CHAPTER 83 – THE HOURS CONTINUE

1. Play Peek-A-Boo. That's a no-go. We've already outgrown it.

2. Sing a Song like Itsy-Bitsy-Spider. I hate spiders. And I'm too exhausted to do the damn spider thing with my hands.

Elizabeth dismissed the first two suggestions in the Parenting article she had found on the computer database and continued reading. She didn't know why she should take advice from a self-proclaimed 'super mom' whom she had never met, but at this point, she was running out of her own ideas. The article's title "Easy Ways to Keep a Baby Busy and Happy" seemed too good to be true; nevertheless, she continued reading.

She was trying to stay awake but the dimly lit hallway and quietness weren't helping. She smacked herself awake as the words on the screen began to blur together.

Awake. Stay awake, girl.

She glanced over at Aaron, who was happily entertaining himself. He had one hand at his face as he happily sucked his thumb. His other hand was running along the carpet, apparently feeling for variations in the fabric. She wasn't sure how long such an incredibly boring activity would keep him occupied.

3. Finger painting. Yeah, right, she thought sarcastically. Because every transporter is outfitted with finger paints. Probably stocked right between energy carriers and geo-thermal packs.

4. Join a Mommy and Me playgroup. Where?! I'm the only mommy with a baby for eight-hundred thousand miles! The ONLY one! For eight-hundred thousand miles! Actually, at this speed, it's now eight-hundred thousand one-hundred miles. Now it's eight-hundred thousand two- hundred miles. Now, it's eight-hundred thousand three-hundred miles.

5. Take your baby outside. Fresh Air is healthy for any baby. We're on a transporter. Outside would kill us, Elizabeth growled in disgust. I want to keep us occupied, not frozen and deprived of oxygen.

"Elizabeth, wake up."

"Wake up. Time to get you to bed," the soft male voice spoke again.

"What time is it?" Elizabeth groggily asked when she opened her eyes and saw Jack kneeling down over her. She looked around and realized she was still in Corridor A.

"Three-thirty in the morning."

"I'm so tired," she mumbled.

"I know. It's okay. I'll watch him now. Let's get you back to our room."

"How'd you find us?" Elizabeth used a hand to push off the floor and struggled to her feet.

"I'm in law enforcement," he quietly reminded her so as to not wake up people in the nearby rooms. "I have access to every camera on this ship."

"Oh, yeah. Right."

"I taped the door sensors from this side, so he couldn't open any," a drowsy Elizabeth informed Jack. She unceremoniously pushed her hair from her face and wiped her mouth to make sure she hadn't been drooling.

"I noticed."

Elizabeth wearily followed Jack as he headed toward the elevator picking up items along the way.

"I tried to pimp him out," Elizabeth admitted guiltily without any prompting.

"You must not be very good at it because he's still here," Jack teased.

"He was the wrong Thornton male."

"Well, please don't pimp me out either. I'm kind of partial to just you."

Feeling the need to tell Jack every bad parenting thing she had done in the last few hours, Elizabeth continued, "I raised my voice at him and wasn't very nice."

"What did you say?"

"I told him that-" Elizabeth paused to yawn before continuing, "that he was an immature child."

"He is an immature child."

"That's what he said."

"He said?" Jack questioned. "He didn't say anything. He can't talk yet," a smiling Jack reminded her.

"I may have dreamed that part. My mind's a bit groggy."

"Let's get you some sleep and you'll be better."

"I think I also called him a demanding milk-sucking imp when he was breastfeeding."

"Not the nicest thing to say to your son but I'm guessing he had no idea what the words meant, so you get a pass on that one."

"I told him that he reminded me of the squirrels in our backyard."

"Squirrels can be cute."

"Not normal squirrels. The frantic ones that frightened me."

Jack chuckled. "I'm sure every mom has felt that way at some point. And he doesn't have a mark on him, so it looks like you did a great job watching him. I don't see a bone sticking out of place or a missing eye, and no blood dripping down him like a horror movie."

"I'm a horrible mom," Elizabeth sleepily lamented.

"You're a wonderful mom. You're just tired."

"I offered to let a bird man experiment on him with different bird sounds. That's how desperate I was to get someone to keep him occupied."

"What happened?"

"Your son spent twenty minutes pecking at me and trying to whistle."

Jack chuckled. "The whistling will come in handy when he sees a pretty woman. Or is umpiring a game," he added when Elizabeth chastised him with a weak slap. "And as for the pecking, well, let's hope it doesn't become habit. I don't want to have to explain to people why my son thinks he's a bird."

Elizabeth leaned against a wall and closed her eyes while Jack, holding the baby in one arm, bent down and used his other hand to pick up two socks which were laying a few feet of each other. He put them in the nearby diaper bag and then tossed in a ball which was up leaning against a wall.

"I haven't changed his diaper in four hours," she ruefully spoke up.

"That's okay."

