I said "Take this for what it is
I think you're a tad bit prejudice
Against the ones like us that are searching for the answers"
Chapter 15 – How to Make a Truce with a Baby Cow
Nothing much had changed in Sarah’s room. The tons of books she owned were still carelessly arranged in a small shelf. Her study table was cluttered with notebooks, paperbacks and loose files. An old twenty-one-inch TV and a DVD player on a table near the wall at the foot of her bed. A desktop computer in the corner. A small closet for her clothes. Nothing fancy. Which was one of the things I loved about her. Whenever I was with her, I didn’t need to be perfect all the time. I just had to be me.
I parked myself on the seat in front of Sarah’s study table as I watched her sleep. Would she remember all of these? Would she at least realize that I was telling the truth when she wakes up?
Oh, well. Look on the bright side, Leon. I told myself. At least she didn’t throw up on you. Again. Letting out a deep sigh, I looked around.
I picked up a small music composition notebook from her study table and was about to start thumbing through the pages when Sarah murmured something and tried to get up from bed. Her eyes were still closed while she groped around. I caught her before she could fall from her bed.
“Take it easy, Sarah. What’s wrong?” I asked gently.
With her brows creasing a bit, she opened her eyes and stared at me through half-closed lids. She chuckled quietly for a while then dry-heaved. I thought, oh no! Not again. Frantically, I towed-carried her to the bathroom. We barely made it to the sink before she threw up. I braced myself.
Ugh, crap.
There was a splatter on my left shoe and a little on the floor. No way in hell I’m going to clean that up. I am NOT going to clean that up! I yelled inside my head. Wincing, I tried to focus on Sarah. Hesitantly, I rubbed her back. Something I learned from Dad. But I wasn’t really sure if it was helping.
“It’s okay, Sarah. Do you want a glass of water?” I breathed out in panic while watching her drink straight from the tap. “Okay… that might work too.”
Sarah looked pale, almost green. Not to mention wasted. Her head lolled to the side. Again, I scooped her from the floor and carried her back to the bed, carefully avoiding the pool of sick on the bathroom tiles. I groaned irritably as I put her back to bed but was startled when she clutched tightly on my sleeve. Her eyes were closed. Maybe she was dreaming.
“Sleep now. I’ll be here,” I whispered.
“Hmm…” she smiled.
I shook my head, smiling back at her. Honestly, I’d never put much effort into anything like this. All those years, before I met her, I was just trying to get by. I didn’t dwell much or get attached to anything. That’d only mean trouble for me. I could get anything with a snap of my fingers. My life was on the fast lane and that was how I wanted it. But when she came, I dunno… For once, I thought of having roots, a family, someone I’d call home.
Once I was sure that she was fast asleep, I steeled my guts and dealt with the little accident in the bathroom. Really, I just couldn’t stand letting it at large and claim other victims. How I wished I had super powers to ward against disaster. Mostly related to Sarah. She was such a disaster magnet. I’d swear someday, she’d be the end of me.
Just when I was drying my hands with a towel, I heard a thud from Sarah’s room. I hurried in just to find Sarah sleeping on the floor. Cursing silently, I hauled her back to the bed and used the extra pillows to prevent her from falling again. The things I do for love, I grunted.
“Now where were we?” I murmured sitting down. Again, I picked up the music composition notebook. I almost fell from my seat when I heard Jer’s shrill screams from the speaker phones on the side table.
“Jeremiah… I’m… coming,” Sarah mumbled, tossing groggily on her bed. “I’m going to… rescue you…”
I pushed her back to bed. “Go to sleep, Sarah. I’ll rescue Jer.” From evil spirits, I smirked.
First of all, I’d no idea what I was thinking when I informally volunteered to be a babysitter. So when my nineteen-point-five pounder future brother in law and I met eye to eye, I didn’t really know what to expect. After two seconds of gawking at me, Jer started screaming angrily again. Seriously. It got me thinking if this was all he’d ever do. Feverishly, I placed the composition notebook I was holding on a chair—I didn’t realize I took it with me.
I can do this. I CAN do this! Okay… Maybe I can’t.
