Mr. Clean

"What's your daddy doing, Chuckie?" Tommy asked, watching as Chas moved stick with a bunch of feathers on it about a bookcase. "Is he trying to attract birds?"

"No Tommy, he's cleaning."

"Oh… what's cleaning?"

"its when you make your house nice and neat, that way it looks good."

Tommy frowned. "I don't know about that, Chuckie. It's more fun to have things messy!" He giggled and rocked back and forth on the couch. "I love making messes!"

"But think about it Tommy… do you like sitting in a stinky dirty diapee?"

"Well… no," Tommy said, wiggling a bit. "Its itchy and scratchy and if I'm stuck in one too long I get a diapee rash!"

"That's because you prefer being clean!" Chuckie pointed out. "And what about when you get all muddy and dirty? Does that feel good?"

"Yeah!" Tommy said only to pause. "But… I guess it isn't great for my toys. One of my Reptar dolls couldn't open his mouth because he got mud in there and my daddy had to take him away for a whole day to get him fixed!"

"That's right!" Chuckie declared. "Its fun to get dirty and messy but it causes a lot of problems! That's why my daddy likes to clean up."

"Wow, I never thought of that."

"And it also helps you find things quicker," Chuckie pointed out. "Remember how you lost Mr. Fireman?"

Tommy nodded sadly. For a week now he couldn't find Mr. Fireman to ride around in his fire truck… how could a fire truck drive around without Mr. Fireman?

"Well, my daddy cleans so we don't lose stuff!"

"OH!" Tommy exclaimed, eyes wide. "So that's why you like to organize the blocks the way you do and put all the cars in the right garages when we play with your little town?"

"Uh huh!"

"Wow Chuckie, I never thought about it like that before." Tommy watched as Chuckie's daddy began to polish an endtable. "It's like giving your house a bath!"

"Exactly! And my daddy says that it also makes sure we don't get nasty germies."

"What are germies?"

"Something that makes you sick."

Tommy frowned. "Gee, I don't know about that… Phil and Lil play in the dirt and the trash all the time and never get sick." He paused, looking around. Him and Chuckie hadn't played much with the twins recently, ever since they'd tried to spray Chuckie with a hose. "Hey, where are Phil and Lil?"

"Daddy said they got an ear inblections cause they played in the garbage."

"Wow… so it really is good to be clean!" Tommy wiggled and got down from the couch. "Come on, let's help!"

Chuckie giggled and joined him, grabbing a toy broom while Tommy pushed around a toy vacuum.

Meanwhile Phil and Lil whimpered Betty gave them their medicine. "I think I need to watch you two more carefully. You keep getting sick and everyone calls you two the smelly kids…"