The Eye's Apple by Tialys
Glimpses into the lives of the Gamgee children.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Chapter Three: Merry Gamgee
In which Merry is sick and Primrose hides good.
~
Note: The year is 1443. Merry is 16, Primrose is 8, and Pippin is 14. Also, I will eventually put these in chronological order, but until I have all the chapters written they will be ordered as they come. I've very sorry if this confuses anyone.
~
Merry Gamgee was not exactly what one would call pleased at the moment. Sick hobbits rarely were, and Merry was no exception. Of course, just being sick with his simple cold would not normally have irked him so much, had not the illness chosen to fall on the same week the Gamgee family was scheduled to visit relatives. Merry always looked forward to these events -- mainly the pleasure of seeing his cousins again -- and the sudden cancellation of his trip was crushing every wonderful illusion he had visualized of the trip.
Primrose Gamgee was no more thrilled than her elder brother. She, too, had caught the troublesome virus -- from Merry, as many suspected -- and had thrown quite a tantrum upon learning she would not be included in the family's visit.
Merry and Primrose were given the command to rest, drink -- what both had calculated as -- too much water than could possibly be good for a hobbit, and to not cause trouble to each other. Their parents were not harsh about the sentence -- as they did not wish to risk spreading whatever their children had caught to others' children -- but Primrose was too young to look at the situation that way, and her screams reverberated throughout Bag End's many hallways.
From his splayed-out position on the couch, Merry groaned miserably. He was to be the joyful Primrose's baby-sitter while the family was out.
'You would think my head-ache would make me unsuited to watch Prim.' He thought remorsefully.
No such thing occurred to his parents, however; and he could find no sympathy from his siblings -- none of whom wished to take custody of the screaming terror that was Primrose.
Sam Gamgee's second eldest son beseeched his father with pleading eyes, but found no sympathy.
"Now, lad," the former Ringbearer argued as he tucked another blanket around his son, "Prim can't be that bad. Just give her a while to calm down and I'm sure she'll be fine company. We're only to be gone for the day." And that was that.
Merry -- with dying hope -- sought out the help of his brother Pippin, but found nothing more there. Pippin was immensely fond of his brother, slightly annoyed with Primrose, and had been looking forward to seeing his cousins for a couple of weeks now. "Sorry, Mer. You're on your own with her."
And with that last death of hope, the healthy portion of the Gamgee family left.
"Mer!"
The younger of the Gamgee children's tiny voice rang through the hole, making Merry's slightly throbbing headache worsen.
"What, Prim?" He muttered from his cushioned place on the couch.
Whumph! Merry suddenly felt the whole weight of his sister land firmly on his midsection; accompanied by the firm command, "Play, Mer!"
He cracked one eye open, trying to look as miserable as possible, so as to hopefully convince Primrose of how horribly sick he was -- all the while wondering how she could possibly be sick and still leap onto anything.
"What?" He whispered, following his inquiry with a round of pathetically fake coughing.
"Play, Mer! Mummy said you're spossed to watch me an' play wi' me."
"No she didn't." He countered, having numerous doubts that his mother said any such thing to his vibrant sibling.
"Uh-huh! And we're going to play hider-seek, and I'm going to win 'cause I'm reeeally good, and I'm better at it than you are, 'cause I know where to hide already, so I'm going to go there and you're gonna try an' find me, but you won't, 'cause I'm better an' --"
"Okay!" Merry quickly cut the painful talking off quick an equally painful outburst that struck additional agony to his head. "Go hide."
The weight left his stomach with a painful spring, and Merry sighed with relief. 'Hider-seek' -- as Primrose called it -- was simple enough. Primrose would hide; Merry would seek when he felt like it. He had been the subject of this elaborate method of sibling-ditching before. Frodo-lad had matured beyond that technique by now, but Merry still found it quite useful.
The Gamgee lad finally closed his eyes and entered the blissful realm of sleep.
~
Merry awoke to a haunting silence floating through Bag End. Having been stuck with this job before, he knew the baby-sitting Primrose did not usually include quiet. He sat up on the couch, startled.
"Prim?"
His call echoed through the hole, receiving no response.
Merry started combing through Bag-End's numerous rooms, calling his disappearing sibling.
"Prim? You win, Prim! Come out!"
None of his cries brought forth success, and his unassisted search continued.
