused expression on his brother's face as he slowly chewed on the cake that was given to him.
"Did you not like it"?
Wakko didn't reply, as usual.
Despite it being over a month now since his brother had come home from the hospital, he was still bummed that it wasn't as he had expected.
While Wakko was a bit more active now than he was before, he still didn't do much. He still slept most of the time, and when he was awake, he would either be eating or spending time with mom.
Becoming bored by the subject, he decided to forget about it for now, and continued eating his cake.
Yakko sat down on the floor next to the couch. He smiled as he saw his aunt, holding presents in her arms.
"Thank you", he suddenly bursts out.
She placed the gifts down in front of him, all of them were wrapped in a silver sparkly wrapping paper.
Eager to see what was inside of them, he grabbed the first gift to his left, the box felt a bit heavy.
He ripped through the paper, his eyes winced as the camera flashed. It was revealed to be a toy ambulance, he placed it on the couch.
Yakko opened the second gift, a medium sized box, he tore open the wrapping paper.
He was surprised when it was revealed to be Jenga. He remembered playing the game a few months back at his aunt's house.
"See, now you have your own Jenga game", Arenia said.
"Thank you auntie", he replied.
"Your welcome, now hold it up so I can take your picture".
He held up the Jenga box, he smiled, the camera flashed. He placed the Jenga set next to the ambulance.
Yakko looked at the last gift, to his far right. It was the smallest of the three gifts he had received.
Probably a Matchbox or Hot Wheels car.
His Mom picked up the present, she clutched it in her hand.
"Hey", Yakko yelled," give that back"!
He tried to reach for the present but he couldn't.
"Yakko stop, I'll give it to you, settle down"!
He did as he was told, he stood still.
"Now this gift may be smaller than the other ones you've received, but I think you're going to love this one the most".
"What is it"?
"Well open it and find out".
She gave the small present to him, he wondered why his mom said this present was very special.
He tore open the wrapping paper, he frowned.
"It's a box".
"Yeah I know that. But what's in the box"?
Curious, He opened the lid of the box. His jaw dropped, he nearly dropped the box on the floor, he was that shocked.
Inside the box was a pair of white rubber gloves, they looked just like the ones his parents wore. He couldn't believe it, he could've never guessed.
"Go on", his aunt said," put them on".
Yakko carefully took the gloves out of the box, his hands shaking. His parents had told him before to be very careful when touching gloves, he didn't want to break them before he even put them on.
He slid the first glove onto his left hand, it felt a little weird, it was a bit snug. He then did the same to his right hand.
Yakko looked at his newly gloved hands, his hands felt heavier than they were before.
"They feel weird", He said.
"Don't worry", his mom replied,"I felt the same way when I first got my gloves, you'll grow used to it soon I promise".
Yakko, still very much thrilled about getting his gloves, ran up to his mom giving her a hug".
"Thank you so much Mommy", he said," this has been the best birthday ever".
"Your welcome sweetie, I knew you would love the gloves".
Yakko smiled, he winced slightly as his aunt took their picture. He still loved the ambulance and the Jenga blocks he got, but receiving his gloves was the best gift he could ever have asked for.
"Daddy, do you see my gloves?", Yakko asked.
His father, straightening his tie, looked over at him.
"Yeah I see them", he replied," were you surprised when you got them".
Yakko nodded his head.
"Have you practiced yet"?
"Practiced what?", He asked with a confused look on his face.
"Have you practiced using your hammerspace yet"?
"What's that"?
His dad faced towards him, he put his hands down on his shoulder.
"Well I guess that means you hadn't practiced yet".
"Practiced what"?
"Uuh.. Look son, to put it short, your hammerspace is located on your back and..".
"My back"!?
Yakko looked behind himself, he couldn't see anything.
"What's on my back"?
"Nothing? Well uhh.. just think of it as an invisible space. If you want to, you can reach your hand behind your back into that space. Think of something in your mind..".
"What something"?
"Hold on, I'm not finished kiddo".
Yakko rolled his eyes, this was so boring.
"As I was saying, think of something in your mind, like a pie, or a flower. Now imagine you're holding that something in your hand, think of what the object looks like, think of how it feels..".
At that point, Yakko completely lost interest in the conversation. He had know idea what this hammerspace was, and his dad wasn't doing a good job of telling him what it was.
"So Yakko, do you understand now"?
He shook his head.
"No", was his answer.
Yakko saw a frustrated look on his father's face.
"Uuh.. look son, I have to go to work soon, and I don't know any other way to explain this. How about you talk to Mommy ok"?
"Ok Daddy".
Yakko hopped off the bed and left the room. He ran downstairs to the living room, he saw his Mom sitting on the couch watching TV.
"Mommy Mommy", He hollard," I have a question".
"Ask away", she said.
"Daddy told me about this hammerspace thingy, and I don't know what it is. Do you know what it is"?
Yakko saw a blank expression for on his mom's face.
Shit, Ellenia thought to herself, I knew something like this would happen!!
How could her husband not have realized? She clearly told him not to tell Yakko about hammerspace yet. And it wasn't like she could just tell her son to forget about this, hammerspace was an essential life skill for toons.
What to do, what to do?
