Chapter 9, Heading Home Part 1
Poor Tommy was still in the safe embrace of his mother's arms, crying uncontrollably.
"What's the matter with Tommy Deed?" Stu asked.
"Poor Tommy is probably in pain, I wouldn't be surprised if the meds they gave him at the hospital have worn off by now. He does need to take his first dose of his antibiotic, but according to the package, it says to take with food." Didi replied.
"Hey, pardon me for interrupting, but Mary, Rosie and I aren't heading back until this evening, and we've got a table reserved at the All you can Eat Buffet that's right next door to the train station and airport here. Maybe since you guys are all stranded, and none of you were able to get breakfast this morning, on account of oversleeping, would you care to join us for lunch?" Sandy asked.
"Oh, that sounds like a wonderful idea!" Said Didi.
"Yeah, I could go for an abundance of food, plus, maybe we can figure out a way to get home." Said Betty, as all of the adults and their kids headed out of the airport slash train station, and saw to heading over next door to the all you could eat buffet restaurant.
By this time, Tommy had calmed down, knowing he would get some food, as Didi put him back into his stroller next to Dil, and they headed over to the restaurant. Dil turned to his brother.
"What's wrong Tommy?" Dil asked.
"A nightscare Dilly, I'll be ok." Said Tommy, in a voice that sounded like he was in pain, but despite the look of pain in Tommy's eyes, Dil decided to take Tommy's word for it, he knew he didn't like his older brother seeing him worried or upset, even though he could tell something wasn't quite right with his brother, he decided to simply sit back in his stroller, and be thankful that Tommy was back, as he did miss his brother terribly over the last few days.
Upon arriving at the restaurant, everybody was in awe over the many foods they had to offer. There was something there for everybody! Chinese food, Mexican food, seafood, and pretty much, anything under the sun! And to Angelica's delight, there was a whole buffet of desserts, completely dedicated to a wide variety of cookies, cakes, and pastries! The gang went to each buffet station, and filled up their plates with mountains of food. Tommy especially enjoyed this, as after hardly eating a single bite within the last week, he was finally going to get to make up for it, and on his third birthday of all things! Zack had a plate of his favorite foods, sausage in barbecue sauce, sweet potatoes, and slices of French bread. Curious about what Zack had on his plate, Tommy asked about it, and Zack let him try a bite of the sausage with barbecue sauce. To Tommy's surprise, he liked it, and was pleased that Zack introduced him to a new tasty food combination, along with the macaroni and cheese, roasted vegetables, and pineapple yogurt that was piled high on to Tommy's plate.
While everybody mostly enjoyed all the buffet had to offer, Angelica indulged herself in the sweets section, consuming two full plates piled high with cookies. She would have gone for a third plate, only Charlotte spotted Angelica at this point, and stopped her.
"Young lady, you haven't eaten anything healthy since we got here. No more cookies." Snapped Charlotte, as she snatched the plate out of Angelica's hand, as she was headed in the direction of the dessert buffet station.
"But that's not fair!" Angelica cried.
"I'm sorry Angelica, but I have to insist." Said Charlotte, as she grabbed her daughter's arm, and drug her back to the table, where a large plate of roasted vegetables, ham, and chetter baked potatoes were set down in front of her, much to her hatred. She reluctantly dug into her food, as she didn't wish to end up in any sort of time out on this trip.
Meanwhile, Tommy had cleared his plate, so Didi used this opportunity, to give him his dose of his antibiotic. He was only hoping the medicine wouldn't taste yucky, but most importantly, that it wouldn't come with any side effects, as he's had to deal with plenty of them over the last year, and he didn't like them at all. As terrible as the medicine tasted, he sucked it out of the syringe, and swallowed it. After taking his meds, and sitting back along with everyone else to digest, the adults had a conversation with regards to how they would see to getting home.
"So, any suggestions on how we're going to get home?" Celeste asked.
"Well, I was looking at the flight schedules on my phone for Logan Airport, which is located in my home town of Boston, Massachusetts, and there's a flight to Yucaipa, California leaving tomorrow afternoon at noon. If you all road the overnight train that Mary, Rosie and I are taking back to Boston, it gets in at around nine o'clock tomorrow morning into South Station, at which time, you guys can take a bus over to Logan Airport, making it in time for the flight." Suggested Sandy.
"Great idea Sandy, but, Boston is like, quite a ways from here, and we're all starting to run low on money." Said Betty.
"Hmmm, that is a problem. Well I'm sure we'll think of something." Said Sandy, as she put a finger to her lips, only hoping to help these people out, who were very good friends, and who she had gotten to know quite well only over the last couple of days, and within the week's time she came out to California a few months back to pay Taffy a visit.
At another table, Kelly was sitting there, talking with her parents.
"Mom, dad, now I know what you're going to say about me and Peter." Kelly started to say, before her parents cut her off.
"Listen, Kelly, we were wrong about you and Peter." Said Howard G.
"Come again?" Kelly asked.