The last room he came to was his father's study -- though Sam still referred to it as Frodo's, and had rarely set foot in it. Merry had passed the room up at first, mainly because none of the Gamgee children ever entered it, knowing how uncomfortable their father was about the contents of that room. It had been Uncle Frodo's study, and was the same as Uncle Frodo had left it all those years ago when he sailed away. None of the children had known Uncle Frodo -- except Elanor, but she had been too young to remember -- but all knew their father held him in obvious respect. Sam Gamgee had refused to move a single piece of parchment from its original place among the stacks of books and papers. The children knew how much their father missed their mystery uncle, and were therefore careful to avoid the abandoned study.
"Prim?" Merry's voice was barely a whisper. The door to the study was cracked open, and he sighed in frustration.
"Prim. You know you're not supposed to come in --" Merry swung the door open as he spoke, but stopped mid-sentence.
Primrose Gamgee was sitting tailor-fashion on the floor next to their father's quest box -- how the Gamgee children reverently referred to the trunk of their father's, containing all of his possessions from when he was a Ringbearer. None of the younger children had yet seen the contents of the trunk -- Merry and Pippin having only just been told and shown the complete and unedited story of their father's adventures.
Sam had made it a rule in Bag End that none of his children would be told what really had happened until he deemed them ready, which had been longer for some than others. Until old enough, the Gamgee children were told fantisified versions of the quest. Darker parts of the tale were edited out, and happier parts lengthened enough to please the hobbits' child-like curiosity.
When Merry had first heard the true tale of his father's adventures he had been filled with pride and fear for what his father had done -- wishing all the more that Uncle Frodo was still at Bag End. Uncle Frodo was the dream relative of every one of the Gamgee children. As much as their father thought of him, he must have been amazing; and as wondrous as their father's stories, the treasures from his trip deemed to be just as grand.
Primrose looked up at Merry, lifting her shiny discovery above her head and smiling proudly.
"Look, Mer!"
Primrose sat, lifting -- with difficulty -- a short sword over her head. Sting, their father's sword from the quest. Uncle Frodo's sword.
"Prim!" Merry shouted, much more harshly than he had intended. "Put that down!"
Primrose's face fell, and she slowly lowered the sword to her lap. "Mer?" Her bottom lip trembled slightly, and her eyes were getting blurry.
Merry leapt forward, carefully prying Sting from her grasp and placing the sword gently back in the trunk, firmly shutting its lid. He spun on his sister, shaking almost as bad as she was.
The look of anger and loss in her brother's eyes sent Primrose into hysterics, and she bust into sobs.
Merry's eyes widened, and he scooped his little sister off the floor and onto his lap, seating himself next to the trunk and shushing her as best he could.
"Shh. Shh. Prim." He whispered, brushing stray curls back from her face; but the little Gamgee's tears continued, and she began to shake more in Merry's arms.
Merry was truly doing no better. Sting may not have been used in years, but its razor-fine point remained, and seeing Primrose's weak hold on the blade above her head was enough to frighten him more so than his outburst had done her.
"I'm sorry, Mer." Primrose finally said, having calmed much more than her brother had, and feeling Merry shaking had confused her out of her own tears. "Mer?"
Merry leaned his face into Primrose's soft baby hair, breathing deeply into her curls and willing himself to stop frightening his sister. "I'm okay, Prim." He said as soon as he felt he could speak steadily. "Prim? You know you're not supposed to touch da's things, right?" His voice, to his annoyance, still shook and was strangely tight sounding.
"Mer, I said I was sorry!"
"I know." He said, cracking a smile at his sister's reasoning. "I know."
Primrose looked sorrowfully at the trunk behind her brother. "Can I see in the trunk again, Mer?"
"No!" Merry exclaimed -- a bit sharper than he would have intended -- silencing Primrose.
"No." He whispered again. "Sorry, Prim... not yet."
"Okay." She whispered back, disappointed. They sat in silence until Primrose piped up again. "Are you really okay, Mer?"
Merry smiled, squeezing Prim gently. "Yes, Prim. I'm okay now."
"Mer?" Primrose asked, turning in her brother's lap to face him -- thankfully missing the tearstains down his face -- and planting a kiss on his nose. "Did I hide good?"
~
November 22, 2003
~
Please, please review! I'm still up for suggestions on which Gamgee child to do next. I have a vague idea of what to do for Tolman (Tom) Gamgee or Bilbo Gamgee, but I would love your suggestions; especially on what to do for one of the female Gamgee children, as I have no ideas for them. I will give you full credit for any ideas.
