Chapter eleven: Your Future
Alison tried to think about names for her child. She wasn't successful. After a few minutes, Amira and Patrick came into the living room.
"How's it going mommy." said Amira jokingly.
"Don't call me Mommy. Since you are here, do you know a name or a place wich I can make safer?"
"No. Second, maybe the old watch factory. It said as Royal Woods little Chernobyl."
"Wait, what?"
"Yes. For a long time. The clock factory dug a hole in the ground there and poured in radioactive paint for the dials. The area is considered contaminated."
"Why did they do that?" asked Patrick.
"It was normal back then. Like smoking on a plane."
"Don't think about smoking." said Alison.
"Yes sorry."
"I have to go there. Come with me."
Amira and Patrick agreed, so the three walked into the old industrial area, and found themselves in front of a property with a tall building hidden by trees. The property was fenced and in front of the building were radiation warning signs and signs that read, "DANGER!!! IONIZING RADIATION!!!" Alison was shocked. All these years what she never wanted was here, two kilometers away from her home.
"Like fifteen years ago." said Amira.
Alison turned and walked down the sidewalk.
"I need time to myself."
Patrick wanted to follow her, but Amira held him back.
"Bad idea." said Amira.
Alison went to the street where her home was. In the garden she saw something that made her heart leap for joy. Her mother.
"Mom!"
Alison ran towards Constance and the two hugged tightly.
"How long have you been back?"
"For an hour. Come in with me."
Constance and Alison went into the house and they sat on the sofa.
"Here, I have something for you." said Constance, handing Alison a small canvas.
On it was a fine pencil drawing of Alison.
"Did you do that?" Alison asked.
"Yes. I made art. And I made friends with a crack junkie who taught me to rap."
"You can rap? Show me."
"Al, if I rap the lyrics I know, a Jesus cross would fall off the wall somewhere."
"Oh. Of course."
"But he said I was the coolest mom he'd ever seen."
At that moment, Alison's stomach growled.
"The little one is hungry. But I don't have anything to eat here. Oh you know what, let's go to a restaurant."
Before Alison could say yes, Constance grabbed her hand and pulled her behind her. At the restaurant in the center of Royal Woods, the two had a cheeseburger to eat.
"Hey Mom, I saw the old clock factory. Has it always been there? Because I have to make Royal Woods safe." Alison said, pointing to her stomach.
"Yes, it has always been there. But focus on your child first, and then on the old watch factory." said Constance, biting into the cheeseburger.
"Okay Mom."
"How is Rita?"
"She's fine. Why do you ask?"
"I'm just asking. Shall we go see her later?"
"Are you really sober?"
"No jokes. I just miss human contact."
"We can go to Rita's. I mean, she'll probably say yes."
The two continued to eat. Rita was sitting on the sofa in the living room. She read the messages on her phone. It was about noise pollution from the Royal Woods-Creek Hill tram route.
"Fortunately, I don't live next to the tram line. It's nice and quiet around here. Besides, it's no wonder the old trains are still running."
Rita said to herself. Lincoln entered the living room.
"What are you reading?"
"Oh news. I'm glad it's so quiet here."
"You think it's quiet here?"
"Well yes, but actually no."
Then the doorbell rang. Rita went and opened the door. It was Alison and Constance.
"Hi Rita. Before you ask, she wanted to see you." said Alison.
"Hi Constance. You're back?" asked Rita.
"Yes. I'm finally off the booze."
Lily crawled into the living room and saw Alison. She sat on the floor and waved at her.
"Hi Lily." said Alison.
Lily crawled over to Alison and hugged her legs. Alison picked her up and hugged her. Constance looked over at Rita.
"Can I talk to you for a minute?"
"Sure. Alison, please take care of Lily. Okay?" "Yes." said Alison.
Lily kissed her cheek.
"Yet again?" Alison asked.
Rita and Constance went into Rita's bedroom.
"Hey Rita, sometimes I feel like I've failed completely with Alison."
"Why do you think that? Alison must be a wonderful daughter."
"She is, too, and next to my still husband, she is the center of my life. But this girl is pregnant. At fourteen."
