Author's Note: Reviews seem to be broken again, where I'm getting the email notifications, but they're not showing up on Fan Fiction's website. No worries, to Boris Yeltsin, DemonAloisTrancy, and Sofia2017Planning, all of which, left reviews on chapter 4, thank you so very much for your reviews, and I'll see to replying to them once Fan Fiction fixes this glitch, and they show up on the website. No matter, while I'm a bit annoyed by a few things, including taking a much longer nap this afternoon than I intended on doing, let's try to shake it off, and move on, to the next chapter of this story!
Chapter 5, Wednesday, Sleep Deprived
Nell POV
Dear Journal,
I'm sorry if this entry is much shorter than the rest of them have been so far, but as the subject states, I am, very much, sleep deprived. In fact, I more or less, spent most of Wednesday sleeping, after having to stay awake the entire night with Tommy, and for part of the time, Dil. I was already exhausted late Tuesday evening, after having a very long day with Tommy, and the scare he gave me very late that evening when he ran off to his room to hide all of his Reptar things and knocked his nightlight off of the dresser when I went looking for him to have him tell his parents goodnight over the phone, didn't help matters any. I can say one thing holds true for both, little boys and little girls of the young age of three. Sick or not, both genders, are indeed, a handful.
So anyway, as I was about to lie down and get me some sleep, I heard some crying and coughing down the hall. Curious and worried, I went to see what was the matter. I got there to find it was coming from the boys' room, and when I went inside, I saw Tommy sitting on the floor, hunched over, like he was about to throw up, coughing uncontrollably, and poor Dil, sitting on the edge of his toddler bed, balling his eyes out. While I wanted to give Dil a hug, I knew Tommy's situation was more serious, so I attended to him first. I also went and got him a bucket out of the bathroom and brought it back, in the event his massive coughing spell led him to throwing up, and sure enough, I got it there just in time, as that's what happened. I got him cleaned up and into a fresh pair of pajamas, since some of it did dribble down his chin and all over the front of the pajamas he was wearing, and then, poor Dil, who had come over, still crying a little bit, worried for his older brother, I gave him a hug and gently patted him on the back.
"It's okay Dil, your brother is going to be okay." I whispered, gently rocking back and force and trying to get him calmed down.
A few minutes later, while I managed to get Dil to go back to sleep, poor Tommy, was still wide awake. As much as it pains me to say this, while I so wanted to wake up Peter and head back to bed myself, I knew that wasn't an option, as looks like I had a long night ahead of me with the young three-year-old toddler. We headed downstairs so as to not keep anybody awake, though at a point, Sabrina awoke to use the bathroom, and she wanted to help take care of Tommy, to which I told her, she needed to go back to bed, because she had school the next morning. I thought she was going to argue with me, but no, rather, she went back up to bed and I didn't see her again for the rest of the night.
"So Tommy, since you can't sleep, wanna watch one of the Reptar movies we didn't get time to watch earlier?" I asked, pulling the DVD's of Runaway Reptar and Reptar vs. The Aliens off of the shelf and bringing them over to the couch.
"No!" Tommy squeaked in a tiny voice, tossing the DVD's back in my face.
I was a little bit annoyed at him for throwing them at me, but I went and put them back on the shelf, and looked for something else for us to watch. I found a DVD called Sherry Berry Sings a Song of Spring, which was a concert, that I put on for him, and he seemed to enjoy that. While the DVD played, he went over to the playpen area of the living room and put together a block tower.
"Ah, are we building a castle Tommy?" I asked, admiring the work he had done.
He shook his head no.
"A sky scraper?" I asked.
Again, he shook his head no.
"Well what is it then?" I asked.
He just stared at me, a bit confused. Perhaps even he wasn't sure what he was building, so I let the matter drop and sat down on the couch, watching the rest of the concert on DVD. A lot of the music sounded vaguely familiar, recall hearing it from my childhood, and later that night, I got Tommy to sip on some ginger ale, and we played a game of Connect Four, and a game of Hi-Ho Cherry-O, which, he won every time. Tommy was very good about playing by the rules, though I'd find out later on, that his cousin Angelica, isn't exactly like that.
