BIG BOY TROUBLE
Disclaimer: The Mummy and the Mummy Returns belong to Steven Sommers, and to Universal Studios. I do not own them, just borrow them from time to time.
For Five days it had been raining, and for five days Alex had been stuck inside his house. He loved his home, and had every toy a kid could want, but the little boy thrived on adventure, and despite how big the house was, or how many toys he had, after five days inside he was ready for new adventures.
Today Rick was fairly busy trying to draft out plans for a new style of luxury yachts, as well as taking care of his son. He loved being a dad, even the times when Alex pushed him to the limits of his patience, though today he needed quiet time, and today Alex didn’t want to give him that.
“Dad do you see? It’s a sunny day outside and I do believe it is a good thing if we go outside and play today,” he said trying to convince his dad of that. Alex proceeded to sneeze, and his nose ran. For a week he had been very sick, and was only now getting better, which was another reason Rick wasn’t letting him outside.
Upon hearing him sneeze, Rick looked over at his son, then got out his handkerchief and wiped his nose. “Alex I know you want to go outside, but It’s going to be very wet out there, and you are still sick. I think we need to wait until things dry out, and until you are feeling better,” he said.
That got a frown from Alex, who didn’t care about being sick. “But I’m getting better dad, and Mum always says I need to be outside when its a beautiful day. I’ll call her and ask her if I can go outside,” he said turning to do that.
Quickly Rick grabbed him and lifted him onto his lap. “We need to let your mum work buddy,” he said as he turned to face his desk.
Alex sighed and watched his dad make a drawing, then his eyes grew heavy, and it wasn’t long before he went to asleep.
When he felt his son’s head droop, Rick put down the fancy pen he was writing with, and scooted the wooden chair back from his desk. Carefully he stood, and shifted Alex against his shoulder getting a little sigh. Quietly he walked up the stairs to the second level of their house, and walked to the hall where their rooms were, and into Alex’s room.
His son’s room was fairly large, with shelves of toys, and books on every wall, and on the far wall on the left side was Alex’s bed. There Rick laid his son down watching as Alex rolled over on his stomach. Then he pulled a warm blue and white quilt over him, and gave his unruly head of blonde hair a kiss. For a moment Rick stayed where he was watching his son sleep. It still amazed him how much he loved his son, even the times he was unpleasant to be around.
After another minute of watching him sleep, Rick left to go back to his work.
~*~
Not to long after his father put him to bed, Alex woke up, and for a few minutes lay where he was. The little boy was not happy about having to spend another day inside, and after a little thought decided he would go out on his own, even if his daddy said no.
After slipping out of bed, Alex got his shoes, and slipped them on without untying them. He knew his mum would get after him for doing it that way, because it ruined the shoes, but Alex had yet to learn how to tie them, and his way was easier. Since it had rained, he decided he should put on his slip on rubber boots, They were blue, and he loved them. He got both boots over his shoes, and on the right feet, then went to his door and stepped out of his room.
He heard his father’s voice coming from his parents room, and quickly Alex went down the hall, hoping his daddy would stay busy until he got outside. Luck seemed to be on his side as he made it outdoors, and the day was as beautiful as he knew it would be. “Hmm where should I go?” he asked to no one in particular. A wide smile spread across his face, and Alex knew where he would go. He ran up the lane as fast as he could jumping over puddles, and even landed in one getting his pants fairly wet, but he didn’t care. He was going to have a wonderful day, and do it all without anyone to help him.
~*~
An hour after Rick put Alex to bed, Evelyn arrived home for lunch, and found her husband in the kitchen stirring a wonderful smelling beef stew. Rick had become quite the cook since they had gotten married, and she always looked forward to lunch.
Very quietly she snuck up on her husband, and wrapped her arms around his waist, leaning her cheek against his back. She smiled as one of his arms wrapped around her, and sighed. “That really does smell wonderful,” she said.
“It should be ready in a few minutes,” he replied as he put down the wooden spoon he was using to stir his stew with. After he did that, he turned around and gathered his wife in his arms. He lowered his head and took her lips in a warm inviting kiss, which left both of them out of breath.
Evie lifted her arms up, and with one hand on his head, pulled it closer to deepen his kiss. She felt his hand press against her bottom and gasped as he pulled her to him. He was hard, and she knew she should stop them so she wouldn’t be late getting back to the museum, but she wanted his touch like nothing else.
~*~
While his parents had their fun, Alex was having fun of his own. He had made it safely to the park, even crossed a busy street to get there, and was now on the merry go round, laughing as the other kids pushed it. “Come on lets play tag,” a boy said. Alex jumped of the merry go round, right in a muddy puddle getting even more wet and dirty, but being a little boy, he didn’t care about that, and ran after his new friends.
They played tag until they were out of breath, then the nannies of those children took them home, and Alex had to go find someone else to play with. By then he was by the small lake, and he was still full of energy. He was also hungry, but he wasn’t ready to go home quite yet.
As he made his way to the playground he found a few girls who were playing jump rope. For a little bit he watched them, then decided to play with them. “Do you want to go swing?” he asked both of them. They were nice girls and ran with him, racing until they got there.