"Honestly, I don't know what advice I can give you. Actually, yes. Teach her to be a mother. Just like you want to be. That's the only thing."
"How do you deal with being a mother of eleven children?"
Rita laughed lightly.
"As it comes. Ask me something else Constance."
"Oh. Come on. Let's go back to Al and Lily." Rita agreed. As the two entered the living room, they saw Alison playing peek-a-boo with Lily, occasionally wrapping Lily in her purple blanket, which seemed to please her.
"Oh you are a cutie. I would like to take you home with me sometimes." said Alison.
"Don't get too used to it. Babies are cute, but think about changing diapers, crying in the middle of the night, which happens three times, and nursing. It made me uncomfortable." said Constance.
"I've never been uncomfortable breastfeeding. But you're right. Babies are extremely exhausting." said Rita.
"Did you ever do babysitting jobs?"
Rita laughed lightly.
"No. Believe me, I never did that with eleven kids at home."
"You should babysit with Alison. That way you could teach her parenting and I could babysit Lily and practice being a grandmother."
"Actually a good idea."
Rita walked over to Alison and Lily with Constance.
"How about babysitting Alison?" asked Constance.
"I do not know." said Alison.
"Then I can teach you a few things about parenting." said Rita.
And I can practice being a grandmother." Constance said.
Now Lily was completely confused. Rita noticed this.
"Oh don't worry Lily. Constance is sober and wants Just good things for you."
Lily sighed softly.
"Oh come on. Constance is nice."
A week later, Rita handed Lily over to Constance.
"Please put her to bed at 8:00 p.m." said Rita.
"No problem. I used to put Alison to bed around that time too." said Constance.
"Good. Goodbye you two then."
Alison waved at them both and left the Louds' house with Rita.
"Let's see what's on TV." said Constance, and went to the couch with Lily.
She put on a children's show, but for Constance, as well as for Lily, what they saw on TV was pretty weird. The two looked at each other.
"It feels like an acid trip thing." said Constance.
The show just kept getting weirder.
"We got Acid, Acid in the house."
Twins are always something interesting. Now Rita and Alison are babysitting twins. Liz and Victoria couldn't be more different, While Victoria seems to be quite hyper, Liz is pretty quiet. The two have long blonde hair with straight bangs, gray blue eyes, and are both slightly chubby. One notices the various distinctive features of the attire, Liz's clothes are graphite grey, while Victoria wears a white jumper with pink dots, and pink pants. The mother of the two gives Rita and Alison tips about the two.
"Make sure Victoria doesn't blow anything up and they should go to bed at 8:00 p.m." said the twins' mother.
Liz now noticed that her mother was leaving.
"No, no stay here." said Liz.
"I can't Liz. I have to go now. I'll be right back. Have fun."
Then she went. Liz looked around, and ran to her room. Rita looked after her.
"I'll go see her soon. Victoria, what do you want to do?" asked Rita.
"Blow something up!"
"That would be great, but unfortunately that's not possible. Come on, go into the kitchen with Alison. She will cook lasagna with you."
Victoria nodded and walked into the kitchen with Alison. Rita went to the room that had Liz written in red on the door. Rita knocked and entered the room. Liz was sitting on her bed and a radio was playing music that sounded a lot like "The Calm Before the Storm". Liz looked down. Rita approached her.
"Liz, don't you want to come to our place?"
Liz looked at Rita's shirt.
"No."
"My eyes are up here."
Liz said nothing.
"Look into my eyes."
"I can not."
"Why not?"
"I can not."
"Could you at least explain it to me?" Liz considered.
"I... My mother knows exactly what it's called. But something's different about me. I just can't look at you. Do you know what a laugh is?"
"Yes."
"Do you know what crying is?"
"Yes."
"When me and Victoria do anything together, I try to see something and I don't see anything. One time, like every night, I went to Victoria and she was sitting on the bed. She said go away. I asked why. I don't know why but then she took my hand and held it to her sweater which was a bit damp she said she was crying right now and I should go but to me she looked like that as always."
"Okay. I don't know how to make you any better, but do you like lasagna?"
"Yes."
"Then come into the kitchen."