Luckily, Tommy never threw up the ginger ale I gave to him, which meant his massive coughing fit was what probably led him to throwing up. Thank goodness, he already had a bad cold, soar throat, and ear infection, the poor thing didn't need a stomach bug on top of everything else. Not sure what time it was when we finally grew tired enough to go back to sleep, but I'm pretty sure I felt myself growing tired before he did, as I lay down on the couch, my head against a pillow at one end, about ready to slam my eyes shut.
Tommy climbed on top of me, resting his head on my chest, and the next thing I knew, I was out like a light. I'm not sure how long we slept, all I know is I vaguely heard the dogs barking from outside in the backyard at a point, my two younger sisters and Dil jabbering at one point, with Peter saying something or another, but by the time I finally became fully conscious again, sunlight was streaming in brightly through the living room windows, the smell of baritoes filled the room, and Peter was shaking me awake. I also noticed Tommy was no longer on top of me. Panicking, I sat upright, like something was seriously wrong.
"Tommy! Where's Tommy?" I asked in a panic.
"Relax, relax Helen, he's fine. I've got everything under control." Peter said, smiling down at me, as he stood before me, looking at my wrinkled up nightgown and my hair, which I'm sure was a mess.
"Okay, what time is it? What's going on?" I asked in between breaths.
"Calm down, it's ten o'clock in the morning, but you don't have to worry, I took care of everything. I got Sabrina and Madeline off to school, which Dil went with me, as when I came downstairs and found you and Tommy asleep on the couch, I didn't dare disturb your rest. In fact, made my specialty omlets for breakfast for me and the girls, got Spike and Spiffy fed, got everyone ready for school, and we headed on our way. Dil wanted hash browns though, so after I got the girls off to school, I had my limo driver swing by Boingo Burger, which now serves breakfast, and brought back hash browns, a chocolate-chip pancakes kids breakfast for Tommy, and a Boingo Burger's Breakfast Berito for you. Would you like it?" Peter asked me.
I rubbed the sleep out of my eyes, as my stomach growled.
"Yes." I said, following Peter into the kitchen, where I sat down at the table, and he served me the berito on a plate along with a cup of orange juice.
"So where are Tommy and Dil? And did you remember to give Tommy his morning dose of his antibiotic?" I asked, after taking a bite of my berito and having some juice to wash it down.
"Yes, Tommy had his morning meds an hour ago with his pancake after I returned home with Dil from dropping Sabrina and Madeline off at school and picking up your breakfast. He was awake and trying to find something to watch on TV. I tried to put on the Reptar show for him on Hulu, only sadly, today was the day it was removed. He didn't seem to mind much, though he got a little fussy when I almost poured his juice into his Reptar sippy cup, so quickly switched to something else, a plain blue one I think. No matter, he's eaten and so has Dil, and they're now upstairs playing in their room. I put on the story book of Pinoccio for them to listen to while they played." Peter explained to me, as he took a seat across from me at the table, while I saw to eating my breakfast.
"But, I thought we agreed that today I'd take my sisters to school." I said.
"Don't worry about it. Tell you what, you take them to school and pick them up on the final two days of your stay. Tomorrow is a regular school day, with one difference. Everybody is going to the preschool because it's a special day for the preschool and kindergarten classes to do a special project together, and Friday is a teacher in service day, which means Sabrina and Madeline will only have a half day of school." Peter reminded me.
I had already known about these things, but they had sort of slipped my mind, with everything that had been going on this week.
"Don't worry Peter, I remember." I said, taking the last bite of my berito.
"Now, sounds like you had quite a rough night, and you still look pretty tired." Peter said.
