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‘Daddy.’ Mia wandered into her parent’s room early on a Sunday morning in the summer. ‘Daddy.’
Malcolm, his face covered in stubble, barely opened one eye. Dani was curled up in his arms happy to sleep on. ‘Lass?’
‘Cereal?’
‘You’re a big girl. You can get your own cereal.’ Malcolm was still half asleep.
‘Okay, daddy. Can Gracie and I watch tv?’
‘Not loudly.’ Malcolm reminded his daughter. ‘One juice each.’
‘Thanks, daddy.’ Mia left her parent’s bedroom and went to Gracie’s room. ‘Gracie, breakfast!’
Her younger sister sat up, rubbing at her eyes to wake herself up. ‘Mimi?’
‘We can watch tv, Gracie. Want to watch tv with me?’
‘Tv! Toons!’
‘Yeah, toons! We can watch the puppy toons.’
‘Puppy!’ Gracie got up from her bed and, with Mia’s help, stood up on the wood floor. ‘Cold toes!’
‘Here, we get you your slippers.’
‘Bunny bunny slippers.’ Gracie giggled as Mia fished her slippers out from under Gracie’s bed and helped her sister get them on.
‘Daddy says we can have cereal and juice.’ Mia kept up a running commentary for her sister as they went down the stairs and into the kitchen. There, Mia got them both a juice box from the fridge and then got them each a bowl of cereal with some milk. ‘Puppy toons and breakfast. You like this Gracie?’
‘Yeah!’
‘You carry the juice, I’ll bring the cereal.’
With the two covered plastic cups in her little hands, Gracie led the way to the front room and television. Some weeks before, Malcolm had given in to the girls and Dani on buying a large bean bag chair for the girls. It was lower to the ground for Gracie to get in and out of without help as she did with the couch and it was large enough for their daughters to sit together on it. It also had a removable cover that was easily washed. Malcolm had made sure to zip the inner section up tight to avoid any leaking of the ‘beans’ out of it.
The beanbag chair had been a hit with the girls and it was proving to be very sturdy with all the jumping they were doing on it. Gracie had even figured out that she could walk on it and make it tip over for her to ‘slide’ off it.
Up until that morning there had been no need to remove the outer cover as the girls had not managed to spill anything on it.
Gracie got settled in, still holding the juice boxes, as Mia set the bowls of cereal on the floor beside them for a moment. She went up to the tv and turned it on to their favourite cartoon channel. They were just in time for the start of their favourite cartoon show. Mia was careful to turn the volume down.
‘Paw puppy!’ Gracie beamed as the show started. Mia joined her sister on the beanbag chair, handing her a bowl of cereal. They sat and watched the show as they drank their juice and ate their cereal. They both laughed at the antics of the cartoon characters. The show ended and their cereal bowls were empty so Mia took the bowls and set them up on the coffee table out of the way. Another cartoon came on, this one a classic one with Thomas the Tank. It wasn’t Mia’s favourite but Gracie went wild over the talking engine so Mia patiently watched it. She knew that right after Thomas the Tank was a Smurfs cartoon that Mia liked. Gracie didn’t understand the Smurfs as much but delighted in the little blue characters.
By the end of the Smurfs, the girls were both wide awake, the energy from their cereal running through them but the next cartoon was geared towards boys and they got bored with the tv. Instead of watching it, the girls began to play on the beanbag chair rather than just sit on it. Mia was more than happy to hold the chair up at an angle for Gracie to scramble up and then slide down. After a few thumps with her landings, Mia realized that by getting one of the cushions from the bench in the kitchen, the landing for Gracie as she slid would be softer. That improvement had Gracie laughing and clapping as she landed each time.
‘Gracie, I want to try something!’ Mia, her brain having already thought up the cushion landing, began to think what else she could do with the beanbag. Gracie stood to one side as Mia dragged the beanbag chair to one end of the couch. She flattened it out.
‘Mimi? Play?’
‘Watch, Gracie!’ Mia got up on the couch, steadied herself on the arm of it and then jumped down onto the beanbag. It thumped loudly with the weight of the six year old landing on it. The outer covering held up for now but the inner zip however, wasn’t coping as well and it had already begun to split open.
‘Jump!’ Gracie wanted in on the fun as well and Mia was more than willing to help her sister get up on the couch, onto the arm and then, with Mia to help steady her, she was dropping onto the soft beanbag with a thump as well. She squealed with delight.
