Ellie Bartlet was extremely perceptive for an eleven-year-old. For a girl so young, she understood more about life and people than most sixteen-year-olds. Maybe it was an insatiable need for knowledge, maybe it was her surroundings. Being the middle child of a doctor and a Nobel prize-winning politician certainly had an affect on her. There were times it seemed to Ellie that she was the one taking care of her whole family. Both her mother and father, despite being great parents, spent much of their time working. Ellie didn't so much blame them as miss them. Her older sister, at the age of sixteen, smart as she was, was inclined to get herself into jams from time to time. Her younger sister, being only six, was too young to understand most things and thus tended to rely on Ellie to explain and elaborate upon everything for her. And Ellie was the shy one, the smart one, the polite one, and it got her nowhere. It got her no attention, no recognition, nothing. Such is the life of a middle child, or so she told herself. But now that her mother was pregnant again, what would that make her? No longer the middle child. So, what then? In a family of four children, there is no middle child. Without that title, what other excuse would Ellie have? She would have no excuse for hiding in the shadows, for keeping quiet even when she had something to say. She would have to speak up, to be heard. She would have to rebel, to be noticed.
But rebelling just wasn't in her nature. She wasn't angry. She was concerned. She was scared. The events of the past month had shaken her and thrown her off-balance. For once, nothing was clear to her. She didn't know what the future would hold for her family, and that frightened her. Their once stable family life had been disturbed and thus, had disturbed her.
The next morning, Abbey was up early. Not by choice, however. She spent most of the morning sick in the bathroom. When she pulled herself together and got washed up and ready for the morning, she trekked outside of the bedroom for the first time that day to see what was going on in the house. The house was still empty as it had been the evening before. She found Jed sitting outside on the front porch smoking a cigarette.
"Put it out, Jed."
He jumped, not having realized she was there. He immediately extinguished the cigarette.
"Morning, Sunshine."
"Uh huh." She sat down beside him on the porch swing.
"It's about time you got up."
"I've been up. Throwing up, that is."
"How do you feel now?" He asked.
"Better, I suppose."
"I have a surprise for you."
"You do? Really?"
"Absolutely."
"What is it!"
"Come on."
He grabbed her hand, brought her inside, and up the stairs. He stopped in front of the closed door of the guest room.
"Close your eyes."
She reluctantly did as she was told, and he opened the door and lead her into the room.
"Open."
The room was completely empty.
"Your surprise is…that we've been robbed?"
"No! I did it!"
"You took all of the furniture out of our guest room and I'm supposed to be happy about this?"
"Abbey! This isn't the guest room anymore, as of today. It's the baby's room."
Her eyes filled with tears.
"Oh, Jed."
"I wanted to make up for last night, what I said about buying the furniture too soon."
"Wow."
"We're going to transform this room into something fit for a child!" He grinned.
"We?"
"You and me."
"We're gonna do this…ourselves?"
"You bet we are. Summer project, baby."
She grinned and threw her arms around his neck.
"Thank you," she said, sincerely, giving him a kiss.
"Well, you made up last night to me. I wanted to do the same for you."
"Yeah, but my make up didn't really require me doing much."
He looked at her in disbelief.
"You know what I mean!"
"It's sad, but yes I do."
"But Jed…how are we going to do this room if we don't know yet if it's a boy or a girl?" Abbey asked.
"Abbey. I know you're convinced it's going to be a boy, but it's gonna be a girl. Face it. We're not cut out for a son and you know it."
"Doesn't mean God won't throw us a curve ball."
"Abbey."
"Okay, okay, you're right. It's a girl."
"Thank you."
"Now all we need to do is think of a name…" She said, putting her arm around him and walking him out of the room.
When the doorbell rang at April Caulfield's house, her mother answered.
"Hi, Elizabeth! Haven't seen you in awhile."
"Yeah, I've been…pretty busy."
"How are you doing?"
"Really good. Thank you."
"Sure. What can I do for you?"
"I'm just looking for my sister, Mrs. Caulfield. Is Ellie here?" Liz asked.
