In the coming weeks, Cyril managed to cope with his blindness very well, much to everyone's surprise. Just so long as no one but the Raccoons, Cedric, Sophia, Schafer, Broo, and the Pigs knew about it, he was fine with it. Being completely stubborn, though, he still refused help from anyone, and as a result, kept running into the walls.

On the morning of the Fourth of July, Cedric and Sophia were in the kitchen, making plans for the party they were throwing that night. Forest was sitting in his highchair, making a mess out of the applesauce Cedric had given him for breakfast. He took a handful of it, and threw it on the floor. Snag was upstairs, so he didn't come along to lick it up like he usually did. Forest then took another handful of applesauce and flung it. It landed right in Cedric's face, covering his glasses.

SPLAT!

"Forest," Cedric said, sternly. He took off his glasses and gave the baby a look.

Forest clapped his hands and giggled. Sophia sighed, stood up, and began wiping the baby's face with his bib. It was at that moment when Cyril came into the kitchen. Or at least tried to. He ended up walking into the doorframe first.

WHACK!

"Ow!" he shouted.

"Morning, Pop," Cedric said.

"Yeah," Cyril replied, coming into the kitchen. "Right, whatever."

"Mr. Sneer, you might want to walk around the other way because . . . ." Sophia started.

"I don't need any help from you!" Cyril shouted before she could finish. But he should have let her finish her sentence, because she was trying to warn him about the blob of applesauce that Forest had thrown on the floor. Unfortunately, Cyril stepped right onto it, and slipped.

"YIKES!" he shouted as he fell to the floor.

"Pop, are you all right?" Cedric asked.

"What was that on the floor?" Cyril said.

"Applesauce," Sophia said. "Umm, Forest threw it on the floor."

"As always," Cyril groaned as he got up.

The day went on as it usually did. It wasn't until later in the afternoon when the party got started. Everyone was in the backyard of the Sneer mansion. Cedric was doing the barbecuing, Ralph and Bert were tossing a baseball back and forth, Schafer was throwing a Frisbee and Broo was running around fetching it, and Sophia and Melissa were working on getting Forest to walk.

"Come on, Forest!" Melissa encouraged. "Come to Auntie Melissa!"

"You can do it, sweetie," Sophia said. "Ready? Okay, go!"

Sophia let go, and, as usual, Forest crash landed the minute he took a step. He stood up and tried it again, but with the same results. He tried it once more, and crashed again. That was when he burst into tears. Sophia picked him up and held him for a few moments.

"Maybe we should try this later," she said.

"Good idea," Melissa replied.

Sophia was about to take Forest inside for a nap when they passed Cyril, who was just laying in a lounge chair, doing nothing. Forest tried to get out of his mommy's grip and get to his grandpa. He began to whimper a little as he did so.

"That the baby?" Cyril asked.

"Yep," Sophia said. "I think he wants to spend time with you."

"Fine," Cyril said. "I've got nothing better to do anyway."

Sophia set Forest on Cyril's stomach, and then went back to the others. Forest crawled around a little, and finally climbed off the chair. He grabbed Cyril's hand, and began to pull on it, as if he wanted his grandpa to get up and play.

"Not now, Forest," Cyril said. "I don't want to get up."

Forest let go of Cyril's hand, and just sat by the chair, pulling blades of grass out of the lawn. Then he pulled himself to his feet, leaned against the chair, and looked at Cyril expectantly. Cyril didn't even notice. Lloyd came over a few moments later, with some papers.

"Sir, we hate to bother you," Lloyd said.

"Then don't!" Cyril yelled. "What do you want anyway!"

"These need your signature right away."

"Fine."

Lloyd handed Cyril the papers and a pen, and Cyril signed them (some of the documents happened to be some checks for the Pigs). Once he was done, he practically threw the documents back at Lloyd.

"Here!" he shouted. But what he didn't know was Forest was standing right there, and Cyril had accidentally given him a good whack right in the nose. Forest stumbled backwards, landed on his bottom, and let out an extremely loud shriek.

"What? What happened?" Cyril asked.

"What happened?" Cedric asked as he and Sophia raced over.

"He just hit the baby in the face," Lloyd said.

"Oh, Forest," Sophia said, picking up the baby. She began to comfort him.

"I didn't see him," Cyril said, shrugging. "Honestly, I had no idea he was there!"

"I know, Pop," Cedric said. "It was just an accident."

"Is he okay?" Bert asked.

"Yeah, he'll be fine," Sophia said. "He's just a little surprised, that's all."

A few hours went by, and it was time for the fireworks. Bert's new camera really came in handy to get good pictures of the fireworks. There were only two people there who weren't enjoying them, and those were Cyril and Forest. Forest didn't like the loud noise the fireworks made when they exploded. And, due to Cyril's eyesight being gone, his hearing was a little sharper, and the fireworks exploding sounded like miniature sonic booms.

"I'm going back inside," he grumbled. "This noise is killing me!"

"Do you want some help, Pop?" Cedric asked.

"No!" Cyril yelled. "I can get back inside myself!"

And with that, Cyril started to go across the yard to the back door. On the way, he tripped over the lawn chair. Once he pulled himself to his feet, he smacked into the picnic table, and the bench, and ended up landing flat on his stomach. Then he got up again, and continued on his way. He finally stepped on Forest's duck pull toy, and slid right into the wall of the house.

WHAM!

"Ooohhhh," Bert and Ralph cringed.

"Pop!" Cedric shouted, running over. "Pop, are you all right?"

"I'm fine," Cyril grumbled.

"That was some crash, Mr. Sneer," Sophia said.

"Here, Cyril," Bert said, as he, Ralph, and Melissa came over. "We'll help you."

"Get away from me!" Cyril shouted, waving off everyone. "All of you! I don't need any help from any of you!"

"Come on, Cyril," Bert said. "If you don't let us help you, you'll probably end up killing yourself."

"I don't need any help!" Cyril yelled. "Especially not from you! You were the one who caused this mess! Now get out of my way!"

Everyone stepped aside. Cyril fumbled around a bit, looking for the doorknob. Once he found it, he threw the door open, stormed inside, and slammed it shut. He had enough of everyone fussing over him.