She couldn't ignore her own son, he'll query about this until she gives him an answer. And she can't distract him from this, even if it works she'll have to tell him eventually. She was basically screwed, pushed into a corner with no way out.
She had no choice, she couldn't think of any way that she could possibly get out of this. Ellenia was left with only one option, just give it to him straight.
"Yakko, sweetie I know your curious but why don't we put this off for a while ok"?
"You always say that".
"Yes I do, but you have to understand", she continued,"Hammerspace is a very important life skill, and I want to make sure you pay very close attention when you learn about it".
"But I do pay attention", Yakko said," do I not"?
"No no, I'm not saying you don't, but you're still very young, you don't have a big attention span".
"Yes I do"!
"No, please..just..just listen to me ok, can you do that for me"?
She watched him nod his head, a sign he was listening.
"Bye honey, I'll see you later", Rocko suddenly interrupted.
Ellenia looked over at her husband, she waved back pretending to look happy.
"Hope you have a great day".
Oh you're in big trouble mister, just you wait and see.
She still couldn't believe that her husband would ignore her comments. Rocko was prone to doing that. whatever, she would deal with him when he gets home.
She focused her attention back on her son, who was looking up at her with a curious expression on his face.
"Yakko, I know you're curious, I know you want answers, but sometimes it's best to be a bit older to get those answers".
She saw the confusion on her son's face.
"Look, how about we talk more about this next weekend, sounds like a deal"?
There was some silence for a few seconds.
"Ok Mommy", He said.
Ellenia was relieved, this was much easier than she thought. Being a parent could be really stressful sometimes. On the bright side, it looked like her plan had worked. Yakko would start learning how to use his hammerspace soon anyway, so she couldn't be too mad at her husband.
Yakko was still very confused, his mom seemed to be avoiding the answer yet again. Though she did tell him that they would talk about this next weekend, so that's a bit of an improvement.
Suddenly an idea came into his mind.
"Hey Mommy", he asked," can I show my gloves to Wakko"?
"Sure, he's probably finished with his nap by now".
"It's about time", he muttered.
"What did you say"?
"Oh, nothing, I said ok".
Close one, a little too close for comfort.
Yakko jumped off the couch and ran towards the stairs.
"Don't go into your brothers nursery without me", his mom hollard.
"I won't", he replied.
He ran up the stairs, Yakko always loved running up the stairs. He then ran down a long hallway, with bedrooms on each side, with a bathroom at the end of the hall. Yakko slid to a stop once he reached his brothers nursery, he panted, he'd never ran so fast in his life.
His Mom finally caught up to him, She smirked, Yakko could tell she was annoyed with him. She opened the door to the nursery, and turned on the light. Yakko saw his brother sitting in his crib, tugging on his ears and numbing his mouth on them, he found it to be very disgusting.
"Wakko no", he heard his mom say,"don't numb your ears, that's bad"!
He stopped, he looked up at his mom, still holding his slobbery ears. He let go of them, slobber dripping off his ears. He scrunched up his face, and pretty soon he started to cry.
Yakko saw the panic in his mom, he knew she felt guilty, he's seen that look many times in the past.
She rushed over to the dresser and grabbed a rattle. She rushed back to the crib, trying to hand Wakko the rattle.
"Here Wakky, for you, for you".
Wakko stopped crying, tears still coming from his eyes. He grabbed onto the rattle with his little hands, he shook it slightly. Yakko could tell his brother was intrigued by the object, he knew he was when he was younger.
Suddenly he remembered what they came here for in the first place.
Yakko held up his hands in Wakko's sight line.
"Look Look I got my gloves"!
Wakko paid no attention to him, he continued fiddling around with the rattle.
A bit annoyed by his brother ignoring him, he placed his hands on the bar of the crib, in hopes of him seeing it.
"Wakko Look Look", he said a bit louder this time," I got my gloves, do you see it, do you"!?
Wakko slightly looked over at him, he dropped his rattle. He inched closer to where Yakko was, staring at him with big wide eyes.
Yes, he finally noticed, he said to himself.
Then, something unexpected happened. Wakko lowered his head down slightly, to his level, and then he too pressed his hands against the bars of the crib.
Yakko laughed a little, his brother had never done anything like this before.
He heard his mom laugh.
"It looks like you got a little copycat Yakko", she said.
She walked towards him.
"Here, can I show you something"?
"Ok", he replied.
Yakko took a step back, he watched his mom sit down on the floor, getting to Wakko's level.
She raised her hand up, holding up one finger. She moved her finger to the left, Yakko watched in amazement as his brother's eyes followed. Then she moved her finger to the right, once again, Wakko's eyes followed.
"Can I try"?
"Sure, just don't move your finger too fast".
Yakko held up his finger, he moved it to the left slowly, he tried to hold his excitement as his brother's eyes followed. He then moved it to the right, then back to the left, Wakko following his every move.
He found it to be rather fun, while it wasn't his first choice in a fun activity, he found it to be quite enjoyable. Yakko started to think that Wakko may not be as boring as he thought.
He was still disappointed that Wakko couldn't play with his toys yet, but he could get used to doing this in the meantime.
End of Chapter 4