Tired dad

"MIAOOOW!!!"

That was the sound the Quigley's heard every morning at about 5 am. Amber was always up and hungry, and she didn't like being locked in the laundry.

Will and Lucy sometimes slept through it. Even mum did too. But poor old Dad was always the one to get up and tend to Amber's needs. First he opened the door and let Amber run around the living room. Then he opened a can of cat food and held up his nose whilst fishing it into her bowl. While she was eating, if he needed to, dad would clean the litter tray. If there was anything in it. Sometimes dad would find little surprises in his slippers.

The same thing happened every morning. Lucy would get up and start opening a new can of cat food, and dad would say "I already fed the cat, poodle." Then she would leave it on the bench and dad had to wrap it in glad wrap and put it away again. Eventually dad started putting sticky notes on the cans in the morning. They would say "Done" or "Don't bother" or "Stop worrying about it".

One day mum told dad she was invited to go away with her friends for the weekend. Dad said it was fine, but he was very tired from the last few days of getting up early and going to bed late.

"Are you sure you'll be okay?" Mum said for the 50th time before leaving on Friday night.

"Of course! You have a good time." Dad said.

"Bye mum!" Lucy and Will called when mum left in her friend's car. When they were out of site, Will and Lucy ran inside.

When mum was away, Will and Lucy went a big hyper. Mum always told them to do their chores or to clean their rooms. Dad was always too busy to tell them off for making noise or for trying to make fondue chocolate, even though they didn't know how. So Will and Lucy took the time to do what they wanted. Still following the family rules, of course. They weren't being naughty. They were making use of their mother-free-time.

First Will got out a bag of popcorn. Then Lucy got all the pillows and duvets and sprawled them across the living room floor. Then Will got a selection of favourite DVD's, have of them Will's and half of them Lucy's, and lay them in front of the T.V. so they could choose which one to watch first.

When dad walked in he told them not to stay up too late, and to remember to put the cat in the laundry when it wanted to. He was determined to go to bed early tonight.

When dad was in bed he listened to Will and Lucy laughing at T.V. and Amber meowing at the laundry door. He was going to get up but he decided Amber would start interrupting their movie soon, and tried to go to sleep.

An hour later the T.V. seemed to have gotten louder and the kids laughing wilder. Dad wished he had moved now, because in a small house small noises were turned into big ones and big ones were turned into HUMONGOUS ones.

Dad got up and appeared at the top of the stairs. Will and Lucy turned around and saw dad, looking very zombie-like and tired.

"Can you turn it down a bit?" Dad asked.

"Then we wont be able to hear it!" Will scowled.

"Can you at least put the cat in bed then?"

"She's fine right here." Lucy said, pointing to a rather quite Amber in her lap.

"Well, don't laugh so loud, ok? Daddy's trying to sleep." Dad warned. Will and Lucy nodded and turned to see that the end credits were scrolling across the screen.

"Aw, dad!!" They both yelled.

"Shhh!" He said. He was getting grumpy. "It's called a rewind button!" Then he disappeared and went back to bed.

Will and Lucy decided to watch a scary movie. They got some more popcorn, much to dad's dismay. He was just about to go to sleep when all of a sudden POP! POP! POP!

Dad pulled the pillow over his head and sighed. 20 minutes later he was just dosing off when he heard Will and Lucy scream.

"AHHH!!"

Dad got up with a shock, wide-eyed and mouth open, and ran downstairs. When he made it downstairs he found Will and Lucy hiding behind their pillows, and when they turned to see dad they screamed again. In the night and after seeing the movie, dad looked scary.

Amber got scared from the screaming. "MIAOOOWWW!!" She cried and ran around the house, all over, until she felt safest behind the couch. Dad sighed and said "Please kids, no screaming! I thought you were in trouble!"

"You can blame Will. He wanted to watch this."

"Hey, you said you weren't scared!" Will objected.

Dad moaned a tired moan and said "Please just be quite." And went up to bed.

Dad flopped into bed, very tired. He started snoring. He'd fallen asleep!

"MIAOOOWW!!" Amber cried at 5 am. Just on time, dad thought. He was hoping that Amber would have slept longer if she stayed up longer, but he was wrong. He got up and began walking down the stairs. Will and Lucy were still down in the living room, asleep in their pile of bedding. The T.V. was still on, with the main menu of a movie they must've watched.

Then dad smelt something. Something very unpleasant. He looked over to the laundry. The door was closed. Then he looked over to Amber, staring at him with wide eyes. "Wait a minute…" Dad said out loud. "What are you doing out here, Amber??" He took another step. It was very lucky he was wearing socks. He's just stepped in cat poo.

"Oh, Amber!" Dad cried, hopping over to the laundry and taking his sock off. Will and Lucy didn't let Amber in bed last night. He opened the laundry door and Amber scurried inside, and dad fed her favourite treat, Krunchy Kat Flakes, because Amber had to poop on the carpet.

When Will and Lucy woke up, it was about 9 o'clock. Dad had cleaned up the cat poo, the popcorn and turned off the T.V., and yawned.

Will and Lucy got their favourite, toast with chocolate spread, because it was the weekend.

"What should we do today, Will?" Lucy asked while watching the cartoons.

"Hmm… why don't we go to the park or something?" Will said. Will and Lucy liked going to the park. It was just 2 blocks away and was very big, and people were there all the time, including their friends. There was a small playground with swings and sandpits that Lucy usually played in, and a big playground with a huge tunnel slide that Will usually went on.

They both smiled at each other and yelled "Dad!"

Then dad came in looking very tired.

"Why didn't you let the cat in the laundry last night?" He asked, looking furiously worn out.

