Finally got my butt into gear! *sniffs* I don't know just how far I should/could take this, though… Heh, BACK to Jack, Jill, and Dame Dob! Reviews very much appreciated. They make a warm glow in my heart…
~~~/--|--\~~~So Please Review!~~~/--|--\~~~
Jack.
To say the least, my head hurt. I realized I must have looked a sight if Jill started to laugh. It didn't make me feel better when Maman promptly dragged her into the kitchen for a whipping. I could wince just at the memory of Maman's whippings. She doesn't hold anything back, that's for sure. I sat patiently in front of the fire, drinking that horrid tea mother had made to ease my headache. It made me want to retch.
Quietly, as I heard Jill going up to her room to recover, I poured the last few mouthfuls back into the teapot. There's nothing like silent rebellion against torturous medicines and the like that are supposed to help us. I wonder if it's some devilry that was created just to depress the ill.
Maman then decided to walk back into the living room. She told me it was time enough to remove the bandages, surely the bleeding had stopped now. Then she sent me up to my room to rest for an hour before Jill and I would be allowed to go and play.
Some tortures just have to be endured.
Jill.
I sniffled quietly in my room. I would have curled up on my bed, but not only did my bottom ache from the tumble down the hill, it now stung from the whipping.
I hadn't meant to laugh! But when I walked in there, and saw Jack with the bandage wrapped around his head like some little boy's crown, and the sour expression on his face from the tea, the laughter simply bubbled up from within me. Not to mention the sight of someone, anyone dithering over Jack like Maman was makes me laugh. He had been so brave after the tumble and yet she still babied him!
"Psssst! Jill, take a heart, sis," Jack whispered as quietly entered the room. Maman had taken those ridiculous bandages off, apparently. "Maman says we may go outside and play in an hour."
I brightened at that. Soon, my tears dried and I stopped sniffling. To pass the time until we could go out, I grabbed the well-worn set of dominos from the windowsill, and we settled on the floor to play.
Dame Dob.
Both the children were upstairs, as I knew some rest would do well before they got active again outside with the other children. So it came as little surprise to me, as I set to baking some bread, to hear the sound of clattering dominos and quiet giggles of the darlings.
Children just have a nose for these things, for they seemed to know it was time to go outside just as the sweetened raisin buns were done and fresh out of the oven. Loud crashing ensued as they rushed to pack up all the dominos, and then came stomping down the stairs.
"Slow yourselves down, or you'll wear those stairs out under ye," I scolded them gently. But they knew I wasn't mad, and smiled at me brightly.
"Yes, Maman," they chorused, before snatching a hot roll to eat outside.
I quickly shooed them out so I could get on with my baking. They knew to be in and clean by the time dinner was set at dusk for them and their father. It was not long before the sounds of children laughing and running could be heard up and down the street.
---~~~---
A/N: Ah! I did it! I think it's kind of cute, ne? Let me know, I love to hear what any readers have to say. Also, special thank-yous to my first three reviewers…Cemore Butts, Sugar Raider, and technetium.