Life Could Be a Dream

Chapter 10- The Delinquent Road Hazard

Chapter 10- The Delinquent Road Hazard

Two nights later, the nightmares started.

Luigi and Guido knew that, in hindsight, they shouldn't have been surprised. Of course, everything that had happened was gonna have some serious negative impacts on their child.

Guido was the one to first find out. He and Luigi had both fallen asleep themselves and the little forklift was in the middle of a wonderful dream. He couldn't remember all of the details. He just remembered it involved giving real Ferraris pit stops (that was Guido's dream; if he could do that just once, he could die happy!). Then he heard a scream. At first, Guido ignored it, thinking that it was part of his dream. Maybe a fan screaming or the squeal of tyres on the asphalt. But when he heard someone screaming, "PAPÀ! BABBO! NO! DON'T LET THEM TAKE ME AWAY!", he knew. The blue forklift awoke immediately and hurried into his daughter's bedroom.

Fudge was sat up in bed, sobbing. Luigi wasn't there, which didn't surprise Guido. The yellow Fiat was a very heavy sleeper.

"Fudgie!" Guido exclaimed, giving her a big hug.

"I... I had a bad dream!" she whimpered.

"(Poor baby!)" Guido wiped some tears away. "(What was it?)" He thought he knew based on what he'd heard, but he had to know if there were any details he didn't know.

With tears running down her face, Fudge described the nightmare in Italian for Guido. She needed a little help, struggling to remember how to say certain words in Italian (she was sometimes the same way with English; she only knew the Italian word for what she wanted to say), but Guido provided the Italian word whenever Fudge gave him the English one (he could understand English; the little forklift just didn't feel very confident speaking it). Plus, it was very easy for Guido to get the gist of what her nightmare was. He and Luigi had let the social workers take her. They had abandoned her.

"Fudge", Guido began gently, squeezing her hand, "(Luigi and I would never, ever do that to you. We do not get any choice in whether you stay or go either.)" He kissed her softly. "(We wish you could stay.)"

"(Me too...)" Fudge agreed.

"(You have wet yourself!)" Guido noted, finally realising that Fudge's pyjama pants were soaking wet.

Fudge nodded. "(I was scared and I wet my pants!)"

"(That is okay)", Guido assured her. "(But I will need to give you a bath.)"

"(Now?!)" Fudge asked. The clock read 2:42.

"Si", Guido replied, picking her up. "(Now. And I will need to change your bedsheets.)"

So, that's what they did. Once Fudge had been bathed and put into clean pyjamas, she was tucked into a bed with clean bedsheets. Guido had been hoping that that would be the end of it. Still, he decided to talk to Luigi about it in the morning.

"I am sure it is just a phase", he assured his best friend. "All the talk about her being transferred has been very hard on her." He sighed sadly. He was trying not to cry. "I know that this is a very hard thing to say, but... but I think if Fudgie has to go, then the sooner she does, the better it will be for her."

Guido sighed. "(I think you are right.)"

Neither of them ever thought that they would admit something like that.

That wasn't the only phase was going through. For one thing, she started wetting the bed again and then her pants.

For another, everything seemed to scare her at that point. She had a lot of fears, especially being separated from her her family (especially her dads) and learning about death...