Author's Note: Sorry I didn't release anything yesterday. I guess, I was just, too tired from the day before with my nephew, and on Monday evening, I needed to update one of my other ongoing stories, A Finster House Divided, simply because, it just, needed to be done. Anyway, I'm going to try my best to post something every day between now and Easter, seeing that today is Ash Wednesday, meaning the season of Lent has begun. I'm also determined to reach another goal, having 200 stories posted to my profile by the time Easter Sunday hits on April 16, 2017, and I'm at and updating story number 192 at this time. Well, we'll never get to 200 if we don't finish up story 192, so, without further a due, let's move on, to the next chapter in this story!
Chapter 4, Tuesday, My Valentine's Day with Tommy
Nell POV
Dear Journal,
Who knew by the end of Valentine's Day, I would perhaps, know my little sister's boyfriend at least as well as she does, if not better. No worries, I would never cheat on my current boyfriend Bobby Lee with a three-year-old, but what the heck. If Bobby and I can't be together for Valentine's Day, might as well spend it with Tommy Pickles, right? Okay, it wasn't quite like that. If anything, the start of the day wasn't anything to write home about in a romance novel. After all, he's been sick since my villager's internship had started, and at this point in my journey, I was roughly halfway through the week, and looked like my week was long from being over. When I went to awaken the boys that morning, mainly Tommy, because on this particular day, everybody had been up slightly later the night before, finishing up their Valentines for school where my two younger sisters, Madeline and Sabrina were concerned, and while Dil got Peter up, Tommy, had not awakened with the early bird who catches the worm, though why I'm making such a reference, seeing I've been scared of birds since I was slightly older than Tommy because of an accident I was involved in where a bird hurt my cheek is beyond me, but I wouldn't worry about that right now.
I went in to awaken the sleeping purple haired prince, okay, so he's not actually a prince, he's a villager, but just the same, I went into the boys room to wake him up, when he opened his eyes, and stared at me, with tears filling up the corners of his eyes, and a look on his face like he was in pain, and a great deal of pain at that.
"Good morning Tommy, what's wrong?" I asked.
As he sat up in bed, I noticed him playing with his ears, and then, touching his chest and throat.
"Do your ears hurt? Does your throat hurt?" I asked.
He nodded his head yes, twice, answering both of my questions. I sighed, realizing that whatever he was sick with, had gotten worse, but I wasn't sure who he saw for a doctor or anything like that.
"Better consult Peter." I thought to myself, as I had Tommy head downstairs to the kitchen with me, where Peter was making another one of his delicious breakfasts, today's being, begals and cream cheese.
"Well good morning sleepy heads. How is everybody this morning?" Peter cheerfully greeted, giving Madeline and Sabrina another helthing of begals, and refilling Dil's sippy cup with some more red juice.
"I'm fine, but I think somebody needs to go to the doctor's. He awoke in a great deal of pain. Apparently his ears, throat, and chest are bothering him." I said.
"And looks like his stomach is bothering him too." Peter said, pointing over to Tommy at the kitchen table, where he now had his hands on his stomach, the look of pain still spread across his face, as he's biting his lip, trying not to cry in front of my two younger sisters or his younger brother.
"Okay Peter, does Tommy see Doctor Lucy Carmichael too? The same doctor I take Madeline to?" I asked.
"Nope, he sees Doctor Shacter." Peter replied, as I went over to the phone, where Peter handed me a slip of paper with the doctor's phone number on it.
"So when the automated menu comes on when I call, make sure to press the button to connect me to Doctor Shactor's secretary." I said.
"Correct." Peter said, using a flashlight at this point to look into Tommy's ears and throat.
"And you can tell the doctor his ears and throat look pretty red." Peter said.
"Why don't you get him some apple juice while I take care of this." I said to Peter, taking the phone off of the hook and dialing the number.
I got the automated menu, and pressed the correct button to get to Doctor Shacter's secretary. It rang a few times before I heard somebody pick up the phone.
"Doctor Shacter's office this is Cynthia." The lady said on the phone.
"Yes, my name is Helen O'Mally, and I am calling on behalf of Tommy Pickles, birth date, August 11, 1990, I am looking after him this week while his parents are out of town, but he seems to have come down with a bad cold, and awoke this morning with a soar throat and his ears seem to be bothering him." I said.
"Well there is both, Strep and an ear infection going around." Cynthia said on the phone.
"Yes, I am aware of that. We believe he probably caught this from one of his little friends at preschool." I said.
"How bad is it?" Cynthia asked.
"I have Peter Albany here helping me to look after him, and he claims his throat and ears look pretty red. Plus, I knew something was wrong when he awoke this morning, crying and in pain, and slightly later than usual." I said.
I heard Cynthia type on a computer keyboard and rustle some papers around on her end of the phone, before she returned with my appointment time for Tommy.
"Can you bring him in for nine this morning?" Cynthia asked.
"I sure can. We're keeping him home from school this week anyway." I said.
"Okay we'll see you then." Cynthia said, as I heard a click and got off the phone.