‘My turn again!’ Mia said and scrambled up onto the arm of the couch to jump down again.
The sequence of thumps and then laughter and then the scrambling of feet soon broke into the sleep of both parents. Dani, stirring first, turned to Malcolm in the bed. She could hear their girls laughing and smiled herself. She ran her hand over Malcolm’s rough cheek, enjoying the scruffy feel for the moment. There was another soft thump but Dani wasn’t too concerned. She was used to assorted noises from the girls when they played about the house. Probably just one of their toys being moved about. Taking the moment of the girls happily playing on their own, she leaned close to Malcolm and kissed him softly.
It had the desired effect to wake him up. One eye cracked open to gaze on Dani and Malcolm broke into a smile. He kissed Dani in return.
‘True love,’ He whispered. ‘You don’t complain about kissing me in the morning at all.’
‘Now that you mention it…’ Dani teased and wrinkled her nose at him. Malcolm scowled at her, his old look was softened with age now but it had her kissing him again.
Another thump and sound of laughter interrupted the moment. ‘What do you think they’re doing?’ Malcolm asked.
‘Seems harmless enough. They’re laughing not crying so …’ Dani kissed him once more and Malcolm was eager enough to kiss her back.
Back downstairs, the girls were enjoying their game of scramble up and jump. Each landing though was ripping the inner zip until it was totally gone. The outer zip was holding up but then Mia made a fateful decision.
‘Gracie, come up with me. Let’s jump together!’
‘Yeah!’ Gracie agreed and accepted Mia’s help up onto the arm of the couch. Mia, very careful with her young sister, kept a good hold on Gracie’s hand.
‘Count with me then we jump.’
Together, the girls recited. ‘One!’ ‘Two!’ ‘Three!’
The two girls jumped and landed together on the beanbag. While the outer zip was able to handle one girl jumping on it, the weight of both girls was too much. They thumped loudly onto it but the thump quickly became a ‘RRRRIP’ noise and then a ‘WHOOOOSH’
Plastic pellets exploded from the beanbag. They scattered all over the floor, rolling under the couch and furniture. The cover became a useless, limp pile of fabric and the girls sat there, unharmed and with only a small number of pellets remaining in the beanbag chair under them.
‘What the fuck was that?’ Malcolm sat up in bed, any thoughts of growing amorous passion extinguished for both of them.
‘That didn’t sound good.’ Dani commented and was getting out of bed, pulling on a housecoat. Malcolm just began to head out the room and down the stairs. Dani followed a few steps behind.
He couldn't say a thing. Malcolm was only able to stand in the doorway and look at the two girls in the middle of a pool of white plastic pellets and the remains of the beanbag chair. Some of the pellets stuck to the girls hair thanks to static electricity. ‘Fucking….’
‘Daddy! Bad word!’ Mia was quick to cut him off and then she went wide eyed at the look in his face. Her eyes went wider as Dani came up beside him, her mouth open in shock. ‘Morning, mommy!’
Gracie laughed, ‘Daddy! Mommy! Look!’ She grabbed a few handfuls of pellets and threw them into the air, watching some of them stick to Mia’s hair.
‘Seriously?’ Was all that Malcolm could say. ‘Seriously? Girls?’
‘What a mess.’ Dani muttered. ‘Girls, what were you doing?’
‘Jumping!’ Gracie admitted. ‘Fun play!’
Malcolm had to take a few breaths. ‘Girls, jumping on furniture is not good.’
‘Can we get another beanbag chair?’ Mia asked.
Malcolm groaned and Dani slipped a hand into his to squeeze it gently. ‘We’ll have to talk about that later, Mia. Daddy and I aren’t too happy right now that you broke this one.’
Gracie, catching on that they had done wrong, stood up and came over to Dani. ‘Sorry, mommy.’ She hugged her mother tight and then went to Malcolm to hug him. She left plastic pellets dotted over both of them. Mia, realizing the same thing, repeated the process and scattered even more of the pellets about.
Malcolm sighed, ‘Love, how about you go get some coffee going. I’ll start cleaning up.’
‘I’ll make it a bit stronger today.’
‘Good idea,’ Malcolm agreed. ‘Right you two, you’re helping clean up!’