Babysitting Blues: Part Three

      "And thank you too, Miss Soup Faerie! And Miss Library Faerie! Oh, and you also, Nausica!" The fire faerie smiled at Raven and Trisha as they left.

      "And obviously thanks to you too, Miss Healing Springs Faerie!" Trisha finished as the enormous double doors shut behind them.

      "They were really nice, weren't they?" Rae said as they descended the large, spiraling marble staircase.

      "Of course they were! Did you think they were going to be rude or something?" Trish asked.

      "I had no idea. I've never met royalty before, remember?"

      "Oh yeah," Trisha replied.

      "I think that Andy will be happy with this new book Nausica gave me," Raven said, looking down at the hardcover book in her arms. She had known how much Andrew liked to read and, after the introductions had been made, she had asked Nausica if there was a book she would recommend for her young Ruki. Now she had a reward for him when they got home. Andrew would also be being paid by Trish when they got to the house.

      "I can't wait to tell him what we did!" Raven said happily.

      "Me neither. Lily will be so thrilled with this new rattle that the Soup Faerie gave me!" Trisha replied.

      They made their way down to the Uni Express station and started to look for a strong pair of Unis to take them home.

      *****

      "YES!" Andy yelled as the window opened easily for him. He quickly jumped in and shut it.

      "Lockey!" Lily reminded him.

      "Oh yeah!" Andrew latched the lock on the window. "I guess now it's time for your 'dinner.'"

      "YIPPEE!" the baby Kacheek exclaimed.

      The pair made their way into the kitchen. Again. And Lily was placed onto her chair. Again. She sat patiently waiting for the sweets she would get.

      "Hey, Lily?" the shadow Ruki asked as he rummaged through the fridge.

      "Yup," she replied, looking at his back.

      "We don't have any slushies or cinnamon rolls."

      "Bu-buh you say I tan have it!" she wailed.

      "I know. But we do have some baby tomatoes and some hot soup." He looked at his cousin hopefully.

      She let out a small sigh.

      "Otay," Lily mumbled. YES! Andy shouted in his head.

      About ten minutes later a small feast was before the young Kacheek. There were the hot soup and baby tomatoes, but there were also an Ice Cream Sundae and a small portion of Chocolate Kougra Pudding.

      Just as Lily was about to take a huge spoonful of ice cream, Andrew pulled away the bowl of ice cream and the plate of pudding. Lily looked at him like he was crazy.

      "Why you do dat?" she asked quietly.

      "You have to eat your dinner first. Then you get the dessert, Lily," Andrew said. Hopefully she would get full before she could eat the sweets. He had already broken one of Trisha's rules by giving her an Iceberg Sundae earlier that evening. She gave him a moment more stare and looked at the soup.

      "Otay," Lily said sadly. She began to eat the soup. Slowly at first, then a bit faster.

      "Dis is vewy good, Anny!" she said as she slurped more soup. "Tan I hab som mowe pwease?"

      "Sure, Lily," Andrew went over to the stove and took the pot of soup over to the table. Carefully, he poured some more into her bowl. Hopefully this would make Lily full so she wouldn't want the sweets.

      About half an hour and twelve bowls of soup later, Lily was eating the ice cream sundae. Next to the bowl was an empty plate, where minutes ago had been a serving of chocolate Kougra pudding.

      Andrew let out a defeated sigh. This night was not going well. Lily belched.

      "Equse me," she said as she took another huge bite of ice cream. Once she was finished eating Andy had promised to read Lily her book.

      "All done," Lily pushed the empty bowl away from her.

      "Okay. Now it's time for your story, then you're going to go to bed!" Andy said. Lily said nothing as he picked her up and went over to the sink.

      A few minutes later the shadow Ruki was sitting on the couch with his little cousin on his lap, reading "Baby Ixi Book." As he opened closed it he looked at the clock. NINE-THIRTY! Lily was supposed to be in bed, asleep, over an hour ago! How many of his aunt's rules was he going to break in one evening? He just hoped she wouldn't be too upset with him.

      "Okay, Lil, it's time for bed," Andrew said as he carried her to their guest bedroom. This one had been especially made for baby guests so it had a cot for her to sleep in.

      "No wanna sweep, Anny," Lily whimpered. She gave a big yawn and stretched in his arms.

      "Oh you're not, are you? Not even a little bit?" he asked as they entered the room.

      "Uh-uh," she said quietly, her big eyes drooping as she started to doze off.

      "Well, I'll just lay you down in here and we can talk, okay?"

      "Tay, Anny." Andrew set her down into the cot softly, pulling the covers up to her shoulders.

      "Comfortable?" he asked.

      "Yep. It verwy comfy," Lily replied sleepily. "I just gonna cwose my eyes fow a minute, otay?"

      "Yeah, that's fine with me." He walked over and turned on a nightlight for her and shut off the main light. Now the room was mostly dark. Lily's breathing was gentle now and Andy was just walking out of the room when he heard Lily talking.

