Chapter 16

I have been in this 'facility'-'house for the children'-whatever you want to call it for a few years now.  I've always wanted to know it's official name...but every woman I've talked to said they either don't know, or that they don't think there is a name for it.  I think that's silly, as almost everything has a name, so why wouldn't this?  I suppose I shouldn't dwell on the names too much, but I am just confused in general.  What I mean is, these past two years have been stupendous.  The ladies are so nice and helpful, and there is every little thing a girl can dream of wanting to do in here.  There are many rooms with many activities...so why should I be complaining?  I haven't ventured to the outside world since I realized what this facility lies under.  For days, those androids and the building itself gave me nightmares.  I always think of the worst as to what the building above could be for!  My imagination runs wild at night, but really, I can't think of any feasible reasons.

During this time, Ross has been growing so much, I can't believe that he's two now!  He is the most adorable baby boy I've ever seen-as, well, he is the only baby boy I've ever seen.  I am proud of him-I believe that he will be a very smart boy, and will be unlike any other boy on the moon.  I am trying my best to raise him right along with all of the other women here that are helping me!

Today I have decided that I need to put in more effort in helping this 'facility' run properly, and the only thing I could think of even sort of wanting to do was being the day care provider for the day.  The duty is switched around to volunteers-and I haven't volunteered yet because I've been sort of nervous to have the responsibility, I suppose.  But I don't wish to be apart of this facility and not help at all anymore-I don't want to be a mooch.  I want to help run it-I have to do my part.

Flora is often a volunteer to be the day care provider for the day, so when I walked in I was greeted by her.

"Hello Jezabelle.  How are you doing today?  Where are you going to go after you drop off Ross?"

"Hello Flora...I am quite nervous, actually.  I would like to look after the kids today if that's alright..."

"Oh yes, that would be quite fine.  Call me if you need me.  It's not that bad-the girls are darlings.  You keep an eye on your little Ross, though."

"What do you mean?"

"Oh, you'll see what I mean.  Now-I hope you have fun."

"I will..."

She put the baby she had in her arms on the ground by her toys, and poofed out.  Literally.  Almost everyone teleports except for me since it drains me.  It bugs me so much!  Why even have elevators or even doors if everyone just teleports everywhere but me?

After she left, I got settled with one of the kids and I watched her play the xylophone.  I even hummed along to it and she smiled at me.  All the rest of the kids were minding their own business just playing their little games.  Just as it sounded from my room, the kids sounded so peaceful, barely making a noise.  I didn't have to stop anyone from chewing on something they weren't supposed to, from climbing on a crib, nothing like that.  They were all acting like little angels.  I just looked at all of the girls little faces, and I smiled big.  I made a good decision in coming here!  I can handle this.

Then I started to play with some of the other kids-and I noticed my little Ross go over to the little girl I was just with.  While she was playing the xylophone, he decided he wanted to too.  He took one of her mallets and started pounding on the xylophone.  When he took it, it looked like she had tears in her eyes.  I was about to intervene-when she just started playing some more, and her tears went away. Ross and her were just playing the xylophone together-Ross on the left, and her on the right.  They were getting along really well!  Now I knew exactly what Flora was talking about.

So I see that my little Ross likes to play with the girls.  Look at how he has his leg under hers!  I thought that toddlers usually play by themselves...Well, obviously that's not true for my Ross!

I was sad once I saw them both get tired of the xylophone to play with some other toys-because then I heard some sobbing come from all of the kids.

I decided that the kids were hungry, so I put them all in high chairs and looked through the fridge.  There were bowls full of this gross mush, and I gave each of the kids some of it to eat.

When the girls got their food, they stuck their hands in and took nice, small bites and made relatively little noise.  They had such good manners for little kids!  Their faces were perfectly neat, clothes still toddlers in tiaras perfect (that's a show I used to watch that took place in the twenty first century.  The girls were gorgeous, but brats.  But these girls are younger and gorgeous, and well behaved).

But then I looked at my little Ross.  He was taking heaping handfuls of his mush and sticking it in his mouth.  His handfuls were so big that only half of it stayed in his mouth-the other half went on his shirt.  Then, he made a cute little noise so I came closer to coo at him.  And what does he do?  He throws a handful of it at me.  In my mouth!  It tasted exactly how it looked.  Like baby puke.  I jogged over to the sink and cleaned my tongue thoroughly.  Then, I cleaned Ross.  I never knew my Ross was such a slob, but obviously he was.

When they were all done eating, I took them down, and sat in one of the chairs, exhausted already from that feeding frenzy-thanks to Ross.

After that, I decided it was as good a time as any to see if I could get Ross to walk.  He is two, so shouldn't most kids his age already be walking?  I just didn't think there was a point in rushing it, so I didn't start.

When I held his little hands to walk, he politely pushed me away, and then he stood!  Then he began to amaze me even more.

"Momma, I can do it."

I gasped.  Well, okay, so I don't know that much about kids.  I know what all of the women told me here-most of them said that their kids said their first word at about one and a half, and it was usually 'momma' or 'mommy'.  But one story involved the girl's first word being 'food', which made me laugh at the time.  But never have I heard any of them saying that they didn't say a first word, exactly, but a complete sentence.

