Fortunately for Cyril, Forest only had a twenty-four hour bug. By morning, he was feeling a lot better, and he was ready to spend some time with his grandpa, but Cyril was less than ready to spend time with his grandson. He was a wreck! He had practically spent the entire night working, and when he wasn't doing that, he was constantly getting Forest to go to sleep.
So instead of the standard applesauce breakfast, Cyril grabbed a box of Cheerios out of the cabinet, and poured a bowlful. He slid it on Forest's tray. He knew Cedric would give Forest Cheerios from time to time, just to nibble on. He was too tired to feed him. He poured himself a strong cup of coffee and practically drank it in one drop.
"Five days down," he said, marking off his calendar. "Nine more to go. And hopefully, you won't be catching any more bugs, Forest."
Forest giggled, and stuffed some Cheerios into his mouth. Cyril left him there while he went into his office to check in on things. Snag came into the kitchen for his own breakfast, and Forest began tossing handfuls of Cheerios at him. Snag practically vacuumed them up off the floor, which Forest got a kick out of it, and continued to throw down his Cheerios. Cyril returned a few moments later, and groaned.
"Forest, you're supposed to eat them, not throw them," he said, taking Forest out of the highchair. "And you're not supposed to feed them to the dog!"
Forest giggled. Cyril sighed, and went to go find the Pigs. They were down in their quarters, watching TV.
"I need you porkers to do something for me," he said.
"What's that, boss?" Lloyd asked.
"Watch the baby for a couple of hours," Cyril said. "I need to get some important work done, and I can't do that and watch the kid at the same time."
"Sure thing."
The Pigs took the baby, and parked him in front of the TV. Then they changed the channel to the various morning kid's shows. Forest giggled and clapped his hands. Normally, Cedric and Sophia didn't like putting Forest in front of the TV, so this was a treat for him. The TV kept him busy all morning, and the Pigs just sat around doing nothing, waiting for Cyril to call them in to do something.
By noon, Cyril walked into the Pigs quarters with a bottle. Forest was still parked in front of the TV, but he reached his arms up to his grandpa when he saw him.
"Good, you found a way to keep him still," Cyril said, as he gave Forest his bottle.
"Yeah," Boyd said. "These public television kid's shows are perfect baby-sitters. Even if Barfy, the Big Blue Salamander, gets on our nerves."
"Yeah, well, whatever," Cyril said. He picked up Forest, and started to take him to the kitchen. "I need you to watch him after lunch, too. I can't have him distracting me until I get my work done."
"Yes sir!" the Pigs shouted.
So after a lunch of creamed spinach (another one of Forest's least favorite foods), Cyril returned him to the Pigs, but by that time, there weren't any kids shows left on public television. And the Pigs were busy watching a boxing match. That didn't interest Forest in the least. He just sat there and sucked on the bottle that Cyril left with him, and waited patiently for Grandpa to come back for him.
The patiently waiting lasted for about ten seconds, max. Forest got bored just sitting there, and since the Pigs weren't watching him, he crawled off. He didn't want to hang around the room. He wanted to explore!
"At least the baby's behaving himself," Lloyd said.
"Yeah, I haven't heard a peep out of him," Floyd said.
"He's probably taking a nap," Boyd said.
None of them turned around to check. They were too engrossed with the boxing match. A few hours later, it was over, and the Pigs then had enough sense to check on Forest, but to their surprise, he was gone!
"Where's the baby!" Lloyd shouted.
"Oohhh, the boss isn't gonna be happy when he finds out!" Boyd shouted, nervously.
"We'd better find him!" Floyd shouted. "I mean, he couldn't have gone far! He doesn't even know how to walk!"
The Pigs then raced around their quarters, practically tearing everything apart. They had to find Forest before Cyril found out they lost him.
Unfortunately, they were making a heck of a lot of noise, and it was beginning to drive Cyril completely out of his mind.
"What are they doing down there!" he shouted, getting up from his desk.
Cyril stormed down to the Pigs quarters, only to find them still tearing the place apart. It looked like a tornado blew threw!
"What in blazes!" Cyril shouted. "What are you doing!"
"We're, uhh, we're looking for the baby," Floyd said, timidly.
"We're playing Hide-and-Seek," Lloyd said.
"Yeah, and we're It!" Pig Three shouted. "Forest's a good little hider!"
