⌚ New Experiences

30. The Other Shoe

In the bathroom, Spanky went straight to the sink. Warm water splashed on his face did almost nothing for the tomato sauce, and nothing at all to get the now-solid cheese that had clung to his fur.

"I think we need a bath," he mumbled, "And we haven't even got any bath toys."

"Yep. But first, we got some time to play without getting told off. Mommy does whatever I want when I act cute, did you see?"

"Yeah," he grinned, "But what can we do? All the toys are..." he stopped and stared as Dawn reached into the pocket on his chest, and pulled out the one toy they had with them. A little disc of blue plastic, decorated with a spiral pattern of glittering stars, with a string wrapped around the middle.

"You were going to try this before," she smiled, her eyes lighting up. "You were going to make me more like a baby or something. I want to see if you can. It's no fun to tease and not do it."

She put one finger through the loop at the end of the string, and the yo-yo slowly fell down and then rose back up again. Spanky watched carefully, trying to remember how she did it. He knew that he'd done this before, he just needed a little reminder today.

"I was going to be nasty," he mumbled, "I was going to get you in trouble." As he said it, he realised that the words weren't quite true. The last time he'd led her into the bathroom, his intentions had been to cheer her up when she seemed a little bit sad. But all the things he could think of to say right now were meaner than she deserved.

"I know," Dawn shrugged. "But I want to play with my big sister, noy just do what the grown-ups say. And I've been teasing you all day, so if you think I deserve it. Sisters tease each other and fight sometimes, right? But I still love you. It's still better playing than just teasing. I want to know what you would have done."

"You sure?" Spanky asked, giving the yo-yo an experimental flick from his hand.

Dawn didn't answer. Her head ducked down like she was embarrassed, and Spanky didn't see right away that her eyes were following the blue yo-yo as it left his hand. This time he kept a hold of the string, and the yo-yo spun as it got closer to the bottom. Then it started to rise again, and he felt a little triumph. It was hard to keep control of it, but it was going down and up. And Dawn was staring at it, not hearing anything he said. Just like when he'd found himself staring at the yellow one that was probably in Mommy Lulu's pocket now. He could do it! He wanted to give Dawn a special treat, and make her feel like a really happy baby kitten. Then she would be smiling, he would be the big sister, and everybody would have what they wanted. But the more he thought about it, the more he remembered her teasing him. Building better blocks than his, making him suck his thumb, and making him wet his diaper. Even if he wanted her to smile, he couldn't resist the urge to punish her for all of those sins.

It didn't move down the string on its own. Maybe that was because it was magic, or maybe he wasn't moving his hands in the right way. But Spanky found right away that to make the yo-yo move down to the end of the string, he had to focus on it and will it to move. It was almost like he was pushing it with his mind somehow.

He pushed, and it moved. When it reached the bottom, all it took was a flick of his wrist and it came back up on its own. Then he had to push again to make it go down. He couldn't tell if he was moving his hand in some way when he pushed, or if it was only something in his mind, but it seemed to work. He hoped he didn't look too silly, grunting in effort like that. But one look at Dawn set his mind at rest. Her eyes were fixed on the spinning stars, and she didn't see a thing.

"Now, you're going to do something for me," he started, "It might get you in trouble, but you won't even think of that, you'll just do it. Okay?"

Dawn nodded her head, while keeping her eyes fixed on the yo-yo. Spanky thought carefully while he pushed it down again, and by the time it started to rise he'd decided to go ahead with his evil plan.