“It’s very muddy,” one girl said, sure that her Nanna would not be pleased if she got her pretty little dress dirty.
Alex however decided they all needed to be dirty, and threw mud at them. Both of the girls laughed, and they had an all out mud war.
~*~
It was when Evie went upstairs to get her little boy up from his nap, that she found him missing. At first she wasn’t worried, and went to the other part of the house, to check and see if he had gone to see his uncle. Often times when he had to take a nap, Alex would go there, and keep Jonathan company. When she didn’t find him with Jonathan, she went back to the kitchen where Rick was serving up the bowls of stew. “Rick Alex isn’t in his bed. I check with Jonathan but he’s not there either,” she said starting to worry a little.
Rick put his bowl down on the table. “I’ll see if he went out to the barn. He’s likely keeping Zack company,” Rick said.
Evelyn nodded and gave her husband a kiss, then sat down to finish lunch and get back to work.
After putting on his boots, Rick made the quick treck up the field to the barn. Zack was there putting new horse shoes on Seti. “Hey Zack has Alex been here to see you?” Rick asked as he walked over to the young boy. Zack was seventeen, and made his living shoeing horses.
“No Mr. O’Connell, I have not seen him today,” he said.
Rick thanked him and frowned. If Alex wasn’t in the house or the barn, he had likely gone to Megan’s, and after a thought, Rick went back in the barn and saddled up Barney, then took off toward the young girl’s home. If his son was there, Alex would have a lot of explaining to do.
The ride through the woods took two minutes, and when Rick arrived at the Richardson house Mr. Richardson and Megan were both getting in the car, though Paul waited for Rick as he approached. “Have you seen Alex?” Rick asked, as he road up to the car.
“Not today. Megan and I are getting ready to leave for Paris, but I can tell Catherine to watch out for him,” Paul said.
“Thanks,” Rick said. While he road back to the house, he racked his brains trying to figure out where else Alex would be, and decided a better search of the house was in order. Often times Alex would go to the third level of their home and play in one of the rooms there, and Rick hoped he would find him.
~*~
Two hours later, Rick had checked the house from top to bottom, and was very worried. Alex was not in the house, nor was he at the barn, or at Megan’s. Alex had never wondered off like this, and not knowing where his child could be, was very upsetting. Rick went to his, and Evelyn’s room, and called down to the museum hating to interrupt Evelyn’s meeting but their son was missing, and she needed to know.
Getting called out of her meeting to be told her husband was on the phone sent Evelyn running to her office. She knew that Rick would never call her unless it was serious. “Rick?” she asked.
“Yeah babe, its me. Alex is gone Evie. I have looked through this entire house. He isn’t in the barn, he isn’t at Megan’s, and I don’t know where else he would go. I’m going to get Jonathan up, and we are going to go look down by the stream. I think it might be good to call in some of our neighbors and have them start to look as well,” Rick said.
Hearing the panic in her husbands voice was unsettling, and Evie assured him that she would call their neighbors. The fact that the stream was up, due to the heavy rains, was scary enough. She knew that if Alex fell in he could easily drowned, and after she and Rick hung up Evelyn started to call their neighbors, who were gracious enough to help look.
~*~
While his parents and neighbors where searching the woods for him, Alex was having a grand time at the park. He had gotten lunch with some new friends, and was now playing on the teeter totter with a girl named Emily. “Alex we should go to the pond and feed the ducks now,” Emily said.
Feeding the ducks was always fun to do, and after the children got off the teeter totter, they held hands, and ran through the park jumping in puddles and getting filthy. Alex was so dirty that it was difficult to tell there was a little boy under all of that mud. He, and Emily got bread from her nanna, then went down to the pond.
The ducks, as soon as they saw the children, all swam over, squawking for food, and the two children laughed throwing in large pieces of bread into the water.
“Look at him,” Emily said as one duck fought another one for bread. Once they had fed the ducks, Emily’s Nanna told her it was time to go home, and after hugging Alex goodbye she left. Once again he was alone. It was almost 5pm, and Alex was far from running out of steam. After a little rest by the pond, he ran up to the playground and found more friends to play with.
~*~
Dinner rolled around, but O’Connell Manor was empty. Everyone was out looking for Alex, and Evie and Rick had already gone to the police to report Alex missing. Now as they drove back Evie was crying. “Oh Rick what if someone has taken him for the purpose of trying to get something from us?” She said.
Rick found a place in the road and pulled over then gathered her into his arms. “Shh, don’t jump to conclusions. He likely went to one of the parks. Constable Simons said he and his men would search all of them,” Rick reminded.
His touch soothed her, and she nodded her head. “When they find him I’m going to hug him then I’m going to spank him,” she said, though both knew she wouldn’t do that. Evie had never been a believer in using that sort of punishment, though lately Alex had only seemed to listen when Rick threatened it, and she was beginning to realize at least her child needed that sometimes.
~*~
When it began to get dark, Alex decided he better head home, and as he was leaving the park, a man in a uniform walked up to him. “Hi there, are you Alex O’Connell?” the man asked.
Having not a shy bone in his body, Alex nodded his head. “Yes I am,” he said, then asked the officer about his shiny badge and the stick he had on his side.