~
Glimpses into the lives of the Gamgee children.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Chapter Three: Merry Gamgee
In which Merry is sick and Primrose hides good.
~
Note: The year is 1443. Merry is 16, Primrose is 8, and Pippin is 14. Also, I will eventually put these in chronological order, but until I have all the chapters written they will be ordered as they come. I've very sorry if this confuses anyone.
~
Merry Gamgee was not exactly what one would call pleased at the moment. Sick hobbits rarely were, and Merry was no exception. Of course, just being sick with his simple cold would not normally have irked him so much, had not the illness chosen to fall on the same week the Gamgee family was scheduled to visit relatives. Merry always looked forward to these events -- mainly the pleasure of seeing his cousins again -- and the sudden cancellation of his trip was crushing every wonderful illusion he had visualized of the trip.
Primrose Gamgee was no more thrilled than her elder brother. She, too, had caught the troublesome virus -- from Merry, as many suspected -- and had thrown quite a tantrum upon learning she would not be included in the family's visit.
Merry and Primrose were given the command to rest, drink -- what both had calculated as -- too much water than could possibly be good for a hobbit, and to not cause trouble to each other. Their parents were not harsh about the sentence -- as they did not wish to risk spreading whatever their children had caught to others' children -- but Primrose was too young to look at the situation that way, and her screams reverberated throughout Bag End's many hallways.
From his splayed-out position on the couch, Merry groaned miserably. He was to be the joyful Primrose's baby-sitter while the family was out.
'You would think my head-ache would make me unsuited to watch Prim.' He thought remorsefully.
No such thing occurred to his parents, however; and he could find no sympathy from his siblings -- none of whom wished to take custody of the screaming terror that was Primrose.
Sam Gamgee's second eldest son beseeched his father with pleading eyes, but found no sympathy.
"Now, lad," the former Ringbearer argued as he tucked another blanket around his son, "Prim can't be that bad. Just give her a while to calm down and I'm sure she'll be fine company. We're only to be gone for the day." And that was that.
Merry -- with dying hope -- sought out the help of his brother Pippin, but found nothing more there. Pippin was immensely fond of his brother, slightly annoyed with Primrose, and had been looking forward to seeing his cousins for a couple of weeks now. "Sorry, Mer. You're on your own with her."
And with that last death of hope, the healthy portion of the Gamgee family left.
"Mer!"
The younger of the Gamgee children's tiny voice rang through the hole, making Merry's slightly throbbing headache worsen.
"What, Prim?" He muttered from his cushioned place on the couch.
Whumph! Merry suddenly felt the whole weight of his sister land firmly on his midsection; accompanied by the firm command, "Play, Mer!"
He cracked one eye open, trying to look as miserable as possible, so as to hopefully convince Primrose of how horribly sick he was -- all the while wondering how she could possibly be sick and still leap onto anything.
"What?" He whispered, following his inquiry with a round of pathetically fake coughing.
"Play, Mer! Mummy said you're spossed to watch me an' play wi' me."
"No she didn't." He countered, having numerous doubts that his mother said any such thing to his vibrant sibling.
"Uh-huh! And we're going to play hider-seek, and I'm going to win 'cause I'm reeeally good, and I'm better at it than you are, 'cause I know where to hide already, so I'm going to go there and you're gonna try an' find me, but you won't, 'cause I'm better an' --"
"Okay!" Merry quickly cut the painful talking off quick an equally painful outburst that struck additional agony to his head. "Go hide."
The weight left his stomach with a painful spring, and Merry sighed with relief. 'Hider-seek' -- as Primrose called it -- was simple enough. Primrose would hide; Merry would seek when he felt like it. He had been the subject of this elaborate method of sibling-ditching before. Frodo-lad had matured beyond that technique by now, but Merry still found it quite useful.
The Gamgee lad finally closed his eyes and entered the blissful realm of sleep.
~
Merry awoke to a haunting silence floating through Bag End. Having been stuck with this job before, he knew the baby-sitting Primrose did not usually include quiet. He sat up on the couch, startled.
"Prim?"
His call echoed through the hole, receiving no response.
Merry started combing through Bag-End's numerous rooms, calling his disappearing sibling.
"Prim? You win, Prim! Come out!"
None of his cries brought forth success, and his unassisted search continued.