I went on to explain to him what all had happened, and that yes, I was still feeling quite tired. He suggested that I more or less, take the day off and go get some sleep.
"But Peter…" I said.
"No, you go on ahead. You earned it. Not only did you let me sleep last night when Tommy and Dil awoke you, making you stay up all night, but you did a huge favor for me last night, looking after Tommy while I saw to hosting my annual Valentine's Day party at my castle, something that would have had to have been canceled, had you not been around to help out." Peter said.
I took a sip of my juice and smiled.
"It's no problem Peter, I was happy to take care of Tommy. Our evening went just fine until the Reptar shipwreck and tears that spilled at the end of the day." I said.
"Yeah I've noticed Tommy's been off a bit today too." Peter said.
"Has he done anything like this before? I mean, I know I haven't known him as long as you have, so was just wondering." I asked.
"Well, around the time his grandfather moved out, the second time, as he's moved out twice in the time I've known the Pickles, this was the second time before we went to Paris and he met Lulu, or shall I say, reunited with her after many years apart, as I found out later they originally met one another when Lou was fighting in the war, Tommy buried all of his Reptar things in the sandbox out back, thinking his grandpa moved away because of Reptar, but nothing like what I've been witnessing this morning." Peter said.
"Yeah, it's like, any time we mention Reptar or try to present something Reptar related to him, he cries or gets angry." I said, letting out a huge yawn.
"Tell you what, you go get some sleep, and I'll hold down the fort, and see if I can't figure out what's got Tommy so upset. I've known him since he was a tiny baby, well okay, so he was a-year-old, but I've known him since before his little brother was born, surely I can perhaps, get him to talk to me, or possibly find some clues that might lead to what's going on." Peter said.
I stood up from my place at the table, finished with my breakfast, when a realization hit me, that I decided to fill Peter in on right fast.
"When I went back into the living room to get Tommy to come tell his parents goodnight, the Nigel Thornberry show he had been watching on TV had ended, and the news was on." I stated, about to head out of the kitchen, upstairs to Mr. and Mrs. Pickles bedroom to get some more sleep.
"That's probably it!" Peter said.
I turned in the doorway from the kitchen out to the hall near the stairs and agknowledged him.
"What's it?" I asked.
"Do you think, something came up on the news about Reptar that got him upset?" Peter asked.
"It's quite possible." I replied.
"You go take a nap, I'm about to start getting lunch ready for the boys and check on them, and in the meantime, I'll look online and on the TV and see if I can't track down anything about Reptar that might have come up recently in the news that has Tommy so upset." Peter said.
"Thank you Peter." I said, turning to leave the kitchen, when he called one final thing after me.
"Remember, Angelica is coming home with Sabrina and Madeline today. Just for the afternoon though, and possibly supper, if her parents have to stay late at work for meetings or anything like that. Trust me, it's been known to happen before, and at the last minute too." Peter said.
I let out a reluctant sigh as I trudged up the stairs towards the bedroom to have me a second nap.
"I only hoped I didn't awaken to an Angelica disaster later on." I thought to myself, as I climbed into bed, pulled the covers up over my head, and more or less, immediately, drifted back off to sleep.
Several hours must have passed, as by the time I awoke, I could hear the annoying sound of Angelica's voice downstairs. I put on my robe and slippers, went downstairs, and headed into the kitchen where Tommy, Dil, Madeline, Sabrina and Angelica along with Peter were sitting around the kitchen table, with the Hi-Ho Cherry-O board game out on the table. Sabrina and Angelica were playing the game together, and while it was obvious my sister was following the rules, Angelica, was not. She was doing everything just the opposite of the spinner in the middle. When you were suppose to take one, two, three, or four cherries off of your tree and place them into your bucket, she'd put them all back. When she landed on the dog or the bird, instead of putting two cherries back on her tree, she pick two cherries from her tree. And her biggest move of cheating, was when she'd land on the bucket of spilled cherries, she'd take them all off of her tree and put them into her bucket, proclaiming herself the winner, when in actuality, you're suppose to put all of your cherries that are already in your bucket, back on to the tree.
