Chapter 257: Stars in a jar.
Usually, when someone was set to awaken, she was mostly unbothered. In some cases, she was even excited. But in this one, for some reason, she was worried.
As there was nothing to do but wait and see, she decided to return home. Slowly, she walked to her car, passing by the church. People had gathered in moderate numbers for the mass. Because of the ice storm outside, many had chosen to stay in the comfort of their homes.
However, more were arriving with every minute. Some alone and others as family. Sunshine wondered why Father Nicodemus had chosen to schedule the mass for nighttime.
By the time she reached home, the last of the Quinns were leaving. It was unexpected that they had left so soon when it looked like they had come for a massive celebration that would end at midnight.
"What happened to everyone?" She asked as accepted a heat pack from Tank.
"Oh Suni, you missed the fun part." Lisha laughed jumping over from the living room. "Grandpa told us a story about the one time he got stuck in a snowstorm and had to hug Uncle Quill through the night. Apparently, they were only in their boxers. The snowstorm ended during the night and when they woke up, people were crowding the car and looking at them with disgusted expressions. The police were called." She choked on her laughter. "You will never guess what happened next?"
Sunshine raised her brows. "I am sure that I will hear all about it from you and the rest of the base on your new radio show."
Lisha laughed. She loved to tell stories about their family, sharing embarrassing moments. She was encouraging others to write in and share their own stores which would be read during the show.
Good nights were exchanged as Lisha grabbed her jacket. Everyone left, their laughter faint in the corridor.
Hades and Sunshine rejoined the kids, who were watching an animation movie except for Ariel who was reading the introduction to zoology for some reason.
"Sweetie rest the books. There is no surprise quiz in the apocalypse. No tests either so you have no need to race for first place academically." She said, snatching the book out of Ariel’s hand.
She closed the book with a tap and tossed it on the table.
"Mom...." He whined.
"Come on, it is time for bed." Sunshine announced, pulling him up with a smile on her face. It was the very first time she was hearing Ariel whine. It was cute.
Castiel and Earl stood up because Hades switched off the television. They started marching like well-behaved soldiers, off to the bedroom. Ariel followed, walking slower with his shoulders hunched.
"I will go and make sure they bathe first." Hades said.
Sunshine suddenly held him back. He looked from her to the bedroom door and then back to her again. "Do you want to take bath time?"
She shook her head. "You should go to the church. I think that Father Nicodemus is in the process of awakening, and he is not feeling the signs at all. His face is red. I could feel his temperature from where I sat across from him. But he was normal."
He frowned. "Isn’t that normal for awakening?"
She shook her head. "You are supposed to feel something. If he doesn’t know that he is awakening, he might harm someone. Keep an eye on him. After mass, tell Elio to start from where you stop. Then Dwayne. We will take turns until he awakens."
"Of course, I will call you if it is anything I cannot handle." He kissed her and rushed out.
She loved his confidence, but reality was that he would probably not be able to handle it.
Sunshine entered the children’s room and found Ariel supervising bath time. Castiel was refusing to bathe.
"You go first with Earl; I will take care of Cass." She said.
"Little champ, why are you not under the water?" She asked.
Castiel blinked like a plastic doll. "I was waiting for you mommy, to help me brush my teeth."
"Oh, but remember that if I help you then I will not be putting a star in your jar and that means less weekly spending allowance for you. It also means you won’t afford black hole donuts, special pizza..." Sunshine had a faraway look in her eye.
Castiel quickly stood. "I will brush my teeth myself, mommy I do not need your help." He rushed to the bathroom.
She heard the boy’s laughter as the bathed. Patiently, she waited for them to finish and dress up. Then, they dried each other’s hair. She dried Castiel’s.
After that activity, they got into the bed and Castiel grabbed his octopus.
"Mommy, I brushed my teeth, washed my face and put myself in bed. Those are three stars for me." His smile grew wider as his fingers counted.
Early lifted his head. "No Castiel that is just one star."
"Now Earl, Castiel has been sick, he gets a pass so three stars it is." Sunshine told him quickly.
Castiel squealed with joy. "Yay! Thank you, mommy. I love you so much."
"In that case, I will be sick tomorrow." Earl declared.
They laughed.
Ariel suddenly lifted his head and said, "I am too old for that stars in the jar stuff. Just give us allowances according to age, that’s only fair since I do most of the heavy lifting anyway."
He did have a point, but Sunshine had no plans to increase his allowance. He was getting paid for his job at the store as junior supply manager, accountant and all the other jobs he did.
"Hmmm, you earn more stars than anyone in the family. You have three jars full." She told him.
Tank opened the door and brought in White, placing him in the baby bed near Ariel.
"Mommy, what happened to White’s mommy?" Earl asked in a small voice.
She had no idea why he was raising the question but went ahead and told them about the story of how she found white.
"Poor white." Ariel whispered.
"He got something good out of it, us. A family that loves him." Earl stated
"I am going to be nicer to him." Castiel declared.
Sunshine smiled. "And that is why I love you boys. You are the bravest-----" she kissed Castiel on the head and moved to Earl, "kindest-----" she moved to Ariel, "and sweetest babies in the world."
The boys hummed in agreement then Sunshine started singing a lullaby and turned on the ocean sounds. All boys and one bear started dozing. Just before White slept off completely, she kissed him on the head too and left the room quietly.
The walkie-talkie had not vibrated, so she took it as a sign to mean that everything was well at the church. Father Nicodemus had no awakened and burned, frozen or shocked anybody.
"Bath time" she whispered.
She took a quick shower, wore a comfortable lounging set and entered the space. Straight away she pulled up the Wrench of reason page.
Before distracting herself with work, her eyes peeked at the walkie-talkie and she sighed. The silence was good and yet it made her more uneasy.