Brown Eyes

Chapter 14

(Eliza's P.O.V.)

I opened my eyes and yawned. I rolled over in bed and looked at the clock on my nightstand. It was a little after nine.

I sat up and realized something felt... odd. I looked around and analyzed my surroundings. Was I forgetting something? Was I late for school? I grabbed my cell phone off of the side table and saw that it said Saturday on the screen. So no, no school today.

I tried to think of a word to describe what I was feeling and finally I was able to put my finger on it: unfamiliar. I knew where I was, I was in my hotel room that I lived in at Granny's. Everything was just as it always was, but it felt like... I don't know. Weird.

I sighed and shook my head. I got up and walked over to my mirror. My hair looked like a rat's best and I had fallen asleep in my mascara so I had raccoon eyes. I was wearing a gray sweatshirt and black yoga pants and I yawned and smelled my breath, flinching at the odor. I wasn't exactly a princess in the mornings.

I groaned, rubbing my eyes and headed for the bathroom to take a shower. Time to start of the same routine I always followed. The same boring day in a long line of years of doing absolutely nothing. Oh, how I was growing painfully bored with this miserable, broken-record life.

~~~

(Several years later)

I was walking out of Granny's diner, heading for the park. I had my earbuds in, and I was listening to Rock & Roll Music by the Beatles. I walked with my hands in my pockets and sagging, tired eyelids drawing my gaze to the sidewalk my Converse high-tops slapped against with every lazy step I took.

I looked around and saw the lazy, boring humdrum of everyday Storybrooke around me and I sighed. Nothing excited was happening, of course. I should have expected.

But then all of a sudden, something different happened. I almost didn't know how to react because nothing different ever happened in Storybrooke, but it did: Regina Mills, the mayor of Storybrooke stepped out of her car, looking frantic and holding a baby carrier with a real live baby inside of it.

"Oh, my God, who's kid is that?" I asked.

"Oh, hello, Eliza. He's mine," said Regina with a stressed but polite grin. "I adopted him."

"He is adorable, what's his name?" I asked.

"Henry," she said. "Sorry, I'm just a little stressed. I have a city council meeting tonight and I have nobody to watch him."

"I could," I said with a shrug and Regina's face lit up.

"Would you?" she asked hopefully.

"I got nothing better to do," I said with another shrug.

"Thank you so much!" she said. "He's really easy to watch, and I'll only be gone for a couple of hours. Do you know my address?"

"Yeah, I know your house," I said.

"Fantastic, could you be there around six thirty?" she asked.

"Sure," I said with a smile and she thanked me again and we went our separate ways. I couldn't believe that had happened. I had been living the same schedule for the longest time and something different just happened. I was really looking forward to babysitting.

~~~

At six thirty I pulled up outside of Regina's house on my motorcycle. I walked up to the door and knocked on it. It almost immediately opened to reveal a frantic Regina putting in an earring.

"Hi, Eliza!" she muttered, stepping back from the door and cramming her foot into a high heeled shoe. "Henry is in the living room, there are a few bottles of formula in the fridge, put them in the microwave for about twenty seconds and then just keep putting it in for five seconds until they're warm enough, I don't have the strongest microwave. My phone number is on a sticky note on the fridge handle, please call me if anything happens."

"Will do," I said.

"Oh, and he's just getting over a fever, so if he starts crying and you can't figure out why, feel his forehead and if it's warm I have some baby aspirin in the cupboard above and to the right of the sink," she said.

"Got it," I said with a firm nod.

"Okay, I have to run now, thank you so much!" she said with a smile. "I'll be back around 8:30."

"Drive safe," I told her and she walked out and closed the door. I looked around at the high-ceiling, marble-floored mini mansion and raised my eyebrows.

"So this is how the other half lives," I mumbled. Then I heard a baby yelling gibberish from the other room. I walked farther into the house and took a right to see a little baby sitting in one of those baby activity centers. He was working on one Cheerio with a desperate intensity. He looked up at me when I walked in and stared for a few seconds. Then he blew some raspberries with his lips and looked back down at the Cheerio, trying to grasp the single piece of cereal with his entire fist.

"Hey, little guy," I said, sitting down next to him. "Do you like movies? I brought a couple."

I reached into my shoulder bag and pulled out some Disney VHS tapes.

"I've got Alice in Wonderland, Peter Pan, and the Black Cauldron," I said, holding up the tapes. "What do you think?"

Henry stared at me, his little baby mouth hanging open cluelessly.

"Peter Pan it is, good choice, that's my favorite," I said, crawling over to the TV and turning on the VCR. After it hummed to life I pushed the tape into the slot and let it get pulled into the machine. I pushed the power button on the TV and it hissed with static electricity and it too hummed to life. After a couple minutes of figuring out the VCR cables, I was able to plug them all into the correct outlets on the TV and I moved back to sit next to Henry. He stared at me, so I stared back. This lasted a few minutes while the previews played.

"You don't do much, do you?" I asked.

"Ahhyah dah dah dah dah," he babbled, banging his little hands on his activity table. Then he looked back to the little pile of Cheerios and began pushing around another one.

"Me too, buddy," I said, knowing no other response to his gibberish. When we got to the main menu, I looked around for a remote and found it on the coffee table. I picked it up and hit 'Play', starting the movie.

"Pay attention, kid, this is a classic," I said, pointing at the screen. "I want you to turn out like these kids. They cherish their childhoods, they aren't rushing to grow up like so many kids do these days."

Henry stared me down. I knew he didn't understand what I was saying, but I seemed to have his attention anyway.

"No matter what happens, hold on to that magic, okay?" I said, pointing at the blue Disney castle. "It slips away far too easily and then you can never get it back. God knows I can't, anyway."

Henry, thought he couldn't speak or understand any language yet, really seemed to grasp what I was saying, and I really hoped that he took my advice as he grew up. I didn't want him falling into the same miserable routine that I had fallen into. I wanted him to live a life worth living.