Author's Note: And now for my entry for March 10, 2017. Yes, despite it being a quarter after nine at night, I'm going to try really hard, to plunk out the next chapter of my current newest ongoing project before midnight hits for me in my timezone. Before we begin though, one of the ideas for one of the subplots in this chapter was inspired by DemonAloisTrancy, also, DemonAloisTrancy owns the OC's of Savanna and Samaya Green and their parents, Ebany and Allan, and I can't remember if she's created OC's to represent any of their distant relatives, as their maternal grandmother is going to show up in this chapter towards the end, so while I came up with the idea for her to show up, not sure who to give credit to in terms of this particular OC, if it's figured out by the time chapter 8 becomes available, I'll let you guys know at that time who owns her. Anyway, with that out of the way, on with the next chapter of this story!
Chapter 7, Friday, A Day of Injuries
Nell POV
Dear Journal,
I can't believe I'm still coherent enough to plunk out an entry at the ungodly hour of three in the morning on a Saturday, but I was finally able to get Sabrina to go to sleep once she saw that Peter had returned with Tommy from the hospital, and she saw he was okay. Alright, so let me back up a bit to yesterday because this opening statement to anybody reading over my journal for the week is only going to confuse the reader. The day started off, beautiful and sunny, as we all got up, had a lovely breakfast prepared by Peter of some French toast and woffles, and I saw to getting my sisters ready for what would be a half day of school, because of teacher in services in the afternoon. As for Tommy and Dil, well, Dil was only two, so he hadn't started going to school yet, and to everyone's surprise, Tommy was able to speak higher than a whisper, but he still sounded very croaky, and while his fever had come down a great deal from the day before, it was still 99 something, and Peter explained to me that when he went over to preschool the day before to return Chuckie's backpack, because they've known him quite well, they felt better telling him of this, apparently with all of the Flu bugs going around, and things spreading faster in preschools with this particular age group not always being as conscious about hand washing, etc. they ask that if a child has been sick, that he or she be fever free for four days before returning to school.
"And how do they know you so well?" I asked.
"Last year when Tommy's cousin Angelica and her friend Susie Carmichael were in Miss Weamer's class, I use to go volunteer at the school on special helper day, and I continue to do that now that Tommy is in her class. Though a lot of times, I did it for Angelica because very often, her parents were too busy with work to take off on their day of being extra helper." Peter explained.
"Ah, I see. So, I'll see to getting my sisters off to school and going to pick them up come lunch time while you stay here with Tommy and Dil?" I asked.
"Yep that is the plan." Peter said, taking another bite of the woffle on his plate.
And so, that's how it went. I got my sisters off to school and seeing there were only a couple of hours before I had to go pick them back up, and I still had plenty of money leftover because of not using as many cabs as I'd normally use in a week's time, due to Peter helping out with transportation on some of the days, and borrowing his limo the previous day, I took the time to spend sometime out of the house, to go run some errands. Peter did provide me with another grocery list that he had written up, along with a list that Mr. and Mrs. Pickles had texted to him of things they wanted to have restocked when they returned from their trip, which I couldn't believe that they'd be returning tomorrow evening.
So I went to the supermarket, picked up everything on both lists, ran it home to the Pickles, where I asked Peter to put the groceries away, since I needed to more or less, turn around and go pick up my sisters from school, since it was a half day. Upon picking them up, they were really excited because their teachers had announced that a week from today, that being, next Friday, would be Pajama Day at school, where they'd get to wear their pajamas to school and play some really fun games. They were even going to get to watch a movie, which would be voted on by the entire class. Sabrina was hoping her class would vote for Frozen, while Madeline was hoping her class would vote for Beauty and the Beast or The Little Mermaid.
"Oh I'm sure whatever movie gets voted on you girls will enjoy." I said.
We finally made it back to the Pickles house for good, where we all sat down and had lunch together, consisting of Finding Dory macaroni and cheese, fruit salad, and beverages of everybody's choice. Tommy wanted to go outside and play after lunch, to which Peter and I had to sadly remind him that he still had a fever, and didn't go to school, so therefore, playing outside was out.
