Life moves on...

Chapter 4.

02:24 p.m. 02/04/2015

John's first impression of London was as cliché as shown in the movies. As the plane flew over one of the most recognizable cities in the world, John could actually see the infamous Big Ben slowly receding from his vision as the plane descended onto the landing strip at Heathrow Airport, London.

To his left, Teddy spoke up.

"Are we here?"

John glanced at him excitedly.

"Yep!"

A few minutes later, Mr. Edward Wilson along with his wife, Mrs. Wilson and two sons, John and Teddy stood in line at the airport, ready to be checked out.
Half an hour later, the family were seated in a taxi on their way to their hotel. The boys were buzzing with excitement. Mr and Mrs Wilson looked at them amusingly. This was, of course not their first trip abroad. It was the boys' though. As the cab neared the hotel, the boys' excitement gradually increased.
"Dude we're going to have so much fun!"
10 mins later the family of four were walking into the Marylebone hotel where they were staying.
As they approached the receptionist, he looked up with a smile on his face. The tag on his chest read
Mr. Urwal Knight
Marylebone Hotel
"How may I help you sir?" he asked pleasantly.
"Yes we spoke on the phone. I'm Edward Wilson."
The receptionist recognized the name.
"Ah! Mr. Wilson! Yes, I believe you are...."
He typed something in his computer.
"... in room 224. Here are the keys sir."
He handed Edward two gold plated keys connected by a single keychain. He took them and then, guiding his family, proceeded to walk towards the elevator.
"Have a good time!" the receptionist shouted after us as the elevator doors shut behind us.
5 mins later John was lying down on his bed, the slightest of jet lag lurking in him. But he was not resting. He was actually planning the day ahead of him. The only time he planned on sleeping was after two days.
Suddenly his dad came into his room and turned off the lights.
"Rest John. It's been a long day."
John sat up on his bed.
"But-"
"No buts! Go to sleep."
Saying that, he left.
For a moment, John sat in silence. Then he sighed and flopped onto his bed and was about to doze off when he heard the scrapping sound of the door to his room being carefully opened.
John stopped breathing. He tried his best not to move, but knew he was doing a terrible job. He then realized that it must be his dad, coming to check up on him. He lifted the covers of his blanket to see and instead of his dad, he was face to face with Teddy.
"Don't scream."
John did just the opposite and gave a little shout. Teddy himself gave a yelp at John's reaction. John immediately clamped a hand over his own mouth.
"I said don't scream!" Teddy whispered loudly.
"Couldn't you have told me that before you scared the living daylights out of me?!" John whispered furiously in reply.
"OK sorry sorry!" he whispered loudly.
"Quiet down will you!"
"OK sorry!"
"Shhhhhhhh!"
Teddy raised his hands in surrender.
'Sorry' he mouthed.
John took a deep breath.
"What do you want?" he hissed.
"Well....."
John saw from Teddy's expression that he was formulating what he wanted to say. And he also knew that he usually did that when he was thinking of doing something that their dad wouldn't exactly approve of.
"Teddy no."
"C'mon! Just listen to what I have to say."
"Look Teddy, this is our first day in London. Lets not mess it up."
"We won't!"
John eyed him.
"Well if we don't get caught that is."
John's face darkened.
"Teddy..." he started.
"Look I just want to explore around the block. Just the block okay?"
John kept quiet for a while, thinking it through. He had to admit, he was dying to do just that. He had been afraid of Teddy snitching about him but now, that wasn't a problem...
John looked at Teddy's energetic, eager face. He knew that Teddy knew that he had won.
"OK, but just around the block alright?"
Teddy pumped his arms in the air.
"Yes" he whispered loudly.
John shushed him till he had mellowed to just vibrating with excitement.
"If we're gonna do this, I need you to listen to everything I say."
Teddy nodded vigorously.
"We need to be very quiet OK? We can't risk making too much noise."
Teddy nodded aggressively. He had started to look like one of those bobble-heads people kept on the dashboards of their cars.
John gestured towards the door of his room.
"On me."
Teddy eagerly skipped over to the door. He had almost opened the door when John grabbed him from behind and pulled him towards himself.
"Teddy!"
Teddy looked alarmed.
"What?"
John slapped his palm on his own forehead.
"When I say 'On me', what I mean by that is you follow me!"
Realization dawned on Teddy.
"Oh!"
"Let's try that again. And quietly this time!"
John led him to the door. He cracked open the door and peered out. The living room was empty. He tiptoed outside and slowly advanced to the front door. Suddenly he heard a
Creak
from behind him. He flipped around to see that Teddy was leaning on a chair, scratching his leg. John was fuming.
"Teddy!" he managed to whisper.
"Sorry I had to scratch my leg really badly." said Teddy, without interrupting the scratching.
John tried his best to keep his anger in check. And he was doing a good job considering he had anger management issues.
"Teddy, I don't think you are quite aware with the meaning of quiet." he said through his teeth.
Teddy opened his mouth to respond, when they heard the sound of the door of their parents' room being opened. John quickly pointed towards their dining table and mouthed
'Hide!'
And just in time. His mother had just appeared into the room when Teddy rolled behind the table.
Mrs. Wilson was a bit taken aback when she saw John just standing there.
"Oh thank God it's just you! For a moment there I was scared out of my wits!"
Her look turned into one of confusion.
"What are you doing standing there?"
"Oh me? Oh I was just.... uh.... "
His sight trailed over to the kitchen counter where he saw an empty bottle of water.
"....... I came to get a glass of water..."
His mother nodded.
"Oh."
"... for Teddy..."
His mother looked at him confused. Internally, he kicked himself. Why did have to make it complicated?!
"For Teddy? Why, is he okay?"
John stammered a bit.
"Yeah he, uh, he......."
John thought for a moment.
"....... he wet himself."
He imagined Teddy's reaction and would've laughed hadn't he been almost himself wetting his pants from fear of being caught.
"He did?" she asked in horror.
"Yeah he, uh, he had a bad dream. You know how those are."
"Where is he? Is he in his room?"
John started to panic. If she went to Teddy's room she would find out that they were lying. And that would be bad.
"I actually don't think it would be a good idea to see him."
"Why not?"
John gulped.
"Because it's kind of embarrassing, you know someone wetting his bed, and.... I think he would like to be left alone."
"Nonsense!"
She started towards the door of Teddy's room and opened the door. 'This is it. We're done for.' John thought. But then he heard some very strange words.
"John he's asleep."
A look of confusion crept onto John's face, which turned into an internal sigh of relief. Teddy must've been hearing their conversation and went to his room.
"Well John?"
A new problem arose for John.
"Actually it wasn't Teddy who.... uh...."
His mother looked impatient.
"Then who was it John? You?" she said sarcastically. John knew that she thought he had been trying to go out and smoke. How could he convince them that he had stopped?
"Actually it was me."
His mother raised an eyebrow. He could literally see Teddy trying to control his laughter.
"You wet your bed?"
"Uh yes I did."
She looked at his pants.
"But your pants aren't wet..."
He looked at them.
"Oh actually I uh, changed them."
She looked at his pants again.
"Aren't those the same pants you were wearing before?"
Either she wasn't buying it or she was genuinely confused.
"Actually I have two of these pants."
Finally his mum looked like she understood.
"Oh that makes sense."
Silence.
"Well if you want to talk about it we can do that tomorrow or..."
"No I'm fine thanks."
"Well you'll have to go to your room now. Don't want your father to see you awake."
"Yeah that would be bad."
For a moment John didn't move.
"Well go on!"
"Oh yeah sorry."
He fast walked over to his room and went to the bathroom to relieve himself before his lie turned into a truth.