Xandra pondered, staring down at the notebook page, “Working out what happened is gonna be hard. I’m gonna have to go slow and try and piece it together. Things must have gotten weird. Really weird. That’s what I think, gang. This is one strange family, and I've seem some doozies before! I normally keep a much closer eye on my Deputy Babies, but with all the chaos and the special request from his sister I was just too busy. You can trust me though. Best buddy Xandra, everybody says I’m a good egg! I bet I can figure this out.”
--
“Mom...Mommy!?” Rebekah was forced to plead from the top of the stairs, red faced and out of breath. He had been struggling with the boots for five minutes before finally giving up and conceding he would need help.
Hearing nothing downstairs but the annoying music he trudged miserably back down the steps and slid open the glass door. He coughed upon smelling skunky smoke and heard Peggy giggling brainlessly.
“I need help, Mommy!” he pleaded, pointing to the boots and holding up his gloved hands in frustration.
Elena groaned in reply from where she sat with an empty beer in front of her.
Peggy laughed, “And you were just saying how much you loved having a new helpless little girly-girl in the house, Elena.”
“Uggh, don’t you start giving me a hard time too. I’m doing you a favor, remember?”
Peggy smiled, “Thanks, Elena!” She reached into her purse and pulled out a small plastic bag, which contained what looked like dried mushrooms.
“Not in front of the little one, Peggy,” Elena scolded, covering Rebekah’s eyes with her hands as she led him back inside.
“Ughhh, stop it,” he whined as they made their way up the stairs. “Why is she still here?”
“You want to earn some time off your sentence, don’t you?”
His attention perked up at that. “How much?”
“How about a month?,” she replied.
He started to protest he wanted more but before he could she was lifting his dress and petticoats up over his head. She pushed Rebekah back down on the bed and grabbed one of his boots and tugged it off.
“See, easy?” she said, but the next one proved more difficult. Rebekah groaned in abject misery and humiliation. He laid on his new bed with his legs spread eagled in the air wearing only his girly pull up diaper and plastic panties as his mother tugged repeatedly at the boot. Elena gave it one final tug as hard as she could and the second boot flew free, but Elena's momentum carried her backwards. She was about to fall until she slammed her hand down on the desk for balance, but as she did she hit the pink tablet computer that was sitting there. The device emitted a shrill, angry sounding beeping as it fell to the floor.
“Uggh,” Elena complained, “I hope I didn’t break it…” She picked it up and started poking at it.
Rebekah simply closed his eyes on the bed and tried to catch his breath. His mother slapped his leg to get his attention. “Go take a quick shower, and then I’ll explain what you have to do.”
“Can you get these gloves off?” he whined, and his mother obliged.
“Be careful, remember what I said…”
“Yes, Mommy,” he said with a blush and flounced off to the bathroom.
--
Xandra paused for a moment and thought. “Yeah, that would explain it. An accident.”
“Hey, Athena,” Xandra whispered, poking the girl in the next seat. “Is there any news about the election?”
The girl who was sleeping in the seat next to Xandra simply mumbled something unintelligible and went back to sleep. Xandra laughed and then smiled wistfully, remembering inauguration day after the election in 2016 when the whole family went to Washington to see President Clinton’s swearing in. Athena had slept for that whole plane ride too.
--
Rebekah’s mother shouted at him from outside the door. “I picked a nightie for you, it’s on the bed. Don’t worry about Xandra’s makeup lesson. I can’t get that stupid tablet to turn back on. Wendy can look at it later. Just bring the makeup downstairs and you can try to do it on your own. Okay?”
“What’s going on, Mommy?” Rebekah asked.
“You’re just going to babysit Donna for a few hours while I…’Babysit’ Peggy.”
“What?!” he shouted.
“She’ll pay you too, though that’ll have to go toward your new wardrobe.”
“But that’s not f…” he started before reconsidering. He was too exhausted to complain.
“See you downstairs, Becky-Bow,” his mother announced before retreating back down the stairs to rejoin Peggy.