I then called the cab company to schedule us a cab to take us there, and informed Peter that he'd be taking my sisters to school, and if he didn't mind, if he could also take Dil with him, so I'd only have to fool with Tommy at the doctor's office. He tried to insist on taking Tommy to the doctor's, since apparently, he's taken Tommy there before back when he was two and he was watching after him, but I insisted on doing this, since I was the one who spoke with the doctor's secretary on the phone. So, it was settled then. Of course, Tommy didn't drink very much apple juice from his sippy cup, as it was obvious by the look on his face, and how much he was flinching in pain each time he took a sip, it hurt to swallow anything. No matter, we all got ready to go, my sisters left for school with their Valentine's Day boxes they had made the night before and the Valentine's to pass out at their class, and shortly after Peter's limo left with my sisters and Dil, the cab showed up to take me and Tommy to the doctor's office. Though I had quite the time trying to get him ready to go, as he wanted to wear his blue Reptar t-shirt, which was dirty from the other day, and while I tried to convince him to wear a clean shirt, he wouldn't budge. So while everything was clean on him except for his shirt, which I did manage to spray with Fabreeze so it at least smelled clean, we got out the door, him clutching on to his stuffed green Reptar doll while I carried a couple of cloth shopping bags and his diaper bag, we piled into the cab, and next thing we knew, we were on our way to the doctor's office.
We got there and headed up to the third floor where pediatrics was located, and headed into the waiting room, where I let them know Tommy was here for his appointment. Cynthia told us to have a seat and they'd call us when the doctor was ready. We found two vacated chairs, and while there were plenty of toys to play with, including a duplo table and some stuffed animals, Tommy wasn't all that interested in going and playing. That is, until another little boy, slightly older than my sisters, with brown messy hair on the top of his head walked in with his mother and sat down in the seat across from us.
"Hi Pickles, I recognize you. I'm Josh, remember me?" The boy asked.
From the look on Tommy's face, I could tell he did recognize him, but not in a good way.
"Come on, we can play with the Duplos while we wait for the doctor to call us." Josh said.
Tommy shook his head no, to which I decided to speak up.
"Listen, Josh, Tommy doesn't feel well, so why don't you go play by yourself." I said.
"Oh. Well I'm only here to get my allergy shot anyway, a lot more serious than whatever he has." Josh said with a smirk, as he went off to play with the duplos.
He then proceeded to bring over a bunch to Tommy that looked to be covered in mucus and smelling of poop.
"Here, you can play with these, they smell disgusting. After all, I'm a bigger kid, thus, I deserve all of the clean Duplos. Fair is fair." Josh said, tossing the disgusting blocks into Tommy's lap.
I took them away from Tommy immediately, just as I was about to turn to his mother, and have a word with her, when a nurse called his name. They luckily left the waiting room just in time, as I went up and showed the messy blocks to Cynthia, who took them from me to be cleaned up. I went and sat back down next to Tommy, who hadn't moved an inch, his hand on his stomach at this point, while his other one was snuggling with his Reptar toy close by. I felt so bad for the poor little guy, that I only hoped the doctor would be able to make him feel better.
"Tommy Pickles." A lady said from the doorway that led back to the offices.
"That's us, come on Tommy." I said, taking his free hand.
"Okay Nora." He whispered to me.
I chuckled to myself.
"Nora?" The nurse asked me.
"No no, my name is Helen. He's just, got me mixed up with a lady from a book I read to him at bedtime last night." I said.
"Oh? What book was that?" The nurse asked.
"Pete's Dragon." I said, as we headed into the doctor's office.
The nurse had Tommy measured and weighed. He's currently thirty-six pounds and three feet tall. I was glad to learn his weight and height were fine, despite the rest of his helth.
"Has he had any fever?" The nurse asked.
"Yes." I replied.
The nurse also took his blood pressure, and then left the room, stating the doctor would be in shortly, though we didn't actually see Doctor Shacter like I thought. Rather, we saw the nurse practitioner, a lady named Nurse Georden. She checked him out, doing a Strep Test and looking in his ears. Despite how awful he felt, I was very proud of how cooperative Tommy was being for the doctor. Much better than my sister Madeline is at times, but it does help when you're not afraid of the doctor, and Sabrina has told me that her boyfriend Tommy isn't afraid of anything, and this doctor visit proved it. He even remained calm in the waiting room when that big kid bully, who I'm assuming is somebody he knew from his past, started picking on him. Though I'm not sure if he was only trying to be a polite gentleman, or if he simply, felt too bad to lift a finger to this bully, that he felt it best to ignore him. I wouldn't worry about it for now, as the nurse turned to speak to me at this point.
"Well we're not sure if he has Strep, but we'll call you in a day or two with the results, he does definitely have an ear infection though, so we'll prescribe the same antibiotic he took the last time, A Mox a Cillin." Nurse Geordon said.
"Okay, sounds good. Now I must ask, what pharmacy will we be picking up the prescription at, as I've never watched either Tommy or Dil before when they've been sick." I asked.
"At the supermarket pharmacy, where all of the Pickles boys meds get called into." Nurse Geordon said.
"Okay, sounds good." I said, getting Tommy ready to go, and using a pay phone out in the waiting area to call us a cab to pick us up and take us to the store.
Luckily I had some money on me to pick up a couple of groceries on top of picking up the prescription, which was handed to me on a piece of paper before we left the doctor's office. We headed downstairs and waited for our cab to pull up, remaining quite silent I might add. Soon, it came, and we were headed off to the store. When we got there, I found a cart in the parking lot, placed Tommy with his Reptar doll inside, and we headed inside, where I ran the prescription to the pharmacy to get it filled. Then, while we were waiting for the medicine to be filled, we went and did a little bit of shopping, where I picked up some more soups, including one of my favorites, broccoli chetter soup, and we got some more apple juice and red juice, since with so many of us drinking juice as of late, I'm sure we were getting low. Then, I took Tommy down the ice cream and popcickle isle, and had this comment to make to him, as I spotted a box of the Reptar delux popcickles on a shelf.
