17. Chapter Seventeen #2
I pulled up the app then propped my phone between us on a pillow so we could search for the largest, fluffiest things we could find. By the time we completed the order, we were giggling because someone was going to need to take a truck to the post office just to collect everything. Again.
We hadn’t stopped at blankets. We’d discovered SpongeBob and Patrick merchandise and ordered giant pillows shaped like them and Squidward and Mr. Crabs.
“Wait,” Caspian said, a thoughtful look on his face.
“What did we forget?” I asked.
“Twinkle lights for the nursery,” Caspian declared, “and a projector like this one. We should get one that shows the moon and stars too, so they can have the night sky on their ceiling.”
“I can’t wait to tell them about the first time I saw you.”
“I-I’m not entirely sure, but I think I saw you once before that, when we were dragonets,” Caspian admitted.
“I wasn’t supposed to swim near the surface, but one day I followed a bunch of fish up and there was a dragonet the same size as me, with shiny white hair.
He was floating on a big piece of ice, breaking off pieces of something and dropping them in the water for the fish to eat. ”
“Shrimp cakes!” I said. “I can practically smell them right now. No wonder the shrimp chips we ate earlier tasted so familiar. My favorite treat when I was a kid was shrimp cakes, but I always broke off bits to share with the fish. My mama used to have to fly after me some days because I floated so far out.”
“Did you ever get in trouble when you did that?” Caspian asked.
“She’d just tsk, shake her head, and thank me for giving her the chance to spread her wings. My Papa, on the other hand, was never amused to learn how far I’d gone and used to threaten to freeze the water so I couldn’t go anywhere.”
“Did he ever go through with it?”
Smiling, I shook my head, because I remembered clearly how exasperated he’d been, even while creating an entire playground filled with ice slides to keep me entertained, so I wouldn’t go off on wild adventures.
I’m glad you asked. I didn’t remember that part until just now.
I had so much fun on those slides and didn’t float anywhere for weeks. ”
“If our dragonets are anything like us, they’re going to keep us on our toes.”
“Don’t you mean they are going to keep our toes frozen or soaking wet?” I asked.
“That too.”
“I see ice slides in our future and not the ones I intend to make for them,” I said as an image popped in my head of a slide leading from the edge of the tub into the water.
“Parenthood is going to be our greatest adventure, I can just feel it.”
“You know how Alex keeps fire extinguishers stashed all over the place?” I asked.
“Like behind his grandfather’s favorite chair? Yes, I’d noticed that, but I don’t think they will do us any good,”
“True, but shop-vacs might. To clean up any excess water,” I said as I fiddled with my phone, pulling up an image of one for him to see. “They’re good for cleaning up all kinds of things, even liquids.”
“I’m sure we can stash a few of these in the garage, in case we need to run more than one at a time,” Caspian said as he made the screen larger.
“You mean when we have to run more than one at a time,” I replied, laughing at the horrified sound he let out.
“You don’t think they’d gang up on us like that, do you?”
“If there is one thing I have learned about dragonets, it’s how unpredictable they are,” I admitted. “Kane burped one day and left ashes and soot all over the chandelier over the table. Fortunately, it’s made of metal so no risk of it going up in flames, but still.”
“Better than burning a hole through a diaper, I suppose,” Caspian replied.
His giggles made me start too. It was probably all the cartoons we watched that made the silly images form in my head, but soon, we were laughing so hard that all we could do was hold on to one another. He snickered, just when I thought I’d reined myself in, and another fit of laughter overtook us.
That’s the way Mattias discovered us when he returned from patrol.
Unable to stop, even when he asked us what was so funny.
Every time one of us started trying to backtrack so the story would make sense, the other one would back the story up to a different point or start chuckling again.
In the end, poor Mattias was more confused than anything as he climbed into the nest with us.
It was easier to tell him about the things we’d ordered and the wrap around porch, and wanting this to be our nest, all of which he happily agreed with.
“I believe it’s time that someone in this family invest in a blanket factory,” Mattias declared. “Ronan bought so many of them that several sites were marked sold out for weeks while they waited for the restock to arrive. You two might have topped that today.”
“Well yeah,” I replied. “Our nest has to be big enough to fit six dragonets.”
“Each time one of you reminds me of the number, my head spins,” Mattias admitted.
“Just picture it, Papa,” Caspian said. “You covered in dragonets. Two cradled in your wings, two in your arms, and two wrapped securely, cradled in your tail, all sleeping contently while we take tons of pictures of you.”
“I have been picturing it ever since we received the joyous news,” Mattias said. “Now come here mates and let me prove to you how happy you’ve made me.”