"No, it's not," she admitted. "It should be changed every two to three hours."

"That's only if he's actually wearing one."

Elizabeth's eyes popped open. "What are you talking about?" she questioned. She quickly looked at her son and saw the white flesh of Aaron's bare bottom which was resting on Jack's arms.

Jack laughed. "Maybe you're not such a wonderful mom after all, or you would have realized he wasn't wearing a diaper. I found one on the floor. Either he took it off or you forgot to put it on," Jack told her. "I'll put a fresh one on him as soon as we get back to our cabin. He's wide awake. Did he sleep at all?"

Elizabeth shook her head. "Not unless he dozed off when I did. And that was only about fifteen minutes. Did you get our supply of stuff from the cargo hold?" Elizabeth asked with another yawn.

She was yawning so much it was like one long yawn punctuated every so often with words instead of the other way around.

"Yeah. . . about that. There was a slight problem."

"What? If you tell me that they were too lazy to pull out our stuff, I will march down there myself and get it."

"You are barely remembering how to walk. I doubt you could march anywhere."

"Right. Then, I'll make you march down there. Jack, we need those supplies. There's a bouncy thing, and toys, and " , Elizabeth yawned again as Jack tore the duct tape off the elevator door sensor, and the door slid open, "cloth books, and enough stuff to keep him occupied for the rest of this trip. We should have had it moved to our quarters weeks ago. There's no reason to wait until we get to Coal Valley. We might as well use it now."

Elizabeth leaned against the side wall of the elevator, relaxed, and closed her eyes. "Wake me up when we get to our floor."

Bing.

"We're here," Jack announced two seconds later when the door elevator announced they had arrived at their floor.

"That was quick," she mumbled.

"It's a small ship."

The family exited the elevator and walked quietly down the dimly-lit hallway. Despite downing three cups of coffee since the dinner meal, Jack would have loved a nap himself. The only Thornton family member that didn't seem eager to collapse onto a mattress was Aaron Daniel.

"Did you put his stuff in our room?" Elizabeth asked as she dragged her feet.

"His stuff?"

"From the crate. In cargo."

"Um. Like I said earlier, there was a slight problem," Jack reminded her as they walked into their quarters.

Elizabeth kicked off her shoes and headed straight to the bathroom. Years of good dental practice meant she automatically brushed her teeth before she went to bed, even if she had brushed hours earlier.

Jack set down Aaron on a lower berth and expertly fixed a diaper onto his bare bottom. Rummaging in the diaper bag, he found a pair of pants – soft enough to sleep in if the baby was inclined to ever sleep again – and put them on the boy. Next, he gave his son a squishy ball to occupy himself. Aaron immediately dropped the round object over the railing and watched it roll across the floor. He looked at Jack, babbled together a string of unintelligible syllables, and held out a tiny palm, indicating that he wanted it back.

"Even my teeth are tired," Elizabeth said after spitting toothpaste into the sink.

The water pressure in the faucet seemed lower than usual but she was too tired to complain. She wiped her mouth on a towel and headed towards her berth, tossing off her clothes and letting them fall to the floor as she walked.

"Wake me up when he's hungry."

She flopped onto a mattress without bothering to put on shorts or a tank top.

Jack bent down, retrieved Aaron's ball, and handed it back to his son. "Hold onto it this time," he whispered to the boy.

Acorn babbled, and tossed the ball over the railing. Apparently, he hadn't learned obedience in the last hours with Elizabeth.

"If he gets hungry, do you want me to feed him some smooshed apple so you can keep sleeping?" Jack offered as Elizabeth pulled a blanket over herself.

"If he'll take it," she mumbled. "And where's the stuff? I don't see it anywhere. I'll need it. That stuff is the only thing that's going to get me through this fiasco. What problem did you have getting it?"

"It wasn't in the right aisle," Jack said casually.

"Did they find out where it was?"

"They did."

"Why didn't they give it to you?"

"It wasn't easily accessible," was his only explanation.

"I can get it tomorrow." Her words were barely decipherable as she spoke mostly into her pillow.

"We'll see," Jack said evasively.

"Don't worry. I'll get it," a drowsy Elizabeth repeated. Her mind was already fading into sleep. "I need it."

Jack picked up Aaron and paused for a moment, half-hoping Elizabeth would be entirely asleep so she couldn't hear his next words. He knew he had to say them. He just didn't want to be in the same room as Elizabeth when the words made it to her ears.

"Remember that banana bread we had tonight?" he cowardly asked.

"Hmm mmm."

"Remember how everyone was laughing and talking about how great it was that there was a crate mix-up and we got bananas while Mock Earth probably got a crate full of useless boring supplies?

Elizabeth's brain took a moment to register what Jack was saying, but he knew that she had heard it when her eyes suddenly popped open with a start.

"Jaaack" she said warningly

"Well, the good thing is that now we know what Mock Earth got instead of bananas."

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