"Since you were such a good boy at the doctor's office, and seeing these might help your throat, not to mention, we finished off the box in your freezer at home, you deserve a treat." I said, placing the box of popcickles into the cart.
"And I promise, I'll eat the purple ones this time, since you don't like them." I said, only to look over to see that Tommy didn't hear a single word I said, because he had fallen asleep.
Oh well, he needs his sleep, so I just, let him rest in the cart, while we went and paid for the groceries and headed back over to the pharmacy to wait for his prescription to be ready. We only had to wait ten minutes, and it was ready to go. Sure enough, it was the liquid pink medicine, and according to the bottle's instructions, it's to remain refridgerated, and he's to take it four times a day for the next ten days. I wasn't too worried. If he's as good at taking medicine as he was for the nurse practitioner, then getting him to take this nasty liquid would be a piece of cake.
Our cab returned, as I told them to come back in forty-five minutes, and little Tommy remained asleep this entire time. It did make things interesting transporting a thirty-six pound dead weight three-year-old from the cart to the cab, along with my groceries, but luckily, the cab driver helped us, and upon getting back to Mr. and Mrs. Pickles house, the driver very nicely helped me carry the groceries up to the porch, while I carried Tommy inside, post opening the door, as looked like we were the only ones home at that time. Once I paid the cab fare and put the groceries away, while I got Tommy on the living room couch to finish his nap, I ran across a note left on the kitchen table by Peter, claiming that he took Dil to the park to play with his friend Savanna Green, they'd be home after lunch.
"Looks like it's just me and Tommy for lunch." I thought to myself, as I fixed us a can of cream of mushroom soup to split, and saw to getting him up from his nap.
I don't think he really wanted to get up, but I told Tommy it was time for his first dose of medicine, which, it also stated on the bottle to take each dose with food, so I would follow those instructions to the letter for sure. We had some soup and juice, and I had him take his first dose of medicine before we each had a popcickle for dessert. Me having a purple one that was grape flavored from the new box of Reptar popcickles, while he had one of the white ones, which was lemon flavored. I was the first one to finish my popcickle, when I noticed a joke on the stick.
"Ooh! These Reptar popcickles have jokes on the sticks? I didn't realize that. Of course, there's a lot of things you don't realize when somebody and her sister are having a popcickle fight. Now, let's see what my joke says. What's a duck's favorite snack?" I read aloud.
I turned over the stick to see the answer on the opposite side.
"Quackers and milk." I read aloud, chuckling a little when I realized the joke.
A short while later, Tommy finished his lemon flavored popcickle, and I read him his joke.
"Tommy, your joke says, why did the cow rearrange the furniture?" I read aloud.
Tommy looked confused, not knowing why, so I turned over his popcickle stick and read the answer.
"Because they make great moo-ving men." I read aloud, as we both started laughing.
Of course, it was obvious that poor Tommy was still in pain, as no sooner did he start giggling slightly, when that look of pain crossed his face again and he flinched, stopping his laughter all together.
"Aw, poor little guy." I said, getting his hot milk ready and getting him ready to go take his nap.
We went upstairs to his room, where I had him take a nap in his bed. At first, he wanted to rest on the couch, but I told him I wasn't sure what kind of mood everybody would be in when they got home, so better have you rest upstairs. I had him change into some warm blue footsy pajamas, and I read him his Reptar Goes to Mars book while he drank his hot milk, and I swear, he fell asleep before I ever finished reading the book. I tucked him in and headed downstairs, just when Peter returned, carrying a sleeping two-year-old Dil in his arms, who got the couch, since it was obvious that instead of coming back in the limo, Peter decided to get some fresh air and exercise, carrying this poor little guy back from the park, only to be pretty exhausted by the time he returned to the house. Luckily he had an alarm set on his phone so he knew when to go pick up my sisters from school, because we both sat down in easy chairs and had ourselves a nap, no sooner after we got Dil settled. Eventually, it was as if I closed my eyes, and more or less, immediately opened them again to the sound of Peter's alarm going off, as two hours had passed, and it was time for him to go pick up the girls, while I saw to awakening Tommy and having him and his brother have a snack, and giving Tommy his next dose of his antibiotic.
"I want Reptar cookies!" Dil cried, running into the kitchen towards the pantry, trying to reach the shelf where the cookies sat.
Not wanting him to hurt himself, I ran and got the cookies out, and then, we both went upstairs and got Tommy up from his nap. Dil wanted to wake him up by shining a flashlight in his eyes, to which I discouraged very quickly, telling him that such a means of waking up your brother, especially when he doesn't feel well, is probably not a good idea. I got him up, and while I think he could have slept forever, he came downstairs, and we all had our snack of some Reptar cookies and juice, and I saw to having Tommy take his next dose of medicine, as we'd at least see that he got three doses in him today, making sure he got four doses in him tomorrow, one of which, would take place at breakfast, while the other three would take place at lunch, snack, and dinner or dessert. I'd probably give him the last dose of the day along with his vitamins and florride, to keep things consistent, and I'm sure Peter would agree with that plan as well.
While we were eating our snack, I asked Dil about his time at the park, to which he told me he and his friend Savanna and her sister Samaya had fun, playing in the sandbox and going to the moon.
"Ooh! What did you see on the moon? Anything interesting?" I asked.
"We saw graters and moon monsters." Dil said with a mouth full of cookies.
"Now Dil, don't talk with your mouth full. Chew and swallow first." I said.
