Chapter Text
Christmas Eve 2001
The incident took place on Christmas Eve at the grandparents’ house. It was a very warm-mild December.
Grandma Violet Bridgerton and grandpa Edmund Bridgerton lived in Aubrey Hall in a picturesque southern city Kent. The house was like what you see in movies where people come for holidays, elegant entrance, tall white windows and opulent interiors. Grandma and grandpa were waiting for their children and grandchildren to arrive. Hyacinth and Gregory were already home from their universities for the holidays. First to arrive was Daphne and Simon with their children Amelia and Belinda with a Caroline who was 2 in Simons arms. Amelia was 10 and Belinda was 8. They bicker around the whole ride over like your hand across the centre line of the seat, just bickering over their shared chat. The ride to the house was of four hours long but the minute they arrive the animosity between the sisters is gone because there’s new things to do. There are stairs to run up and down, there grandparents to hug, bunch of soft things to jump on. They are doing that when there two cousins arrived, Edmund Bridgerton II who is named after his grandpa and famously known as Neddy who was 9 and Miles who was 6 with their parents Anthony and Kate who was pregnant. Boys came roaring out of the car, full of energy. And once the cousins are all together its like hell breaks loose, they want to play hide and seek; they want to like run and tackle each other and scream at the top of there lungs. The adults are exhausted from the long journey to their parents’ house with their very chaotic children. Francessca came with her girlfriend Michela a day before Christmas Eve. Eloise had also arrived a day before and was either on her phone chatting with his boyfriend Phillip or reading a book. Benedict and Sofie arrived an hour later with their one-year-old son Charles.
It was Christmas Eve, the kids were full of energy; they were so chaotic. The parents didn’t want the kids to topple the family heirlooms because the kids were running in circles. Luckily Colin arrived with Penelope holding a black box with a bunch of chords, he carries it like a bouquet to the living room and turns the TV around and plugs it in. It was a Nintendo 64.
The all were seated on the floor and they were still yelling and being really loud but atleast they are not running anymore so the parents are were relieved for now. The game they playing was Mario Party and the game devolves immediately. Amelia assumed that since she was taller and older than everyone, she would the best in playing the videogame even though she never played it before but that did not work out for her and she did not take it well. She is pouting and at one point she gets so mad that she slaps the controller out of Miles hand. To her credit slapping the controller out of Miles hand was pretty fair because Miles was cheating and sabotaging his teammates games because he thinks its funny. He doesn’t play by the rules; he loses every time because he makes sure that his older brother Neddy loses every time too. But he was best in the game; he knows how to win but he would just rather want Neddy to lose.
Because Miles is disrupting everybody’s game, that means Belinda is winning every game. So, Belinda is bragging and rubbing it in her sister face. Neddy doesn’t care about the game and is not bothered by Miles’s behaviour; he’s trying the shortcuts and tricks in the game and does not even try to win.
The women are in the kitchen cooking the Christmas meal and the men are making the dinner for Christmas Eve and are allowed to use the grill since the women have occupied the whole kitchen. So, for dinner they have hotdogs and hamburgers. The kids love it because they have chips and watermelon on the grill. So, the children eat the dinner happily and return to play the games.
Almost two hours later, the grandpa comes stomping into the living room and he walks up to the TV and rips the chord out of the back of the Nintendo and the screen goes black. Miles who was about to beat Neddy and Amelia in one fell swoop screams. The parents come running in because the kids are screaming. So, the whole family is gathered around in the living room. Grandpa Edmund is holding the chords and is clearly annoyed and he clears his throat and asks “Which one of you put a hotdog in the toilet?”
The children look at one another but they don’t say anything. They are all silent. Edmund says “I know it’s one of you”. No one says anything.
Edmund says “None of you are in trouble but the upstairs toilet is clogged so one you must confess it”
Edmund wasn’t upset but he just wanted to know who did it. But nobody said a word. They were looking at each other waiting for someone else to confess but none of them do. The adults decided to question the kids by splitting them up and ask them individually see if someone confess.
Kate, Colin and Sofie decided to ask Neddy first. Neddy is a sincere kid but very picky eater, he does not like hotdogs and more importantly by 7 years old he became vegetarian. So, Neddy is interviewed on the couch. He is sitting cross legged.
Colin asks Neddy “Did you put the hotdog into the toilet?”
Neddy denies “No, I didn’t. I don’t even eat hotdogs.”
Everyone believes him but Kate knows Neddy is good at lying. Kate asks him “Neddy, do you know who put the hotdog in the toilet”
Neddy replies “All I know that all the kids used the upstairs bathroom except Amelia because she doesn’t like the way it smells.”
Miles is the only child who doesn’t seem concerned. He is so chaotic that he is eating cookies when Anthony, Benedict and Micheala find him in the dinning room. He is not supposed to be eating cookies
Anthony says “Milo you are not supposed to be eating cookies”
Miles replies “Grandpa said that I could have them.”
Edmund absolutely did not say he could have the cookies. Anthony says “Miles, did you put the hotdog in the toilet?”
Miles says “Nope.”
Miles is the tattle-tale of the cousins. He would always come to his parents if Neddy has like broken a cup, called him a baby, breathed in the wrong direction. So, Benedict asks “Milo, do you know who put the hotdog in the toilet”
Miles immediately replies “I do not.”
Simon, Violet and Francessca interrogated Belinda on the patio. Belinda doesn’t deal well with confrontations so when her mom started questioning her older sister; she started crying.
Violet says “No one is in trouble; we just want to know who put the hotdog in the toilet.”
Hazel says “Amelia is always blaming me for things that I didn’t do. I ate all of my hotdog; I would never put a hotdog into the toilet. I cleaned my plate, Dad gave me more and I still ate them.”
Simon says “You are right that we believe Amelia over you but she is usually right. Belinda, do you know who put the hotdog in the toilet?”
Belinda says “I don’t even know there was a hotdog in the toilet. I have no idea.”
Amelia is sitting in the kitchen table with her mom Daphne. She’s picking her nails but she’s a good kid and is obsessed with getting good grades and is very kind.
Eloise asks “Amelia, was it you who put the hotdog in the toilet?”
Amelia replies “No and if I had it would have been an accident and there would be no reason to hide from you and I would have retrieved it or would have called for help”
Daphne believes her but she also knows that Amelia has intentionally created problems in the past to get Belinda into trouble.
Penelope asks “Amelia, do you know who put the hotdog in the toilet?”
She answers “I don’t but Belinda and Miles were the only others who were eating hotdogs”
The adults were thinking it’s so funny that the kids never ratted each other out. But there was no confession and they were not going to do anything about this anyway. So, the parents were like the upstairs bathroom is clogged and no of you can go there, its off limits for rest of their stay.
So, this is how the hotdog story becomes the family joke. Every year on Christmas the family brings up the hotdog incident and the whole story is retold and the whole of it is re-hashed in detail. Every time they are serving hotdogs the parents are like don’t put it the toilet.