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 Posted: Mon Aug 06, 2007 8:06 pm
It was probably Jacoba entirely who had made Beatrix make half a switch from tea to coffee. Well. That wasn't true. In all reality, she thought gloomily, it was all entirely her fault: she was clinically insane and probably needed to be re-committed to some kind of facility for the overworked. Maths teacher, blind, and now a mother of two -
"Donwanna brosista," said Jacoba shrilly in her ear, for the umpteenth time. She was sulking in her carrier, snuggled into Beatrix's back. The carrier was best: she could slide out of prams with ease. The translation was obvious. I do not want a brother or a sister! "Take back."
She wondered where she had gotten her excuses from. I will never be anything but an ageing spinster. Another child will distract Jacoba. Another variable is needed for this experiment. I have the room... Jack was never going to stop laughing at her. "Impossible and selfish," she said sternly, shifting the bag on her shoulder over. Coffee. She needed coffee. "You are getting one."
"DONWANT."
"Perhaps it might be fun?"
"No!"
"Perhaps," Beatrix said grimly, "you also don't have a choice, Jacoba Darnell."
"No!"
"Would you like a juice?"
"N - yeeeees," Jacoba said suspiciously, in case this was a trick. It was not. Beatrix's heart was warmed: she had spotted - well, with Thwomp -the familiar blackboard-sign of a little cafe, the faint aroma of beans, and she wanted somewhere to sit down more than anything else in the world. And a large coffee. Lots of coffee. Coffee for everyone. Her familiar settled in next to Jace and had a poking-match as she opened the door and cautiously went in.
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Posted: Mon Aug 06, 2007 8:24 pm
Rebecca was glad this was turning out to be a slow day. Serving customers and watching her little charge had turned out to be a little bit more of a handful then she had thought. Not that he wasn't good. Oh no, she was very lucky. He was a quiet baby. Curious, but relatively quiet. She had trimmed one of her spare aprons that said "Half Moon Cafe'" on it to let him wear. She had learned when taking him into the cafe' the first time that he liked to wander about innocently. The apron was her way of letting people know he was hers and that if they stole him they'd be very, very dead.
Not that she threatned customers, but that would be the result in any case. She patted his very fluffy head, which she caught herself doing all too often since he just had the cutesty head of hair. "Get out from Mommy's feet," she said with a gruff affection and directing the boy to walk under the counter flap to explore a bit.
Jamie blinked those wide blue eyes at her and then wobbled obediently out into the open. Popping his thumb in his mouth he stared curiously at all the customers. No matter how many times he came out here, there was always someone different. Seeing a strange lady with an odd floating rock thing he waddled over to her, giving the rock familiar a very confused look indeed.
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Posted: Mon Aug 06, 2007 8:30 pm
The little floating odd rock thing immediately zipped down to Jamie's eye-level; it did a little spinning cartwheel in mid-air, but then got distracted and rubbed up against the small child's cheek like a cat. He was a little cold and smooth to the touch, with little white bumps.
"Thwomp!" Beatrix said. "Remember your manners."
Jacoba strained to look over Beatrix's shoulder, waving her arms at Jamie. Her mother set down her bag on the nearest table so that she could attempt to scoop up Thwomp as well, who evaded capture. Jacoba's greeting to Jamie was nothing more sophisticated than blowing a raspberry.
"Both of you are totally incorrigible," Beatrix said sternly, to daughter and familiar both.
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Posted: Mon Aug 06, 2007 8:53 pm
Jamie was forced to release his thumb, shutting one of his eyes as Thwomp rubbed against him. He smiled charmingly, laughing gently at the rough sensation. With both eyes back open he put his thumb back and waved his other hand at Jacoba, since she had waved at him in the first place. He continued to smile, gazing unabashed at Beatrix and her charges.
"It's rude to stare, Jamie," Becca told the child sternly as she was handing an old woman her black tea.
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Posted: Mon Aug 06, 2007 8:58 pm
"I don't mind," said Beatrix, who was also divesting herself of the baby sling on her back; now in the front of her mother's arms, Jacoba could investigate Jamie more thoroughly, sizing him up. "He's very well-behaved."
"I gotta bad-ned," Jacoba announced to him smugly, rolling up her t-shirt so that she could display the spoils of her injury victory: a Spongebob bandaid or 'bad-ned', put over a graze on her hip. (This had been given by daycare, since Beatrix did not go in for Spongebob bandaids.) "Seeee?"
"Jacoba, don't mess with your clothes in public like that," Beatrix said sternly, and plopped her down in a chair. "It's not nice."
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Posted: Mon Aug 06, 2007 9:07 pm
"Thank you. Though I'm starting to wonder if something's wrong with him, perhaps," Becca replied with a hint of friendly sarcasim. She was always friendly to customers. She leaned forward slightly on the counter, watching Jamie out of the corner of her eye, "What'll it be?"
Jamie tilted his head slightly as Jacoba revealed her horrible boo-boo to the public. He removed his thumb with a "POP!" and asked in a very soft, cute voice, "How get hurt?" He was still learning to talk, but with listening to people all day he was learning fairly quickly, the bright boy.