"Well, after seeing how well you and Peter helped take care of Tommy last night at the baseball stadium, it shows how much you've matured." Said Martha.
"And if you and Peter are seriously considering a relationship, that's fine by us. Just, be careful." Said Howard G.
"I will be mom and dad, don't you worry." Said Kelly, as she finished the rice that was on her plate, and went off to find Peter, who was digesting from eating a huge cabossa and some curly fries.
Upon the toddlers hearing the news that they'd get to travel back with Rosie and her family, Chuckie spoke up.
"Did you hear that Tommy? We're gonna get to ride on a train with Rosie!" Said Chuckie.
"Yeah I bet you're really excited about this one." Said Phil.
Tommy nodded, as a terrible feeling of nausea came on in his stomach, obviously a side effect of the medicine, as he felt fine earlier. Despite feeling so nauseous though, he made his way over to where Rosie was sitting. She was at a table with Susie, and from what Tommy could tell, they were being very secretive. No matter, he wanted to spend some time with Rosie, only he was sadly rejected upon approaching her.
"Uh, hey Rosie." Said Tommy.
Rosie looked up from what she was doing and turned to her purple haired friend.
"Hey Tommy, I'm kind of busy right now, can I talk to you later?" Rosie asked.
"Yeah, ok." Said Tommy disappointedly, as he made his way back to where he had been previously sitting, only to find the bulk of his friends and little brother, were heading off to play in one of those large bins of colorful plastic balls, since everybody had a few hours to kill, before needing to get back to the train station, to leave on the evening train to Boston.
"Wanna come play with us Tommy?" Jesse asked, before running off to catch up with everybody else.
"Nah, you guys go ahead, my tummy is feeling kind of funny." Tommy replied, as he lay a hand on his stomach, and sat back in his chair. The bulk of the toddlers ran off to play in the balls, except for Chuckie, who took a seat next to Tommy.
"Don't worry Tommy, I'll stay with ya." Said Chuckie, as he put a comforting arm around his friend's shoulders, being careful to not touch where Tommy's stitches had been inserted.
"G, thanks Chuckie, but you don't have to." Said Tommy.
"I want to Tommy, after all, that's what bestest best friends are for." Said Chuckie, as Tommy sat back, about ready to doze off, as another side effect of the meds, drowsiness, on top of being full from a buffet of food, was settling in. He was about to have himself a little snooze, when something unpleasant, caught the corner of his eye.
Over in the ball bin, a large kid with black hair, wearing a black leather jacket and blue jeans, with a mean look in his eyes, was not being nice to Tommy's friends and his little brother. He was especially, not being nice to Dil.
"Hey kid, move out of my way before I hurt you." Snapped the large kid with dark hair.
"No, I was here first." Replied Dil, holding up a yellow plastic ball.
"Move it!" Griped the dark haired kid, as he knocked Dil over, causing him to land on his back on a pile of balls, hurting him, making him cry.
"Oh no! Dilly!" Tommy cried, as he burst out of his seat, and started to run over to the ball bin, when Chuckie grabbed at Tommy's shirt. Tommy spun around to face him.
"What?" Tommy snapped.
"Tommy, I really don't think this is such a good idea. You've already gots a ton of booboos as it is." Said Chuckie.
"I don't care, I've gots to save my brother." Said Tommy, as he wiggled his way out of Chuckie's grip, and ran off towards the ball bin, where he climbed in, staring face to face with this kid who was being so mean.
"What do you want kid?" The dark haired kid asked.
"You leave my brother alone!" Tommy protested.
"Make me." Said the bigger kid.
Tommy grabbed at the bigger kid's leather jacket, bit down on the white shirt this kid was wearing under neath, only to have the big kid push Tommy off of him, and punch him in the face, giving Tommy a second black eye, on top of the one he previously had, thanks to Bob and Mike's abusive treatment of him the previous day. Upon seeing this, Rosie, who was finished with her project she was working on with Susie, rushed over to find Tommy being beat up by this larger child. She jumped into the ball bin, only to find this kid was running full force at Tommy, who tried to knock the kid down, only this kid was stronger, grabbing hard at Tommy, and knocking him hard into the wall that made up the side of the ball bin, causing him to hit his head and start crying.
"Cry baby, that's what you are, a wimpy cry baby." Scoffed the larger kid, as Rosie approached him.
"You stop that, and leave my boyfriend alone!" Demanded Rosie.
"Make me pinky." Said the larger kid.
"The name's Rosie!" Cried Rosie, as all of the other toddlers at this point, had made their way out of the balls bin, and were back at the table with Chuckie, hoping this kid wouldn't finish Tommy and Rosie off.
"No! Don't hurt Rosie!" Tommy cried in between his sobs of crying from the pain, as he painfully made his way towards the exit of the ball bin. On the way there, he grabbed at Rosie's dress. Upon noticing this sudden grab of her dress, she turned her head to see it was Tommy.
"Come on Rosie, let's get out of here." Said Tommy, who was no longer crying, but pretty angry about what all went down, and deep down, feeling quite vulnerable inside, and really wanted this trip to end.