"But that's not fair!" Tommy screamed, banging his fist on the table in anger, nearly sloshing his apple juice.
"Now come on Tommy, time for your next dose of medicine." Peter said, getting his lunch time dose of his antibiotic ready.
"I don't wanna take this yucky medicine no more. I can talk again and my throat and ears aren't hurting as much anymore." Tommy protested.
"And it's because you've been taking your medicine that you're better, but you're not fully there yet. You still have another week to go of the medicine before it's all gone." Peter said.
I could tell that poor Tommy wasn't pleased by any means to hear this news, and it made me think of the times when I've gone through this with Sabrina and Madeline over the course of taking an antibiotic. They think the minute they're feeling better, they don't need to take the medicine anymore, not understanding that they have to take it for a certain number of days, and being completely better means no fever at all, not just, less of the other physical symptoms of the illness. No matter, because I could tell that Sabrina and Madeline were still pretty hyped up with energy, I sent them and Dil outside to play, while Peter got Tommy to take his meds, and put on a Dummi Bears video for him in the living room, while we saw to cleaning up from lunch.
Who knew that are master of sneakiness would pull something again today while we weren't looking. We heard some noise in the living room, but didn't think much of it, as we cleaned up from lunch and Peter and I decided to sit down at the kitchen table and work on a crossword puzzle together, to see how many of the words we could unscramble without calling the crossword puzzle helpline, as while two dollars a minute was nothing to us folks of royalty, Peter didn't wish to use up minutes on his iPhone, and I knew if we called that line from the Pickles land phone, those two dollars a minute would be billed to them on their next phone bill, which might not make them very happy to see that on the next bill when it came, especially when they figured out we were the ones to charge their phone bill, and so far, other than buying groceries and having to take Tommy to the doctor's, which thanks to Insurance, we wouldn't have to worry about that medical bill, we didn't have to worry about utilities anyway. And Peter had already made arrangements to pay for that fridge repair from earlier in the week, so there was nothing to worry about there. However, while we were engrossed in our crossword puzzle activity, we heard the wind pick up outside, it started raining, and I heard Dil and Madeline come running into the kitchen from the backyard in a panic.
"Nell! Peter! Come quick! Tommy and Sabrina are losted!" Madeline cried, tugging at the sleeve of my dress.
I glanced up from my crossword puzzle in shock, but also very worried.
"What happened?" I asked.
"Tommy snuck outside to play in the sandbox from the living room, and brought out his favorite glider plane for us to play with." Dil started telling me and Peter.
"And then, Sabrina got all mad at me cuz I accidentally threw it over the fence into the next yard. That's when it got really windy and started to rain, getting me all wet. Feeling ascared, me and Dil ran inside, but Sabrina and Tommy went off into the yard behind the house to get the plane back." Madeline continued to explain.
At that moment, Peter and I looked towards the window to see that not only was it rainy and windy out, but it was foggy too, making it nearly impossible to see anything.
"Oh my gosh! And now, it's foggy too! I bet Sabrina and Tommy are not only lost, but they can't see to find their way home! I just hope they're not hurt or anything." I said in a panic, about ready to have a nervous breakdown.
"Let me just call my limo driver to bring me something." Peter said, getting his iPhone out of his gray Confederacy uniform and making a call.
Once the person on the opposite end of the phone picked up, he had this to say.
"Yeah, Arnie, could you please bring me my Reptar costume in the royal costume supply closet?" Peter said into the phone.
"My little sister and Tommy are in trouble, and you want to dress up as that dinosaur on TV? It's not even Halloween!" I shreaked loudly, forgetting Peter was on the phone.
"Quiet!" Peter snapped at me, before returning to his phone call to work out some final details with his driver to bring him what he needed.
I just let out a sigh, as I went and found me an umbrella, just in case I was needed for anything. At least by this time, everybody had more or less, forgotten about yesterday's spanking incident with Sabrina, so as long as Mr. and Mrs. Pickles didn't find out, we could more or less, put that behind us and move on, with the rest of our lives.
A short while later, Peter's limo driver showed up with his Reptar costume, and he went and got changed. He returned wearing the costume, along with a jetpack on his back and carrying his sword.
