✅ The Baby Makers

22. Games People Play

It didn't take a lot to amuse two little girls. Stacie and Cass were soon rooting through the things in the bottom of the toy chest. When she saw how big the thing was, Stacie was amazed that she hadn't seen it as soon as she walked into the room. But that was nothing compared to her surprise when she found just how packed-full of toys it was. There were dolls, trains, tanks and soldiers in every colour of the rainbow, unicorns, pastel minotaurs, building blocks, and a whole town of little plastic houses, shops, hotels, caravans, and castles for the dolls to explore.

It didn't take long for them to start playing. The two girls gathered a couple of different dolls of all sizes, and quickly put them together to make a family. Stacie did her best to make different voices for each of her dolls, but doing voices was hard. She was a little bit surprised that Cass's dolls could talk normally, but she already knew that funny things happened, and she didn't need to understand all of it. Soon they were making up a story between them, always adding new ideas. An adult might have said that their story didn't make sense, and they might have forgotten the name they gave one of the dolls and given it a different one later. But none of that mattered, because they were having fun in every moment.

When Phil came and patted her on the head, Stacie found herself blushing again. She realised that she hadn't even said hi to the nurse lady, and had just run off to play with her friend without a word.

"Who's a good girl?" he asked. "Are you having fun? I brought you some drinks. Do you want milk or juice?" He was holding a cup in one hand, and a bottle in the other. The bottle was probably milk, because it was white. Stacie's smile turned up a little when she realised that, and felt so proud that she could work something like that out by herself. Then she looked at the cup, and suddenly it was hard to decide. The bottle was just like a baby bottle, with a big rubbery thing to suck on the top. The cup looked more grown-up, with just a plastic spout on the top so she wouldn't spill it. She knew that she wanted to be a good baby for Phil, but the cup had pretty patterns on too. There were unicorns all over the outside, in thick pink lines. But it looked like some of the pictures were drawn on the inside too so they looked like they were dancing with each other, and that made it even cuter.

Did she want to be a big baby or have the one with the pretty pattern? She didn't know which was more important, but she came up with a really smart answer that she was sure Phil would be impressed by. She closed her eyes, and reached out with one hand. She thought she could pick one, and not know what it was. Then it wasn't her choice, so it would be a happy surprise either way. Her hand waved around for a few seconds, and then she felt Phil's hand pressing something into hers. She opened her eyes again, and discovered that she was holding a lovely pink sippy cup, decorated with unicorns and full of pale golden orange juice.

Stacie put the cup to her mouth with a giggle, and it only took her two tries to get the little bit of plastic between her lips. Cass asked something she didn't hear, and then took the bottle of milk.

"Fankoo!" Cass said with a giggle, and then sat down on the floor again and started sucking on her bottle. Stacie wondered if she was supposed to say something too. She tried to say thanks, but she couldn't talk with the cup in her mouth and when she tried some juice splashed out all down her front. She tried to look at it, but she couldn't see past the bottle, so she giggled instead. Giggling and smiling seemed to be a good answer for everything here, so she already knew what to do whenever there was something she didn't quite understand. The juice was really nice too. It was orange but it didn't quite taste like oranges, so maybe there was something else in it. Some other fruit mixed in that made it extra sweet, and maybe a little flavour that tasted like the smell of roses. She put her nose near the cup and sniffed. It smelled a little bit like flowers too, but she didn't need to worry about that. She was having fun and she liked the flavour, whatever went into it.

Stacie had promised herself that she wouldn't forget about Phil again, when he was being so nice to her. But there were too many things to think about at once, while she was drinking her juice, and playing with dolls, and wondering what the juice was, and talking to Cass. In less than a few minutes, she was only thinking about the things right in front of her again.

Half an hour later, the dolls were starting a cafe, and some of the other toys were coming to visit. Their first customer was a teddy bear who was bigger than all the dolls put together, but he was cute and fluffy so the dolls weren't scared. Cass squeaked a question in the waitress's voice, and Stacie made her best attempt at a growly voice when she asked for a cup of juice. The bear got her cup, because he was probably big enough to hold it with a little help. It was empty now, but that was good because she didn't want to get juice on his fur. And there was already another customer coming in, a little plastic girl from a Lego set. She was easy to serve, because they'd already found a tiny cup that was just the right size to fit in her hand.

Stacie paused for a second, thinking about a little tingling feeling in her tummy. She wondered what it might be, and it took her a couple of seconds to remember that she needed to go potty. She knew she should put the toys down and ask a grown-up to help. That was what she was supposed to do, wasn't it? But before she could say anything she felt another feeling, a warmth spreading around her diaper area, and she knew that she was too young to even think about those big-girl things.