      "Anny?" she whispered.

      "Yeah, Lily?" Andrew asked quietly, turning to look at her. She was sitting up in the cot looking at him.

      "I waned to tewl you somting," Lily said.

      "What is it?"

      "I wuv you, Anny. Yow de bestest cousin in de whole wide wowld," she said lovingly. Andy smiled and walked back over to his cousin.

      "I love you too, Lily," he whispered. He gave her a big hug and kissed her on the forehead.

      "See you later," he said as he walked out of the room.

      "Nigh-nigh, Anny."

      "Night Lil." Andrew shut the door quietly and went back into the kitchen to pick up and eat. He was starving!

      *****

      "What about these two?" Raven asked, looking over a pair of muscular brown Uni brothers.

      "Nah," Trish replied immediately. She spotted a pair of white Uni sisters and exclaimed, "These ones!"

      "Whatever, as long as they get us home safely," Rae replied, handing over her half of Neopoints to the Uni she was riding.

      "Where to?" Trisha's Uni asked.

      "Neopia Central, please," Raven answered.

      "You got it!" both Unis galloped down a starting road and took off moments later. Raven had always loved flying in the night. She didn't know why; it was just really cool to see all of the lights going on and off down below her.

      "How long until we get there?" she asked her Uni.

      "About forty to forty-five minutes," the Uni replied kindly. The rest of the trip was pretty silent, except for little outbursts from Trish when she saw something she said she swore looked like the Space Faerie. Raven just shook her head in amusement. Her sister could sometimes be one of the weirdest people in all of Neopia.

      *****

      Andrew finished washing his plate. He had just settled on eating a BBQ Omelette and some strawberry jelly and was putting the plates away when the front door opened.

      "We're back!" Trisha exclaimed. "Did you and Lily have a good time?"

      "Yeah. She's asleep right now."

      "Where is she? We really should get going," Trish asked.

      "In the first room on the right," Andy directed. Once Trisha was out of the room Raven walked over to her pet.

      "What happened?" she asked quietly.

      "Nothing!" Andrew answered just a little bit too quickly. Rae gave him a hard look.

      "Okay, I broke a few of Trisha's rules," he mumbled.

      "Which ones?" she asked.

      "Well, the no sweets rule and when she went to bed."

      "What did you feed her?"

      "Um, well, a lot of things... "

      "Like what?" Raven asked in a hard tone.

      "Like an ice cream sundae, an iceberg sundae and some chocolate Kougra pudding," he whispered, pretending to be fascinated by the tiled floor.

      "And why was she late being put to bed?"

      "We had been playing hide and seek before she ate dinner and I couldn't find her. Then when I found her she was outside, hanging onto the tree branch and I had to make a deal with her before she would come down.

      "Then the front door was locked and we had to go in through my bedroom window. Once we were inside I had to make her dinner and by the time she was finished I had already promised her that I would read her the book Trisha had brought for me to read to her. Then once I was done, it was about nine-thirty. I'm sorry, mom. I did a horrible job, I know. But please don't be too mad." Andrew looked up at his mom.

      "Well," she said after a moment of silence. "I guess I can't be too mad anyways. You did your best at taking care of Lily, and you told me the truth. That was very mature and I know it took a lot of courage. But I do want to know why you gave her all that sugar when Trisha told you explicitly not to give her any."

      "Well, the iceberg sundae was because as soon as you left she wouldn't get off of my head and that was the only way she would come down!" he explained.

      "Understandable. At least on my part. I don't know how understanding Trish will be, though. What about the other two things?"

      "That was when she was hanging on the tree."

      "Okay. I understand that. I had to do almost the exact same thing with you when you were growing up, Andy." Raven's eyes got a misted look to them.

      "Really?"

      "Yes. But you need to let Trisha know about this. Tonight," she added, seeing him about to ask something.

      "Fine, mom." Just then Trisha walked in holding a sleepy-eyed Lily.

      "I heard everything you just said, Andrew, and I can't believe you would go behind my back and disobey me." Her tone was bitter and cold.

      "I know. And there isn't an excuse for it, and I'm truly sorry, Trish. I hope that you can forgive me and you'll let me watch Lily again. We really did have a good time." Andy looked at his aunt hopefully.

      "Well, I am glad that you apologized to me. But it is going to be awhile before I will trust you to watch my Lily again." Andy nodded.

      "I understand." Raven looked from her pet to her sister.

      "Trish, you can't go too hard on him. He's still a kid too, you know. I think that under the circumstances he did a very good job and you should let him watch Lily again." She looked her older sister in the eye.

      Trisha sighed heavily. "You're right. I know." She looked over at Andrew. "And I'm sorry for being so hard on you, Andy. You did do a great job watching her. Would you like to do it again next Saturday?" The shadow Ruki looked from his aunt to his mom, then to his sleeping cousin, Lily. A smile spread across his face.

      "I'd love to."

The End