Dil chewed and swallowed his bite of cookies, then repeated what he previously said. Then, he turned to his brother.
"Hey Tommy, after snack, wanna play?" Dil asked.
Before Tommy could whisper or squeak out an answer, Peter and my sisters returned, Sabrina and Madeline running excitedly into the kitchen, excited to show me all of the pretty Valentines they had received that day at school.
"Look what Reggie made me Nell! Look what Reggie made me!" Madeline cried, sticking a pretty red paper heart covered in silver glitter in my face.
"Wow that's beautiful!" I said.
"Reggie?" I heard Tommy whisper, as Madeline set her Valentine down on the table next to Tommy, then turn to Sabrina with this to say to her.
"I noticed your boyfriend never made you no Valentine. Yeah, he's a baby. He don't know what it means to give Valentine's." Madeline said, blowing a raspberry at Sabrina.
"He does too!" Sabrina protested.
"Now girls, Tommy had to go to the doctor's this morning. He hasn't felt up to doing much today other than sleeping." I said.
Though we were all caught off guard when we heard some paper ripping. I turned to see Tommy ripping up Madeline's Valentine.
"Reggie's tricking you. He's mean and don't mean nothing." Tommy hissed under his breath, tossing the ripped pieces of valentine aside, making my sister Madeline cry.
"Reggie's not mean, Tommy is." Madeline cried, running off into the living room, where I tagged after her to try to cheer her up.
"Now Madeline sweetie, I'm sure Tommy didn't mean to rip up your Valentine from Reggie." I said, putting an arm around her trembling shoulders, as she stared out the window into the front yard.
"He did too. He thinks Reggie is mean, just like Angelica." Madeline said.
"Madeline, sweetie?" I said, putting a hand under her chin and turning her head to face me.
"Peter tells me that Tommy knows another Reggie that isn't exactly very nice. He doesn't feel well and he's getting a lot of things mixed up because of it. Heck, earlier at the doctor's office today, he called me Nora, getting me mixed up with one of the characters in the Pete's Dragon book I read to him at bedtime last night. It's nothing personal, but tell you what. I'll help Tommy fix your valentine from Reggie, will that do?" I asked.
Madeline sniffled back some tears and smiled.
"There, that's better." I said, gently patting her on the head, just as Peter, Sabrina, and Tommy all entered the living room.
"Is everything okay in here?" Peter asked.
"Yes. Tommy and I will see to fixing the Valentine he ripped up, while you see to escorting Dil and my sisters to your party." I said.
"Yep, I have moved the party to my castle, and everybody better go get ready, because we need to be heading to my castle within the next hour or so so I can get things ready for tonight." Peter said.
"But… But… What about Tommy?" Sabrina cried, now crying.
Now it was my turn to comfort my other sister, as I went over to her, placed a gentle hand on her shoulder, and knelt down to her level.
"Sweetheart, afraid that makes two of us who won't be with our valentines this year. I won't be seeing Bobby tonight, and afraid Tommy is too sick to go to the party. He still has a fever and hasn't been on his medicine for twenty-four hours." I explained.
"Twenty-four hours? How long is that?" Sabrina asked.
"Twenty-four hours is from the time you wake up one morning, to the time you awaken the next morning." I explained.
"Well then, if that's the case, then I won't be caught dead at that dumb old party!" Sabrina cried, throwing herself down on the living room carpet.
"Well if Sabrina's not going, then I'm not going neither!" Madeline cried, also slumping down to the carpet.
"And it'll be no fun with Tommy not there." Dil said, running over to his brother and grabbing at his legs, nearly pulling him down to the floor.
At that moment, Peter and I stood there, watching all of the kids, looking to see what Tommy's response would be in all of this. Next thing I noticed, was Tommy turned, and pointed his finger towards the front door.
"I'm sorry Tommy, but Helen's right, you can't go to the party." Peter said.
So then he pointed his finger to his brother and my little sisters, and then back over to the door.
"Oh, I think I get what our little man of charades is trying to say here. He wants his brother and my sisters to go to the party and have a good time. Am I right Tommy?" I asked, looking in his direction.
Tommy nodded his head yes and smiled.
"Do you really want me to go Tommy? You don't want me to stay here with you?" Sabrina asked.
Again, he nodded his head yes.
"Okay, I'll go, not just for my little sister, but for you." Sabrina said, giving Tommy a hug.
"Aw!" Peter and I cried, watching the two hug.
"Okay, we'd better be getting ready to go." Peter said, leading his three little partiers upstairs to get ready, while I got Tommy situated on the couch, and saw to putting on a movie for him.
"Here Tommy, how about we watch the movie of Pete's Dragon." I said, taking it off of the bookshelf of DVD's, only for Tommy to jump off the couch and pull out something different.
I looked down and saw in his hands, he had the DVD of the Captain Blasto Lego Movie.
"You want to watch the Captain Blasto Lego Movie instead?" I asked.
He shook his head yes, so I went and turned on the TV, fired up the DVD player, to which he ran over and wanted to help me put the movie in and close the drawer, and soon, I had him busy with that movie playing, while I went upstairs and saw to helping my sisters get ready to head to the party. Madeline wore her blue sparkly dress she had brought with her, the one she attempted to play beauty parlor the other day with Tommy in, and Sabrina wore one identical to Madeline's, only her's was pink instead of blue.
"Wow! You girls look great!" I said, admiring them standing next to one another in the bedroom where they were sleeping at night.