Clenching my teeth, I took Jer from his crib and set him on the changing table. The little devil thrashed and screeched at me. My eardrums were almost killed in action. Carefully, I removed the tapes of his diaper, bracing myself for the little surprise inside.
For once in my life, I hyperventilated. Flinching, I peeked in and breathed a sigh of relief when I saw nothing in there. But just to be sure, I changed his diaper anyway. I just hoped I fastened the right tapes on the right places.
“Alright, Jer. You’re okay now,” I said as I set him back on the crib.
He was just silent. And staring at me for like two seconds with big blue-gray eyes and an innocent look. After that, all hell broke loose again as the demon-baby wailed and screamed “Moo!!!”
“Look. Jer. I don’t really speak gibberish… or cow. So if you could just stop busting my eardrums. So I can think and give you what you want. Please,” I said trying to sound diplomatic but I was just panicking.
“Moo?” he cooed.
Before I could hit my head on the wall, I took a deep breath. “Alright. Alright. What do you want?”
“Moo!!!”
Seriously, that was the only thing he could say at eight months. The thing was, I’d no idea whatever that meant. Maybe it was a secret call to his smelly cow friends for backup. What were they planning to do? Trample me to death and squirt milk-guns all over me? Wait.
“Okay…” I messed my hair up. “Wait here.”
Did a mad dash to the kitchen. Reached the fridge. Ah, found it! Just what I needed. Please let this be it. I popped the bottle of milk in the microwave for fifteen seconds. I could already hear Jer’s screams from upstairs. It occurred to me that maybe I’d need an exorcist rather than a feeding bottle.
“Ow! Ow!” The bottle almost burned my hands when I picked it up straight from the microwave. I ran to the faucet and ran cold water all over them along with the bottle. I raced back to Jer’s room panting. “Okay, kiddo. Here you go.”
He snatched the bottle from me and started sucking. So that was what moo! meant. Oh, so now he was thinking he was a baby cow? Catching my breath, I picked up the notebook and sunk tiredly on the seat. At last, some peace and quiet.
“Oh… You like that, don’t you?” I snorted, making a face at him before flipping the pages of the notebook.
Dear Winfred,
I think I’m at this time undoubtedly, illogically and unfathomably in love with Leon Walden… Which is bad. Very bad, indeed.
I know. I’m too young to say these things. You’d probably say that it’s probably just a crush or infatuation but it’s way deeper than that. I found it horrifying to arrive to the realization that I couldn’t imagine a future without him anymore. This is when things start to turn out for the worst, doesn’t it? Tomorrow I’d probably say I couldn’t live without him.
And in the end, he would still have to leave; that would be the end of me…
I stopped reading and gaped on the wall for a while. I skimmed the pages in panic, realizing that I was reading Sarah’s diary. That was so not right.
One day to go and it’s bye-bye high school. And Leon’s still in LA. I miss him. I can’t get him off my head every single minute of the day. I mean literally. Every minute. What could he possibly be doing now? Perhaps he’s meeting super gorgeous girls in there—sexy, liberated girls with great personalities and especially not a glasses-wearing, chess geek and straight-A nerd like me. When he comes home here, I wish LA and Hollywood get annihilated by a target-specific nuclear missile just so he wouldn’t have to come back there anymore. Who cares about world peace?
I’m going insane. My frontal lobe hurts and I’m pretty sure I’m haemorrhaging internally right now. Honestly, I just wish I could just forget he existed so I wouldn’t have to act all paranoid like this.
I put the diary down. Just realized I wasn’t breathing. Sarah wanted to forget me. Now that made sense. Myrna—the nurse from Milford—mentioned something about self-imposed amnesia. Some people tend to forget things that hurt them. And I hurt Sarah that much. Enough to make her want to erase me from her brain.
Choking out a deep breath, I let my head sag on my hands. And here I was trying to make her remember all those hurt. It was no use. If her memories came back, what then? She’d just have to suffer again.
“Moo?” Jeremiah fussed, cocking his little head to me. When I tried to ignore him, he chucked the empty feeding bottle toward my head. And unlike his sister, he pitched well.
“Ow!” Bull’s eye. I rubbed the side of my forehead. “Bad Jeremiah,” I muttered through my teeth.
