Chapter 108. A Late Arrival.
Philip continued to mutter under his breath. “Well, I’m not doing it…no way…”
“Philip, please….,” implored Kimona, “baby food is so tasty…just wait an’ see…an’ we’ll only feed you stuff you like…”
Dana was already dropping torn-up pieces of pizza into the blender. Jess had disappeared into the lounge, and now returned with a small cardboard box.
“We can always do it this way, Philip, if you’d prefer…” She smiled, and held up, in one hand, a broad pink strap, pierced in the same way as the strap on his bonnet had been, and in the other, a large plastic syringe and a longish length of rubber tubing. “You see? We’re ready for any eventuality.”
Philip’s mouth dropped open. Jess gave a short laugh. “You should see your face! So what’s it to be? Well?”
His head dropped. What choice did he have? The blender was whizzing noisily.
“Pity,” remarked Toni, quietly. “I would like to have seen that…”
“Maybe we should…,” said Jess, thoughtfully. “Teach him a lesson for being so bolshy.”
Dana stopped the blending for a moment. “Good idea. Jess. Girls? Would you like to feed Matthew, and we’ll attend to Philip.”
“No! That’s not f***ing fair!” shouted Philip, panicking. The girls gasped as one.
“Babies shouldn’t say swears!” exclaimed Dorelia, horrified. “Bad baby!”
Dana finished the pizza and scooped it out into a plastic bowl, which she gave to the girls, along with a couple of plastic spoons. Forgetting all about Philip, they immediately clustered round Matthew, and began taking it in turns slowly to spoon the mush into his mouth, watching with close attention as he ate.
“Careful, Lucy,” reprimanded Kimona, as her friend accidentally put half her spoonful up Matthew’s nose and smeared the rest on his cheek. “Let him finished swallowing first.”
Philip looked at his friend open-mouthed. In the hope of averting the threatened procedure, he was about to apologise for his behaviour, when Jess, who had been standing behind him, having fitted his special pacifier to the strap, suddenly slipped it over his head and pulled it tight, forcing the smooth, bloated teat between his lips. Before he could react, the strap was buckled tightly behind his neck, and he was mute, gagged once again by the stubby rubber phallus. He emitted a long, indignant “mmmmff” – but no-one took any notice, not even the girls, who were already scraping out the bowl.
“Mummy? Matthew’s nearly finished. What can we give him for pudding?”
“Well, I was thinking he might like a banana split, with cream and ice-cream and chocolate sauce.”
“Would you Matthew?” asked Abigail. “Mmm, sounds nice! Can we have some after?” And she licked her lips.
“Why don’t you girls finish feeding Matthew, and then we can all sit at the table and have ours,” suggested Jill. All present (able to speak) agreeing, Dana washed out the blender and filled it with the new ingredients, generating a coffee-coloured sludge which, despite its unprepossessing appearance, Matthew gobbled down greedily, much to the apparent disgust of his friend.
As everyone else ate, Philip was still frowning resentfully. Feed yourselves, greedy pigs, don’t worry about me, will you? he was thinking. They were all chattering happily, mouths full of pizza, and seemed to have forgotten about him entirely. The truth was, Dana and Jess, knowing how easily the girls could be distracted, were diverting them with talk of holidays and all the nice things they were going to do in the summer, leaving Philip, helpless, plugged and mute, to stew in his own juices. But his turn for attention was coming.
When everyone had finished their banana splits, Jess finally turned to Philip.
“Well I suppose you want yours now, do you?”
Philip glowered at her. Possibly he was trying to look irate, but with his mouth completely obscured by the big pink shield of the pacifier, he just looked ridiculous, and everyone burst out laughing – except Jess and Dana, who just smiled quietly at each other.
“Dana? Shall we…?”
“I’ll get it ready, Jess.”
She got up and went back to the counter. Philip watched. First, in went the pizza – buffalo mozzarella, peppers and spinach topping. Then, just when he expected her to start the blender, she began to add the pudding ingredients too! In went banana, in went cream, in went chocolate sauce. Philip stared.
“Sorry, Philip, we’re out of ice-cream. Don’t know how that happened. Let’s see what else we have….”
Now Jess had joined her. “Look, there’s half a tin of baked beans here,” she said, exploring the fridge.
“Perfect. It may be a bit thick, don’t you think?”
“There’s a cup with a couple of egg whites….”
“That’ll do. Do you think it’ll be sweet enough, though?”
“Maybe a spoonful of condensed milk? You know how much babies love that stuff.”
“Good idea. There we go.” She started the blender. It was very full, but not much splashed out. When all the ingredients were nicely blended – it was a sort of muddy colour – Jess held the big syringe while Dana poured in about half of the glutinous sludge. When it was full, Jess screwed on the cap, and attached the rubber tube to the nozzle.
“There. Ready to go. Now, Philip….hold still while we attach….”
But Philip didn’t want to hold still, for some reason. He began to shake his head from side to side furiously. In the end, Dana and Toni had to hold him still, while Jess snapped open the boss of his pacifier and firmly attached the other end of the tube.
“There. You can fidget about as much as you like, now. Time for your feed, young man.”
“Girl,” corrected Dana.
“Whatever. It’s a baby, anyway. Now…”
Dorelia actually put her hand up, as if she were in class. “Mummy…? Could I…feed him?”
“Oh! Well, I suppose…”
“An’ me!” shouted Kimona.
“And me!” “And me!”
So once again the girls gathered round the babies. Dorelia held the syringe, and Jess showed her how to press the plunger.
“Push it gently, darling. We don’t want to choke him.”
The girls held their breath while Dorelia slowly operated the syringe. The puree flowed easily down the tube.
“How will we know when it reaches his mouth?” asked Lucy.
“Oh, I think we’ll know,” said Jill. “Just watch his face.”
The girls expectantly fastened their eyes on Philip’s face. They didn’t have to wait long. All at once his eyes widened, then screwed up. The first mouthful of gloop had arrived! Dorelia kept up a steady pressure, and they watched with delight as he was forced to swallow it. Philip tried to block the hole in the end of the teat with his tongue, but the slime continued to ooze steadily into his mouth. Desperately he clamped his teeth on the base – which simply made a whole wad of the disgusting mess spurt out.
“Stop a bit, Dorelia,” said her mother, “take your time. Philip wants to taste his food before he swallows it.”
“Sorry, mummy.”
“That’s all right. Maybe let Abi have a turn next?”
And so it continued. When the syringe was empty Dana obligingly refilled it, and Philip was able to enjoy the rest of his supper. Lucy was the last to operate the feeder, and she made sure none was wasted, carefully squeezing the last oozings out of the tube with her fingers, after which Jess disconnected it from the pacifier, wiped the nozzle, and snapped the cap closed. The women sat back in their chairs, sipping coffee and smiling, satisfied they had made a good start to their training programme. The girls had left the table and were playing in the lounge. All was peace and tranquillity, and Dana was just about to suggest freeing the boys, when there was the sound of a key in the lock of the front door, and before anyone could move, in walked Shaniya! In all the excitement she had been quite forgotten, but now there she was, standing in the kitchen doorway, frozen with astonishment, while Matthew and Philip stared back in pure terror!
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Topic: The Settlement (Read 87672 times)