"Are you sure you're okay with missing the party Nell?" Madeline asked.
"I'm fine, I wouldn't be caught dead at that party. Besides, I think Tommy trusts you more than Bobby would trust me to go to a party alone. Though it partially has to do with the fact that he's sick, and probably knows most of who's going to Peter's party, while Bobby wouldn't know anybody going, not being able to trust me to behave." I said.
"Well, okay then." Sabrina said, as she and Madeline both gave me a hug, just as Peter walked up with Dil, now wearing a yellow shirt and red suspenders.
"Are we ready to go ladies?" Peter asked.
"Yes." Sabrina and Madeline said in unison, just as I knelt down and whispered something very important to Sabrina.
"You don't have to worry Sabrina. I'm gonna take good care of Tommy, and I promise, I won't make a move on him or anything. We're just friends. Besides, Bobby wouldn't like it if I cheated on him, and Tommy, as cute as he can be, he's much too young for me." I whispered to her.
She giggled and smiled, running off to grab her sister's hand, as Peter led all of us downstairs, and I saw them all out the door. Once they were in Peter's limo, headed off to his castle to celebrate Valentine's Day, my evening with Tommy, began. First thing first, fix Madeline's valentine from Reggie. She might not see it until tomorrow, but at least when I had Tommy apologize to her, she'd be hopefully, more likely to forgive him if he had a fixed valentine to give to her. I went into the kitchen and got together all of the pieces, then rummaged around through various drawers in the kitchen and in this chest in the living room, until I found some glue, then brought everything over to the coffee table, where while we watched the rest of the Captain Blasto Lego Movie, we sat down and got to work.
"Okay Tommy, now let's put some glue here." I said, instructing him to put glue in just the right spots to glue the glittered heart back together.
"Remember, the glitter side needs to be facing up." I said, as he did what I instructed, much to the child's dismay.
"I understand you are confused, but there is more than one person named Reggie in this world, and you really hurt Madeline's feelings by ripping this up." I said, as we glued on the last piece.
"Now we'll put this up to dry." I said, putting the valentine on the top shelf of the bookshelf of DVD's, far out of anybody's reach for the time being.
"That was very good of you to help me fix Madeline's Valentine that you ruined. I also gotta give you credit. You're quite brave to trust my other sister Sabrina to go off to that party without you tonight. I don't think Bobby would have ever trusted me, of course, back when I was my sisters' age, I didn't quite understand romance, just, bullying." I said, returning to the couch with Tommy, as we saw the tail end of the movie, and listened to the music over the closing credits.
After the movie was done, we went into the kitchen where we played with Clay-doh for a little while at the kitchen table, until it was getting close to time for dinner. I made a few hearts out of red clay-doh, while Tommy made Reptar out of some green clay-doh, and using these letter cookie cutters, we spelled out our names in clay-doh, I helped him spell Tommy, and I had him help me find the letters for my name, well, the nickname of Nell, since that's what he, Dil, and my little sisters, Sabrina and Madeline call me at least. I knew having him help me spell out Helen might be too confusing, so decided against that plan for the time being.
Once we finished playing with clay-doh, I saw to getting him ready for dinner. Little did I know that when it came to what would soon be my evening with this three-year-old gentleman, only one thing was needed, to make it a perfect night for this little guy. And that thing was, Reptar.
"Okay Tommy, it's just you and me, so, what will it be tonight? Broccoli and chetter soup? Or would you like to try the other soup I picked up today, that being, bake potato soup?" I asked.
I then saw Tommy pointing to the shelf with the cereal on it in the pantry.
"Cereal for dinner? Well, that's not what I'd pick, but since it is Valentine's Day, I guess, I can make an acception." I said, going to the shelf and picking up a box of cereal called Corigated Bread Puffs.
I showed the box to Tommy, to which he rolled his eyes and stuck out his tongue, like he thought I was going to poison him. I'm actually surprised I hadn't already seen that look on his face earlier in the day when giving him his medicine, but I'm sure when your nose is stopped up, your throat hurts, and you feel miserable, you want to take the medicine, in hopes that it helps you to feel better. This, however, was not what he wanted, so I put that back and pulled out the box next to it, a blue box with a green dinosaur on the front, and in big yellow letters at the top, read, Reptar. I showed him the box, and his face broke out into a huge smile, like it was Christmas morning. I didn't have to say anything. While I quickly glanced at the ingredients on the back of the box, I could care less at that moment that he wanted cereal for dinner with no nutricional value in it what so ever. It was Valentine's Day, he didn't feel good, and he had to miss the party. I had to do something to make this day worth while, so, I gave in, going against my own intuition, letting him have Reptar cereal for dinner. I even decided to have a bowl myself.
"Tommy, do you like milk in your cereal?" I asked.
He shook his head yes, so I got the milk out of the fridge, poured some cereal into a bowl, and then, poured in the milk, only to notice something very odd.
"Eeewww! This milk is turning green! I don't know if we should drink this milk Tommy." I said, staring into the bottle to see that the milk inside the bottle, was still the correct color of white.
Tommy just sat at the table and smiled. Either little boys have no problem with drinking stuff that's not the correct color, or he knew something I didn't. Though as far as I knew, it could be both, seeing at one time when we were kids, Bobby brought gummy worms to school, and any he hadn't put down my pants, he ate like they were the best thing since sliced bread, and I, being a girl, couldn't see what was so delicious about such a treat. No matter, just to be safe, I took another look at the box of cereal. Beneath the name of the cereal, I saw the following caption.