"I am Reptar, hear me roar!" Peter said in a deep gruff voice, trying to disguise himself.
"And thanks to Erebus, which Peter let me borrow, I'm ready to go." Peter in that gruff voice pretending to be Reptar continued.
"Thank you Reptar, please, bring back my little sister safely." I said, just as Peter dressed as Reptar escaped out the double glass doors in the kitchen on his rescue mission, and I saw to keeping Madeline and Dil entertained until he returned.
Luckily, while it was still raining, the fog had lifted so Peter, I mean, Reptar, could see where he was going. Madeline wanted to watch Frozen, so I put on the movie for her, much to Dil's dismay, who wanted the Curious George movie, Return to the Jungle, but regardless, the two kids fell asleep on the couch watching the movie, just as I heard some little feet run through the kitchen door into the house. Curious, I went to see who it was, and I was so relieved to see that my sister Sabrina was safely inside. However, she was soaking wet, had several cuts and bruises on her hands, arms and legs, and along with her soaking wet clothes, they fit very snug on her body, I could swear she was wearing the black shorts and red National Stadium t-shirt that Tommy was previously dressed in.
"What happened? Are you all right?" I asked, looking around to get some bandages and antibiotic cream to get her wounds patched up.
"I'm wet, and gots lots of booboos, but Tommy offered me his clothes. Madeline accidentally threw his plane into the next yard, and got really scared, running inside. I tried to stop Tommy from going to rescue the plane, as he wasn't spose to be outside, and he was starting to cough more and getting really cold, but he didn't care. He insisted on going, so I went with him. When we got into the nextest yard though, we couldn't see nothing, and my dress was soaking wet, so Tommy offered me his clothes to help me stay dry. I tried to talk him out of it, as he'd only get really wet and cold, but again, he insisted on keeping me as warm and dry as possible. I have the sweetest boyfriend ever." Sabrina explained, blushing at this point.
"So what happened next?" I asked, looking over her wounds as she continued to tell me the story.
"Not being able to see, we split up, trying to find our way back home, only I swear I heard Tommy fall somewhere, and he screamed ow, but I couldn't find him. Then Reptar came, the fog lifted, and I could see to get home. Reptar toldid me he'd see to rescuing Tommy and the airplane from this yard, which wasn't even a yard. It was a bunch of grass and wood and it looked like Tommy might have fallen into a whole, but it was hard to tell with what little I saw, as Reptar was somewhat blocking my view, as he escorted me back towards the gap in the fence that would lead me back into the backyard. I did just that, and here I am." Sabrina said.
"So how did you get a bunch of booboos then?" I asked.
"Trying to feel my way around when I couldn't see, and poking myself on several rocks and pieces of wood, as well as a couple of trees." Sabrina said.
"Well not to worry, let's first, get you out of those wet clothes and into some dry ones, and then, I'm going to see to patching up your wounds." I said, as we went upstairs and did just that, then went into the bathroom, where I saw to applying antibiotic cream and Reptar bandages, because that's all I could find on hand to her various cuts and bruises.
"Ow! That stings!" Sabrina cried.
"I'm sorry it hurts, but the stingy stuff will keep your cuts nice and clean." I said.
Luckily my sister calmed down a little, as I saw to patching up her wounds along with the Reptar bandages, only for her to start crying.
"No! Not Reptar! Tommy won't be able to stand to look at me if I'm covered in Reptar stickies." Sabrina cried.
"I hope that won't be the case sweetie, but we have to keep your cuts clean." I said, applying the last bandage to the last cut I could find on her leg.
"There, all patched up. Now, let's go see if your sister and Dil are awake from their nap yet. I should be mad at you for sneaking off, but you were only doing it to help Tommy get his toy back, so I can't be too upset with you. After all, you've hardly gotten to spend much time with Tommy this week with him being so sick and all, that I don't blame you for doing what you did." I said, leading my sister back downstairs, where from the sound of it, Peter was in the downstairs bathroom getting changed, and Tommy was in the living room on the couch.