Rosie quickly turned around and followed Tommy out of the ball bin, where they quickly ran back over to where they had all been sitting, when Didi looked up to see Tommy now had a second black eye, and upon examining his head, he had a large bump on the back of his head.
"Oh my goodness! Tommy! Everyone, we'd better go, before anymore of our kids get hurt." Said Didi, as everybody gathered up their kids, paid the bill, and headed back to the train station, where they were thankful that while there were no more rooms available in the sleeping car, despite being such a large group, there were still plenty of seats still available in Coach for them to make this detour in their journey home.
"I just have one question. Whatever happened with the Laveens?" Howard D asked.
"Oh, Hazel's family? She and her parents took a morning train out early this morning to head home, as her parents needed to get back to work for tomorrow morning." Explained Sandy.
While everyone waited for the train to arrive, Tommy sat back in his stroller with an ice pakc on his head where the bump was, to bring down the swelling, and all of the toddlers, curled up in chairs or leaned back in their strollers and took naps. While this was going on though, a television was in the area, showing the news.
"And, in lull of recent events, it's been once again proven that our children are indeed, the future. At last night's baseball game at National's Stadium, the criminals who were at fault for steeling a bunch of money from many tourist attractions in Washington D.C. and for the kidnapping of young Tommy Pickles, have been caught by King Peter Albany of the Confederacy. The money was found in a Dummi Bears hot air balloon, which had been previously occupied by several young children, including the young Tommy Pickles, who was severely injured as a result of some bad abusive treatment from these criminals. The child had several bruises all over his body, a black eye, a large wound in the back of his right hand, as well as a bullet wound on his left shoulder, and as a result of such poor treatment, the criminals, Bob and Mike, have been sentenced to death. And just to prove to everybody how this all went down, here is some recent footage of a video taken just moments ago at the castle of the Confederacy in Richmond, Virginia, and General Frolo E. Lee, with the complete story." Said a female news ankeror on the television, dressed in red, before the picture changed to the footage of sentencing Bob and Mike to death at the castle.
"I along with several Confederate soldiers flew in our private jet to Washington D.C. early this morning, where I met up with Peter early this morning at the airport, to get from him a spare set of keys that nobody else has, the keys, to his lava room. Once I obtained these, and we saw to transporting Bob and Mike to the private jet to fly them to the Confederacy, we took off, and just moments ago, we finished the task, of putting them to death." Explained Frolo E. Lee on the television, before footage of the sentencing was shown.
On the flight to Richmond, Bob and Mike were injected with a powerful substance to knock them out. Upon arriving at the castle, several Confederate soldiers carried the unconscious criminals up to the third floor of the castle, to a room that was hardly ever used. It had a large white door that remained locked at all times, and Peter was the only one with a set of keys to this very important, off limits room. However, he gave them to Frolo for this occasion, since Peter was in the process of accompanying his friends on this trip, and couldn't exactly leave to attend to this duty. Upon opening the door to the room, steam met the air, as the men walked in carrying the unconscious criminals, to what appeared to be a large pool before them, only instead of being filled with water like an ordinary swimming pool, it was filled, with lava. Frolo blew into a whistle he was wearing around his neck to give the other soldiers the signal to do their job on command, and no sooner had Frolo blown his wistle, when the soldiers tossed Bob and Mike's bodies into the lava pool, where they sank, never to be seen again.
"And that is the story, of the death, of Bob and Mike. And thanks to the young children of our generation, America has been saved, and Taffy has finally begun her international tour. Her opening concert was quite a success, as Sherry Berry opened up for the singer, and even had a child from the audience, perform on stage with her. Critics proclaim Taffy to be a success, as she continues to tour the U.S. and hopes to release her tour album, When Dreams Come True, sometime early next year. Taffy was seen earlier today performing in New Jersey at an event to raise awareness for many different types of children's cancers, and on Tuesday night, she is expected to be performing with her band at Radio City Music Hall in New York City, which has already been sold out." Explained the female news ankeror on the television.
No sooner had this news report finished, when an announcement came over the P.A. system.
"Train to Pen Station on track 40 has arrived." Said a male announcer on the P.A. system. Upon realizing this fact, the gang gathered up their kids, and made it on to the train, where they saw to taking their seats.
"So where's the sleeping car?" Chaz asked.
"It will be on our connecting train out of Pen Station." Said Sandy, as she took a seat, and the train pulled out of the station.
As the train rolled along, Peter made an announcement.
"Everybody, I'd like to apologize for all of the trouble I helped cause. Had I not been texted by Frolo early this morning to meet him at the airport, after only getting a few hours of sleep, then been busy with helping to get Bob and Mike transported from prison to my jet, and handing over the keys to my private lava room to Frolo, only to return by about eight in the morning, ffalling back to sleep from exhaustion, I would have given everybody a wake up call with plenty of time, so we wouldn't have missed our flight home. For this reason, I know I agreed to not pay for anything more than the original trip that was planned, but since I helped contribute to us being late for our original flight home, thus, missing it in the end, I'm going to pay you all back for your train tickets, and I'm going to pay for your tickets on the Peter Pan bus from South Station to Logan Airport when we get to Boston, and our plane tickets out of Boston to California." Said Peter.
