「 The Professor & I 」VOLUME II

(293) Dada

Lynn's POV

Recklessly, I delved into her mind, sieving through the bits of her erratic memory line. The images were choppy and jumped irregularly but a decent story could be derived of the least conceivable place she had scored her latest toy.

"Oh, dear lord," I breathed anxiously, attempting to retrieve the limited edition piece.

Unfortunately, the baby girl whimsically established it to be a game and hurriedly swerved her hand away. Quickly scooting off along the floor, Rachel grabbed onto my wheelchair and used it as a pillar, unsteadily picking herself onto her feet.

"Ray, give that to Nana, please," I coaxed politely and Raven simply laughed in amusement as I struggled to even get fingertips to the active little toddler racing in circles around me.

"Ray, that belongs to Dada. Would you please be a good girl and return that to me?" I appealed in a gentle tone but was completely ignored as she energetically continued with her unwavering laps.

Impatiently, I slid to the edge of my seat, camping until she passed by again, and hastily ambushed her with an outstretched arm. As I wrapped my healthy hand snugly around her, Rachel screamed in ultimate protest yet ironically, laughed in a hysterical manner, and diligently tried to wiggle herself out of the ensnarement.

Although her industrious efforts were considerably insignificant to undermine the rigidity of my grasp, her vigorous movements generally vectored away from me was surprisingly sufficient to compromise my posture.

Tucked on both sides of Rachel, my nonfunctional legs began to tremble menacingly, obviously acting under increasing pressure as my weight gradually slipped off the smooth velvet material. Instinctively, I reached my other hand to the armrest but its lack of ability to exert any strength was unmistakably inadequate to combat the impending loss of balance.

The awareness of crashing did not make the falling motion any less rapid or intense and in a blink, I was helplessly heading for the parquet. Only one intuition, however, sparked in that moment of frenzy and I clamped my arm tightly around Rachel as I strenuously flipped myself over.

My left hand impacted the ground awkwardly, skidding on its acrylic brace instead of dampening the brunt, but thankfully, it was my back and skull that landed harshly on the wooden tiles, safely cushioning Rachel from any potential harm.

She giggled ignorantly, seemingly entertained by our perilous collision, but the total opposite happened to me the minute I opened my eyes, greeted by a horrifying sight.

Wholly devoured by darkness, my vision was polluted by an excessively overabundance of black. No matter where I faced my head, the gloom was obstinately imminent.

Shush. Don't scare her, I pleaded, hearing Raven scurrying to my side, and despite her likely reluctance and concern, she compliantly obliged.

Urgently groping onto Rachel, I squeezed my eyes sealed, inhaling deep breaths to compose myself. Cautiously, I fluttered my lids open again, immensely relieved to be jarred by gleams. As the glaring rays focused into the angelic darling before me, I smiled, witnessing Rachel readily crawling out from under my entangled limbs and happily straddled herself atop my torso.

"C'mon, Ray. Give me that, please," I begged, panting in exhaustion, as I persisted to reclaim the exquisite stationery.

"No!" Rachel growled in a kiddy tone, deliberately hiding the personalized pen behind her back as she sported an unsatisfied pout.

Ray, be nice, I proposed cordially, staring kindly into her eyes, and as usual, she willingly succumbed to my telepathic voice.

Delicately fetching over the prized possession from her tiny palm, I faintly detected Scott's approach and mindlessly chucked the monumental gift into the pocket of my pants as I scrambled to sit up but nothing was achieved before he suddenly sounded.