I also found that Madeline and Dil were no longer asleep, playing on the floor, Madeline was coloring in a coloring book, while Dil was playing with some toy cars and trucks. Sabrina ran over to Tommy, who was wrapped in a towel and trying to get warm, just as Peter emerged from the bathroom along with his limo driver who was carrying a huge duffle bag, which I'm assuming had the Reptar costume in it. We then went into the living room, where we heard Tommy telling his story of his rescue to Sabrina.
"Reptar saved me! He had Peter's sword Erebus, which he used to cut the rope after he rescued me. Then, he tied me to the rope, where he had me reach out and grab my plane from where it fell." Tommy explained, holding up his toy plane, which was yellow with a blue stripe going down the middle, red wings, and it had a face on it, an eye on either side of the stripe.
"I'm glad I've gots my zippo glider plane back. That's the second time I've losted it." Tommy said.
"Where did you lose it the firstest time Tommy?" Dil asked.
"A long time ago, it went downstairs into daddy's workshop. Me and Chuckie had to rescue it, and it was the firstest time we climbed down stairs by ourselves." Tommy explained.
"So Reptar's not dead then?" Peter asked, upon entering the living room.
"Nope, and I'm glad about that." Tommy said with a smile.
"Good, cuz I had to get covered in Reptar stickies and was really worried you'd never wanna look at me again." Sabrina said.
"And now, to check you over Tommy." I said, just as Peter stepped in my way.
"I'll be checking over him, as while Reptar managed to find him a towel, that's all he did before he had to disappear to whatever next heroic duty he'd have to perform." Peter said, never once, revealing who was really Reptar in the first place.
I decided not to question him about the whole ordeal, as I knew why he did it. This was his way to get Tommy cheered up over thinking Reptar had died, and apparently, his plan worked.
"So Reptar's not dead?" Madeline asked, looking up from her coloring book.
"Nope, the TV was wrong." Tommy replied, just as Peter scooped him up in his arms and carried him upstairs to give him his patching up wounds treatment.
No sooner had they headed upstairs, when I heard the rain let up and the doorbell ring. I went to answer it to see three African American people who I didn't recognize.
"I am Helen O'Mally, may I help you?" I asked.
"Oh, hi there, yeah, Peter said you were helping him this week with watching Stu and Didi's boys. My name is Ebany Green, I live across the street, and these are my daughters, two-year-old Savanna and one-year-old Samaya, and I need a huge favor." Ebany said.
"What's that?" I asked.
"Think you could watch my daughters this afternoon and evening? Their father is in the hospital. We think he might have Gout, based on what they've been discovering with the infection in his toe, and they're debating if we're going to need to do extensive surgery. He asked if I could come, to which I agreed to, but I didn't feel it would be appropriate to be taking the girls, especially if they decide to do surgery tonight." Ebany explained to me.
"It's no problem, though I should warn you, Tommy has been sick." I said.
"Oh I know, learned of this fact from Peter the other day when we ran into him and Dil at the park, and again at his annual Valentine's Day party. That's when I knew you were taking care of him. Though while I had all intensions on leaving them with the Finsters or DeVilles, nobody was home when I called, leaving you guys as a last resort." Ebany said.
"No worries, I don't believe Tommy is contagious anymore now that he's been on the antibiotics for a few days, but I'll make sure to keep him quarenteened upstairs, away from your daughters, especially since I'm sure you're trying to keep your house, sickness free as much as possible, seeing the state of your husband as of late." I said.
"Exactly. If I must spend the night with my husband, my mother has agreed to stop by here later on after she gets off of work at the diner where she works, I've already made sure to give her the address, but I'll let her know who might be answering the door when she comes, so she's not alarmed, as she doesn't know any of you guys, seeing she moved here just a couple of months ago when she found out my husband was diagnosed with this, Gout condition." Ebany said.
"All right, anything I should know about Savanna or Samaya, like allergy wise or anything like that?" I asked.
"Nope, they aren't allergic to anything, and seeing it's Friday night, I usually let them stay up a little bit later anyway, so if they're up past their bedtime, I'm not too worried." Ebany said.