"They're round, they're mean, they turn milk green." Read the slogan.
"Okay, well, if they're suppose to turn milk green, then, I guess we can eat this, and I'll give it a try too." I said, pouring myself a bowl, getting us some apple juice, and the two of us, sat down at the table and silently enjoyed our dinner of juice and Reptar cereal together.
To my surprise, the cereal was good, and despite the milk turning green, as I, too, prefer milk with my cereal, it didn't taste any different, only the color changed from the food coloring in the cereal I'm assuming. After dinner, we had just enough time to watch one movie together, so I decided with it being Valentine's Day, I'd let us watch another movie together. Sure enough, Tommy came over to the couch, carrying not one, not two, but three DVD's with Reptar's picture on the front of them.
"I said we had time for one Reptar movie." I said loudly, hoping he'd get the hint.
However, he tossed the DVD's down in my lap, looking from each DVD, unsure of which one to pick.
"Oh, you can't decide which one to watch. You want me to pick one then, huh?" I asked.
"Yes." He whispered quietly, so I picked up the three DVD's he brought over to me, and looked through them, trying to decide which one we should watch.
The first DVD I picked up, had Reptar with some teredactal destroying a city on the front of the cover, and the title, Runaway Reptar at the top. Reading the blerb on the back, claiming that Reptar was helping Dactar destroy the city as reported by some reporter and her dog, it was up to the professor and his crew, to figure out what was wrong with Reptar. However, I then glanced at the length of the movie, one hour and fifty-eight minutes. Noticing it was long, I tossed it aside and picked up the second DVD he handed me. The title said Reptar vs. The Aliens, and according to the back of the box, this movie claimed to be about some aliens coming to take over the world, trapping Reptar in a secret cave. Would he be able to escape and defeat the aliens, saving the earth in time? While the movie was much shorter than Runaway Reptar, being eighty minutes in length, I wasn't sure if I was up for such a movie, seeing we had just recently watched an action movie earlier, that being the Captain Blasto Lego Movie. If anything, I was more in the mood, for a musical.
Luckily, my plee was answered, when I picked up the third DVD he handed me, after tossing Reptar vs. The Aliens aside. This one was called, Reptar on Ice, and according to the box, which, I swear I recognized the lady in the picture with Reptar, in particular, her green hair, I saw this performance was Live at Rockafella Center in New York City, and it featured Sherry Berry playing the understudy role of the girl reporter in this fun-filled ice show musical, complete with action, romance, and big musical fun. Reading the name, Sherry Berry however, and seeing her picture on the box as the girl reporter, made tears well up in the corners of my eyes. I knew something seemed familiar about her voice when I put on that CD for the boys to fall asleep to the other night, and then, at that moment, it hit me why.
When I was little, before either of my sisters were born and my parents were still alive, they use to take me to Sherry Berry concerts. It was a fond memory I had of her, and sadly, we were going to take Madeline and Sabrina to see her in concert, only they then got sick and died, ruining that plan, and because I wasn't the richest girl on the planet, and then, we dealt with Jimmy and all of that other stuff, now finally ending up in King Roland and Queen Miranda's care, Sherry Berry has more or less, become nothing more than a distant memory from my ancient past, that is, until tonight, when Tommy was about to help me rediscover her beautiful music. Of course, I was taken by surprise that Tommy didn't laugh at me. Though I shouldn't be too surprised, seeing that laughing at the joke on his popcickle stick earlier that day was only painful, on top of being in so much pain because he was sick, but then, he took me by surprise by the next thing he did. As I sat there, crying, trying to remain quiet, it's obvious he saw my tears, as next thing I knew, I felt two little arms wrapping around my torso, and giving me a hug.
"Thanks Tommy. It's okay. I just, miss my mommy and daddy that's all. Though I'm sure you miss your mommy and daddy too, with them being out of town. At least yours are coming back. Mine, well, I'd rather, not talk about it." I said, sobbing into the young child's shoulder, as we both quietly cried for a few minutes, as even he, too, started crying when I mentioned how he must be missing his parents as well.
Then, after we calmed down and regained our composure, he picked up the other two movies that I had tossed aside, trying to get me to pick one of them.
"Tommy, it's okay, I'd kind of like to see Reptar on Ice if you don't mind." I said, picking up the Reptar on Ice DVD.
He stared at me, looking confused, like, was I sure about this.
"Yes, I am sure. I'll be fine, don't you worry." I said.
And with those final words, he ran over to the DVD player, and pressed the button to open the drawer, and I went and put on the disc, though while the disc loaded up and I got the TV turned on, I also ran into the kitchen and got us some Reptar bars to eat for dessert, and Tommy's evening dose of medicine, vitamins and florride, bringing everything back into the living room, where we started the movie. We had our dessert, I went and fixed his hot milk at a point, and all-in-all, the Reptar on Ice musical, was quite delightful! I loved the songs, and Sherry Berry was just as good as I remember her being from my childhood! Her voice hadn't changed a bit, and for an understudy, she did a beautiful job portraying the role of the girl reporter in the show.
After the movie ended, before I could turn off the TV post turning off the DVD player and putting the three Reptar movies back on to the shelf, Tommy hid the remote on the couch, like he didn't want me to turn it off.
"It's bedtime Tommy, time for the TV to go to sleep." I said.
But then, a man with a british accent came on the TV, catching me off guard.
"Welcome back to Nigel Thornberry's Animal World. We are now in China, where we will be looking at the cute, cuddly, panda bear." The man on TV said.
