Chapter 18, Grandpa Moves In
Tommy POV
Another few months passed after the firstest time I crawled. I was getting to where I could walk around if I holded on to furniture and other stuff. But that wasn't the most exciting thing of all. It all happened one day, when my daddy got a phone call. My daddy was feeding me my oatmeal, when the phone rang.
End of Tommy POV
"Hello?" Stu said.
"Hello son." Said grandpa Lou on the other end, nearly in tears.
"Pop what's wrong?" Stu asked.
"Stu, I'm sad to report, that your mother just died." Replied Grandpa Lou.
This caused Stu to break down in cry, at which time, Didi walked into the room and finished feeding Tommy his oatmeal, or whatever of it was left in the bowl, as Tommy had proceeded to take it out of the bowl, and wear it. There was oatmeal everywhere! On his head, in his diapers, there wasn't an inch of him that wasn't covered, in oatmeal!
"Goodness Tommy." Said Didi, as she proceeded to get him cleaned up.
A few minutes later, Stu got off the phone, looking sadder than ever.
"What's going on Stu?" Didi asked.
"Pop called. Remember how my mother was very sick, and they couldn't attend Angelica's second birthday?" Stu asked.
Didi nodded.
"Well, she's gone." Stu said in a soft tone of voice, about ready to start crying again.
"Oh Stu, I am so very sorry." Said Didi, who by this time, had cleaned up Tommy, so she gave him a hug.
Tommy noticed his parents looked sad, and he started to cry too.
Stu and Didi picked up their son, and the three of them, stood there, crying in one another's arms, for several minutes. Once everyone had calmed down, Stu gave Didi the news that he would be going to the funeral in Madesco, California, and would be gone for the next week. Didi decided to stay behind, and not have Tommy go, as she felt a funeral was not a place for a ten month old child, so she gave grandpa Lou her condolences, and Stu headed off to the funeral.
While Stu was away, Didi received a phone call from his work. They were angry Stu hadn't shown up. Didi tried to explain to them that his mother had just passed away, and he was off seeing to the funeral and all, but they didn't listen.
"Tell Stuart Pickles to not come back here when he returns, he's fired." Yelled Mister Zycam in Didi's ear on the other end of the phone.
"I will." Didi replied, before slamming the phone down.
She couldn't believe how cold some people could be, but at the same time, it was no surprise. It was only a matter of time, before Stu would either leave that job, or get fired, as that company could never do anything right. She was even starting to wonder how much longer that company would last. But while she was not happy about Stu losing his job, this made her think of something. Perhaps Stu could start his own toy production company, and work from home. Didi could go back to work, as she hadn't taught school since before Tommy was born, when they moved away from Yucaipa to Akron, and maybe, just maybe, they could move back to Yucaipa, and be close to their friends again.
A week passed. Stu returned from the funeral, but unknown to Didi and Tommy, he was bringing somebody home with him. Tommy's grandpa, Lou! They arrived there, complete with a you-hall with a bunch of grandpa's stuff in it.
"What is all of this?" Didi asked, seeing the you-hall in front of the apartment.
"Oh, I forgot to tell you, pop's moving in with us." Replied Stu.
"What?" Didi asked.
"Well, when Trixi died, the retirement home asked me to leave." Replied Lou.
"Yeah, apparently it was designed for couples only." Said Stu.
"Well, you're welcome to stay with us for as long as you'd like pop." Said Didi with a smile, as they helped get his stuff settled in.
Tommy POV
This was really exciting! My grandpa moved in with us, and I was going to have the funnerest time a baby ever had! We did everything together! We took nappies together, and he told me stories, he even did both at the same time! But the bestest part was my firstest adventure after he moved in. One of the few rooms I had yet to explore since I started moving around on my own, was the room where I took a bath. There was this thing, the great white thing in there, and so one day, not long after my grandpa moved in with us, I decided to follow him in there, to see just what that great white thing was. The firstest time I went to explore it though, grandpa stopped me.
"That's no place for you Scout." Said my grandpa, as he picked me up, and took me out of the room.
So I was going to have to get sneaky. Luckily I had my trusty dog Spike, to help me out.
Grandpa had brought me a package, with all sorts of toys and stuff in it. I gots me a plastic scudriver, and several other toys. Then, it hit me! I'd use my scudriver to escape my crib that night, and go discover, the great white thing.
I went into the bathroom, where /Spike and I had quite the time, making a mess of toothpaste and other stuff all over the place. Then, we ran into the living room, where I turned on the TV, and we wwatched it, without getting caught. The next morning though, my daddy founded the mess in the bathroom, and blamed my grandpa for making it.
