✅ My Sister's Problem

126. Day Seven

I woke up eye-to-eye with the glassy-eyed stare of a cuddly gerbil. I automatically smiled, and mumbled something that might have been "Good morning, Bosnia." The words came out slightly muffled by the bulk of a pacifier in my mouth, which just made me smile again. It had been a long time since I felt so peaceful, even before I woke up enough to remember what was different.

I opened my eyes, and realised that I was looking at Lindy in front of me. The babies were in the same room now, I realised. I couldn't quite remember if Mum had asked me about that yesterday, amidst all the chaos, but I suspected that she had. I could have been annoyed to see my little sister had moved into my room; it would certainly be overcrowded with the futon folded out to be a second bed. But when I thought about it a second longer, I didn't mind at all. Because I'd remembered that Hugo was here; the charming and athletic boy next door who had infiltrated my dreams more times than I would be willing to admit now. He was staying with us, under the same roof, so of course he would need a room to himself.

I stretched and sat up, and noticed with a smile that Lindy was cuddling Mr Muggins close to her chest. It was adorable to see her like that, not a care in the world. She didn't have a pacifier this morning; if she'd had one it must have fallen out of her mouth overnight and be buried in the blankets somewhere. But she had her thumb in her mouth, which was even more adorable. I wished I could take a picture, just so I could preserve this memory forever. And my phone was actually in reach now; the charger had apparently moved to the corner of the bedroom, presumably so that I would have a chance to send messages to my friends if I wanted to before everybody else woke up. But... I couldn't take pictures of Lindy like this. It just wouldn't be fair, and I knew that she would be paranoid about what I might do with a photo like that, or who I could show it to. Better not to give her any reason to worry.

I wasn't sure what to do this morning. If I got up before everybody else, there really wasn't anything I could do. I was still supposed to be a baby, so I probably wasn't supposed to be making my own breakfast or anything. I decided I should check for messages from my friends, and see if there was anything I needed to reply to. But a second later, I decided that there was something nice about being kind of isolated so far from home. I didn't have to think about anybody else's problems for a while; it was like the entire rest of the world was on hold. And the only person I'd really wanted to hear from was Hugo, who probably wouldn't be sending me any messages now. But there were still thinks I could do; like think about what we were going to do today. If Lindy was still willing to stick with babying as punishment, I knew that there had to be some kind of activities she would find it easier to enjoy. I wanted to think through as many things as I could before it was time to get up; so that we could make the most of today.

It seemed like only a few minutes had passed when I heard voices outside the bedroom door. But when I glanced at the clock, I saw that I'd been lying there for almost an hour without coming up with anything that even looked like the start of a plan.

"Alright, babies," Mum came in with a smile. "Who needs a change today?" Lindy tried to hide her face behind Lincoln, and pretended that she wasn't even there. But she wasn't really too upset; just resigned to something that she really wasn't enjoying. Mum changed her, and then me, while Hugo was apparently fixing breakfast. Having an extra person in the house made breakfast a whole lot more chaotic, but there were no problems that so many hands couldn't solve.

Lindy was in mittens for the first time; and grumbled sullenly that it wasn't fair. But she knew as well as I did that she'd insisted on far stricter punishments for me, and with less reason. So she didn't fight, and eventually Mum managed to feed her a significant amount of her oatmeal. Hugo fed me as well; I wasn't sure why, but it felt kind of appropriate, and Lindy must have been able to see how much I was blushing over it. I wished there hadn't been anybody else watching, but I also knew that the embarrassment was somehow a part of what made it so fun for me. It was a reminder that this wasn't my choice, even if it really was, and that I could let myself feel like a little baby with neither choices nor the responsibility that came with them.