Sandstorm {Discontinued}{Rewritten}

Interlude #6

But what Deserey found confusing was the fact that her children getting the toys they'd asked for was so wrong.

The mentality really set her off. Darryl had had to hold her back from fights or even toss her over her shoulder and drag her out of the store on more than one occasion because of her ugly temper.

Deserey tucked her daughter under her covers nice and snug before kissing the top of her head. "Night, bebita."

"Night, night, Mommy," Anita said with a little yawn. She was already starting to doze off.

Deserey smiled lightly, turning to leave, only to stop a moment later when she realized there was a toy truck in her path. She turned back to her daughter. "Promise you'll clean your room tomorrow?"

"Aw," Anita pouted. She'd always hated cleaning her room.

"If you do, we might go out for ice cream," Deserey tried with a hushed tone.

Anita gasped, and she knew she had her attention. "At Ingrid's??" That was Anita's favorite ice cream shop down the road; it was a special place in which Anita and Deserey shared.

Deserey smiled back at her daughter. "Uh, huh. But you have to clean your room first."

"Okay!" Anita nodded eagerly. "I will first thing when I wake up. I promise!" Her words were a bit lispy, due to the girl only being four years old.

"Okay," Deserey nodded as she stepped around the trucks to get to the door. "I'll hold you to it. Don't forget!"

"I won't! I won't!" Anita said. Then, her eyes widened like a thought had just come to her. "Oh, mommy. Don't tell the boys, too! It's just for us. Okay?"

Darryl appeared a second later, pretending to pout at her words. "Aw. I want in on the secret."

Anita shook her head firmly. Deserey shrugged when he looked at her. "I'm sworn into secrecy."

"Oh," he said, dragging the word out slightly. "Well, if you're sworn in." He grinned at Anita, stepping around the toys to get to her bed. "I guess I'll have to tickle you for the information!"

Anita squealed, giggling uncontrollably as her father began tickling her sides. "Mommy, help!" she laughed out.

"Don't worry, I'll save you!" Deserey maneuvered around the toys again, jumping on her husband's back. "Rawr!"

Luckily, Darryl was use to this by now, so he was able to keep his balance fairly well. Still, that didn't stop him from faking it. He yelled dramatically, "Oh no! I've been defeated, aah!"

He pretended to fall over, Deserey still on his back. Anita cheered, and Deserey high fived her daughter as Darryl pretended to be vanquished.

After a moment, though, she got off Darryl's back and kissed her daughter's head again before taking her leave and moving down the hall to Daren's room.

Daren was frowning at the closet worriedly when she came in. He looked up at her, and she knew what he was going to say before he said it. "Mommy, can you check for monsters?"

Deserey tilted her head to the side. This was something an older kid at preschool had convinced him of, that there were monsters in his closet and under his bed, waiting to eat him up for bad behavior. "Didn't Daddy already look when he tucked you in?"

Daren nodded, but he still looked worried about it.

"He didn't find any?" Deserey asked.

Daren shook his head, yet still he looked afraid.

Deserey hummed and gave a small shrug of her shoulders. "Well, I suppose it couldn't hurt to check twice, right?"

She moved closer to the closet, Daren warning her to be careful. Slowly, Deserey pulled the closet door open, knowing full well there wouldn't be anything behind it. She just needed to show her son that.