I turned to see a man with red hair and a red mustash, surrounded by fields of bamboo before me on the television screen.
"Nigel Strawberry!" Tommy cried in a tiny squeaky voice behind me.
I turned around, looking a bit confused.
"Wait a minute Tommy, did you just call the man on TV Nigel Strawberry?" I asked.
"Uh huh." Tommy replied.
"I think his name is Nigel Thornberry." I said, only to start chuckling, realizing that maybe Thornberry was too difficult for him to say, so he called him strawberry instead.
Tommy quickly got engaged in the show, so I decided I'd let him watch the rest of this, and then, it was time for bed. After all, Peter and crew weren't back from his castle yet, so as long as I had Tommy in bed before they returned, I wasn't too worried. However, I had had enough TV, plus, I wasn't up for watching a nature show, so decided to go get the dishes done in the kitchen while he watched the movie, so as soon as Peter, Dil, and my sisters returned, we could more or less, head off to bed. While I was cleaning up though, the phone rang. I picked it up, finding it was Mrs. Pickles, wanting to tell Tommy goodnight, because she contacted Peter, and he told her that Tommy was with me, to call the house.
"Yes, Tommy's with me, and he hasn't gone to bed quite yet, but he will be soon as soon as Nigel Thornberry is over." I said into the phone.
"So how is he doing?" Mrs. Pickles asked me.
I filled her in on what all went on that day, including the trip to the doctor's, letting her know he did have an ear infection and that he was on an antibiotic four times a day for the next ten days, so it's likely he'd still be on it when she returned. I also let her know that his throat was also hurting, so they took a strep test, and they'd be calling us with the results within the next day or two when they came back from the lab, since, it was going around.
She then went on to tell me that her meetings were going well, but that poor Stu had seen better days, when he ran into somebody at his convention, who had more or less, ripped him off, leaving him feeling very upset. Mrs. Pickles told me she had to leave her meeting early that day to go tend to her husband, to which I simply responded, I hope he can work things out with this guy, and that everything was going to be okay.
"So is Tommy still awake? Can I tell him goodnight?" Mrs. Pickles asked into the phone.
"Let me go check, hold the phone." I said, setting the phone down on the counter, and heading back into the living room, to see that Nigel was no longer on the TV, rather, it was the news, and Tommy, was nowhere in sight.
"Tommy! Your mommy's on the phone and wants to say hello! Tommy? Where are you?" I called, turning off the TV at this point since nobody was watching it, but I got no response.
I frantically looked all over the living room, even under the couch and easy chairs, but he was nowhere to be found. Starting to grow worried, but not wishing to make his mother stall for too much longer, I ran into the kitchen, picked up the phone, and told her I'd call her back. Though I probably couldn't call her back right away, seeing I couldn't remember her number for beans, so would need Peter's help, but right then, I was more worried about finding Tommy than anything.
I searched the entire house, calling his name, hoping he'd answer me back. Then, no sooner was I to the top of the stairs, when I heard a loud crash from the direction of his and Dil's room. I went into the bedroom, to see every trace of Reptar in the room, had been hidden in the closet, and I only knew this because the tail of one of his Reptar toys was sticking out the closet door when he tried to close it, and the crash I heard, was his Reptar nightlight falling to the floor from his dresser, splintering into several pieces of glass. I saw Tommy, standing near the dresser, a sad expression on his face, just inches from the chards of glass on the carpet.
"Tommy, what's wrong?" I asked.
He didn't answer me, just, tried to walk forward, but I stopped him, not wishing for him to step on any of the glass.
"Tommy, stay still and let me get this glass cleaned up." I said, but he knelt down and tried to help me clean it up, to which I snatched it out of his hands.
"You're going to cut yourself, just, don't, touch." I yelled, scooting him into a corner, while I ran and found the vacuum cleaner, and saw to cleaning up the mess in his room.
"Well, bye bye Reptar nightlight." I said, upon turning off the vacuum, getting rid of what remained of the nightlight, which was the cord plugged into the wall and the base of the unit which once contained a lightbulb, which also broke upon it falling to the floor.
Tommy however didn't seem to care, as he slowly came out of his hiding place, went over to his bed, where he now had a plain blue blanket on the bed instead of the Reptar quilt that use to be there, and he crawled into bed, buried his face in his pillow, and started crying.
"Tommy, what is it?" I asked, going over and laying a gentle hand on his back, wanting to cheer him up, but he wasn't having it, as he completely ignored me at this point.
Not wanting Peter to enter a completely dark room trying to put a sleeping Dil to bed when they returned, I went in search for another nightlight. Luckily, I found one of those wall outlet ones in the upstairs lennon closet on one of the higher shelves. It was a duck, but I didn't care, and I didn't think either Tommy nor Dil would care at this point either. I found an empty outlet on a wall near the door, took off the child safety cover, plugged it in, turned it on, turned off the top light, and headed back downstairs, leaving poor Tommy to cry himself to sleep.
"I wish I could have helped him, or knew what was wrong." I thought to myself, slumping down in one of the purplish pink easy chairs in the living room, waiting for everybody to return, but it was no use.
Tommy was upset about something, he was ready to go to bed, and with the long, lousy day he had, maybe it was just, his way of finally putting an end to the day. I'd worry if things were still a course of concern come tomorrow morning, because no sooner had I been sitting in the chair for roughly twenty minutes, when I heard a key turn in the front door, and Peter, carrying a sleeping Dil in one arm, and escorting my two younger sisters, both of which, looked pretty tired at this point, came inside.
