Part 4

Roy was awakened by his stomach grumbling, he was hungry..really hungry, the spoonful of Ollie's chilli the night before hadn't been enough sustenance to last until morning. It was still dark but a faint tinge of dawn took the edge off the darkness slightly...just enough for the little boy to see. He looked up from his bed..a mattress that had been placed on the floor in 'Boss man's' room. Boss man was still sleeping soundly, his back facing the boy ...Roy thought briefly about waking the big man to ask for food, but quickly disregarded the thought..The last couple of meals the man had given him were 'yuk', and the stuff he'd fed him last night was still slightly burning on the back of his lips.

The little boy stumbled to his feet and stood for a moment watching the sleeping archer, before silently heading to the door. Finding it slightly ajar he was easily able to open it, heading out into the hallway towards the living room then on into the kitchen.

He headed straight for the large cupboard that he had seen the adults in the house taking food from and reached for the door nob. He quickly discovered he wasn't quite tall enough to reach it and thought for a moment, before heading towards the table intending to drag a chair over to make access to the pantry easier...But then a better idea came to him, and he veered away from his target and went to the fridge instead..Tugging firmly on the door until it suddenly opened, causing him to stumble back and drop to his bottom on the floor.

He sat still for a moment, surveying the treasure trove of foods that cluttered the fridge with wide green eyes, eventually he crawled closer and kneeled in front of it, the cold air and light from inside it washing over his little body causing him to shiver slightly. Spotting some containers of food he pulled one out and spent a few moments trying to figure out how to open it before dropping it on the floor and reaching in and picking up another container..this one was easier to open and he pulled the plastic lid off and cast it aside, looking triumphantly at the bright red colored liquid that had slices of food floating in it..then delving his hand in to pull out a dripping slice of something he couldn't remember seeing before.

He hungrily shoved the item into his mouth, before screwing his face up in distaste and quickly spitting the offensive food back out again...he looked at the container for a moment deeming the food "yuk" before setting it on the ground beside him. The little boy pulled out a few more unopenable containers, dropping each one to the floor as he went before standing up and surveying the higher shelves for sustenance..spotting cans of some sort of soda, he pulled one out and tried desperately to open it, knowing he needed to pull on the ring pull tab, but not really knowing exactly how..He worked on the can for a while, eventually opening it a sliver, not completely..but enough to suck the sweet liquid inside out of the small opening he'd made in the seal.

After draining a quarter of the can his wandering eye spotted a bottle in the door of the fridge that had a familiar picture on the front of it..his eyes lit up at the sight, and he tossed the can to the floor, distracted from the bottle momentarily as he watched in fascination as a stream of liquid erupted from the can and spurted across the kitchen floor...once the show was over and the erupting liquid had become a trickle he remembered his quarry and turned back to the fridge, removing the plastic bottle and working on twisting the top to the open position..mission complete he began to suck chocolate topping from the bottle contentedly.

Once his little cheeks grew tired of sucking on the bottle and his belly felt a little fuller he cast the bottle aside " 'Abe' ...Milk" he muttered in both Navajo and English..before pulling out the heavy carton and setting it on the floor..kneeling down to work on opening the lid. Once he'd managed to get the bottle open he hoisted it to his lips..attempting to drink from the carton, but taken by surprise when the weight of the bottle threw him off balance and a sudden surge of cold milk flooded over his face and up his nose...he dropped the carton..too preoccupied with rubbing his irritated nose to take any notice of the milk that now flooded across the floor, taking a step back he knocked over the container of red liquid he placed on the floor earlier and beetroot juice poured out, mixing colorfully with the milk already puddled on the floor.

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Ollie wasn't sure what had awoken him..he lay still for a moment listening carefully. At first he heard nothing, and he was about to roll back over and go back to sleep when an uneasy feeling overcame him.

He sat half way up..his sleep addled mind clearing instantly with the feeling..glancing to the wide open door of his room then down to the empty mattress on the floor. "Oh shit!" he said to himself, springing out of bed and crossing the room quickly...The lecture he'd had from Dinah the night before was still fresh in his mind..He knew she was asleep in the spare room, and the last thing he needed was for her to wake up before he did and find out that Roy was running lose in the house..A sudden horrendous crash coming from the kitchen spurred his rapid walk to and all out sprint.

He ran up the hallway and through the living room into the kitchen..then froze.

"Boss man!" a happy little voice called.

Ollie stared at the little boy who now stood on the kitchen bench holding a bottle of washing up liquid that he was delightedly squeezing into the sink..the water had been turned on full bore and bubbles frothed every where...the fruit bowl lay shattered on the ground and half a dozen apples and oranges lay scattered on the floor..Not having time to take in the rest of the damage to the kitchen Ollie reached the sink in record time and turned off the water.

"What the..?" Dinah cried in surprise as she stood in the doorway surveying the mess.

"I..." Ollie started, stopping as his eyes finally fell on the mess that lay on the floor illuminated brightly in the light from the fridge.

Dinah found the light switch and turned it on..The full extent of the chaos finally becoming fully visible.

"Holy shit!" Ollie exclaimed.

"Holy shit Boss man." the little boy repeated happily.. giving Dinah a familiar grin, before tossing the washing up liquid aside and walking along the bench.

Ollie moved quickly to grab the boy...knowing he was probably in deep enough water with Dinah already without having the kid fall of the bench and hurt himself...In the sudden rush to get to the child Ollie banged his knee on an open draw.."Ouch!" he muttered.

The little boy burst into raucous laughter..and Dinah who was trying as hard as she could to look serious, couldn't continue to keep a straight face any longer, and laughed as well.

Ollie glared at her for a moment.."Are you serious?..Look at this mess..How the hell can one little kid get into so much trouble in..." his voice trailed off for a moment... he temporarily forgotten who the little kid he was referring to was.."Forget it..let's just clean this mess up." he grumbled.

"No you clean this mess up...and I'll clean that mess up." Dinah said as she nodded towards the little boy...Walking over to the bench she reached out and picked the wet and sticky child up. "Come on Boyo..bath time. " she said walking towards the door. "We'll leave Boss man in charge of clean up opperations here." she said as she left the room.

"Dang kid." Ollie grumbled as he closed the drawers..marveling briefly at the ingenuity of the boy who had carefully pulled each drawer out, spacing them appropriately so that they'd formed steps for him to climb onto the bench on...maybe raising a little kid was a bigger job than he'd thought..the quicker they got the kid back to normal the better it would be.

end 4