Robbie shut the door and clapped his hands together surveying the kitchen. The breakfast wreckage was yet to be cleared away and Robbie walked over to the table to clear it. Before reaching the table Robbie tripped on a toy that had been left lying on the floor and he hit his chest on the table. Grunting in pain Robbie tried to stand up but his chest resisted.
"Are you ok, Robbie?" A voice asked. Robbie looked up and saw the Mayor standing in the doorway.
"If I can move I will be," Robbie answered trying to stand up again.
"What did you do?"
"I tripped on Marty," Robbie pointed at the guilty toy which was a fluffy caterpillar, "I hit my chest on the corner of the table. It hurts a lot; I must have hit my ribs or something."
"Oh my, I'll try and find Sportacus. Can you hang on there until I get back?"
"I don't think I'll be going anywhere," Robbie answered with a hint of sarcasm.
With a nod the Mayor left.
Robbie laid his head on the table; he'd tried to lay down when the Mayor had left but every movement hurt and he was finding breathing difficult. 'I knew I should have gotten a round table,' He thought. He hoped the Mayor and Sportacus would hurry; the last thing he wanted was for Robyn to come into the house and see him like this. A few more minutes passed and Robbie heard the front door open, looking up he was relieved to see Sportacus and the Mayor.
"So," Robbie began, his chest still hurting a great deal, "can we get me up from the floor and somewhere more comfortable? The view from here is rather dull and I fancy a change of scenery."
The Mayor and Sportacus smiled at this even though they knew it was an old Robbie style reproach. Sportacus walked over to Robbie and tried to help him stand but Robbie protested that it hurt too much that way. After thinking for a while Sportacus suggested perhaps the Mayor helping get Robbie lying on the ground and them carrying him from the ground to the floor. It took a great deal of time and trouble to do this but eventually their efforts paid off. It wasn't long after Robbie had been sat in his chair that Robyn came home from lunch.
"Hello Mr Mayor, hello uncle Sportacus. What are you doing here?" Robyn asked greeting each of the men in turn.
Robbie didn't want to worry Robyn but felt he had to tell her the truth, "daddy hurt himself sweetheart, and I should be ok after a nap."
Robyn's face fell and she looked close to tears. She was a very considerate little girl and cared for everyone a great deal. She hated it when people got hurt or were unhappy and strove to alter their unhappy conditions.
"Where does it hurt daddy? What did you do?" Robyn asked shakily.
"My chest. I fell over and hit the corner of the table. Daddy is very silly isn't he?" Robbie tried lightening Robyn's mood and succeeded very little.
Robyn was very close to tears now and was scooped up by Sportacus and given a big hug. It took some time but eventually Robyn was reassured that everything would be alright. All her daddy needed was some rest and a good nap and he'd be fine.
It was obvious that Robbie wouldn't be able to fix Robyn's lunch for her so the Mayor offered to take Robyn back to his house to lunch with himself, Bessie and Stephanie.
"I have a special treat for dessert, can you guess what it is?" the Mayor added after making his suggestion of lunch. Robyn shook her head and the mayor smiled, "its cake!"
Robyn smiled straight away. She was hungry and absolutely adored cake, just like her father. After once again being reassured that Robbie would be ok and was promised that uncle Sportacus would take good care of him Robyn left with the Mayor.
Once the Mayor and Robyn had left Robbie sighed. The area of his chest which he'd hit was still hurting badly and he doubted he'd get any sleep. Sportacus had heard the sigh and turned to look at Robbie, concern showing visibly on his face. He knew Robbie was in a lot more pain than he was letting on.
"Some things don't change do they?" Robbie asked suddenly.
"What do you mean?" Sportacus asked, curious.
"Me being clumsy. If I'm not getting hit in the head by things I'm tripping over Marty."
"Marty!"
"The Caterpillar toy, I got it for Robyn's second birthday."
"Oh," Sportacus said remembering. Robyn had named all of her toys and Sportacus could never remember which one was called what.
Sportacus turned to look at Robbie again when he heard him chuckle, "I think Marty's getting a little threadbare where I keep kicking him when I trip on him." Robbie explained.
Sportacus chuckled and getting up, picked Marty up off of the floor and went back over to Robbie. He inspected the strange toy and chuckled when he saw the truth of what Robbie said. It was a well known fact that Robbie made all of Robyn's toys himself and all of them were of a very high quality. It seemed that hidden talents could be bred in the strangest of people.
"Do you know all the names of Robyn's toys?" Sportacus asked.
Robbie thought for a second, "hmmm; there's Marty the caterpillar, Bob the fish, Bruno which is the bear with one ear; I gave that to Robyn to teeth with and she chewed his ear off, Colin the dog and Mr Brown which is Robyn's favourite teddy bear. He's the one with the green scarf"
Sportacus was speechless, not only did Robbie know the names of the toys but also what toys the names belonged to. He smiled and shook his head; Robyn had often told him that as her uncle he should be able to name at least three of the toys. The sad truth was that Sportacus was terrible at remembering the names and always got them wrong; he'd always be seriously reprimanded by Robyn when he claimed he didn't know. He was never reprimanded in a bad way, he would be told off in a false scolding manner and would be asked yet again to attempt to memorise the names. The only name that Sportacus could remember was Bruno but when it came to pointing out the toy that the name belonged to he'd always choose the wrong one.
Robbie shifted in his chair but the action brought a sharp pain to his still hurting chest, Sportacus didn't miss the sharp intake of breath and grew concerned for Robbie again. With their talking he'd forgotten about Robbie's accident and had also forgotten Lily's death.
"Can I get you something for your pain?" Sportacus' concern for Robbie was audible in his voice.
"I don't have anything and I'll be fine thanks. I've been in worse pain than this before and managed."
"If you're sure," Sportacus shrugged, when Robbie didn't want anything Robbie didn't want anything.
As much as Robbie had changed some things with him had stayed the same.