Chapter Two
Disclaimer: I do not own the Thunderbird characters in my story
Eloise, Sally, and Nora carried the transportable freezer bags full of food and the boxes of kitchen stuff into the Kitchen and began unloading it all.
Nora opened the fridge and began putting the food away while Sally and Eloise sorted out the dishes. "I sure hope Dad's new job at White Aerospace goes well," Nora commented.
"I do, too, dear," Sally replied, stacking the plates in the corner cupboard.
Eloise glanced in the fridge at the food Nora had placed in there and then inspected the remaining freezer bags to be unloaded. They had taken two weeks to move from Wyoming to New York and they rapidly decreasing food supply showed that. "Oh, no! I'm going to have to go shopping! We're low on butter, milk, apples, cheese..." and she began making a mental list of all the things they needed to stock upon.
"Race you up the stairs!" Scott called up to John and Virgil as he raced up the stairs. John and Virgil ran up after him and did not realize that little Ellie was getting into a box full of Nora's China dolls. Scott won and picked the nearest room. "I pick this one!" he declared and threw his bags onto the bed and ran back down to help his father unload the furniture. Virgil and John selected their own rooms. After putting the bags on the beds, Virgil came into John's room and sat on the bed next to John.
"How do you like my room?" John asked his younger brother.
"It's great. Do you want to paint your walls?" Virgil replied. He was dreading what Ellie would demand on. Because Ellie was four and Virgil seven, they shared the same room. And he thought that, as usual, Ellie would be the one to select the colour of the walls and not budge – but as long as Virgil agreed, Jeff would paint it. If they could not agree, Jeff would pick a colour that would satisfy both.
"Nah. I was hoping to decorate my walls with pictures of space and such that Mom and Dad had allowed me to print up last year." John grinned at Virgil. "What about you?"
Virgil groaned and collapsed on the bed. "I hope she doesn't want pink again, like in our other house." He looked over at John who was laughing his head off. The rest of the family got a lot of free amusement from the Virgil-Ellie banters. "Between you and me, I still have nightmares about that dreadful pink! Ugh!" Then John's laughter was cut off by the sound of something crashing onto the floor.
Oh no! John thought as they jumped up and raced downstairs. I was supposed to look after Ellie! They found Ellie. And next to Ellie was a broken China doll. "Oh, dear," John gasped. They went over to Ellie and began picking up the mess. "Ellie! You know better than to play with these," scolded John.
"What was that noise?" Nora's voice could be heard as she came closer to the room. Virgil and John scurried to pick up the rest of the pieces as Nora could have quite a temper on the rare occasions that she chose to break her proper lady habit and display it. Virgil threw the last of the pieces in a nearby bin that Scott had brought in and turned around...
To see Nora standing in the doorway, looking at the three of them with a slightly raised eyebrow. And Virgil knew she had seen what mess they had been cleaning up. "What happened to my doll?" she asked.
"Ah...Well...You see..." John stammered. He felt terrible as he was instructed by his mother that he needed to keep an eye on the littlest member and he had forgotten and as a result, Ellie had broken one of the China dolls. The China dolls had been a present for Nora on her's and Scott's birthday last year from her great-aunt on Eloise's side. The dolls had been in Eloise's side of the family for generations and Nora had taken great pains to take care of them.
"Ellie, were you playing with my dolls?" she asked sternly, coming over and began checking which of her dolls had been broken.
"Yeth," Ellie lisped. She sniffled. "I'm thorry I took her when I wathn't thupposed to."
"Why did you?"
"I had not been intending to break her. I only wanted to touch her, but she looked tho beautiful that I had to pick her up..." her voice trailed off as she saw the look on Nora's face. "I'll give you my teddy Furry to make up," she hastily offfered.
Nora tried not to smile as she knew Ellie did not really want to give up her beloved teddy bear, just wanted to make her older sister feel better. "No, you keep him. But thank you. Just make sure you do not touch my dolls again," and with that, Nora gave her younger sister a hug. After that, she stood up and looked at John. "Keep an eye on Ellie, please?" and she walked off back into the kitchen. Virgil sighed and went back outside to help while John led Ellie out the back door to play.