The demon-baby giggled and cooed. Clearly, he enjoyed my pain. I tried to calm down before I could hurl the little squirt out the window. He might’ve looked like an angel but he was evil!
Sighing, I dragged my chair closer to his crib. I squared my shoulders. “Look. Jer. Can we talk? I mean man to man?”
Jer made gurgling sounds.
“I’m guessing that’s a yes. As you know, I care for your sister. A lot. And I know you do too. So, ceasefire? For now?”
The kid just stared at me like I was some sort of weirdo. But at least he shut up for once.
“This is just so messed-up. I just don’t know what to do anymore. I promised I’d be here for her as long as she wants me. Well, I don’t really know if she still wants that… She’s just so hard-headed and insecure and complicated. You getting any of this, buddy?” I asked, not really expecting an answer.
That’d probably be weird. And creepy.
“I’m running out of time. And if Sarah doesn’t remember… I might have to let go. I don’t want that to happen. And I’m losing my mind just thinking about it.”
Chuckling, Jer reached out for my hand and pulled my finger. I felt like an idiot explaining to a baby who couldn’t even say anything besides moo. Talk about being desperate. Before I could say more, the squirt already sunk his baby teeth into my finger. With a stifled yelp, I pulled away from him.
“Oh, come on!” I rumbled, wiping the finger on my shirt. Seemed like I’d live. “Okay. You know this means war. Right, Jer?” I narrowed my eyes on him.
The kid just stuck his tongue out and made bubbles out of his spit. He threw his hands up like he wanted me to carry him. No going to happen. But then he started blubbering and making a fuss.
Then he said “Len!” in a tiny shrill voice. Which might’ve been a little cute if I just didn’t hate that pet name with a passion. So I took him from his crib, constantly watching for my remaining fingers. We sat silently while I read the rest of Sarah’s diary. Sometimes, he’d point on the notebook and make annoying sounds. But after a while, he fell asleep sitting on my lap.
I heard footsteps from the hallway. The sound was growing nearer. Gently, I put Jeremiah back in his cage and hid the diary under my shirt. But it was too obvious. Darn. Frantically, I shoved it under Jer’s mattress, nudging it to make sure it wasn’t visible.
Freddy’s head protruded from the door. “Kiddo. Just thought I’d check up on Jer.” With a nod, Freddy’s eyes shifted from his son to me. “He’s asleep. It’s a miracle. What did you do? Whack him on the head?”
I threw him a nervous smile. “Yeah… about that…”
“We should probably get outta here,” he said waving me out. “Sarah can hear us in her room through the speaker phones. So how did it go?” he laughed just when I was about to close the door behind me. He threw an apple to me, which I caught with both hands.
Ugh, crud. Did Sarah just hear all of those?
Breathing hard, I turned to Freddy. “Not so good.” I felt like banging my head on the wall. “Give me a minute.”
I darted past him and dragged my feet to Sarah’s room. The door opened with soft creak when I tried to peek in. Sarah was asleep. Thank god. Or at last she looked like she was sleeping. I couldn’t really be sure. She was buried under the blankets. Once, I thought I saw her arm twitch a bit but that could be anything.
With a sigh, I slipped into her room. I picked up a pen and a piece of paper from her study table and wrote a note. Then I folded it like a paper airplane and placed it on her side table. I left the apple on top of the note just to be sure she won’t miss it. Taking a last look on Sarah, I left the room and closed the door.
Princess,
You remember that little deal we had in the school gym, don’t you? You may not remember it now but you’ve won. Now, if you want to collect your prize, come to my place tomorrow at 5 PM. If not, consider the deal null and void.
xxx
Leon
P. S. Bring a cake.
Plan number two—totally exciting, yet another tragic epic fail.
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Hmm... should I bring back the voting challenge or should I not? That is the question. Will be uploading after 3 days :) if you're bored, you could check out my other story called Reapers. I swear it'll be worth your time. I'm glad to announce that we are at the first thrid of the story and watch out for other hilarious antics from Leon and the gang. :) Thanks for all the comments and the votes you have given this story... Really love you guys. You're the best!
Photoshopping His Hotness while a tad drunk on tequila, --->
~shim :)