Everybody clapped and cheered at Peter's announcement, as the toddlers, who were still napping at this point, stirred, looking around to find themselves, on the train with their families. The rest of the trip to Pen Station was uneventful, as everybody more or less, sat back, and enjoyed the ride in silence. Everyone except for Peter and Kelly, who exchanged a few words.
"Look, Kelly, I just, wanted to say, that I'm glad we could have this trip together, and I'm sorry it has to end so soon, and if I helped come between you and your parents, well for that, I am very sorry. I hope you can find it in your heart to forgive me." Said Peter.
"Peter, I'll admit, while at first, when I moved to California, I had a major crush on you, as I was really hurting inside, seeing that my last boyfriend, George, how he broke up with me because he wasn't interested in a long distance relationship, well, after getting to know you, and see you be so busy, and learn your ways of royalty, while I know you need to take a wife to be your queen of the Confederacy, I don't like to say this, but, I don't feel I'm the right one for the job. I'm heading off to college in another week, and, well, maybe, it would be better, if you were with somebody closer to your own age. After all, there is a four year age difference between us, and we are rocking the cradle." Said Kelly.
"Now Kelly, that doesn't matter to me, but if you'd rather go off to college, and hope to find new love there, I do understand, and I appreciated the time we did have together. I do hope though, that we can still be friends." Said Peter.
"I'd like that." Said Kelly, as they smiled at one another, and gave one another a hug.
In another seat on the train, Angelica and Susie were sitting next to one another.
"So Angelica, you still wanna be President?" Susie asked.
"Of course I do Carmichael, but you'll just have to wait until we start kindergarten to see what happens." Said Angelica, as she snuck a cookie out of her Cynthia backpack that she managed to sneak off of the dessert station at the all you could eat buffet, and started munching on it loudly.
"Mind sharing those cookies with me?" Susie asked, upon peering into Angelica's backpack to see she had snuck a bunch of cookies off when nobody was looking.
"Get your own cookies." Angelica snapped, as she turned away from Susie, and went on to eat her fill of her sneaky snack.
As the train got closer to Pen Station, Chucckie turned to Tommy, and asked him an interesting question.
"So Tommy, now that you're three, and we're not babies no more, have you thought more about what you wanna be when you're all growed up?" Chuckie asked.
Before Tommy could answer him, the train pulled into Pen Station, where everybody had to get off, and go wait inside for their connecting train to show up, which was running half an hour late.
While they were waiting for their connecting train, Tommy couldn't help but notice something very interesting going on near where they were waiting. A filming crew was near by, shooting a scene for the upcoming latest film to be hitting theaters around the holidays, Murder in the Train Station. Curious about this display, Tommy, who was sitting on Peter's lap, turned to him and started asking him some questions.
"Hey Peter, what are those peoples doing over there?" Tommy asked.
"Oh, they're making a movie." Said Peter.
"Wow! And I thought movies only appeared on the TV." Said Tommy.
"Well they do Tommy, but this is how movies are made before we ever see them." Said Peter.
Tommy turned his gaze back to the scene. Two guys were shooting at one another with guns, and a man behind a camera was telling them to show a bit more anger when they shot one another. Of course, seeing this gun scene made Tommy a bit nervous, as ever since he saw Bob and Mike with guns, and shooting him, he wasn't so sure if guns were the safest thing to be playing with. Peter looked down at Tommy, who appeared to have a worried look on his face.
"Tommy, you don't have to worry, those guys aren't really going to hurt each other." Said Peter.
"Why not?" Tommy asked.
"Well Tommy, they're just acting, or in your language, they're pretending to fight. It's how people play characters in the movies." Explained Peter.
"But if they're pretending, then why is that guy telling them how to pretend?" Said Tommy, pointing to the director behind the camera.
"That's the director Tommy, he works the camera that will later, put their images on the TV when the movie is finished, and he tells them what to do, and how to act." Said Peter.
"And the guys with the guns aren't gonna hurt him?" Tommy asked.
"No Tommy, because he's only there directing their moves. The guys shooting each other are two of the characters in the movie." Said Peter.
"Oh, ok." Said Tommy, as an announcement over the P.A. system was heard.
"Train 447 for Albany, New York, Pittsfield, Massachusetts, Springfield, Massachusetts, and Boston, Massachusetts has arrived on track twenty." Said a male announcer over the P.A. system.