"I win Sabrina!" Angelica cackled evily, landing on the bucket of spilled cherries again, as she placed every last cherry on her tree into her bucket.
"You didn't win, you cheated." Sabrina snapped.
Angelica growled.
"Sabrina's right Angelica, you did cheat. When you land on the bucket, all of your cherries are suppose to go back on to the tree. And Tommy, stop chewing on your hand." Peter said.
I glanced over at where Tommy was sitting, to see that he did indeed, have his left hand in his mouth and was chewing on it.
"Wow! He hasn't done this before." I thought to myself, as he removed his hand, where I saw several teeth marks on the skin.
I turned to Peter, who I could tell looked worried.
"I'm guessing you've never seen Tommy exhibit this type of behavior before." I said.
"No." Peter replied.
We watched the girls play one more game of Hi-Ho Cherry-O, but when Angelica failed to play by the rules one last time, Sabrina and Madeline proclaimed they had had enough, and we put the game away. After that, all of the kids went off to play and watch TV in the living room, while Peter and I saw to getting dinner ready, which we decided to make simple, heating up cans of soup.
"So, did you have a nice long nap?" Peter asked.
"Yes I did. How did things go here this afternoon?" I asked.
"Well still haven't quite figured out the mystery behind this Reptar boycott with Tommy, but everybody had lunch, he's had his lunchtime and afternoon doses of his antibiotic, and I did get him and Dil to take a nap this afternoon. I put Tommy up in his room when Dil and I left to pick up your sisters and Angelica, and as soon as we returned after everybody had a snack of some chocolate-chip cookies I baked while the kids were napping, I had Angelica and Sabrina remake Tommy's Valentine, which, Sabrina gave to him shortly before you came downstairs and they started playing Hi-Ho Cherry-O." Peter explained, opening a can of the broccoli chetter soup I had picked up at the store the previous day.
"I see. Did he like it?" I asked.
"Yes. It was pink with glitter all over it, so don't know if it's what Tommy would have picked, but I managed to talk Sabrina out of drawing a picture of Reptar on the card. She asked why, to which I told her, we'd talk about it later, to focus on making the card something original, and Angelica helped her put on the glitter." Peter said.
"Good, so, do you think Angelica's been punished enough?" I asked.
"I think so, and her father texted me, asking if we could feed her dinner before they pick her up at six-thirty, to which I said yes, so make sure to dish up a bowl of soup for Angelica as well as the other four kids Helen." Peter instructed.
"Yes sir." I said, attending to heating up the cans of soup on the stove, and seeing to dishing up bowls once they were ready.
We decided to let the kids watch some TV in the living room while they ate, making sure we watched that they were careful. Sabrina wanted to watch the Reptar on Ice DVD, to which Peter and I shook our heads, but maybe if Tommy had food in front of him, he'd be less likely to get mad or upset. He ate his dinner, but as soon as he finished, he asked to go potty and never came back. I'd worry about him later, as at least he disappeared upstairs, so he didn't leave the house so that was something. I think the most interesting event of the evening, was when I served Angelica her bowl of broccoli chetter soup, I got this comment from her.
"Hey! What are you trying to do Nell, poison me?" Angelica asked, rolling her eyes at me.
"Well, no." I replied, when I felt a tap on my shoulder.
I turned to see that Peter had come up behind me, to which he had me head into the kitchen, and explained to me that Angelica doesn't like broccoli, so her idea of that soup, is broccoli chetter soup, hold the broccoli. I simply chuckled and then realizing he was serious, while Angelica had managed to slerp up all of her soup with a straw, that was meant for her drink, leaving behind the pieces of broccoli in the bowl, because she had nicely helped Sabrina make a new Valentine for Tommy, I gave her some of the bake potato soup that was for me and Peter, and told her that as long as she ate five bites of the soup, she could get dessert.
