It was unfortunate and tragically ironic that Summer Moonbeam was not enjoying the summer moonbeams.
Her cries could be heard from every corner of Gram's house, including my bedroom, where I was currently trying, futilely, to get any sort of relief that could be categorized under the term sleep.
Of course, Summer just couldn't let that happen.
After one particularly loud wail, I finally couldn't stand it any more. Throwing off my covers, I stumbled to the guest room, where Nora and Summer were currently staying, only to find Nora sleeping peacefully and Summer crying hard as ever. I stared in disbelief and wondered if I was dreaming. How was it possible to even be slightly relaxed around what I could assume to be the noisiest inhabitant of Walden?
Summer seemed to have no intention of stopping soon, so the only things I could really do were A) try to calm Summer down, which probably wouldn't turn out so well, considering that when I held her that morning she had bitten my arm before bursting into tears and B) wake Nora up.
The only problem was, if Nora could sleep through Summer's wailing, how was I to wake her up?
I first tried shaking her, then rolling her over, and finally opening her eyes like a little kid would. It was no use. Nora slept like a log.
And so finally I was desperate enough to fill a cup with water and splash it onto her. Nora jerked awake and looked at me. "What was that for?" she demanded. "Do you even know how hard it is for me to get some sleep these days?"
Apparently not hard enough if she could sleep through that. I opted not to tell her that though. "Summer's been wailing for the past hour or five. D'you maybe think that there is something wrong?"
Nora shook her head, smiling at the screaming baby in the crib. "No, not at all! Lenny's been teaching me this parenting technique; I used to try to get Summer to quiet down, but now I understand that it's her way of learning to communicate! She's telling us something! Isn't that great?"
Nora was absolutely beaming. I hardly wanted to ruin her dreams about Summer "communicating", but honestly, I was pretty sure Summer only needed something simple like a nappy change. And she had needed it for the past five hours, so I was assuming it was at least somewhat important. "But she might be hungry or thirsty!" I said. "Or she might need her nappy changed!"
Nora shook her head adamantly. "No, I can tell when she needs something. All she needs is to express herself."
I resisted the urge to scream. Summer, judging by the smell, desperately needed a clean nappy and I needed some sleep! And I wasn't about to change her nappy, I never could stand the smell, so if Nora wouldn't listen, then we'd be stuck like this all night.
I frowned as a thought struck me. "Nora, where's Lenny? Shouldn't he be here?" If I couldn't get Nora to see reason, maybe I could get Lenny to.
"Erm," Nora hesitated. "I think he's rallying with some friends. The oil companies are trying to clear out a forest just to fuel cars! Imagine that! Lenny's trying to prevent them from sleeping so they'll hopefully cancel the mission,"
If that's what he was trying to do then all he had to do was bring Summer along with him. "Please Nora," I said. "I really need some sleep. Could you please just change her nappy?"
"But it doesn't need changing!" She protested.
Thankfully, that was when Gram walked in. "What's going on here?" She asked, frowning. "Nora, why are you covered in water?"
"She woke me up for no reason!" Nora said, pointing at me.
I groaned. "Gram, Summer's nappy needs to be changed and Nora refuses to admit it, and I need sleep, so could just please change it?"