Joe was happy to have found the little boy, and as they walked to his car he told Alex all about the different things he had on. “It looks like you had quite and adventure,” Joe said as he drove Alex the short way to his house.
Alex yawned. “I had a very good time. I went all by myself today and I didn’t even get hurt,” he bragged. When they arrived at the house, he helped Alex out of his car, and led him up to the house. They knocked on the door and waited but no one was there.
Puzzled why the door was locked, Alex asked about that. “Maybe they went to have dinner,” Alex said not knowing of the panic he had caused everyone this day.
~*~
Evie and Rick had gone to the park closest to their home, not knowing that the officer had already found Alex, and were searching areas like the playground and the lake. “ALEX,” Rick hollered as he and Evelyn walked from the playground to the small lake. He and Evelyn had been told to wait until Alex was found, but neither they, nor Jonathan, who was at another park searching, could do that.
As they arrived at the lake, an officer approached them and told them Alex had been found and was waiting at the house for them. That news was a relief, and both parents rushed to their car then headed home.
When they got to their house, Alex was sitting on the front steps, and waved at them as they pulled up. As soon as Rick had the car stopped, Evelyn was out of it in a flash, and run up the steps at the front of the house to her baby, holding him to her even though he was a filthy mess.
Alex had mud caked in his hair, and all over his face, as well as his cloths. “Oh your safe,” she said as she rocked him. After a full day at play Alex was tired and rested his cheek against her shoulder.
While Evie took him inside, Rick thanked the officer for their help, and thanked him again when he offered to tell the rest of the search parties that Alex was home and safe.
Once he had gone, Rick went inside to do the unpleasant part of his job as parent.
~*~
In his bath Alex stood up as Evelyn poured warm water over his body getting the dried on mud off of him. He was so tired he could barely stand, and Evie was too emotional to try and lecture him on what he had done today. After she had most of the mud rinsed off of him, she had him sit down and let the tub fill with water.
As was always the case, Alex tried to fight sleep, and asked for his toys, and that broke Evies emotional spell. She was angry at him, more so than she ever had been. “You may certainly not have any toys to play with. Do you know how worried we were today? We thought you had drowned in the creek, and we spent all day trying to find you,” she said.
When ever mum got angry at him, it brought Alex to instant tears and he started to cry. “I’m sorry. I wanted to have fun,” he said.
“Well Sorry isn’t good enough,” she said as she finished cleaning him. She let the water out of the tub then helped him out, and wrapped a towel around him. Alex was crying hard as she led him into his room where Rick was waiting, with his pajamas.
Alex walked to him still crying, and Rick put his pajamas on him then knelt in front of him looking him in the eye. “Now then. I told you today that it was too wet to go outside, and I know you didn’t forget that. You chose not to obey me, and you worried us sick today,” Rick said. He stood up and led Alex over to the bed and pulled him across his lap then spanked him six times.
“MUUUMMYYY,” Alex screamed as Rick gave him on last swat. After it was over, Rick held him letting his own tears fall. He was thankful that his only child had not been killed today, and prayed that Alex would think the next time he got it in his head to sneak off as he had done on this day. “Don’t you ever do this to us again,” Rick said still feeling a bit angry at his little boy.
His bottom hurt worse than it ever had, and Alex held tight to his father’s neck crying hard. “I... I...mmm s..sorrry,” he wailed.
Rick held him until his crying subsided then looked up as Evie came with his dinner. “Come on pal mum has your dinner,” Rick said.
Alex shook his head still needing his daddy to hold him so Evie set the tray down and started to leave.
“Mummy,” Alex called out.
She moved to the bed, and sat on the left side of them, then Rick gave Alex to her and left to go see if Jonathan was home and to get a drink. Once he was gone, Alex dried his tears on her shirt. “Does daddy hate me?” he asked feeling sorry for himself.
“No angel he doesn’t, but you did something very dangerous, and you worried us. Daddy spanked you because he wants you to remember that you have to listen when we tell you to do something, or not to do something,” she said setting him down at the head of his bed and propping pillows behind him.
Alex ate all of his dinner, then Evie led him to his bathroom, and helped him comb his hair, and had him brush his teeth. Once he had done that, she sat down in the rocking chair, and waited while he got Paddy bear, then lifted him on her lap.
“Mummy do I get a story tonight?” he asked.
“Not tonight. Shhh, close your eyes,” she said.
He sighed, and did what she wanted, and it wasn’t long before he went to sleep. Even after he was sleep, Evelyn kept rocking him, needing to hold him in her arms to assure herself he was safe.
A little later Rick found her there, with Alex sound asleep, and smiled. He walked over to them and knelt down giving his little boy a kiss, then gently took him out of he arms. Alex came awake, but not for long, resting his cheek against his father’s shoulder as Rick took him the short distance to his bed. He laid Alex down, then pulled the covers over him and kissed his forehead, then his nose, and finally his lips.
When he straightened, he watched Evie do the same thing, and when she was ready Rick took her hand and they left their son to his dreams, both hoping he had learned that he needed to ask them when he was going to go someplace, or at least tell them as much.