Bellia returned to her book club (except she didn’t eat any tarts which were strict orders from the adults). “Carrot tea or acorn tea with orange zest?” pondered Heidi.
“We should all have a specific amount of time for our own cures, with a break period in between, so no cures affect someone else’s,” explains Mr.Tuxedo, “Now I suggest 1 hour each with a 30 minute break in between. There’s 5 of us, so if we start now, we should all be done at 8 in the evening.”
Everyone nods in agreement and the order would go alphabetically, which meant Natalie Charcoal would go first, followed by Heidi Choch and her sister Teri Choch. In the middle of the girls showing their favorite quote from, Book of Needlework, by Eleanor Brambles, Natalie comes and presents Bellia with one cup filled cold water with a small dish of ice, she fetched before serving her premium water. Natalie instructed, “Drink up.”
Bellia first drank the ice-y water and would wait 30 minutes before holding some ice in her throat. “So, tell me if you feel any better,” says Natalie, “That’s what my mother would give me when I had a sore throat. She’d usually do it just so I wouldn’t miss school.”
Bellia nods, she feels nothing. Skip comes over and asks his sister, how she’s feeling. Bellia shakes her head in response.
“Well, do you want to feed the babies with me?” invites Skip, knowing anything related with babies can cheer his sister up.
Bellia nods, the book club pauses and Bellia follows her brother upstairs. “I hungry!” Henry says.
“Me too!” agrees Honey.
Bottles of milk (coconut milk to be exact) are passed around and pre made baby meals are quickly heated up in the oven are prepared and shared. Grace and Henry share a meal which includes sandwiches, boiled flour and some soft veggies. Hopper and Honey each take a warm bottle.
After being fed, the babies coo and laugh, already getting ready to play. Honey walks up to Bellia holding her favorite book, “Bellia, do the sun really smile?”
Skip stares at his sister, waiting for her to yell, “That’s preposterous,” before explaining, but this time nothing comes out of her mouth.
Realising, that Bellia can’t talk Skip takes over, “No, Honey, the sun doesn’t smile.”
“Oh, then I guess it laughs,” Honey said, waddling off to play.
After hours and hours came Teri’s cough syrup, Bellia grew incredible sleepy. Apparently, some of the side affects were “minor drowsiness”. Though Teri never got to see this (she had returned home for the night), there was a storm brewing in the living room. “You’re going to ruin my cure!” Mason said.
Harlin claimed, “But it’s my turn!”
“Coffee does the opposite of sleep,” Mason stated, “My cure is rest and sleep.”
It took a while, but the wives finally convinced Harlin to let Mason go first. The men shook paws, apologized and the wives reminded their husbands that the whole point of this was to cure Bellia’s sore throat. “I am sorry,” apologized Harlin.
Mason shook his head, “No, no, it’s my fault. I didn’t follow the very rules I created.”
“Listen here,” said Harlin, “I was wrong, now accept that and move on.”
With another argument about to be born, the wives quickly changed the subject hastily.
The night passed and to no avail, Bellia still could not speak. Natalie and Mason had already left home and promised to come back the next day.
Skip soon had an idea of his own. “Dad? Can I stay up and look at the stars tonight?”
“Why?” asked Harlin.
“Well, mom used to tell me about shooting stars and because we live in the mountains, we get to see one every night. I’d like to make a wish,” Skip explained.
Harlin paused for a moment before patting Skip on the back, “We all will stay up and look for that shooting star. Good thinking!”
Everyone who lived in the Deluxe Village House helped. Chairs and couches were moved outside to the field, patio or balcony. For those who didn’t have blankets, they stayed indoors and watched from the open window. Skip had positioned himself on the balcony with a comfy living room armchair and his blue blanket. He was alone up there, everyone else was at entirely different angles of the house. The night was beautiful regardless of the shooting star, not a cloud in sight and with the moon at its fullest. Come on, where’s that shooting star? Skip asked himself.
One by one, everyone drifted off to sleep. It was late, probably the latest these critters had ever slept (except Harlin and Heidi), Skip was near shutting his eyes and starting to catching some z’s when he saw it! A shooting star, bright as ever zooming across the black sky! The young rabbit’s eyes widened it awe, he was so distracted he almost forgot to make his wish. Quickly, he chanted, “I wish, I wish, I wish Bellia Hopscotch Rabbit has her voice back!”
Skip’s heavy eyelids drooped down and he too feel into slumber. Late in the afternoon, Skip awoke to an unforgettable voice. “THIS IS PREPOSTEROUS!!!”
Skip's eyes widened to find himself in bed, dad must have put me in here, he thought. When the little boy headed towards the dining room, he finds his elder twin sisters, Bell and Bellia, eating brunch. “Good morning,” cheers Bell.
Bellia grins, “That is preposterous Bell, you should say ‘good afternoon’, it is 1 o’clock after all.”
Skip smiled, “It worked!”
“Yes, it did, now if you excuse me I need to explain to Honey that the sun doesn’t laugh or smile.”
Moments later, everyone heard Bellia shout, “THAT”S PREPOSTEROUS!”
Opmerkingen