Cyril gave them a suspicious look, then shook his head, and went back to work. He didn't have time to worry about this now. The Pigs breathed of relief, and continued searching. Once they were done searching their quarters, they went out into the hallway to continue looking. They went through the entire Sneer mansion, but couldn't find hide, nor hair of Forest. Their search took them into Cyril's office, and they proceeded to tear that apart as well. Needless to say, Cyril was not amused.
"Now what are you bacon brains doing!" he shouted. "Don't tell me you're still looking for the baby!"
"Well . . . ." Lloyd said. "We are. We sort of . . . . . . lost him."
"YOU LOST THE BABY!" Cyril screamed. "YOU WERE SUPPOSED TO WATCH HIM!"
The Pigs started to shake nervously. Cyril got up, groaned, and began looking himself, making an even bigger mess of the Sneer mansion than before. He pulled books off the shelves in the library, he checked all the bedrooms, the kitchen, the basement, everywhere he could think of, but there was no place that Forest could have been. He had about as much luck as the Pigs did.
"This is a problem," Cyril said, as he started pacing around the room. "This is no time to panic, either. Forest has to be around here somewhere. He couldn't have gone outside."
Cyril stopped pacing abruptly when he saw Snag come into the kitchen through his dog door. Then he realized that Forest could have gone outside, through the dog door! He raced outside, and began searching through the snow. As he was looking, Ralph and Melissa walked by, and looked at Cyril as if he had lost his mind.
"Uhh, Cyril?" Ralph asked. "What are you doing?"
"Looking for someone—er, something," Cyril said.
"What are you looking for?" Melissa asked. "Maybe we can help."
"No, no, I've got it under control," Cyril said. "You two just go . . . . do whatever it is raccoons do."
Ralph and Melissa looked at each other, shrugged, and continued on their way. Cyril looked around the snow, and then realized he was being ridiculous. If Forest had gone outside, his tracks would be in the snow, and there were no baby tracks to be found, so he went back inside, and continued pacing around. Then he stopped, sat down at the kitchen table and breathed of relief.
"No need to panic," he said. "I've got plenty of time to find Forest before Cedric comes back from his symposium!"
The phone rang suddenly, and Cyril picked it up.
"Hello?" he asked.
"Hi, Pop!" Cedric shouted on the other line. "How's it going?"
"Oh, it's going fine," Cyril said. "Forest's just playing with the Pigs. Hide-and-Seek they said."
"Forest's a little young for that, isn't he?"
"Well, he's a bright boy. He catches on to things rather quickly."
"Well, that's true, I guess. Anyway, I just wanted to tell you that Bert and I are at the train station in California, and we'll be back in the Evergreen Forest tomorrow. We're going to pick up Sophia at the hospital and come home."
"Tomorrow? I . . . . I thought this hockey symposium was going to go on for another week!"
"It is, but Bert and I got bored with it. We spent the last two days down in Disneyland. Anyway, I'll see you and Forest tomorrow, Pop."
And with that, Cedric hung up. Cyril nearly swallowed his cigar. He dropped the phone on the floor, and shot to his feet.
"I've gotta find that baby!" he shouted.
For the rest of the day, and all through the night, Cyril practically tore the mansion apart, looking for Forest. He even checked in rooms he already searched thoroughly, but he couldn't find a single trace of his grandson.
"Forest!" he called out. "Come out, come out wherever you are!"
Snag was even helping out a little. He began sniffing around the room, trying to track him down. Unfortunately, he wasn't getting anywhere. Cyril was beginning to panic. He had to find the baby before Cedric and Sophia came home!
By dawn, Cyril was still looking. He had until ten o' clock to find the baby. He gathered not only his Pigs into the front hallway, but some of his bears, too.
"All right, this is important," he said. "Spread out, and search this entire house! It's five thirty now. We have four and a half hours to find the baby, and we have to find him before Cedric comes home!"
The entire crew then split up, and started to look everywhere. Some of the bears looked outside and tried to look for baby tracks in the snow. The Pigs were tearing apart nearly everything they came across. Cyril was going through every single room on the second and third floors. He even checked his dungeon to see if Forest may have been down there. But he wasn't. He spent the entire four and a half hours searching, but he just couldn't find Forest.
By ten o' clock, Cedric and Sophia returned back to the mansion, and saw it in shambles.
"What happened?" Sophia asked.