"Okay, sounds good. Good luck to you and your husband, I'll be keeping him in my thoughts and prayers, and we'll see you or your mother later." I said, seeing Ebany out the door and going off to the living room to check on the kids, who were all sitting in a circle on the floor, rolling their favorite ball to one another and having a very interesting conversation.
By the time I got there, it had appeared that Dil had introduced Savanna and Samaya to my sisters, Sabrina and Madeline, and thankfully, Peter and Tommy hadn't returned downstairs yet.
"We're here cuz my daddy had to go to the hopcickle, on account my mommy says he's gots goat." Savanna explained.
"Goat?" Sabrina, Madeline and Dil all asked in unison, looking confused.
"Like the animal on famrs with horns?" Madeline asked.
"Yeah, and now one of them's in my daddy's toe, making it hurt!" Samaya cried.
"Wait a sec, I thought goats were biggerer than us, or at least, too big to fit inside somebody's leg or foot." Sabrina said.
"Well my daddy likes to eat goat cheese." Savanna said.
"That must be it! Goat cheese gotted into your daddy and hurted his foot." Dil said.
"I thought food went into our tummy." Madeline said, grabbing the ball as it came towards her, before rolling it to another person in the circle.
"Well, when we go out to eat, daddy usually clears his plate, and mommy always says he has a hollow leg." Savanna said.
"Uh oh. Your daddy ated too much goat cheese, that it wouldn't all fit in his tummy, making it go into his leg, and down into his foot and toe, but maybe his toe is allergic, giving it a inflection, and that's why he's in the hopcickle." Madeline suggested.
"Uh oh, that must be it! Poor daddy!" Samaya said.
"Yeah, poor daddy." Savanna said, grabbing the ball, as the two little girls started to cry, Sabrina, Madeline and Dil all joining in with them.
I couldn't help sitting on the couch at this point, trying to stifle my laughter, as I heard them getting all confused by everything they were saying. Then, I came up with something to tell our guests, Dil, and my sisters.
"Kids, it's not goat, it's Gout, and the term, having a hollow leg is an expression used for somebody who can eat a lot without gaining weight or feeling too full right away. People think they have a hollow leg because their stomach has gotten really full, but in actuality, it never enters into their leg like what you guys might be thinking." I explained.
However, I think my explanation only went clear over their heads, as I'd find out later on that evening when the Green girls headed for home. Just then though, I heard Peter coming down the stairs with Tommy. They were just about to walk into the living room, when I quickly got up from the couch and saw to stopping them.
"So what are we gonna do tonight?" Savanna asked.
"Usually Nell let's us watch a movie on Friday nights." Sabrina said.
"And Nell promised me my Curious George movie, Curious George Returns to the Jungle, where he gets to be a astronaut." Dil said.
"Wait a sec, don't astronauts go to outside space?" Samaya asked.
"Yep they do, but George goes to both, outside space and the African jungle to fix some satellite communicator." Dil explained, running over to the bookshelf of DVD's and pulling it off of the shelf, just as I saw to approaching Peter and Tommy, who was now patched up in bandages, similarly to Sabrina.
"Wow! Savanna and Samaya came to play! Hi!" Tommy greeted, sounding a bit croaky and letting out a tiny cough.
"And for this reason you'll have to stay upstairs." I said.
"But I wanna watch the movie too, and tell them how Reptar rescued me when I went to find my lost glider plane." Tommy said.
"Maybe you can watch the movie later when you're all better. Besides, thanks to your little adventure in the now vacant lot behind your house that use to be the yard belonging to Rosie's grandmother, thanks to you falling into the whole where her house once sat, clear down to what use to be her basement, you skipped your nap today, so it wouldn't hurt for you to get to bed early tonight." Peter said.
He then instructed for me to go fix Tommy some warm soup and bring it in a thirmas with a spoon upstairs so he could eat in bed, which Peter would feed him, while I also looked into something simple to feed the rest of our party. I then decided on doing something I rarely do after putting on some chicken noodle soup to heat, and that was, ordering pizza delivery. I decided to make things simple, I'd order us a large pepperoni pizza, which I knew I, Sabrina and Madeline would eat, and thankfully, Peter and Dil were okay with that too. Tommy was not happy about being stuck in his room, but he sadly, had no choice in the matter, as Peter saw to feeding him his dinner in bed and doing his bedtime routine early, while I saw to ordering the pizza, and waiting for it to be delivered, while the other kids played with toys in the living room.
