Gone Fishing

The next day Bugs was pacing back and forth around the living room. It was a beautiful July afternoon and he was spending it inside rocking Kristy trying to get her to stop crying but it apparently wasn't working. "Shh, Kristy, shh." He made a face to get her to laugh but that didn't work either. "Look at the funny face. Isn't it funny?" He sighed and continued to rock her.

Jacob pulled on his pants leg wanting Bugs to play with him. "Daddy."

Bugs looked down at him. "Not now Jacob. Daddy will play with you later." Jacob pouted and sat down with one of his toys. Bugs continued to try to get Kristy to stop crying but she showed no sign of stopping any time soon.

Lola came in and came over to them. "Why is she crying?"

Bugs shrugged not having been able to think of a single reason. "I don't know. She doesn't need to be changed and you just fed her right?"

"Yeah." Lola felt Jacob tap her and she looked down at him. "I'll play with you later sweetie." She kissed Kristy's forehead. She put her pacifier in her mouth but she spit it out onto the floor.

Bugs felt like he was about to start going insane. "Lola can you take her?" Lola nodded and took Kristy and Bugs sat on the couch and rubbed his temples.

Lola looked at him concerned. "Bugs are you okay?"

Bugs looked up at her and nodded. "Yeah, I'm okay, I just need a break."

Jacob came over to him holding a green block. "Daddy."

Bugs smiled glad he didn't have two crying babies to deal with. If that were the case he might have committed suicide. "Hey Jacob. Do you know what color that is?"

Jacob looked at it then back at him then back at the block then back at him. "No."

Bugs chuckled. "It's green."

"Ok." He went across the room and brought back another block this time a red one.

"What color is that?"

"Rad."

"Red."

"Ok." This repeated a couple more times. Then Jacob came and sat on Bugs' lap and played with his ear looking satisfied that he finally got his daddy to play with him. The only problem was that Kristy was still crying and Bugs' head was still throbbing.

Lola came over to them still holding her running her hand through her already messy hair. "I don't know what else to do! She's not hungry, she doesn't need to be changed, her temperature is okay, she doesn't want the damn pacifier. Bugs?"

Bugs shook his head. "Don't look at me; I gave up a long time ago." Jacob pulled his ear a little too hard. "Ow! Jake, not so hard."

Lola looked at Kristy. "Why can't you talk?"

"Lo, she's gotta get tired and give up sometime don't ya think?"

Lola contemplated what he said. She remembered one time when Jacob was as young as her and he cried for two hours straight for no apparent reason. She sighed and put her in the swing. "I guess you're right." She went over and sat down next to them. Jacob's grin widened now realizing he had both of their attention and they no longer cared about his sister crying. Lola noticed and laughed. "What are you smiling about?"

"He's happy because he thinks we're gonna play with him now," Bugs said leaning back on the couch pillows and closing his eyes not necessarily going to sleep (at least not with Kristy screaming at the top of her lungs).

Jacob looked at Bugs' face and poked his nose. Bugs flinched but didn't do anything. Then Jacob lifted his cheeks so it looked like he was smiling but they fell right back down. He lifted his eye lid but that still didn't do anything. He pulled his ears down over his eyes but Bugs still didn't move. Then Jacob looked at Lola and pointed to Bugs. "Sleepy."

"No he's not." Lola leaned over and tickled Bugs' neck. He sat up startled and almost knocked Jacob off his lap.

"What the hell? Lola!"

"See Jake, I told you he wasn't asleep," Lola said laughing.

"I was about to go to sleep."

Lola gave him a fake sympathetic look. Kristy was still crying and it was starting to penetrate into her mind and dance on that last nerve she had left. Her eye started twitching and her head started throbbing like Bugs'. A few minutes later she stood up. "AH! I can't take it anymore." She left the room and a few minutes later Bugs heard the back door slam and honestly he didn't blame her for leaving.

Jacob poked Bugs' nose again to get his attention. "Mommy?"

"Your mom's coming back kiddo, she just needed a time out."

"Troubo?"

Bugs chuckled. "She's not in trouble. She just needs some peace and quiet that I only wish I could have right now."

A few minutes later Lola was back. "Sorry about that."

"It's okay. You wanna take him while I have my turn?" Bugs said. So much for his turn with the peace and quiet, the doorbell rang. "Shit." He handed Jacob to Lola and went to get the door.

When he opened it, it was Daffy and Melissa. "Hi Bugs," Melissa said.

"Geez rabbit, you look horrible," Daffy said.

Bugs rolled his eyes. "Thanks." He closed the door after they came inside and they all went to the living room.

Daffy covered his ears. "Why is she crying?"

"We don't know," Lola said.

"Well can ya get her to stop?"

"We gave up on that a long time ago Daffy. You wanna try?" Lola said.

Daffy knelt down to Kristy and made a funny face. This only made her cry louder. He stood up and walked away. "I'm done."

Melissa sat next to Lola and Jacob. "Hi Jacob."