The Rugrats, Generics, and the rugrats families all got up from their seats, and headed off to track twenty, where they saw to bording the train. Upon entering the train, everybody was met with some amazing sights. First, they passed through the dining car, where while there wasn't a lot of food left, there were a few desserts left, that were making Angelica's mouth water. After passing through the dining car, they walked through the sleeping car, where they passed by several small compartments, and approached the one where Sandy, Mary and Rosie would be spending the night. And finally, they made it back to one of the coach cars, where all of the toddlers were seated together in a set of facing seats with a table in the middle, and above the seats was a television screen suspended from the ceiling. Over on the wall read a sign.
"Oh look kids, while we're on board, they're going to be running the Super Why Movie!" Said Didi excitedly.
"Oh, Zack will love that." Said Celeste, as Zack let out a giggle of excitement at this news.
Of course, the whole train experience excited Zack, as other than the train they took to Pen Station from Washington D.C. Zack had never been on a train before. And this train really excited him, as there was lots of stuff on it worth exploring. He was hoping that once the adults were off doing their own thing, he could convince Tommy to take them all on an expedition to explore the train.
"Now you kids stay here, except to use the potty, or go rest in Rosie and Mary's room. Sandy said it would be ok, seeing it's a long ride, and we're all very tired." Said Kira, as she got everybody situated in their seats, before going and finding a seat in the isle across the way with the other adults.
Once the toddlers were alone, and the train started to move, Zack turned to the others.
"Isn't this fun? I've never been on a train before." Said Zack.
"I have, but at least this train ride is going much better than the lastest time." Said Chuckie, as he hugged Wahwah tight.
"What happened the lastest time?" Zack asked.
"Well, there was this shadow guy, and Wahwah went missing, and it was really scary." Said Chuckie.
"Yeah, well, at least you got Wahwah back." Said Zack, as he hugged Frosty.
"Yeah, that's true." Said Chuckie.
"Hey, I've gots an idea, why don't we go and explore the train? I bet you'd like to do that, wouldn't you Tommy?" Zack asked.
"No!" Tommy shouted at the top of his lungs.
The other toddlers gasp.
"Huh?" Jesse asked, taken by surprise at Tommy's comment.
"No guys, no more aventures ever. We can use the potty, but that's it. We must stay here." Tommy demanded.
"Wow Tommy, what's gotten into you?" Phil asked.
"Yeah, what's wrong Tommy?" Chuckie asked.
"Nothing!" Tommy hissed, looking down at the floor, a sad expression on his face, looking about ready to cry.
Upon noticing this, Stu was walking by, and saw how down Tommy looked.
"Look at that Deed, it's our son's third birthday and the poor little guy hasn't gotten to really celebrate today, all because we missed our flight, and didn't get home at a decent hour to go have dinner at Potato Mountain, and open his presents when we got home. I'm gonna go to the dining car and see if there's something left for the little guy for dessert. I know it's nearly closing time for the dining car, but there's got to be something." Said Stu, as he headed off in the direction of the dining car.
He returned a few minutes later, with a large piece of green cake with dark purple icing on it, that the people working in the dining car told Stu it was flavored with vinilla.
"Happy Birthday champ, look at you, another year older, and another year wiser." Said Stu, as he set down the large piece of cake in front of Tommy.
The three-year-old eyed the cake, noticing how big it was, but just as he did at the buffet earlier that day, he couldn't resist having more to eat. Tommy dug into his piece of cake, and ate every last bite, except for one small piece, which he handed across the way to Rosie, who was seated across from him, riding backwards on the train, next to Phil, Lil, Jesse and Kimi, while Tommy, Zack, Chuckie and Dil were all riding frontwards.
"Wow, thanks Tommy." Said Rosie, as she put her small piece of cake into her mouth. Tommy just looked at Rosie, nodded and smiled.
Unfortunately, his smile faded when two things happened. As a result of eating so much cake, he started to get a stomach ache, just as the Super Why movie was starting on the TV screen that was above their seat.
"Hey you guys, the Super Why movie is starting." Said Phil.
"Oh boy let's watch!" Exclaimed Lill.
"You gonna watch the Super Why movie with us Tommy?" Chuckie asked.
Of course, the bulk of the gang knew Tommy didn't care much for the Super Why TV series, it was Zack who got everybody into the TV show a few months ago, on a rainy day, when there was nothing on TV but a Super Why marathon for the bulk of the afternoon. Everybody enjoyed it except for Tommy, and at that time, there wasn't much he could do to avoid watching the show, because his leg was still in a cast, healing from when he broke it, and Angelica had managed to hide the television remote before leaving for preschool that morning, causing the TV to be more or less, stuck on the channel airing Super Why for most of the day. Tommy had heard all about the Super Why movie from Zack, a direct to DVD and Blue Ray combo pack release where an evil monster by the name of Webster the Worm, would come along, and destroy every word in the English language, and it was up to Super Why and the Super Readers, to go into the English dictionary, and save the English language, before the abilities to talk, read, and write, were destroyed forever. But no matter how many times he watched the Super Why TV series with Zack, Tommy just couldn't wrap his head around learning how to read by watching a TV show. He'd much prefer have a story book read to him, or learn his letters when he got to preschool. He looked briefly up at the screen, then back down at his friends, his stomach ache only getting worse, as a headache also started to come on, and the child felt like he needed to go potty.