I heard his words being spoken in perfect English, and I gasped!  He had as good a voice as a two year old can have.  He didn't mumble, it wasn't said extremely fast, he talked as well as anyone.  And that was his first phrase!

Astounded, I decided I couldn't wait to tell the girls.  At this point, I was a few feet from him, still gawking at him, when he started to walk!  He was walking!  I barely helped him at all, and he assured me that he could.  And he did-it looked like he was walking for years!

I decided to push my luck when he reached me.  I was too amazed to pick him up.

"How did you do that, Ross?"

He shrugged just like anyone would.  My two year old, my Ross, shrugged.

"So what?  I see you guys do it all the time."

My eyes got so wide that I decided if I had contacts they would've fallen out.  This is just too amazing-if only I could tell a lady here-I think I need to rest...

But unfortuanatly, I couldn't rest.  I had babies to take care of.  When I was done with 'teaching' Ross to walk, he spoke his third sentence of his life to me.

"I stink, momma."

I knew exactly what he meant and I walked over to the changing table.

"Honey, how can you talk so fast?"  I laughed to myself.  So he can talk, it doesn't mean that he knows what I'm talking about.

"Mom, it's not so hard.  You'll know one day why I can."

My thoughts started racing.  I've been with my son my whole life-now what, he's one of them too that knows what I don't?  But that can't be so, he's just two!  Did some lady teach him something while I was away?

I laughed idiotically to myself and decided that must be it.

After that, I set Ross down, and this time he went to play some blocks with another little girl.  They were getting along very well.  they even made a little arch together!  It surprised me that they were building instead of destroying-isn't that what babies do?  

Then I noticed Ross and her colliding with each other and their eyes becoming droopy.  They started sobbing, and so did the rest of the girls.  It became so loud that I had to cover my ears-I was beginning to get a headache.

It didn't make any sense to me that they were showing their tiredness through crying-I've never heard any of them cry till earlier-which supposedly is normal for little kids, but not for this bunch.  There's another thing that confused me!

So I took each and every one of them and put them in cribs.

The girls were relatively easy to get in the cribs-they didn't stop me from picking them up.  But Ross was being a hassle.  And a chatterbox (dear llama, how could the day that he had his first word be the first time he annoys me with his obsessive talking?).

"Momma, I don't wanna go with bed.  I wanna play with Lindsey."

"You can play with Lindsey when she wakes up."

"But I wanna play with her now!"

"No, Ross.  You are tired so you must sleep, and you have to let Lindsey sleep too."

"Fine, if that's the only way I can play with her then.  Be that way!"

Ross was acting like he was four times his age!  This cannot be happening.

After putting them to sleep, I decided I was through watching them.  For the day, and probably forever.  Babysitting...is just not my thing I guess.  I called Flora's ID.

"Hey Flora-can you watch the kids now?  I'm exhausted."

"Hmm...the kids tired you out?  I'm surprised.  They're all perfect angels."

"Well, not for me they aren't."

I could almost hear her nodding.  "Yup, that's why I never pushed you to watch them."

"What?"

"Oh, nevermind.  You'll understand sometime-anyway, Sandy is on her way.  Bye Jezabelle."

"See ya Flora-"

Before I could even say anything else, Sandy popped in.

"Oh, hello Jezabelle.  So I heard the kids were too much for you to handle."

I sighed.  "Yeah, they're a handful."

"Only for you.  But, it's okay-it's not your fault.  Not really...Shutting up now."

"Um..."

"Well, have a nice day Jezabelle.  Your boy is in good hands."

"Um-thanks..."

"You're welcome.  See you at dinner."

After that whole ordeal, I sighed in happiness realizing I didn't hear any more screams.  I decided to go into the room with the easels. Since I have all this time on my hands, I've gotten into painting-even though I'm not too good at it.  But, that's not the point.  It's something to keep me sane-since I haven't been outside in years. Literally.  I don't want to be blocked re-entry from here-I can't do that to my Ross.  And it's not just Ross-then where would I go?

While I was smearing the canvas in a deep shade of blue that matched my skirt, I noticed a lady just sitting on a sofa.  The rooms in this place are usually deserted-there's just so many things to do that, so many rooms, that everyone is pretty scattered.  Usually, I'm the only one in this room.  As I looked over my easel surveying her, I realized I've never seen her before, though it is hard to keep count.  So many women come and go-I've just lost count.

Then, I realized that she noticed me looking at her.

"Oh, hello.  I don't believe we've met-"

"No, we haven't..."

"Well, I'm Elly.  You're Jezabelle, right?"

I found myself gasping for the dozenth time of the day.  "That's me...how did you know?"

Then she laughed.  She laughed.  "Everyone knows you."

"What?"

Next, I heard the catch phrase that everyone always says but me, "you'll know why one day."

Then I looked at her clothes-and her hair.  She had blonde hair-and here I was thinking it was unstylish!  And her shirt had a pattern on it-it looked like green waves or something...is there a new fashion trend that I am unaware of?

Then, I found myself being rude, "um-your hair, your clothes..."

"Come on, Jezabelle.  You're smart, we all know that.  Think about it.  Think through your predicament.  Experiment, guess.  You'll understand everything one day."