"So, with it being dinner and a movie night, what are we gonna watch?" I asked.
"Curious George Returns to the Jungle!" All of the kids cheered in unison, as Dil handed me the DVD of the movie.
"Very well then, we'll put it on when the pizza arrives.
Before we all knew it, the pizza had arrived, and Peter and I got the kids' dinners dished up and juice poured into sippy cups. I gave Samaya her pizza though, and she had this to say to me, seeing that based on my talk with the kids from earlier, they had all figured out I could understand them all, and they obviously knew that Peter could talk to them, no matter what their age was.
"Uh, there's no goat cheese on this pizza is there? I don't wanna get Goat and end up in the hopcickle with a inflection in my foot like daddy." Samaya said.
"I told you Samaya, it's Gout, not Goat, and no worries, it's not goat cheese on the pizza. I believe its monsarella cheese, but I'm not entirely sure what the Piggy's Pizza Palace uses on their pizza, I just know it isn't goat cheese." I said, cutting her piece of pizza into tinier pieces so she could eat it more easily, seeing she only had a couple of teeth, and she was the youngest out of everybody there.
"Well, an unhappy Tommy is upstairs in his room playing. I got him to eat his soup and take his meds, and got him into some pajamas, but he wasn't ready to go to sleep. So I told him as long as he stayed upstairs and played, I was okay with it. Though knowing Tommy, we'll see how long that lasts." Peter said, taking a seat in one of the easy chairs with his plate of pizza purched on one knee, and his glass of water on the end table next to him.
I went over and put on the DVD of the movie, and once the movie was playing, got myself some pizza, and we all saw to eating while we watched the movie. Little did I know that King of the Sneaks, as I feel I can clearly dub Tommy with that title now, would find a clever way to watch the movie without us knowing about it, only once again, getting himself into his second trap of the night. We at least got to finish the movie before it all happened, when Madeline, feeling tired, decided to head on up to bed, when she nearly tripped on Tommy on the stairs.
"Get out of my way Sabrina's babyish boyfriend." Madeline snapped.
"I can't, I'm stuck, and don't call me a baby Madeline." Tommy snapped.
Madeline just started laughing at him, when I came out into the entry hallway to see what was going on. Sure enough, Tommy had a pair of bynoculars in his hands, and his head was stuck between two of the banister rungs. I wanted to scream at that point, but I knew that wouldn't help in this situation, so I did the next best thing.
"Peter! Could you come here please?" I asked.
Peter came running.
"What is it Helen?" Peter asked.
"Peter, our king of sneaks decided he didn't like being trapped in his room, so wanting to watch the movie with a pair of bynoculars he found, not sure where, since I don't recognize them." I started to explain before Tommy interrupted me.
"I founded them in mommy and daddy's room." Tommy said.
"Well you will be putting them back as soon as we get your head unstuck from the banister." I said.
"So let me get this straight. You didn't want to be trapped in your room, so you went and got your head trapped in the banister instead." Peter said.
"I didn't mean to, I was trying to get a closer view of the movie without getting caught, and when I tried to move my head back when it ended, I couldn't." Tommy said.
"So why didn't you call one of us for help?" I asked.
"I was about to when Madeline founded me." Tommy said.
"Okay Tommy, relax, I'm going to head downstairs to your dad's workshop and find the tools we need to undo the bars so we can get your head out." Peter said.
"Why not use Erebus and cut one of the bars off." Tommy suggested.
"That's a great idea Tommy, but I don't wish to break your parents staircase. Now, everybody else, please, stay up here." Peter instructed.
"You sure you don't need my help?" I asked.