"Uh guys, I've gots to go potty, I'll be right back." Said Tommy, as he got out of his seat, and made his way to the sleeping car to the little compartment room where Sandy, Rosie and Mary were spending the night, whenever they were ready to go to bed, though at the moment, Rosie was watching the movie with their friends and Tommy's brother Dil, unknown to Tommy, Sandy was in the dining car, playing a friendly game of Uno with Kelly, and Derek and Mary were in a seat in the coach car, watching a movie on Derek's portable DVD player.
Inside the little sleeping compartment, was a tiny bathroom, where a toilet and a sink stood. Tommy used the potty in this little location, only his stomach and head were still bothering him upon emerging from the bathroom. When he came back out into the small sleeping compartment, he looked over at the bed where Rosie would be sleeping later. He only knew that this had to be Rosie's bed, as on top of the bed, he spotted the Dummi Bears blanket he had given to her for her birthday when he went out to Boston to visit her with Peter a few months back.
"Maybe lying down would help me to feel better." Tommy thought to himself, as he approached the bed, lay down, and curled up beneath the Dummi Bears blanket, where he shut his eyes, and drifted off to sleep for a while.
Back in the coach car, everyone was enjoying the Super Why movie, until Rosie happened to glance away from the screen for a minute, to notice that Tommy hadn't come back.
"I'm gonna go find Tommy you guys, he's been gone a while." Said Rosie, as she hopped down from her seat.
"I don't think that's such a good idea, what if you get hurt or lost or something." Said Chuckie.
"What if Tommy's losted? I've gots to go find him, I'm not losing my baby boyfriend again." Said Rosie.
"Uh, Rosie, we're not babies no more. Or at least that's what my brother toldid me we'd no longer be babies when we were traveling home from this trip. We'd be all growed up." Said Dil.
"I don't know Dil, I don't feel any different than I did yesterday, and besides, Tommy will always be my baby. Now, I'm off to look for him, you all enjoy the rest of the movie, and me and Tommy will be back before you notice we're gone." Said Rosie, as she left the seat and decided to go look in the first place she might expect to find him, the room where her babysitter and sister planned to sleep later on that night, as there was a bathroom in there, and Tommy did state that he had to go potty.
Upon opening the door to their little compartment, Rosie's eyes landed on her bed, where she spotted Tommy, fast asleep beneath her Dummi Bears blanket. Despite his entire body being covered in bandages, he was still the cutest little boy she had ever seen, and she thought he was the most adorable when he was sleeping. She also could tell that something must really be bothering him, as he didn't seem much like himself ever since they found him the previous day at that baseball game. He was eating larger portions than she ever recalled him eating in the past, he seemed a lot more cranky and tired, and he didn't seem all that interested in doing much of anything. But what really got her worried is how he reacted to Zack's longingness to go explore the train, when he told everybody they had to stay in their seats, unless they had to go potty. She had never known Tommy to act like that before, and she was determined to get to the bottom of what was bothering her beloved boyfriend, not to mention, she had something in her dress pocket to return to him. After staring at Tommy from the doorway for several minutes, she finally tip towed over to the bed, where she lay a gentle hand on Tommy's left hand, that was out from beneath the covers. Tommy opened his eyes and looked over at Rosie.
"Hey Tommy, you didn't seem to be feeling all that well back at our seat. Did you have a nice nap? Are you feeling better?" Rosie asked.
"I always feel better when I'm with you." Said Tommy with a smile, as he reached out to give Rosie a huge hug, just as Rosie toppled over on to the bed on top of Tommy, where the two toddlers giggled and rolled over, putting Rosie on the side of the bed closest to the wall, her back to the wall, as she lay on her side, with Tommy on his opposite side, his back towards the outside edge of the bed, making the two love bird toddlers, lie side by side, staring into one another's eyes.
After they caught their breaths, they lay there for several minutes, smiling at one another, before Tommy's expression changed from a smile to a frown.
"Something wrong Tommy?" Rosie asked.
Tommy thought for a minute before replying. He could tell that at this very moment, he and Rosie were alone, and it would probably be the only time they would be alone, so he figured that now was the best time if any, to tell her something.
"Rosie? Can I tell you a secret?" Tommy asked.
"Sure Tommy, what's bugging you?" Rosie asked.
"I'm really ascared." Said Tommy.
"What?" Said Rosie.
"It's true Rosie. I'm ascared of people." Said Tommy.
"People?" Rosie asked.
"Not peoples like you or my friends, mommy, daddy and Dilly, I'm talking about the peoples we don't know. I mean, what if everybody is out to hurt us or something?" Tommy asked.
"If you're worried about those peoples who hurted you Tommy, you don't gots to worry about them no more, Peter destroyed them." Said Rosie.
"Yeah, but, what if they're not the onliest peoples to be mean? You sawed that big kid at the ball bin place, and how he hurted me. I'm ascared to go on anymore aventures, well, cuz I'm ascared of getting hurt. I had a terrible nightscare earlier where the peoples flying our airplane home hurted me, Dilly, you and all of our friends." Said Tommy.