The last room he came to was his father's study -- though Sam still referred to it as Frodo's, and had rarely set foot in it. Merry had passed the room up at first, mainly because none of the Gamgee children ever entered it, knowing how uncomfortable their father was about the contents of that room. It had been Uncle Frodo's study, and was the same as Uncle Frodo had left it all those years ago when he sailed away. None of the children had known Uncle Frodo -- except Elanor, but she had been too young to remember -- but all knew their father held him in obvious respect. Sam Gamgee had refused to move a single piece of parchment from its original place among the stacks of books and papers. The children knew how much their father missed their mystery uncle, and were therefore careful to avoid the abandoned study.
"Prim?" Merry's voice was barely a whisper. The door to the study was cracked open, and he sighed in frustration.
"Prim. You know you're not supposed to come in --" Merry swung the door open as he spoke, but stopped mid-sentence.
Primrose Gamgee was sitting tailor-fashion on the floor next to their father's quest box -- how the Gamgee children reverently referred to the trunk of their father's, containing all of his possessions from when he was a Ringbearer. None of the younger children had yet seen the contents of the trunk -- Merry and Pippin having only just been told and shown the complete and unedited story of their father's adventures.
Sam had made it a rule in Bag End that none of his children would be told what really had happened until he deemed them ready, which had been longer for some than others. Until old enough, the Gamgee children were told fantisified versions of the quest. Darker parts of the tale were edited out, and happier parts lengthened enough to please the hobbits' child-like curiosity.
When Merry had first heard the true tale of his father's adventures he had been filled with pride and fear for what his father had done -- wishing all the more that Uncle Frodo was still at Bag End. Uncle Frodo was the dream relative of every one of the Gamgee children. As much as their father thought of him, he must have been amazing; and as wondrous as their father's stories, the treasures from his trip deemed to be just as grand.
Primrose looked up at Merry, lifting her shiny discovery above her head and smiling proudly.
"Look, Mer!"
Primrose sat, lifting -- with difficulty -- a short sword over her head. Sting, their father's sword from the quest. Uncle Frodo's sword.
"Prim!" Merry shouted, much more harshly than he had intended. "Put that down!"
Primrose's face fell, and she slowly lowered the sword to her lap. "Mer?" Her bottom lip trembled slightly, and her eyes were getting blurry.
Merry leapt forward, carefully prying Sting from her grasp and placing the sword gently back in the trunk, firmly shutting its lid. He spun on his sister, shaking almost as bad as she was.
The look of anger and loss in her brother's eyes sent Primrose into hysterics, and she bust into sobs.
Merry's eyes widened, and he scooped his little sister off the floor and onto his lap, seating himself next to the trunk and shushing her as best he could.
"Shh. Shh. Prim." He whispered, brushing stray curls back from her face; but the little Gamgee's tears continued, and she began to shake more in Merry's arms.
Merry was truly doing no better. Sting may not have been used in years, but its razor-fine point remained, and seeing Primrose's weak hold on the blade above her head was enough to frighten him more so than his outburst had done her.
"I'm sorry, Mer." Primrose finally said, having calmed much more than her brother had, and feeling Merry shaking had confused her out of her own tears. "Mer?"
Merry leaned his face into Primrose's soft baby hair, breathing deeply into her curls and willing himself to stop frightening his sister. "I'm okay, Prim." He said as soon as he felt he could speak steadily. "Prim? You know you're not supposed to touch da's things, right?" His voice, to his annoyance, still shook and was strangely tight sounding.
"Mer, I said I was sorry!"
"I know." He said, cracking a smile at his sister's reasoning. "I know."
Primrose looked sorrowfully at the trunk behind her brother. "Can I see in the trunk again, Mer?"
"No!" Merry exclaimed -- a bit sharper than he would have intended -- silencing Primrose.
"No." He whispered again. "Sorry, Prim... not yet."
"Okay." She whispered back, disappointed. They sat in silence until Primrose piped up again. "Are you really okay, Mer?"
Merry smiled, squeezing Prim gently. "Yes, Prim. I'm okay now."
"Mer?" Primrose asked, turning in her brother's lap to face him -- thankfully missing the tearstains down his face -- and planting a kiss on his nose. "Did I hide good?"
~
November 22, 2003
~
Please, please review! I'm still up for suggestions on which Gamgee child to do next. I have a vague idea of what to do for Tolman (Tom) Gamgee or Bilbo Gamgee, but I would love your suggestions; especially on what to do for one of the female Gamgee children, as I have no ideas for them. I will give you full credit for any ideas.
~