"I would just assume nobody else go downstairs into Stu's workshop other than myself. I'm an inventor as well as a king, and I've helped him fix up several of his inventions, so if I should start up something crazy down there, or break something, I know how to fix it, plus, I know right where his tools are, this will only take a minute." Peter said, opening the basement door and heading downstairs to look for the tools, while I saw to getting Madeline upstairs around Tommy so she could start getting herself ready for bed.
I then went into the living room where I kept Savanna, Samaya, Dil and Sabrina busy with a game of the Reptar matching game until Peter returned to the entry hall to finish the job of rescuing Tommy.
When I heard the basement door close behind him and saw that Samaya had more fun trying to stick the cards into her diaper instead of trying to play the game for real, matching up the pictures of the characters to one another, I decided to go see what Peter was doing to rescue Tommy. Not sure what tool he was using, but he found one to help him loosen one of the rungs of the banister on one side of Tommy's head, removing it from the stairs, making the space wider so Tommy could get his head out. I must say, he's one brave little three-year-old to stay so calm through all of this, but a short while later, Peter had the bar undone, and Tommy was able to pull his head out.
"I'm free! Thanks for saving me Peter. You're as good at rescuing babies as Reptar." Tommy said.
"You're welcome Tommy, but please, promise me you'll never stick your head through the railing again. That was a very dangerous thing to do, and you're lucky you didn't get hurt." Peter said.
"I promised, besides, it did feel pretty uncomfortable for a while." Tommy said, heading upstairs, which, by the way I could see his hands down towards his crotch, he had to go potty really badly by this point.
He had dropped the bynoculars on the floor, which I picked up and put around my neck, figuring I'd go put them up later when I headed off to bed, assuming I figured out where they went in his parents bedroom, seeing I was sleeping there for the week.
However, at that very moment, several things happened at once. The doorbell rang, just as we all heard a loud scream from Tommy from upstairs.
"I'll go see about Tommy, you go answer the door." Peter said, as he finished getting the rung of the banister put back into place just in time, before rushing upstairs to see if Tommy was okay, while I saw to answering the door.
I answered the door to find standing there, an elderly lady who looked to also be African American like Savanna and Samaya.
"I am here to collect my granddaughters, Savanna and Samaya. Their mother is having to stay overnight at the hospital with their father, who sadly, had to undergo emergency surgery to have his left leg amputated." The elderly lady said.
"Oh dear, I'm sorry to hear that." I said.
"Me too, but did the girls have a good time?" Their grandmother asked.
"They sure did, we had pepperoni pizza for dinner and watched a Curious George movie." I said, leading her into the living room where Savanna was trying to put together a Dummi Bears puzzle, and Samaya was snuggling up with a couple of teddy bears, looking about ready to fall asleep.
"Grandma's here to take you home." She said, pulling out a double stroller she had brought with her and seeing to strapping her granddaughters into the stroller.
"What does amputation mean?" Savanna asked me, as I saw to helping their grandmother get her granddaughters situated.
"It means your daddy had to have his leg cut off." I said.
I saw the worried look of disappointment and shock on her and her sister's faces upon my saying this, but I didn't wish to lie to them, seeing they'd probably see their father eventually, and notice something different about him right away.
"Oh no! Daddy's hollow leg is gone! That means, if he eats too much, he's going to throw it all up through a whole where his leg use to be, just like there's a whole on my favoritest Dora the Explorer doll where her leg went missing. Now there's a whole in daddy too!" Samaya cried.
"You mean my Dora dolly, which was a hand-me-down to you." Savanna said.
"Uh huh." Samaya said through her tears, just as Peter came downstairs with Tommy, who was clutching on to his crotch in pain.
"Poor daddy, he's without his leg." Savanna said.
"And it's all thanks to eating goat cheese. I'm not never eating goat cheese never again." Samaya protested.
"Me neither!" Savanna cried.
"Their daddy's leg came off? Uh oh, I member Angelica telling me about this one time. It's called tangerine, where it turns orange before it falls off." Tommy said, sounding like he was in a great deal of pain.
"Oh no! Now we can't eat tangerines neither! And those are my favorite fruit too!" Samaya cried, bursting into tears at this point.