"She's upstairs with April. I'll go get her."
"No, it's okay, I'll go. Thanks though."
Liz walked inside the house and walked upstairs, then knocked on April's bedroom door.
"Who is it?"
"It's Liz."
Ellie opened the door.
"Hi."
"Come on, I'm gonna take you home."
"We live right across the street, Liz. I'm not five."
"Get your stuff, smartass, we're leaving."
"Whatever."
Ellie disappeared into the room and returned with her bag.
"Let's go. Say goodbye to April."
"Bye, April," Ellie said, gloomily.
Before they left the house, Liz called out a goodbye to Mrs. Caulfield and they were gone.
"Why is Uncle Leo's car here?" Ellie asked.
"Cuz I stole it."
"What!"
"I borrowed it, Elllie, what do you think? Get in."
They both got into the car, Ellie reluctantly.
When Liz started the car and began driving, Ellie asked, "Where are we going?"
"To Uncle Leo's house, to drop off his car."
"Why did you come and get me, Liz?"
"Cuz we gotta talk, El."
"Oh, man. Who sent you? Mom or Dad?"
"Neither. And they don't know I'm doing this, so don't you think about telling them," Liz demanded.
"Fine, whatever. Talk."
"Look. You're eleven. You're smarter than most people you're age and I think emotionally, you are my equivalent. And…although that isn't saying much, it means I know something's up and you're going to tell me right now."
"Nothing to tell."
"Ellie."
"What"
"At least tell me who you're pissed at."
"That was a pretty dumb question."
"Then I guess it deserves a pretty dumb answer. It's Mom, isn't it?" Liz said.
"Maybe."
"It is."
"Maybe."
"What did she do?"
"I didn't say it was Mom!" Ellie exclaimed.
"Yeah, but it is. You really hurt her last night when you snapped like that."
"Good."
"Come on, Ellie. Why are you so mad at her?"
"I'm not mad at her," Ellie admitted, quietly.
"Oh, really. You're not. You're such a liar."
"I'm serious!"
Liz was taken aback.
"Well…what is it then?"
"It's nothing."
"Tell me!"
Ellie sighed.
"Do you remember that night? That I had the nightmare?"
"Oh, jeez. Oh, God. Yeah."
"Yeah."
"That's all? You're gonna make me figure this out myself, aren't you?"
"I'm just kind of freaked out. That's it."
"So you're snapping at everybody?" Liz said.
"Yeah. I don't know."
"Why don't you just talk to Mom about it? I don't think she even knows you…know."
"She doesn't know."
"Then talk to her!"
"I don't know how!" Ellie shouted in a sudden outburst of anger.
"Like you always have, Ellie."
"I can't."
"Yeah, you can. I can."
"Yeah, you all can. Everyone knows how to talk to her but me."
"You used to know how. You guys are so close," Liz said.
"I don't know. Maybe I'll try."
"Good."
"If she ever decides to pay any attention to me."
"Just talk to her, Ellie, stop being so dramatic."
"Can we go home now?"
Liz laughed.
"Yeah, but we're gonna have to get Uncle Leo or Aunt Jenny to drive us home."
Ellie managed a laugh as well.
"This drive was so pointless, you know that?"
"Yeah, it really was," Liz admitted. "But at least I got you to talk."
By the time Jenny dropped Liz and Ellie off at their house, both of them were feeling much better. Ellie was fully prepared to ready to talk to her mother, and Liz was proud of her. But when they walked in the door, nobody came to greet them.
"Mom! Dad?" Liz called, walking through the house.
"Liz! Over here."
Liz walked over to Ellie; she was holding a note.
Girls,
Your mother and I picked up Zoey and went to Home Depot. We'll probably go out for lunch afterwards. There's a twenty on the table if you want to order something for lunch. We'll be back this afternoon.
Love, Dad.
Liz looked at Ellie, sympathetically, and she instantly knew that any intention Ellie had of talking to her mother was now gone with the wind.
TBC.