Will and Lucy looked at each other. Lucy said "Upsidaisy!" and Will said "So that's what the smell was."

Dad groaned angrily and was about to leave when Will said "Can we go to the park today?"

Dad was about to say no, but with the kids out of the house, he could get some rest.

"Okay, but if you're there on your own, come straight home." Dad warned.

Will and Lucy got dressed, and Lucy had a crack at doing her own hair. It looked terrible, so she just brushed it and wore it out. Then they called out "Bye!" and left.

Dad sighed and flopped onto the couch. He sighed and started to doze off.

Will and Lucy arrived at the park. All their friends were there. Elizabeth, Timothy and Pokehead were there, and so were Ellie, Moo, and Gilly, Lucy's friends. Mark, Jacob and Andrew were also there to play with Will.

They spent about an hour there, playing on the swings and the slides and the monkey bars. But then they got hungry. On Sunday's dad cooked bacon and eggs for lunch for the kids, so Will and Lucy left, saying they would come back later.

Will and Lucy came in the door, running around yelling, "Dad! Lunch time!!" Which startled dad a lot. He woke up with a snort and a yawn and said "Already?" He seemed in a better mood.

Dad got out the pan while the kids packed up the duvets and pillows and empty bowls of unpopped corn. Dad was still tired though. He nearly burnt the bacon, he popped the egg yolk, and he forgot to pop down the toast.

Will and Lucy stared at their half cooked, over cooked lunch. Dad said he was sorry and went back to the couch to rest.

After lunch Will and Lucy decided to stay home and play forts. Will set his fort up in the back room, while Lucy set hers up in the living room.

"Dad, get up! I need the couch to build my fort!" Lucy shouted. Dad groaned and went up to his room, and tried to sleep there. Then he remembered he had to go shopping.

When dad got home from shopping, not able to find everything he needed, he found the house to be in a very big mess. He was so tired though, that he just sighed and began putting the shopping away.

That night for tea, dad made his cauliflower cheese.

Lucy didn't like dad's cauliflower cheese. She always jus stared at it. Tonight Will did the same thing. Usually he liked it, but tonight dad had made a horrible pile of cauliflower cheese.

Later on Dad warned the kids to go to bed early tonight. The kids did not like this.

"But mum isn't home til tomorrow! We never have any late nights when mum's here!" Lucy protested.

"Yeah! And you said we would have fun while mum was away! Going to bed early isn't fun." Will added.

Dad sighed. "Okay, you can stay up til 11. But you have to go to bed! I'm really tired."

The kids said okay, and dad went to bed.

Will and Lucy made a lot of noise. By 9 o'clock dad couldn't take it anymore. He came down and took them both straight to bed.

In bed, Will and Lucy scowled so hard they looked at old people. This almost amused dad, but he was too mad and tired to smile.

"But dad!!" Will complained.

"No." Dad said calmly, tucking him in.

"We won't yell anymore." Lucy whined.

"No." Dad said firmly.

"Please, dad!" Will and Lucy said in unison, as if rehearsed.

"No." Dad said, in a final matter. He flicked the switch and shut the door.

Will and Lucy were not tired. They got up when they heard dad shut his bedroom door and they went down to get a drink. But then they got hungry. Dad heard them in the kitchen and came down. Will and Lucy crouched under the bench so he couldn't find them.

Dad came around behind the bench and saw them. The got up and marched straight up to bed, without saying anything. When they heard dad go back to bed though, they got up again, and dad heard them again.

When dad came up he looked so tired it wasn't funny. He had big lines under his eyes and they were all droopy. He mumbled the words "Go back to bed…" and turned around himself. Will and Lucy had never seen him like this.

The 2 of them went back to bed.

"Will," Lucy called when the lights were out.

"Yeah?" Will asked.

"I feel sorry for dad."

"Why?"

"See how tired he looked?"

"Yeah, but he's always tired."

"Will, dad's been extra tired lately. He gets up at 5 every morning to feed Amber."

"What? He does not. I always hear the cat."

"No you don't, you sleep straight through it. He leaves sticky notes on the cat food so I don't feed her twice."

Lucy and Will thought about this.

"I'm going to feed Amber from now on." Lucy said.

"Good idea. What else makes dad tired?" Will asked.

"Dad cleans up all the time." Lucy said.

"Then I'll clean up for him when he looks tired." Will said.

Will and Lucy looked very pleased with themselves, and went to sleep.

Dad woke up at 10am. Which was strange, because usually he woke at 5. He got up and felt rather refreshed. He trotted down the stairs to find mum already home, eating morning tea while watching sunrise.

"Morning, dear!" Mum called when she heard him. "You slept in. Were you tired?"

"I was." Dad said, confused. He saw Amber and wondered if she'd been fed. He went over to the pantry and found a sticky note on the cat food. "Amber is alredy fed!" Dad smiled and turned around to find that the house was spotless.

"Did you clean the house?" Dad asked.

"No. I came home to this. I thought you did it." Mum called from the living room.

Dad pondered this thought, then saw another sticky note on the bench.

"I cleaned up for you!" in Will's writing. Dad was very pleased and hardly tired anymore.

When Will and Lucy got home from school their dad was home, looking much nicer and happier, with no lines under his eyes. He smiled and said, "Kids, thanks for what you did this morning."

"Oh, I'll feed Amber every morning, dad!" Lucy said.

"And I'll clean up when you ask from now on." Will added.

"I'm so proud of you all!" Dad exclaimed, and then pulled out some rather colourful looking cards.

"… So, as a special treat I got us tickets to the circus tonight!"

"Wow!" They both said in unison.

That night at the circus, the Quigley's had a great time together, and Will and Lucy learned that being nice really played off!