Juice Box
By Ms. Kinnikufan
Disclaimer: Own no one in this story.
5 year old Mantaro finished the last of his cranberry-apple juice box with a loud and rude slurp.
He did not like the maternity ward waiting room. The walls were painted a color that resemble mashed pumpkin when it was vomited. There was these stupid pictures of happy little bluebirds on the walls. It smelled like cloves and rotten orange peels for some reason Mantaro couldn't figure out.
He had been there for almost three hours. That was almost an eternity for a 5 year old. There wasn't much to do. The only toys there were stupid toys for babies. Drawing mustaches and beards on the people in the old magazine got old real fast. No to mention it was pointless on the people who already had beards and mustaches.
He was still thirsty, not to mention hungry. What was his grandpa thinking when he left Mantaro in the maternity waiting room with only a juice box? He need way more nutrition then that.
Mantaro was alone in the room excluding the receptionist.
How long did it take for a baby to be born? Mom had gone into labor last night. Mantaro had been brought to the maternity ward waiting room because the baby was expected to be "born at any moment".
Grandpa had expressed some worries at the baby coming into the world almost 3 months early. In fact, Grandpa had gone to the local temple to pray for a safe birth after dropping Mantaro off at the maturity waiting room.
Mantaro didn't understand his grandpa's worries. Surely the baby wouldn't come out so early if it couldn't survive. That wouldn't make sense in Mantaro's mind.
Besides Mantaro could see a lot of reasons to be born early. It must be really, really cramped in mommy's tummy from the pictures he saw in that magazine. Also the earlier you were born, the sooner you could stuff like play video games and grow teeth to eat solid food like cow and rice. It sounded so boring, being stuck in your mommy's tummy for nine long months. Even more boring then being stuck in the maternity waiting room.
Plus Mantaro had been told he was born early too, and he had grown up to be a strapping young lad, so what was with all the worries?
Mantaro hoped it was a boy baby. That way he could have belching and farting contests with it.
Mantaro had gotten some conflicting ideas on how the baby would be coming into the world.
The butler implied "that the stork would be making a delivery soon".
Wanting to help out in the only way he could, Mantaro waited by the mailbox with a bag full of birdseed (he figured the stork would be hungry) for almost 11 weeks straight. However he only saw the regular mail woman. Plus, mommy was getting fatter for some reason. Mantaro had remarked on this and was put into the conner for reasons he didn't understand. Still no stork appeared.
Mantaro finally made a bitchy call to Kinniku's post office. Maybe the stork had gotten stuck in that red tape all the grown-ups talked about when things went wrong.
The women at the other end of the line explained that the stork was just an expression that the baby was in his mother and that was why she was getting so fat.
When Mantaro asked how the baby would come out, the lady said his mother would give birth to it.
When Mantaro asked how the mother gave birth to it, the lady hung up on him.
So Mantaro knew he mother was giving birth, but he had no idea just how it was happening.
Finally, Mantaro's father stepped into the maternity waiting room. He looked tired and beaten.
"Is it a boy baby or a girl baby?' Mantaro asked.
"It was a girl." His father looked even more tired and beaten.
"Was a girl? So it's sex changed into boy?" Mantaro had never heard of that happening before.
His father sighed tiredly.
"No son. Her sex didn't change. Her heart, lungs, and immune system-"
"What's an immune system?"
"It's what keeps us from getting really, really, sick. Yours and mine are fully developed, so if we get the flu or a cold, we get better instead of getting sicker. So when something went wrong with her lungs (which were already in bad shape), she didn't get better. She died. Do you understand son?" His father struggled to keep from crying and Mantaro could see it.
"But I was born early and I didn't die. Why the baby die?"
"You weren't born as early as the baby. The baby was born almost three months early and you were only born two months early. The baby's lungs were too small and she was sick, so she died."
Mantaro stared blankly into space before speaking.
