Beatrix Bobbit's Parents Take a Vacation: Part 1
Beatrix Bobbit hated everything about summer except for one thing: flowers. She only begrudingly admitted that long after she'd finished stirring her lastest concoction on the stove. Afterwards, she'd lay on the cool black and white tile floor while Sybil fanned her with a tutu.
"Beatrix, dear, Sybil, dear, we are about to leave!" Mrs. Bobbit's frizzy pale haired head poked into the kitchen. Two lines formed between her brows when she saw bits of scattered flower petals strewn across the stove. The lines stayed when she observed Beatrix prone on the tiles.
"That's it, Beatrix, dear, we are simply not going. JACK, DEAR!" Mrs. Bobbit bellowed.
Suddenly, Beatrix's heat exhaustion vanished as she got back to her feet. She locked eyes with Sybil, and together they ran forward, clasping their mother by an arm.
"Mom you have to go! You and Dad deserve this!" Sybil said cheerfully, adding a little leap on her toes for effect and winking rather conspicuously at Beatrix.
"We've got everything under control here," Beatrix said, forcing her eyes not to follow Mrs. Bobbit's gaze which was not fixated on the pink sludge stuck to the front of the stove.
The sound of clomping footsteps caused everyone to turn away from the kitchen mess. Though, Mrs. Bobbit seemed the most torn on where to focus her attention.
"Judy, I've been thinking," Mr. Bobbit paused, his black mustache blowing as he huffed out large breaths. "It's not a good time to leave Penny." Mr. Bobbit looked down at the black bundle of fur in his hand, and petted it thrice on the head.
"Out of curiousity, Dad, when would be a good time to leave Penny? Because it's never been a good time, so maybe you have to make it the right time instead of waiting for the right time. Right?" Beatrix was speaking quickly, on purpose. Mr. and Mrs. Bobbit had put off this trip all summer. This time, though, Beatrix really needed them to go.
Because she had plans they wouldn't approve of.
"Judy, what's she saying?" Mr. Bobbit grunted while petting Penny.
"I think, dear, Beatrix, dear, is trying to get rid of us," Mrs. Bobbit, as usual, was more perceptive than Beatrix ever gave her credit for. In Beatrix's current desperate predicament, she wasn't sure what to say.
"You know how and you and dad really need this vacation? Well, Bea and I do too. To do sister things! Besides, it's only for one night," Sybil added with a twirl and a bounce of her blonde braids.
"Sybil, dear, are you saying you want to get rid of us?" Mrs. Bobbit put a hand to her heart and leaned against the door frame. The lines between her brows reappeared the moment she did because the leaning on the door frame gave her a better vantage point of the mess on the floor beneath the stove. "Sybil and Beatrix are right, Jack, dear. We must say the time is right, and right it is!"
"But, Penny didn't--" Mr. Bobbit swallowed.
"Penny will have a fun night with us," Beatrix reached for the small black rabbit. She found Mr. Bobbit's grip rather unrelenting until she slid a carrot out from her sleeve and held it in front of Penny's twitching nose.
"Don't forget her dinner's at--"
"Six!" Beatrix and Sybil chimed in together.
"And, Beatrix, dear, Sybil, dear, don't forget about the cleaning. I have my list right here," Mrs. Bobbit passed Sybil an entire page filled with writing. Front and back.
Beatrix forced herself to smile, as she and Sybil leapt into action, grabbing to the two shabby travel bags by the front door and loading them into the car in the gravel driveway.
Only once the car had spluttered long out of sight, did Beatrix and Sybil stop smiling and waving.
"Do we still have time?" Sybil asked, bouncing on her toes.
"Yes, but we have to hurry," Beatrix said. "If we want this spell done, we only have eight hours."
With that, Beatrix and Sybil went back and inside, and began the preparations.
The clock was ticking.
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