Rita gestured and Liz stood up. The two went into the kitchen and Liz saw immediately that, out of Alison's view, Victoria was preparing to mix baking soda in a bottle of vinegar to make a kitchen bomb. Liz quickly walked up to Victoria and grabbed her arm.
"You know what Mom said." said Liz.
"Let me go. Let me do my stuff." said Victoria.
Liz twisted Victoria's arm. Victoria screamed and punched Liz in the stomach. Liz hit back. Rita and Alison walked between the two, separating the two. Rita held Liz and Alison held Victoria.
"Let me go." said Liz.
"If you promise to calm down."
Liz stopped struggling. Rita let her go. There was a good atmosphere in the Loud House. Constance cooked spaghetti and Lily watched her from her seat. The radio played the song, "Man! I feel like a woman today!" Constance sang along energetically. Lily kinda liked it.
"Well Lily, do you like the song?"
Lily nodded.
"I often heard the song from the police."
Lily looked at Constance in shock.
"No I wasn't arrested. I was a cop."
Lily's look was amazed.
"I wasn't the best cop, but I was a good one. Want to see some photos?"
Lily answered excitedly.
"Yes."
Constance sat down next to Lily and pulled out her cell phone. Lily looked at the photos, which showed Constance in uniform and in a squad car. In every photo, Constance looked a little angry.
"No Smile?" Lily asked.
"I've always looked angry. Even when I was in a great mood. The next photo also showed Constance, with a really angry expression on her face.
"That was the day I found out I was pregnant with Alison."
Lily gave her a questioning look.
"Not every woman is initially happy about a pregnancy. I got over it after a week."
Then she showed the last photo. It showed a tired but happy looking Constance holding a baby who looked almost like Lily.
"And this is a photo of Alison's first hour in life."
Lily looked confused.
"That means she was only an hour old at the time." Lily got it now.
Rita, Alison and the twins ate the lasagna Alison made with Victoria. The lasagne was very hot and the four of them had to be careful not to burn their tongues. Almost out of context, Liz asked a question.
"Why are you two doing this job?"
"Well, because your mother hired us." replied Rita.
"And because I have to learn to be a mother." said Alison.
"But you are too young." said Victoria.
"That's why."
"So you wanna practice her into Being a mother?" Liz asked.
"Yes." said Rita.
"How did you get pregnant?" asked Victoria.
Rita almost coughed up a piece of lasagna.
"It's not something you should hear from us." said Rita slightly stressed.
"How do you mean that?" asked Liz.
"Just forget it." said Alison.
"I suggest Jane or James."
"That sounds good. Both names start with a J. Jane Judge. Sounds good." said Rita.
Alison grumbled.
"It reminds me, shooting stars are announced today. Brush your teeth and come with us." Rita said.
Liz and Victoria looked at each other and ran into the bathroom. Two minutes later they came back and went with Rita and Alison in the Garden.
"That looks good. No clouds." said Rita.
"Very beautiful." said Alison.
"Fascinating." said Liz.
"Wow. Are those three stars in a row?" asked Victoria.
"Yes. And look aside, do you see a moderately bright red star? That's Betelgeuse." said Alison.
Then a shooting star whizzed by.
"Shooting Star! Make a quick wish!" said Rita excitedly.
All four made a silent wish.
"Let Alison's child be healthy." wished Rita.
"Let my child have a great childhood." wished Alison.
"I wish that every day was exactly the same." wished Liz.
"I wish for a nice explosion. And fireworks." wished Victoria.
Rita looked at her watch.
"It's bedtime, girls."
"I still need to take a shower." said Liz.
"And so did I afterwards." said Victoria.
"Okay, go take a shower. And then to bed."
The four went into the house and Liz disappeared into the upstairs bathroom and Victoria went down to the basement with fresh clothes. As Rita checked where Victoria was going, she found herself walking through a door that belonged to a second bathroom that was in the basement. Rita went upstairs and sat on the couch next to Alison.
"Did this help you here?" asked Rita.
"Somehow."
"We could do more Jobs like this."
"Again?"
"Get used to it. Thats your Future."
"Right."
End of Chapter