Peter headed upstairs with Dil, and before I could say anything, a sobbing Sabrina ran into my arms.
"What's wrong?" I asked.
"I had made a beautiful Valentine for Tommy, but then Angelica came along, and ruined it, claiming sick people can't celebrate Valentine's Day." Sabrina explained through her sobs.
"The nerve of that little girl!" I screamed loudly, hoping I didn't awaken Tommy or Dil.
Luckily, Peter came back downstairs at that point, overhearing my loud comment.
"I know, I'm not too happy with Angelica either. That's why I agreed to have her come here after school tomorrow, to help Sabrina make a new valentine, as punishment for her careless and wreckless behavior." Peter said, taking a seat on the couch.
"Well, maybe I can have Tommy make a valentine for Sabrina tomorrow, assuming he's feeling better, for him to give to Sabrina after school. However, right now, it's time for everyone, to be getting to bed. It's late!" I said, glancing up at a clock on the wall, noticing it was way after eleven at night.
And so, Peter and I saw to getting Sabrina and Madeline ready for bed, since he tells me Dil had fallen asleep at the party, and while on the way back, he got him changed into some pajamas he had brought with him, putting him to bed upon getting back. He then asked me what was up with the ducky nightlight and where was the Reptar one, to which I explained how something must have gone on while I was on the phone with Mrs. Pickles, tempting Tommy to go hide all of his Reptar things in the closet, and from the look on his face, he was pretty upset, but I couldn't get him to talk to me, as he was obviously too tired at this point.
"He was asleep when I put Dil to bed." Peter said.
"I'm not surprised. Poor little guy isn't feeling good at all, though despite all of this, we did have a lovely evening together, and one word, says it all. Reptar." I said.
"Why am I not surprised?" Peter asked, helping me brush Madeline's teeth.
I simply chuckled at his comment, as I led her out of the bathroom, finished helping the girls put on their pajamas, and since Sabrina had her evening more or less, ruined by Angelica, I decided to cheer her up, by reading them their bedtime book, and reading them their Frozen book. After finishing the story, I got them tucked into bed, and I saw that Peter was also heading to bed before me tonight, which was a change from the norm, seeing he's usually the last one in bed it seems.
"Guess his party tired him out." I thought to myself, as I went downstairs and saw to turning out lights, only to notice that at a point during the day, Peter had brought the mail in.
Flipping through it right quick, putting aside stuff for the Pickles, I saw there was something addressed to me, Helen O'Mally. Curious, I tore open the envelope, to see it was a letter from Bobby Lee. This totally took me by surprise, because I never gave Bobby their address, but I'd worry about that later, as I read the lovely letter, which, I'll keep to myself, don't wish to put down what he had to say to me, seeing there are somethings, you keep secret from your parents.
I then realized I had never fed the dogs, and I didn't recall Peter doing it, at least, come dinner time. He's been fooling with them in the mornings, seeing he's the first one awake usually, so I went out back and took care of it right quick, giving Spike and Spiffy each a treat, and then, decided it was high time, to call it a night myself.
So I turned out the lights and headed up to bed, little did I know, I wouldn't be falling asleep for several hours.
End of Nell POV
And sure enough, no sooner had she gotten ready for bed, finished writing her journal entry for the day, and was about to turn off the lamp on the bed side table and close her eyes, when she heard the sounds, of crying, and non-stop coughing, coming from down the hall.
And this, ends chapter 4. What has Tommy so upset? And who's about to keep poor Nell up all night long? Find out, next time.
Author's Note: If you want to know what took place at the Valentine's Day party itself, I suggest you read chapter 42, of Ask the Dynamic Trio. Also, I own the OC of Sherry Berry, and I originally introduced that version of Reptar on Ice, in my story, Days in the Life of Dil Pickles. I was also inspired by the following episodes of Rugrats where this chapter was concerned. The Shot, Incident in Isle Seven, and New Kid in Town, in fact, that's where Josh, the kid Tommy ran into at the doctor's office, came from. Also, the firecracker popcickles further inspired the Reptar popcickles, as they, too, have jokes on the stick. Only difference is, I'm trying to make the jokes on the Reptar ones different from the ones on the firecracker ones, so as to not look like I'm copying them entirely. Oh yeah, I was also inspired by Runaway Reptar, and The Big Showdown, which I believe it was in this episode where Tommy is watching the tail end of Reptar vs. The Aliens at the start of the episode. And oh yeah, the part at the beginning of the chapter when Tommy awakens, crying in pain, is referencing something that took place with me, nearly twenty years ago, back in March of 1997, when I awoke one Friday morning, with an excruciating pain in my throat, that led me to cry as well. The same held true a week later the following Saturday, when I awoke to find my ear hurting, and turns out I had an ear infection, though at first, we thought I had Strep, but I never did, well, I decided to put this all into one swoop, and touch upon this unpleasant moment from my childhood. Though we'll also be touching upon it again, in a more positive sense in a couple of weeks, but that milestone, will be touched upon, in my second most popular ongoing story to date, that one being, Rugrat Bloopers. And oh yeah, one more thing. The movie, The Captain Blasto Lego Movie, was obviously a parody, of the recent movie that came out, The Batman Lego Movie. Funny that I did that, seeing that the person who voices Captain Blasto, is also the voice of Batman. Anyway, hopefully I covered everything I needed to reference in this chapter, and here's hoping, I'll be back soon, with more chapters in this story, as we're about halfway through this story, if you don't count the epilogue.