[ - ]
Table of Contents [Report This]
Printer Chapter or Story Microsoft Word Chapter or Story
- Text Size +
Part 3

Nick closed his eyes and shook his head and for the first time hoped that when he opened them, nothing more than the norm would be in front of him. Upon opening his eyes though, he had no such luck and he just stood and stared in complete shock for a few moments, not knowing what to do or how to handle this. How could one little girl cause so much damage in such a short period of time?

Nick just continued to look all around him, wondering if there was anything in his sisters work area, of all places, was completely destroyed. It seemed like it, as he didn’t see one single corner that hadn’t been touched. Drawers were thrown open with their contents strewn everywhere. Some of them were crumpled, others ripped. The scanner was on the floor, flipped upside down, the cord ripped from the wall and the printer was hanging at the side of the desk, the cord stretching to its limit. Then there were the filing cabinets, open with the files everywhere around the room. Nick winced, knowing his sister took pride in her filing system and organization and now all of that was in an ruinous manner, everything mixed up. Erica was now happily walking around the room with a purple marker, drawing a line on the walls, stopping every now and then to make a large scribble.

“Erica!” Nick moaned out loud, quickly walking in to the room.

Erica stopped dead in her tracks and stared up at Nick before plopping her body to the ground. She new she’d done something wrong, however she didn’t appear to feel bad about it. She just smiled up at Nick innocently. Nick didn’t care though. The room would take hours to clean up, not including the now destroyed walls. He hoped that nothing was broken. He was just proving to be so responsible. First he’d lost his niece only to find her making the den a complete calamity.

“Maybe I do need old Ursula here.” Nick said aloud.

“No! No Ursula!” Erica screamed, her tone ear piercing and Nick winced, covering his own hoping that her pitch wasn’t going to deafen him, “Nooooooo”

“Okay, okay...no Ursula...you win.” Nick moaned and sighed, “Come here...lets get you cleaned up...and give me the marker.”

Nick held his hand out to Erica’s purple marked body, seeing she’d scribbled all over herself too. Erica held the marker out to him, passing his hand and putting a large line down his face, giggling gleefully. It was all Nick could do not to lose is temper as his nerves were shot. He didn’t know how to handle this girl. So he did what he had too, snatching the marker from her hands and tossing it in to the garbage can. Erica’s bottom lip started to tremble as Nick scooped her up in to her arms, carrying her to the bathroom.

“We’re going to wash you off and you’re going to behave, deal?”

Erica said nothing as Nick grabbed a washcloth, putting it under a stream of hot water. He then gently took Erica’s arms and legs one by one, rubbing them lightly in soft strokes until the marker was off. Erica watched him with intensity, sighing in defeat. She didn’t fuss, and for that, Nick was thankful. Once Nick was done, he neatly hung the washcloth back up and picked her up, carrying her, knowing that they had to get out of the house.

“How does ice cream sound?”

“Ice cweam!”Erica repeated

Erica’s entire body perked up hearing that word and she started clapping her hands excitedly. Nick laughed, kissing her cheek. He took her reaction as a good thing and at least if she made a mess, it would be somewhere where they were paid to clean up the restaurant. He’d had his piece of Erica’s monstrous side. It was somebody elses turn.

So making his way out to this car, Nick set Erica down on the driveway as he dug around in his pocket for his keys. His eyes grew wide as he realized that they weren’t there. Nick cursed under his breath, wondering if he could do anything right when it came to watching her.

“Stay there, Erica....Nicky will be right back. I just have to get the keys, okay?” he explained to the child looking up at him with big, bright eyes, walking backwards a few steps before turning and dashing back up to the door. He ran in to the living room, where he knew he’d put his keys on the coffee table, grabbed then and dashed back outside, locking the door behind him. He was too late though, as he watched Erica sitting by his car causing even more destruction. He could feel tears of frustration welling up in his eyes as he covered his face with his hands, mumbling a pathetic, “Oh no...”