Chapter 7 - Hell

It was the morning after the trial. The Asib children, along with some of their clothing and toys, had been successfully transplanted to Franziska's apartment the night before. She had the guest bedroom set up for them. It had been a long and tiring day for them, and all four kids went to sleep right away with no problems. Once they were awake and full of energy for a new day, however, it was a different story...

Franziska knew next to nothing about how to care for a child. So, of course, she had no clue how challenging a task it would actually be. Her name was too hard for the younger kids to pronounce and too long for the older boys to remember, so they ended up calling her "Sissy".

The kids woke around 6 a.m. It was a little early for her, but not by much. It seemed to be their normal time, so she went along with it. Once she had gotten them all to use the bathroom (she silently thanked God that they were all potty-trained and she didn't have to deal with changing diapers), she herded them into the living room and turned on a cartoon to keep them busy while she fixed breakfast.

She was halfway across the living room when she realized she had no idea what to feed them. She looked back awkwardly over her shoulder at the kids and asked, "What do you want for breakfast?"

"Pancakes!" Sparky replied immediately. The rest of the children quickly concurred.

Pancakes were easy to fix and they had all agreed on what they wanted, so Franziska figured breakfast would go smoothly. She hadn't counted on sticky syrup messes, knocked-over cups, flying forks, and just general squabbling between the siblings. George was still a little young to be adept at feeding himself and refused to eat anything his brothers tried to feed him, so Franziska was forced to put all other tasks on hold while she cut up George's pancakes for him. When she finished and tried to hand his fork back to him, he wouldn't take it and she ended up having to feed him each bite.

By the time George was finished eating, all the other kids had left the table. Franziska lifted him down from the chair and he ran off to find his brothers and sister. She looked around the kitchen. It was a disaster area. Dirty dishes and syrup puddles were all over the table, and little pieces of pancake had found their way onto every available surface including, but not limited to, the floor, the counter, the sink, and the kitchen cabinets. Franziska was surprised when Sparda appeared at her side and said he was tired of playing and wanted to help her. She was still trying to get the mess cleaned up when Sparky came running into the kitchen.

"Sissy!" the little boy shouted. "You better come here!"

"What's wrong?" Franziska asked apprehensively, setting down the sponge she had been using to wash the counter.

"Mushroom peed her pants."

At this point Franziska was starting to feel a little frustrated. On top of the fact that she wasn't getting anything done, the children kept making messes, fighting with each other, and whining. It was the whining that really got on her nerves. The worst, though, was when they started asking her "Where's Cat?" or "Where's Ravey?" She didn't know how to explain in a way that they could understand, so wheneever they asked she just told them "They're not here..."

After the pants-wetting incident, she made sure that the children all knew where the bathroom was and that they should go there immediately if they felt like they needed to use it.

Franziska soon discovered that Sparky was very bossy, and Mushroom and George would usually do anything he was doing. On the other hand, Sparda was unusually clingy for a child his age and ended up following Franziska around like a duckling all day.

Lunch was a complete and total disaster. Disaster isn't even a strong enough word for it. It was hell. The kids couldn't agree on anything they wanted to eat, so Franziska ended up making four different things. Then there was the food fight... and once she'd gotten that settled down, she had to give all each child a bath and get them into clean clothes. (Harder than it sounds, especially seeing as how everyone but Sparda ran away and hid at the mere mention of the word "bath".)

After his bath, Sparky laid down on the couch and to watch cartoons. (The TV had been left on all day even though no one had been watching it since before breakfast, because Franziska had never managed to find a moment to shut it off.) The younger two followed suit and were soon sound asleep. Sparky was still awake, but was completely absorbed in the adventures Skyblazer: Battle Kite and would not leave the couch again until both episodes were over, even though the second one was a re-run.

During this single hour of quiet time, Franziska finished cleaning up the last of the messes that were spread all around her apartment. (Dirty clothes in the bathroom, toys scattered everywere and the nuclear fallout zone formerly known as the kitchen...) Sparda trailed after her, occasionally helping but mostly not. He chattered away the whole time (the way kids do), about schools and tractors and puppies and anything else he could think of. Franziska wasn't really paying attention to him. In fact, she tuned out his chatter for the most part while she concentrated on getting her apartment back into some semblance of order, so she was surprised when he suddenly asked her a question.

"Sissy, do you have a boyfriend?"

"What? No!" she replied without thinking. She stopped what she was doing and turned to look at the boy. "Why did you ask me that?"

"No reason," Sparda replied.

She could tell he was lying and wondered if he was thinking about his parents. She didn't have much time to wonder about it, because soon Sparky's show was over and he was off the couch, making an ungodly racket with his toy trains. Mushroom and George were both crying, disoriented after waking up in an unfamiliar place.

Franziska had no clue as to how to comfort the crying children, and Sparky did not respond well to being yelled at. Aside from not making him behave, Franziska losing her temper had another undesired effect. Sparda got scared and started to cry. Franziska didn't know what to do. She really missed her whip right now. (Of course, she couldn't use it on the children and she knew that. It was safely tucked away in her bedroom closet.) Sparky looked from his wailing siblings on the couch to his sniffling big brother and back again, then, to Franziska's surprise, he burst into tears. She could understand why, though. She felt like crying now, too.

She needed help and she knew it. The only person she could think of to call was Miles...