Jacob waved. "Hi Missa."

Melissa giggled. She thought the way he said her name was cute. She gave him a hug then turned to Lola. "How long has she been crying?"

Lola shrugged and looked at the clock. "Like…a half an hour."

"Hey Bugs you wanna go fishing, I've got the stuff in the car." Daffy said.

Bugs crossed his arms and glared at him. "Daff tell me, do I look like I want to go fishing right now? All I wanna do is go to sleep."

"C'mon rabbit, it'll be fun. The weather is really nice, and it's supposed to be raining all week next week. You're going fishing!"

"No I'm not."

"Actually Bugs, I think the fresh air will be good for her. Maybe she'll stop," Lola said.

Bugs looked at Kristy feeling like he'd give up ten million dollars for Kristy to stop crying. He sighed. "Fine let's go."

After getting Jacob and Kristy dressed they all got went outside. "Hey Bugs, she stopped crying!" Lola said.

Bugs looked up at the sky. "Thank you!"

Daffy looked at Melissa. "We're never having kids."

Melissa nodded. "I know."

Lola strapped Jacob and Kristy into their car seats and Bugs got his fishing stuff out of the back of the garage. Then they got in the car and left for the park.

Once they got there Bugs and Daffy set up their fishing stuff by the lake and Lola and Melissa sat on a bench b the play area. "Stay where I can see you," Lola told Jacob before letting him go play. She sat down on the bench with Kristy who was finally sleeping.

Melissa ran her hand through her hair. "She's so cute when she sleeps."

Lola nodded. "Yeah then she wakes up and demands that I feed her." She kissed Kristy's forehead.

"Mommy!" Jacob called. Lola looked up and saw him slide down the slide. "Good job, you did it by yourself. Show me again." And with that bit of encouragement Jacob slid down over ten times in a row.

"It's amazing the things that fascinate two year olds," Melissa said.

"Yeah I know. The other day at lunch, he played with his silverware for fifteen minutes straight. I don't get it."

Melissa laughed. "You look really tired."

"Well between Jacob crying and Kristy keeping me up all night, I don't sleep much as it is."

Bugs and Daffy had been waiting for fifteen minutes but apparently the fish weren't biting that day. Daffy had been talking the whole time and Bugs had been trying not to fall asleep.

"So she wanted to paint the living room and I'm like 'why the hell do we have to paint the living room, it's fine how it is'. And she's all 'well it's nice to have some variety'. And I was like 'well if you need something to paint that badly go paint your nails'. And she's like 'who paints their own nails these days?' And I'm like…are you listening to me?"

Bugs lifted his head out of his hand. "Sorry Daff. I was serious when I said I was tired."

"Why haven't you been sleeping then?"

Bugs narrowed his eyes at him. "Think about this for a second. I have two babies. One of them always wakes me up in the middle of the night. They always need to be entertained. And a good three hours of my day are spent listening to someone cry. You really think I have time to sleep?"

"See buddy, this is why I'm never having kids. You should have listened to me."

"It's not that I don't like having kids, they're amazing. It's just that I haven't been getting much sleep."

"Go to bed early."

"Yeah, I think I'm gonna try to do that today."

"Can I finish my story? Okay so then I said "people who are smart enough not to pay Chinese people to clean their crusty feet'. And she said 'well they like doing it'…"

After that Bugs put his head in his hand and went to sleep. A few minutes later he felt Daffy shaking him.

"Bugs! Wake up rabbit!"

Bugs looked at him. "What?"

"You've got a bite! Reel it in, hurry!"

Bugs quickly reeled it in and the fish turned out to be huge. "Damn, did this fish get mutated or something?"

Daffy crossed his arms. "How come I can't catch one that big? And you were asleep!"

Bugs put the fish down. "C'mon Daff we haven't been out here that long."

"Exactly my point!"

About an hour and a half later Melissa was holding Kristy who was now awake and giggly, and Lola was pushing Jacob on the swing. Then Bugs and Daffy came over each carrying huge fish.

"Hey ladies!" Daffy said.

"Whoa, what kind of fish is that?" Lola asked.

"Is it real?" Melissa asked.

"Of course it's real," Bugs said. "We're gonna have food for the next two weeks, babe."

Lola nodded imagining Bugs' delicious fish. "Nice."

They went home after that. Daffy and Melissa stayed for a while and soon they left. Bugs made some delicious fish with leftover vegetables for dinner. After putting Jacob and Kristy to sleep Bugs and Lola were in their bedroom.

"I'm going to bed early," Bugs said.

"You're going to bed early?" Lola said. Bugs usually went to bed a lot later than she did.

"I've gotta go to work tomorrow and at this rate if I don't sleep I'll fall asleep in the middle of my class and I'll wake up with some suspicious material on my face." That made Lola laugh. "You should sleep too Lo, aren't you going back to work tomorrow?"

Lola nodded. "Yeah, I am. I guess you're right."

Both of them put on their pajamas, crawled into bed, and turned the lights out and went to sleep.