"But it's not fair that the baby died. She didn't even get a chance to even have a birthday party or play or eat solid food! It's not fair! She died even though she was just born. Why did the baby let herself get born if she was just gonna die. Was she stupid or something?" Mantaro was the verge of throwing a grief/confusion induced temper tantrum.
"No Mantaro, of course the baby wasn't stupid. Neither the baby or your mother could keep the baby from being born so early. Sometimes it-it just happens." His father could no longer swallow his tears and started crying.
Mantaro then got very, very, frighten when his father started to cry. He had never seen a grown-up cry before. Well maybe on TV, but this was different. This was his father.
"Please don't cry daddy. I didn't mean to say that the baby was stupid. Please don't cry, I'm sorry! I'm sorry!" Mantaro began to have hysterical sobs of his own.
"Why do almost all my children die?" His father screamed/questioned.
Children? What other children? There was just him and the baby who died, right?
"I don't know! I don't know!"
Eventually, Mantaro's grandfather came back from the temple (the receptionist had called him).
Surprisingly, Mantaro's grandfather showed no tears. In fact his expression was rather stony.
"This happens a lot, especially in this family." He stated.
He took Mantaro home while Mantaro's mother went back to attend to Mantaro's mother
Mantaro spent the next few days in a sort of sad and almost unreal haze. His grandma had died when he was two, but he really couldn't remember her. This was the first real death he had to deal with.
Finally his parents came home. Mantaro was instructed to be extra nice and quiet to his mother.
He didn't know that this was code for "don't mention the baby's death."
"So are we going to have a funereal for the baby or something?" Mantaro asked.
Mantaro's mother quietly left the dinner table, wiping some moisture from her eyes.
"Damn it you stupid brat, how you could ask your mother that?" Mantaro's grandpa screamed at him.'
"What'd I do? What'd I do?" Mantaro cowered in his seat.
"Dad! He's just a kid. We're all going though a difficult time." Mantaro's father chastised.
"Damn it, you're teaching him to be soft!" Mantaro's grandfather continued.
"God! Your always giving me and my son a hard time! I'm so damn glad I grew up on Earth! No wonder Ataru run away!"
"What! How dare you say that! I-"
Mantaro, unable to take anymore of the adult's arguing, left the dinner table, his beef bowel untouched.
He went to his word and hugged a blue rag doll he called Suzie Bean-his favorite toy.
"I wish I could stop saying the wrong things Suzie Bean. But I don't ever do."
A week later, when his mother has seemed to be feeling a little better, he asked about the baby's funeral again.
His mother got a pained look on her face and changed the subject.
Mantaro kept trying to bring up the subject of the dead baby, but the adult always changed the subject or try to distracted him.
It was as they were trying to erase the existence of his almost-sister.
After a year, the baby's death (and his mother's pregnancy) almost seemed like a dream instead of a reality. Soon it was a just a painful wisp in the back of Mantaro's mind. A thing he sometime lost in other memories.
Coincidentally, this was the year Mantaro started hating juice boxes in general and cranberry-apple juice in particular. They made him want to cry for some reason. Being a prince, he got what want he wanted and juice boxes and cranberry-apple juice was never served in his home again.
15 years later:
Mantaro and his friends had just finish practice.
"Hey Mantaro, ya wanna juice box? They're cranberry-apple and some sort of all natural crap." Terry dug around in the cooler for something better.
"No, I hate juice boxes. They're for babi-" Mantaro suddenly burst into tears.
"Golly 'Taro, what's wrong?" A concerned Wally asked.
"Oh Wally. Mantaro's crying again. It's not exactly a new thing." Dik Dik was blasé.
"Kid, I knew juice boxes suck, but for the love of God, it's nothing to cry over" Meat massaged his temples
"That's not why. I don't know why." Mantaro sobbed for something lost.
Author's notes: You may have notice that I've refereed to Mantaro's relatives as Mantaro's mother, father, ect rather then their names. That's because I'm wrote this fic from 5 year old Mantaro's world view rather then the reader's view-thus Suguru is Mantaro's dead, Binibida is refereed as Mantaro's mom, ect.