"Now Tommy, there's gonna be lots of peoples in this world. Some will be mean, but there's plenty of nice ones too. Just remember what I sang in that song at the concert yesterday night." Rosie started to say, before she stopped herself.
"What? What is it?" Tommy asked.
"Oh, I forgot, you weren't there at the concert." Said Rosie.
"Well, that's ok, you think you could sing me the song right now? Just for me? Please?" Tommy asked.
"Sure, I'd be happy to." Said Rosie, as she opened her mouth, and sang the song she sang on stage the previous night at Taffy's concert with Sherry Berry and the rest of the audience. As Rosie sang her song, Keep On to Tommy, he closed his eyes and had flashbacks of all of the adventures he had been on over the last two years of his life. Some of the flashbacks included the following. His first birthday party, where he's stuck to the Hover Rama, trying to reach for the dog food, his trip to the movies where he went off looking for Reptar, his backyard adventure of playing pirates, his trip around the world to find the giant potty and flushing the giant flusher, defeating those bunches of Mr. Friend dolls in his backyard, looking for Lady Luck at the senior's center, his adventure in the forrest after Dil was born, his trip through Paris with Chuckie in that giant Reptar robot as they made their way to Notre Dame church, lying in a hospital bed, as he suffered from the Gray Plague, hoping he'd get better one day, crossing the street in Chuckie's pedal powered car when his Reptar wagon went missing, climbing up to the giant play structure to get Angelica's Cynthia back at Chuckie's preschool trial run, only to get a splinter and a wasp sting in the process, throwing sand in Josh and Timmy's eyes after they managed to put Rosie up high into a tree on the day they met when Rosie was in Tommy's town, seeing her grandmother off into heaven, rescuing Kimi at the indoor play place, while standing on his broken leg, throwing up all over the marathon finish line in Rosie's backyard, as Reggie slipped and fell into the pile of vomit, pushing Reggie off into the duck pond at the park in his own neighborhood after getting those nightmares post returning from his visit to see Rosie, learning how to swim on that camping trip he recently took with Bobby, uncle Ted, and his grandpa Lou, all the way up to his most recent memory, throwing ice on to the floor of that bomb shelter after Bob and Mike had shot him, hoping to get rid of them, once and for all. As he thought about all of this, while listening to Rosie's beautiful singing, he couldn't help but realize the message of Rosie's song. No matter what terrible things had happened in his past, and he had witnessed a lot of them, especially as a two-year-old, he couldn't give up. He had to keep reaching for the stars. Though even though he planned to never give up, he couldn't help but still have an ounce of vulnerability deep down inside of him, a bit of uncertainty about who else he'd encounter in his lifetime.
Once Rosie was finished singing her song, she reached in, kissed Tommy on the cheek, closed her eyes, and drifted off to sleep. Not long after Rosie was fast asleep, Tommy fell back to sleep too, where he had an interesting dream. He was back in the airplane again at the cockpit, only this time, he was holding a camera in front of him, like the one he saw the director using at that train station to shoot that movie scene. Bob and Mike were at it again with their guns, about to shoot all of his friends, Rosie, and his brother Dil.
"Stop!" Tommy shouted from behind the camera.
Bob and Mike stopped upon his saying that, and everybody froze, not moving another muscle.
"Bob, Mike, turn around." Said Tommy, as Bob and Mike turned around, and went back to their seats in the cockpit.
"Guys, run back to your seats." Said Tommy to his other friends and Dil, who all turned around, and ran back up the isle of the airplane to their seats.
Once Tommy saw his friends were all safely back in their seats, he turned towards Bob and Mike, biting his lip, as he knew he had to face them, and it wouldn't be easy.
"Hey, why didn't you guys try to hurt me?" Tommy asked the pilot and co-pilot.
"We'd never hurt the movie director." Said Bob.
"Yeah, without you, there'd be no movies." Added Mike.
"No movies huh? Hmmm." Tommy thought to himself, as the dream faded away, and he awoke, to find he was still lying in the bed on the train next to Rosie, and Rosie was curled up next to him, sound asleep. Now Tommy lay there, his eyes half open, as he gazed dreamily at his girlfriend, admiring how cute she looked while she slept peacefully, wrapped in his arms.
His last dose of pain medicine had warn off, as his shoulder was really bothering him, but he didn't care at that moment. He was curled up with his most favorite person in the whole wide world at that moment, and at that moment, he was hoping it would never end.
While the two toddlers were asleep next to one another, Sandy eventually came into the room to grab a few hours of sleep in the bed across the way, when she stopped for a minute, to stare at the two toddlers, curled up together, asleep.
"Awe, they're so cute!" Sandy whispered to herself, as she made herself comfortable across the way in her bed, as Mary had fallen asleep next to Derek out on the train while they were watching their movie on DVD.
