Chapter 11
Author's Note: Throwing another chapter into the ring. I'm on a roll, how cool! Again, a big time apology for keeping you guys hanging for so long! Had I been one of you, I'd have beaten my butt a long time ago!
An hour or so later, the Brown household went from a nice, semi-quiet sound to the distinct sound of a very unhappy baby expressing his unhappiness in the only way babies knew how. The baby had been crying now for a good twenty minutes or so; enough to make Ephram's eardrums ring. The baby had been playing on the floor with his toys when suddenly he began crying. Ephram held the baby and walked around the living room, in hopes to quiet him.
"Shhh. Hey, what's the matter, little guy?" he asked, looking down at the baby. Ephram looked over at Delia, who was sitting with her hands over her ears. Ephram was quickly searching his brain for something that would make the baby stop crying. Think Ephram, think! Anything!
"H-Here, want your toy thingy?" He carefully bent down and grabbed the stuffed toy that resembled a frog, only with a rattle attached, and shook it. The baby looked up at Ephram and continued to cry.
"That's a no." He threw the toy over his shoulder. "What about your pacifier? Huh? Want that?" He walked over to the diaper bag and grabbed the pacifier out of one of the side compartments. He put the pacifier in the baby's mouth, quieting him for a half a second, before the baby began crying once more.
"Delia!" Ephram said, walking back into the living room. "Can you check in his bag and see if there's anything in there that might make him stop?"
Delia stood up from the couch, hands still covering her ears. "I don't think there's anything that could do that."
"Can you just check?" Ephram asked, feeling at the end of his rope. How had his own mother done it without going mad was beyond him.
"Okay okay!" Delia said, walking over to the side of the couch. She knelt down and quickly searched the inside of the bag. A few moments later she stood up empty handed.
"Nothing!"
Ephram groaned. There had to be something he was doing wrong. If only he could figure out what it was.. "Shhh. It's okay," he said, trying his hardest to use soft and soothing tones. He began to walk around the living room, making detours to the kitchen every so often, softly and carefully rocking the baby in his arms. Maybe he should have babysat every so often…maybe he should have paid a little more attention to babies… maybe he should never have slept with Madison.
"Should I go get Nina?" Delia asked.
"No!" Ephram said quickly. "I can do this." Yeah, sure you can. That's why he's screaming like he's being tortured. Just then he realized the baby's crying had died down to where he could at least hear himself think.
Delia's eyes widened. "He's-"
"Shh. I know," Ephram said softly. He continued to rock the now whimpering baby and before he knew it, the baby had fallen asleep in his arms. He knew the baby had fallen asleep by the feel of the baby's calmed breathing and how the house was back to being quiet.
"Now where do I put him?" he said to himself in a whisper. He could put him back in his seat, but he didn't want to keep him in there all the time. He couldn't lay him down in his bed in case something happened, his room was all the way upstairs, plus he didn't want the baby to roll off the bed… Then he thought of something.
"Can you go get some pillows off my bed so I can lay him down on the floor?" he asked his sister, not wanting to disturb the baby. He wouldn't be able to take another hour of crying.
"Okay. Be right back." She tossed the remote to the other side of the couch and headed upstairs. Ephram carefully looked down at the sleeping baby, taking in the sweet baby smells. Could he really be his? Would he have to do this all the time for now on? He wasn't sure how he felt about that just yet.
"Here ya go," Delia said, returning to the living room with two pillows in tow.
"Just put them down right there. Make sure thy are close to one another." Delia did as instructed, putting the pillows down on the floor in a way so that it was like a little bed- or at least gave the floor a little padding. Unsure of how to hold the baby and set him down without dropping him, Ephram stood there a moment, trying to think of the best day of laying him down.. Finally he bent down and carefully placed the baby down on the pillows. He didn't realize he had been holding his breath until he took in a deep breath as he stood back up.
"You did it!" Delia said, careful not to wake up the baby.
Ephram smiled, feeling proud of himself. For someone who had never really spent time around babies, he wasn't doing half bad… "Why don't we go in the other room or something?" he suggested, not wanting to wake the baby up and undo the hard work he had just done.
"Good idea." The two smiled at one another before heading out of the room.