"I don't know," Cedric said. "Pop! Hey, Pop, we're home!"
"Oh, uhh, hi, Cedric," Cyril said, trying to act like everything was normal. "How was the symposium?"
"A little boring," Cedric said, looking around. "What happened, Pop? It looks like a tornado blew through here!"
"Oh . . . . the Pigs got involved in a touch football game inside, and . . . . uhhh . . . . they haven't had a chance to clean up yet."
"So I've noticed. How was Forest? Did he give you any trouble?"
"Oh no. No trouble at all. You know Forest. Always loves to hang with his grandpa. Ha, ha, ha."
"So where is he?"
"He's . . . . upstairs. Taking a nap. You know he had a little flu a couple of days ago, and he still needs to get some rest."
"I'll just go check on him, then," Sophia said. She maneuvered the crutches she was on to get to the stairs, but Cyril blocked her off.
"No! You can't go up there!" he shouted.
"Why not?" Sophia asked, a little surprised.
"Well, uhh, I . . . . . I can't let you go up those stairs on those crutches!" Cyril shouted. "You could fall and break your other leg! You just go into the other room, sit on the couch, make yourself comfortable, Sophia, and I'll go check on the baby."
Cyril was off, racing up the stairs fast as lightning, Cedric and Sophia looked at each other.
"What did he call me?" Sophia asked. For as long as she had known Cyril, he had always called her "Sofa Girl." She wasn't too sure if he had ever called her "Sophia" before.
Cyril was pacing around the baby's room, trying to think of how he could stall Cedric and Sophia until he could find Forest. It wasn't going to be easy, that was for sure.
"Don't panic, Cyril," he said to himself. "That baby's got to be around here somewhere. He couldn't have gotten far. Most of the doors in this place are kept closed, and he can't reach the doorknobs."
"Pop, is everything okay?" Cedric asked, as he started to come into Forest's room. Cyril stood in front of the crib, blocking it off.
"Yes, yes, everything's fine," Cyril said. "Forest's sleeping like a baby. I think we'd better leave him alone and let him sleep for awhile."
"If it's all the same to you, Pop, I'd like to check on him," Cedric said, trying to come into the room. "I haven't seen him in almost a week."
"No, Cedric, you can check in on Forest later. Uhh, why don't you go unpack your things, and then . . . . . go and play a little hockey?"
"You're acting weird, Pop."
"Must be the weather."
Cedric shrugged, and left. Cyril breathed of relief. He wasn't so sure if he could keep this up. And he knew he couldn't fool Cedric and Sophia for long. They would probably find out sooner or later Forest was missing.
"Okay, Cyril, think," Cyril said to himself. "If I were a very active eight-month-old baby who would crawl off whenever my baby-sitter wasn't looking, where would I go?"
Cyril thought about this for awhile. He began to think what could have been going on in Forest's head when the Pigs lost him. Then he remembered a time to when Cedric was a baby, a little younger than Forest. Cyril had been in the middle of a business proposition and Cedric had wandered away from him. He similarly tore the mansion apart looking for him, until he eventually found him sleeping in . . . . .
"The laundry room!" Cyril shouted. "That's the only room I haven't checked!"
Cyril raced down the stairs, and dashed into the laundry room, going through every inch of it, throwing clothes everywhere.
"Come on, come on," he muttered as he was tearing the room apart. "You've got to be in here somewhere!"
"Pop, what in the world are you doing!" Cedric shouted.
Cyril looked up and saw Cedric and Sophia standing in the doorway, just staring at him. He stood up, and smiled sheepishly.
"I was just . . . ." he said. "Doing some laundry."
"Oh," Cedric said. "You didn't take Forest down here with you, did you? I was just in his room and he's not there."
"Well, uhh . . . ." Cyril said, trying to think of a good excuse.
But before he could say a word, the three of them heard Forest's distinctive giggle coming from a pile of clean laundry in the corner of the room.
"Uhh, yeah," Cyril said. He walked over and picked the baby up off the laundry. "Like I said, he likes to hang out with Grandpa."
"I know," Cedric said, taking his son from Cyril. "So was he any trouble?"
"No, no trouble at all. Heh, heh. Now if you'll excuse me, Cedric . . . . ."
"Where are you going, Pop?"
"To book a good, long vacation. After the week I've had baby-sitting Forest, I think I need it!"
The End