Early the following morning, on August 12, 2014, the train was getting closer to Boston, Massachusetts, as while it had made stops in Albany, NY, Pittsfield, MA and Springfield, MA, only passengers getting off at those stops had to leave. Anybody continuing on to Boston remained on board. However, it was now early the next morning, and the sunlight was starting to stream into the train windows, causing everybody to wake up. They also made a stop in Worcester, which wasn't announced on the original announcement, but they would make stops at other places along the way.
"This is the train to, Boston, the next stop is, Worcester." Said an electronic sounding male robotic voice over a P.A. system, as the train pulled into the station in Worcester, and let a few passengers off.
"Please watch the gap between the train and the platform." Continued the robotic male voice, as the doors leading out of the train opened to let passengers off, and passengers heading to Boston on to the train, before they closed and the train took off for Boston.
"This is the train to, Boston. The next stop is, Boston." Said the robotic male voice, as the train inched its way closer to Boston. By this time, everybody was awake, including Rosie and Tommy, who were still laying side by side together in bed, looking at one another.
"Wow, that was the bestest night sleep ever!" Said Rosie.
"Yeah, it was nice sleeping with you." Said Tommy.
"And no worries Tommy, your secret is safe with me." Whispered Rosie into Tommy's ear.
Tommy nodded and smiled, knowing that what he had shared with her the night before, would remain strictly between them forever.
"Say, aren't boyfriends and girlfriends spose to sleep together? Or at least that's what I've always heardid on the TV anyway." Asked Tommy.
"Yeah, I think so, and we sure did sleep together, and it was fun! I wish we could take nappies together all of the time." Said Rosie, as she yawned and stretched, as she got out of bed, Tommy, following after her.
"Yeah, me too." Said Tommy, as he turned and gazed at Rosie.
Of course, while the two toddlers slept together, they had no idea what the term, sleeping together really meant, but for now, as far as they were concerned, it would mean what they had done the previous night, curling up and going to sleep together, in terms of the taking a nap kind.
As Rosie and Tommy were walking out of the sleeping compartment to head back to the seats where they were sitting with their friends the night before, Rosie grabbed Tommy's arm and spun him around for a brief moment.
"What is it Rosie?" Tommy asked.
"Well Tommy, I just wanna say, that I'm gonna miss you, and I'm sorry we didn't get more time together, as once we get into Boston, I've gots to go home, and you'll be going on an airplane all the way back to your home in California." Said Rosie.
"Yeah, I'm gonna miss you too, but I'm happy we got some time together, and there's always the nextest time." Said Tommy with a smile, as he stared at Rosie, the grin never leaving his face.
He felt the happiest he had been in days, and it was thanks to Rosie, for making him feel like his old self again.
"Ooooh, I almost forgot, I have something for you." Said Rosie, who reached into her dress pocket to pull out Tommy's plastic screwdriver.
"For me?" Tommy asked, taking the now fixed screwdriver from Rosie.
"Uh huh? Me and Susie fixted it yesterday. That's why I couldn't play with you at the place with all of the nummy food." Said Rosie.
"G, thanks!" Said Tommy, as he placed the screwdriver, which had been glued back together so well, that nobody could easily tell it was once broken, into his shorts pocket.
"You're welcome baby." Said Rosie, as she gave Tommy a hug.
"Baby? I'm not a baby no more. A big kid, maybe, but not a baby." Said Tommy.
"You'll always be my baby." Said Rosie, as she gave Tommy a hug. He just relaxed and hugged her back, as if he was going to trust her with his secret fear of people, he might as well let Rosie think of him as a baby, as he was still technically a baby when they first met.
Once they finished embracing one another, they hurried back to their seats, where two bowls of cerial were waiting for them at the table that was in the middle of their little row there, separating the two rows of facing seats. Everyone else was nearly finished with their breakfast, and talking about all they enjoyed in the Super Why movie the night before. Tommy and Rosie though, decided to ignore the Super Why talk that was going on around them, and enjoy their last few moments together, before they would have to say goodbye.
No sooner had Tommy and Rosie finished their breakfast, when the train pulled into Boston South Station. Everybody gathered up their things and got off of the train, and while they were waiting for the bus to take them to Logan Airport, they all told Sandy, Mary and Rosie goodbye, as they were about to head down to the MBTA, to take a subway back to Mary and Rosie's apartment.
"Goodbye Mary, I hope we can keep in touch." Said Derek.
"Do you have Facebook?" Mary asked.
"Yep, I do, just do a search for Derek Generic, I'm not hard to find." Said Derek, as he and Mary smiled at one another, shook hands, and departed, as Derek caught up with his family, and Mary caught up with Sandy and Rosie.
Rosie, who was in her stroller, passed by Tommy, who was in his double stroller next to Dil, as she waved goodbye to Tommy, and Tommy, waved goodbye back, the smiles, never leaving one another's faces.
And this, ends chapter 9. So, what will happen next? We have one more short chapter, covering part of the airplane trip back to California, so please, do stay tuned!