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Posted: Mon Aug 06, 2007 9:19 pm
"One flat white and an orange juice, please," said the blonde woman wearily, as the little stone familiar pulled her wallet out of the bag on the table with a tiny mouth and dropped it neatly in Beatrix's hand. "Or juice of any description, except not pineapple as it gives Little Miss Thing over there hives."
"Forgit," Jacoba said intelligently, and now that Beatrix wasn't looking, freedom! She slithered off the chair and plopped herself down next to Jamie, balancing herself on her stumps. "Dunno. Playgrund. I stol' Deliah's applesauce," she confided gleefully in a tangent, though that had been a week ago (and Delilah had not looked as though she had been into eating it anyway, so it had been more like a confiscation than stealing). "You go's daycare?"
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Posted: Tue Aug 07, 2007 8:19 am
"Sure thing. That'll be five thirty seven," Rebbeca said smoothly aftering entering the information into the register. She honestly couldn't wait for the the thing to break so that she could do the calculating by hand instead. All this technology tended to get on her nerves at times.
Jamie blinked, looking at Jacoba's stumps with interest. He had never seen anyone with missing limbs before. His young mind was utterly perplexed by it, since it contradicted what he had noticed about people up to this point. He eventually turned his blue gaze back to her, catching her comment about applesauce. He didn't know what stol' meant, though it must be something nice if she enjoyed it so much. At her question he paused thoughtfully and then said, "Dunno. Mommy, I go daycare?"
"Once I fill out the paperwork," Becca answered simply.
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Posted: Tue Aug 07, 2007 3:16 pm
"Paperwork to go to daycare?" Beatrix peeled the money out of her wallet, counting out the small change exactly. "How infinitely depressing. Here you go, ma'am."
"Is cooool," Jacoba bragged, forgetting that she loathed daycare and pronounced it constantly as sucks!. What mattered was that she had a chance to gloat! "Got sandpit an' applesauce an' playgroun' an' dressups bocks an' grue."
"Glue," her mother said to her, still facing the register. "Mispronounciations are not adorable or heartwarming, Jacoba."
"Galue," Jacoba said, not missing a beat. "You go's."
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Posted: Tue Aug 07, 2007 4:57 pm
"Of course. Emergency numbers, agreements not to sue the place if he gets hurt...the usual," she nodded, taking the the money with a curt, "Thank you." She counted it briskly and then put it into the cash drawer. Then, turning round, she began to gather what she needed to make the woman's drink. Knowing how kids were, however, she poured out the juice first and passed it over the counter.
"Got lots," Jamie complimented thoughtfully. Which seemed true. She sure had a long list of things they had a daycare. It was a lot more then he had here at home. Not that he minded. "Mommy says I go," he agreed with a small nod.
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Posted: Tue Aug 07, 2007 7:38 pm
"Ta," Beatrix said, and immediately started the calculated transferral of the juice to her daughter's sippee cup. Jacoba did her Dead Weight impression when it was attempted to take her away from Jamie and put her on the chair; so Beatrix sighed and gave up.
Jacoba slurped from her sippee cup thoughtfully. "He go's daycare tomorrow yes," she said.
"Not everybody goes to the Liberty Center," her mother told her. "He probably has a perfectly nice daycare away from you."
"Nooooooooo," the tiny redhead protested. How could she properly brag if Jamie didn't go to the same place?!
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Posted: Tue Aug 07, 2007 7:56 pm
Jamie didn't know why she was so upset. But he didn't like it, so he frowned slightly blinking his big blue eyes and patting his arm, "S'ok."
"Actually, he is going to the Liberty Center," Rebecca said as she fastened the top onto Beatrix's cup. Getting a few napkins from across the counter she put them under the cup and passed it over. "There you go," she murmured, whiping her fingers on her apron.
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Posted: Tue Aug 07, 2007 9:28 pm
"Thank you," Beatrix said, taking that in and wisely saying nothing; she had never met another one of the cabbage-mothers face to face, but she didn't quite know how to engage Rebecca in conversation. It also looked as if the placid little boy she'd been gifted with didn't have half the problems Jacoba did.
Jacoba, on the other hand, wasn't used to being comforted; she stuck her juice in her mouth and sucked for a few moments, clammed up. Then, generously, she held out the sippee cup in case Jamie wanted juice and her germs.
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Posted: Wed Aug 08, 2007 10:52 am
"Any time," Becca replied smoothly before moving back a bit behind the counter to the sink to wash dishes. Though she suspected that Beatrix had gotten Jacoba from the Lab if she was sending her to the Liberty Center, she didn't seem to be interested enough to ask about it. That or today was one of those days where she could pull off being anti-social really went.
Jamie paused for a moment, as if thinking her offer over. Then he smiled and took the cup, taking one short sip and handing it back. Obviously he wasn't afraid of germs or the idea of sharing.
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Posted: Thu Aug 09, 2007 1:24 am
Beatrix just sighed heavily into her coffee over Jacoba's generous dollop of germs and didn't even comment; neither child appeared to be sick, and thusly the only thing that her daughter was going to get were some strenuous Do Not Share Drinks! lectures when she got home. Her daughter, on the other hand, appeared satisfied at this outreach of fellow feeling in Jamie, and took a long swig from her cup once he passed it back.
"You's got bwown hair," she noted, apparently exhausted for conversation in other areas. (Sesame Street had just done an episode on colours.)
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