End of Tommy POV
"Awe con flabdibd, I was never in there last night." Said grandpa Lou.
"Then if you weren't, who was?" Stu asked.
"I don't know, maybe it's hoodlums." Replied grandpa Lou.
"Pop, get real, there's no such thing. Anyway, I need to get ready to go to work." Added Stu, as she went to get ready for the day. Before he got too far though, Didi stopped him.
"You don't have to go to work today." Said Didi.
"What?" Stu asked surprised.
"No, while you were away at your mother's funeral, you were fired." Said Didi.
She was expecting Stu to scream at this news, but on the contrary, he smiled. He was happy to no longer have to work at that place anymore.
Later that night, when Lou and Tommy were sound asleep, Stu and Didi stayed up late, talking. They talked about how now that they had an extra person living with them, that they'd really need a bigger place. Didi mentioned how she missed working and now that grandpa had moved in, there'd be someone to watch Tommy, so the two of them, could go to work, and there'd be somebody, to watch after him. Stu then came up with his brilliant idea.
"You know Didi, I could do a better job at manufacturing toys than those Zytam people. What if we got ourselves a house with a basement back in Yucaipa, and I start my own toy production company. Yes, I'll call it, Pickles Toys!" Said Stu excitedly, as his vision came to him, thinking about this brilliant idea he had.
"Well that would be wonderful. And, you'd be there with Pop and Tommy." Said Didi.
"And, we'd be close to our friends again, and pop would get to see both, me and Drew, since he lives in town too." Added Stu.
"Sounds like a plan. We'll go hunting for houses first thing in the morning. Now, it's getting late, we should really try to get some sleep." Said Didi, as she turned off the lamp on her bedside table, and drifted off to sleep.
Stu turned over, and did the same.
The following day, Stu and Didi left for Yucaipa, to look for houses, while they left grandpa Lou to watch Tommy. As soon as they left, Lou switched to the fishing show on TV, and was out like a light in about two minutes after it started. Tommy, realizing he had free range of the place, with his grandpa asleep, ventured back off to the bathroom, to see what kind of other trouble he could get into, as there was a set of cabinets under the sink. Unfortunately, they had a child safety lock on them, so Tommy, feeling disappointed, didn't have anything to look forward to. Well, not yet anyway, until his parents came back home with some big news.
That night, everyone was gathered around the kitchen table, when Stu and Didi gave Lou and Tommy, the big news.
"Guess what everybody, we've found a house in Yucaipa, and we can move as early as the beginning of next month!" Said Didi excitedly.
"Isn't that exciting Pop?" Stu asked.
"In my day, we didn't need no huge, fancy house to live in. You were lucky if you had one room to live in." Explained Lou, as he took another bite of mash potatoes.
Meanwhile, Tommy was enjoying the joys of wearing his food, opposed to eating it. He then, picked up his spoon, and threw it at grandpa, and started laughing.
"My goodness Scout, you have quite an arm!" Said Lou, as a spoonful of mash potatoes, went into his face.
"Goodness gracious Tommy, you're covered!" Said Didi, as she looked over at Tommy in his high chair, now covered in mash potatoes, apple sauce, and bananas, and tossing his stars on the floor.
"He's just excited about the news that we're moving." Said Stu.
"I guess." Replied Didi, as she got up from the table, grabbed a rag, and started cleaning Tommy up.
Tommy was really excited about the move.
"What an excellent place for an adventure!" He thought to himself, as he drifted off to sleep that night.
But what Tommy didn't realize, was just how adventurous his life was about to get, as he reunited with some old friends, he had nearly forgotten about by this time, after not seeing them for practically eleven months.
And so, how will the move and the reunion go? We'll find out, in the next chapter!
Author's Notes: I recall an episode of Rugrats called The Great White Thing, but all I could remember about it was that Tommy was curious about the potty in the bathroom, after seeing his grandpa go in there to use it, and that's all I could really remember about that episode, as I've only seen it once, and it's been a while. So I'm sure I screwed up on that part from earlier, but figured I'd put something down about that, as that being his major adventure he had post his grandpa moving in with them. And, the part about Tommy wearing his food? Another idea inspired by my nephew Zack in real life, who currently, prefers wearing his food over eating it. And for those of you who dohn't know, stars are these small little bite size things, they're sweet potatoes and other flavors, that are designed, so babies can pick them up, and feed themselves. Or we think that's what they're suppose to do with them. We all know, that's not what they always, have in mind.