She fussed a little, and nearly knocked the bowl of soup out of my hand, but I told her if she stopped kicking, she'd get three cookies for dessert if she ate her five bites. I'm not normally one for bribing, but sometimes, it has to be done. We got through dinner more or less, by the time the ice show ended on DVD and I gave Angelica her cookies to take with her, since no sooner had she finished, when her father had arrived to pick her up. I was the one to answer the door when the doorbell rang.
"Well hello Helen, I wasn't expecting to see you here this week." Drew said.
"Peter didn't tell you? I've been here all week. That's why he was able to host his Valentine's Day party last night, while Tommy was cared for, seeing that Mr. and Mrs. Pickles are out of town. Oh, wait, you're also a Mr. Pickles, sorry about that. I mean, Stu and Didi." I said, stepping aside to let Drew walk into the house.
"Oh, I knew, guess I've just, had a long day at work." Drew said, heading into the living room, where he saw to collecting his daughter.
"Time to go Princess." I heard him say, as Angelica got up and headed back towards the entry hallway with her father.
I then handed the ziplock bag of cookies to her father and saw them out the door. Then, we had the task of getting Tommy to come downstairs and take his evening meds and have some dessert. I was about to go see to this task, when Peter had already done it, as he was coming down the stairs with Tommy and took him into the kitchen, where he saw to getting Tommy his antibiotic, along with Vitamins and Florride for him and Dil. I just stood back, letting out a little sigh, feeling like I didn't need to be needed, when Madeline and Sabrina startled me from behind.
"Read us a story! Read us a story!" Madeline and Sabrina pleaded, grabbing at my ankles, nearly dragging me down to the floor.
"Girls, what's the magic word?" I asked.
"Please?" Sabrina asked.
"Pretty please?" Madeline chimed in after her.
"Okay girls, let's get you two ready for bed, and then, we'll read a story." I said, making sure Peter was okay with getting Tommy and Dil to bed tonight.
He was fine with that, so I saw to getting them ready for bed, as well as giving Sabrina a regular bath, and Madeline another sponge bath, while washing her hair in the sink. I then introduced them to the book of Mulan, and after that was done, I tucked them in, and they drifted off to sleep.
I saw it was only shortly after eight in the evening, but I'm guessing I, too, even after having a long nap that afternoon, I was still feeling sleep deprived, so I peered into the bathroom where Peter was giving Tommy and Dil their bath, letting him know I was heading off to bed early. Everybody told me goodnight, well, Peter told me goodnight anyway. I believe Tommy and Dil were too busy playing in the tub to notice me, but at that moment, I didn't care. I headed off to my bedroom for the week, pulled back the covers, lay down, and saw to heading off to sleep.
I still didn't know what had Tommy so upset, and I may have done much less today than I had done the day before, but I must thank Peter for giving me this much needed break, after having a very long day before, while he saw to hosting his party. I guess, we have thanked one another, and paid one another back for helping one another out. Anyway, that's going to be it for today, but knowing how much mischief my sisters, Tommy and Dil can cause, while we only have three days left to our week together, I'm sure there'll be plenty for me to see to in the days ahead.
End of Nell POV
And with those final words, she closed her notebook, stashed it away in her bag, turned off the lamp on the bed side table, and drifted off to sleep.
And this, ends chapter 5. Will we ever learn what had Tommy so upset where Reptar is concerned? Hopefully, we'll find out the next day, AKA, the next chapter of this story.
Author's Note: I made a small reference to Acorn Nuts and Diapied Butts, Part 2, and the game, Hi-Ho Cherry-O, was my very first board game I played when I was three-years-old, and today, I'm now fondly introducing to my nephew when we spend time together. Like Angelica, he tries to make up his own rules of the game, but not nearly as drastically as she did in the chapter. Anyway, I hope everybody enjoyed it, and I hope to be back with more chapters, sometime soon.