~~~August 19, 1977~~~
"WAAAA!" a tiny infant screamed. Far too small even by newborn standards.
Right after the father cut the umbilical cord, the doctor scooped the tiny infant into his arms. performing all the necessary check-ups to ensure the baby was alright and that there was no urgent health issue due to his small size. After making sure everything was alright, he nodded to the nurse and handed her the baby.
Under the mother's expectant look, the nurse used a sterilized towel to dry him off; she then put him against his mother's chest.
The moment Jean held her baby against herself, all her worries evaporated into thin air. God, the baby was beautiful, like really beautiful— not in the delusional way every parent thinks of their child. No, this little one was different, even though he was far too small, smaller than any infant born this healthy had any right to be.
"Congratulations, Mr. and Mrs. Granger," the nurse said, her voice warm as she gave them a final smile and quietly slipped out of the room.
"Do you see him? Isn't he beautiful?" Jean whispered, her eyes shining with unshed tears.
"Yes, Honey," Adam said softly. He leaned in, his finger gently brushing a fine wisp of hair from the baby's tiny forehead. "So... Aegeus?"
"Yes," Jean said softly, gazing down at the sleeping bundle against her chest. "His name will be Aegeus. Aegeus Granger."
"Aegeus..." Adam repeated the name slowly.
"Yes," Jean smiled, her heart brimming over. "Little Aegeus Granger."
~~~6 weeks later~~~
Life at 8 Heathgate, Hampstead Garden Suburb was normal— that is, if you didn't count the screaming that could go for hours to no end... So everything is normal. THANK YOU VERY MUCH.
The residents of 8 Heathgate were proud to say that they were perfectly normal— except, perhaps, for the hours of unearthly screaming that reverberated through the ceiling every morning.
So everything was normal. THANK YOU VERY MUCH.
Jean was, by all accounts, a devoted mother. but even the best of mothers get frustrated, especially with a child as unusual as Aegeus. One really couldn't blame her for getting extra frustrated.
"
Jean's face froze. Her shoulders slumped, and a deep, soul-crushing despair flickered in her dark brown eyes. Dragging her feet across the carpet, the thoroughly sleep-deprived mother turned toward the sound, marching toward her toddler's bedroom with all the enthusiasm of a prisoner heading toward the execution chair.
It was not an exaggeration. Not by a long shot. Aegeus is difficult. Normal babies cry for a reason— scratch that, most babies love crying for no reason at all.
Those little dickens sure love testing their vocal cords... Still, ordinary infants eventually stop when they get tired or after satisfying whatever mundane need they might have had. And in case they particularly love hearing their own voice, they can keep going for one hour or so.
The situation with Aegeus is a little different. Beyond the usual reasons, he often cries at random times, and no matter what they do, they can't figure out the reason. They took him to a lot of different doctors, and they all said the same thing: that he was perfectly healthy.
The only thing they figured out, weeks into this whole ordeal, was what a nurse noticed by chance. She noticed that it seemed like he was surprised by something.
She made a note of it anyway, and when Jean and Adam later described their sleepless weeks because of unexplained crying, she mentioned it to them, hoping it might mean something.
The nurse had made a mental note of it at the time, and when Jean and Adam later recounted their endless, sleepless weeks because of the child's unexplained fits, she mentioned it to them, hoping it might mean something.
Jean closed her eyes and started praying, 'Please just let the reason be hunger, soiling yourself is fine too, baby,' she prayed silently, eyes nearly in tears.
She then arrived at the crib. She took the crying baby in her arms and checked his clothes. Nope— nothing. Then she tried breastfeeding, still nothing. After checking his temperature, she sank to her knees in front of his crib and started begging.
Reaching the crib at last, Jean scooped the wailing bundle into her arms and conducted a swift, frantic inspection. Clothes? Dry. Breastfeeding? Refused, accompanied by an offended shriek. Temperature? Aggressively normal.
Defeated on all fronts, Jean sank to her knees in front of his crib and started begging.
"Please, Aegeus, tell Mama what's wrong," she whimpered, her voice cracking. "Is it a bug? Is there a spider in here? Is that what's scaring you?" She patted at his tiny baby clothes, but upon finding no evidence for her bug theory, she could only start rocking him back and forth gently, trying and obviously failing to calm him down.
And it seemed like he didn't like that very much, as he cried even louder.
"ADAM! GET YOUR BUTT IN HERE!"
Jean was a loving wife, but she was firmly of the belief that marriage meant sharing burdens— especially ear-splitting ones. So instead of silently suffering alone, she quickly called her husband to suffer too.
Besides, she had long since noticed that her husband was suspiciously slow to arrive to her aid.
The child had been screaming his head off for a long time, and even the deaf would have heard him by now, but no matter how much time passed, it didn't seem like that traitorous husband of hers had any intention of arriving anytime soon...
"COMING," Adam answered suspiciously quickly from the other side of the house.
He knew the consequence of not answering all too well...
The moment he arrived, he found his poor wife on her knees, looking all over the place as if she was looking for some invisible entity nobody could see.
Meanwhile, Jean, having already abandoned the utterly useless rocking method, returned to her bug theory. The second her eyes locked onto her husband in the doorway, she shot him an angry glare, blaming him for his cowardice.
Adam, for his part, utterly ignored her glare. He was a man with a plan. For days, he had racked his brain trying to figure out how to calm Aegeus down, before finally hitting upon a stroke of sheer genius: he had gone out and purchased him a tiny toy car.
"Look, Aegeus, it's a cool car~," Adam coaxed, pulling a brightly painted toy car from his trousers
"The cool car, Aegeus? Vroom vroom.." He began making low, rumbling engine noises, which for a moment seemed to have a positive effect on Aegeus, as he slowly began to calm down.
For one fleeting, blissful moment, a profound sense of relief washed over the exhausted couple; Jean's shoulders unknotted, and Adam allowed himself a small, victorious smirk.
Feeling encouraged, Adam continued, "You like the car, Aegeus? Look, it's moving really fast! VROOOM VROOM AND— BOOM!" He mimicked a crash.
But that quickly proved to be the wrong thing to do...
"WAAAA!"
"WHY ON EARTH DID YOU CRASH IT?!" Jean shrieked, her eyes blazing with fire.
"I DON'T KNOW," Adam yelled back, a wave of profound guilt washing.
Stupid, stupid, stupid.
"Look, honey~ the car is okay! See? VROOM VROOM! No damage done!" Adam stammered as he made several more fruitless attempts to salvage the situation.
~30 minutes later~
There were now three people crying in the room...
"waaaa!" Aegeus.
"waaaaaaa!" Jean.
"waaaaaaaaa!" Adam.
_________________________________________________________________________
TO BE CONTINUED
~~~
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