5

Inside the house, Gumball and Darwin were playing video games when they heard a loud thud coming from outside. Curious, Gumball paused the game and looked in the direction of the sound. He got up, opened the door, and looked out on the porch. Nothing out of the ordinary. He walked up to the railing and looked down at the bush. At seeing the horrid sight, his eyes widened, his pupils shrank to being smaller than the period at the end of this sentence, his jaw dropped, and he gasped, accidentally inhaling a nearby fly. He coughed violently, trying to hack it back up. After he did and regained his focus, he yelled into the house, "Call Mom! Quick!"

"What is it?" Darwin asked, running outside urgently.

"Dad!" Gumball cried. Darwin took one look at Richard, and he instantly became frantic.

"Aah! Oh, my gosh! What happened?"

"I don't know! Quick, call Mom! I'll give him CPR!" Gumball's body was beginning to feel warm because of his nerves.

Darwin ran back inside the house and went to the cordless phone by the kitchen while Gumball ran down the porch steps and tried to revive his unconscious father. Grabbing the phone, Darwin dialed Nicole's cell number as quickly as his fin could. He waited a few seconds, his mind racing, and finally, she answered.

"Hello?" she asked. She was at the supermarket, buying various foods. She quickly moved her head away from her cell phone once Darwin told her the news because he was shouting, producing a momentary ring.

"Mom! Come quick! Dad's in a bush passed out, and he looks like he's not breathing!"

"What?" Nicole said, surprised. It sounded to her like Richard was either drunk and soon to get a hangover, or he was having a heart attack, and since she knew he didn't drink, she assumed the latter.

"I'll be on my way!" Hanging up, she dropped her bag of groceries on the ground, causing everything to spill out since the bag fell on its side, and took off for the exit. Having known Richard for more than 30 years, she knew the danger as well as the fact that time was of the essence. She got in her car and drove as fast as she could, bending the rules of the road as she did by speeding a little. One could only tell by holding up a RADAR gun to get a precise reading of her speed.

"Cleanup on aisle 7," announced one of the supermarket employees over the PA just after she exited. Pretty soon, a janitor came over and cleared the mess. A stocker was with him, and he placed all salvageable items back on the appropriate shelves.

Once his call with Mom was done, Darwin dialed 911 to get an ambulance. Meanwhile, Gumball's attempt to bring Richard back from unconsciousness was proving futile. He pressed his hands on his dad's chest and gave him breaths, but his dad wouldn't come to. He suppressed the idea that it might be too late, even though that was all he could think about, and held out hope, the fear of failure staining his forehead in sweat. Dad had to be alive. He had to be.

Gumball had some of the best times of his life with his dad. He, Darwin, and Richard played games they made up in the backyard like I'm the President, Fruitball, Toe Wrestling, and others. With Richard gone, he'd have to go back to solving 200+ piece jigsaw puzzles with Mom, and that would be both challenging due to his disuse of his brain, and stepping on Anais' territory again, and just because she had done that to him while looking for fun, he wasn't going to do the same thing conisdering his past failure.

The females preferred doing more brain stimulating activities while the males did more foolish, stupid, and sometimes dangerous, yet interesting and fun, games. It had been Richard who had made it especially fun because of his man-child personality and nearly perpetual joy. Gumball couldn't stand to think about what would happen if that exuberance disappeared for good.

Gumball was finally able to stop when the ambulance arrived. It took all four bandage paramedics that came to lift Richard's large, corpulent body onto the gurney because he was so heavy. They loaded him on and drove toward the Elmore Hospital. Just as they left, Nicole arrived.

"Get in!" she frantically ordered her boys. They hastily complied, not wanting to delay their mother further as she ran inside the house to get Anais, who was in her bedroom with her dolls, unaware of the present situation. Nicole quickly explained what Darwin had told her over the phone, knowing she could comprehend it, and then she carried her to the car.

Anais was shocked yet unsurprised at the same time as her mother carried her. She knew how her father ate and how he was excessively sedentary, being the second smartest member of the family, as evidenced by her attending a Junior High Gifted Program at age 4. The shock was the result of her never having imagined it would happen while she was so young. If he were to go, her biggest regret would be not having spent more time with him, even if he was far below her expectations of intelligence and common sense.

Nicole put Anais in the back seat next to Darwin, got in herself, and anxiously drove toward the hospital. All eight eyes were wide open in fear and anxiety as each second passed.