I wasn't sure what Tommy was referring to, and by this time, their grandmother was taking them out the door and heading across the street with them when this comment was made, so couldn't help them any further. I just hoped their father was going to be okay, and hopefully, he'd be able to get a procetic leg. At that moment though, I needed to be more concerned about Tommy.
"What happened?" I asked.
"Tommy was using the toilet upstairs, and he didn't move enough out of the way when putting down the seat and closing the lid, and, well, he slammed the seat down hard on, well, you know, that part that makes us guys different from you ladies." Peter explained.
"Oh dear! Is he all right?" I asked.
"Ow! It really hurts!" Tommy cried.
"I'm sure he's fine, but it did look badly hurt, so just to play it safe, I'm taking him to the emergency room to get him checked out, just to be double sure, as while I've had some medical training, seeing I did fight for the Confederacy's independence, and having medical training was part of my training, I'm not skilled in the area of mending broken bones, nor do I have an X-ray machine on me to check on these things myself, so better double check with the experts to be sure he's okay. Think you can get Dil and your sisters to bed?" Peter asked.
"I have everything under control, and Tommy, I hope you feel better." I said, seeing Peter and Tommy out the door, when an ambulance pulled up to rush them off to the hospital.
However, while I got upstairs to find that Madeline had put on her pajamas and fallen asleep in her bed for the week, Sabrina and Dil were too worried about Tommy to sleep, so we spent the next few hours, keeping ourselves busy until Peter returned.
We played with puzzles, watched some episodes of the Dummi Bears on DVD, and at a point in there, Dil fell asleep, who I carried upstairs and got him tucked into his bed. At about half past two in the morning, Peter returned with a sleeping Tommy in his arms. Sabrina ran excitedly to greet them, then stopped dead when she saw that Tommy was asleep. Luckily I was right behind her, so I could ask Peter how it all went.
"So what happened?" I whispered.
"Not to worry, nothing's broken, he just, badly bruised it. They recommended he put ice on it, and they gave him some pain killers, Tylonol, and he more or less, fell asleep on the way home, which I had my limo driver pick us up." Peter whispered to me, as he saw to carrying Tommy up to bed.
"I'm glad he's going to be okay." I said.
"Me too." Sabrina said, nearly collapsing with exhaustion on the stairs.
I carried my worried, exhausted little sister up to bed, where I tucked her in next to her sister, and finally, went to my room to find nearly all of the drawers on Mr. and Mrs. Pickles chest of drawers were partially open, with the top drawer wide open.
Remembering I still had the bynoculars around my neck, I then figured out very quickly where they belonged, and saw that Tommy had put himself in danger by using the drawers as steps to reach the top drawer to get them out. I wasn't too pleased by his sneaky dangerous behavior, but I wouldn't worry about that right then. After all, it was a quarter to three in the morning, I was plumb exhausted, and ready to pass out and go to sleep. So I put the bynoculars up, closed up the drawers in the chest, got ready for bed, and I'm about to go to sleep myself.
However, before I do that, I pray to the lord that I can get through my final day here, without any injuries, because today was enough of a scare for me to last a lifetime. Though I learned that little boys are quite prone to injuries no doubt, and I surely wouldn't forget this anytime soon.
End of Nell POV
And with that, she closed up her notebook, stashed it away in her bag, turned off the lamp on the bed side table, and saw to falling asleep for the final time in Stu and Didi's bed.
And this, ends chapter 7.
Author's Note: I made a reference to the Rugrats episode, Stu-Maker's Elves from season 1, and Tommy's comment about Angelica and tangerine was a reference to the season 5 Rugrats episode, The First Cut. I also recall there was some lost Rugrats episode where Chuckie was going to get his head trapped in the banister, and I recall a kid DJ Tanner was watching in some episode of Full House getting his head stuck in the banister, which helped inspire that bit in the chapter, and the part where Tommy slammed his, well, you know, on the toilet seat, I don't remember all of the details, but I believe my brother did something like that when he was little. I don't think it was broken though, just, very badly bruised, or else I'd probably remember the incident more. But I've heard of little boys doing this at one time or another in their lives, so yeah. Hope you all enjoyed the chapter, and I hope to be back with more, very soon.