The Baby next Door

What was that?

It was the next day and I was not, even in the slightest, ready for Kate's parents to come over. I tossed over to Kate's side of the bed. It took me a minute to realize that Kate was not in the bed. I sat up on the edge of the bed and rubbed my eyes out of exhaustion. I did not get much sleep after I had gotten up to close the window, which, by the way, I distinctly remember asking her to close.

It was not too long before I could hear the noise of a vacuum, which had began to fill the emptiness of the house.

"She is already cleaning? Wow!" To say the least, I was impressed - Kate never had never woken up this early for anything, ever before - except for when her parents would come over. I grabbed my clothes and headed for the shower. I took a quick shower before changing into something a little old. I did this because I knew that the second I walked down the stairs, Kate is going to tell me to clean something.

Kate always tried to impress her parents. Every time her parents had come over in the house, she would go on this crazy perfection rampage, where every corner of the house needs to look as if it was a million dollar painting.

As I walked down the stairs, I heard Kate walking around the kitchen.

She stopped what she was doing and stared at me.

"Well, look who finally decided to get up!"

Kate usually got really aggressive whenever she was nervous, so I knew she was just stressed about her parents coming over.

"Very funny. By the way, why did you leave the window open? I remember specifically asking you to close it."

Kate put a halt to her cleaning and froze.

"What do mean? I closed that window the second you had told me to."

"Well it was wide - open at midnight last night. I had to get up myself and close it. And I could not go back to sleep afterwards. So there you have it, the reason I woke up late."

"No, wait a minute now, I closed that window. I distinctly remember closing it."

"You must have thought you closed it but in reality, you had not. Never mind it is fine. Do not stress."

Kate stressed her face, which indicated that she was deep in thought on whether or not she had actually closed the window.

"Now, we need to prepare for your parents. Where do you want me to clean first?"

Kate snapped back to reality. She gawks at me in confusion.

"Uh, what?"

"Parents, dinner, cleaning, food - anything ringing a bell?"

"Oh um, yea! Sorry."

"Do not worry. I am sure it was an accident. These things happen. Now, where am I cleaning?"

Kate dazed around the kitchen, while she looked to give me something to do.

"Try cleaning the rest of the kitchen. I will go shop for some groceries in the mean while."

She left the kitchen in quite the rush and left me there,all alone in the kitchen, with a broom in my hand and exhaustion in my heart.

Kate goes out of the front entrance of the house and headed towards the car. She hopped into the driver's seat and backed the car out of the driveway of the house. I heard the car drive off and the noise of the engine had become faint, until it went silent, traveling off into the distance.

I had finished sweeping the kitchen, and I left the broom on the edge of the kitchen cabinet. I left it there so that I could could make myself some breakfast, considering the fact that I had not had anything to eat since I got up this morning.

I put the water to boil in the kettle. My back faced the kitchen cabinet. Just then, I heard a loud ' Thud.'

It sounded like the broom had fallen down. I spun around and glanced over to the end of the cabinet. To my complete surprise, the broom sat straight - on the opposite side of the cabinet that of which I had left it in.

My face looked exactly the same Kate's face had looked like when I confronted her about her leaving the window open the night before. I felt full confusion engulf me. I was about to question my life existence, when I was interrupted by the sound of the water over boiling out of the pot on the stove.

I rushed over to the stove and put it off. I sighed out of exhaustion. This day kept getting weirder. I poured the water into the cup and added a teabag to the mixture. As I poured the milk into the cup, I heard the car pull back into the driveway. I waited a while for Kate to walk back into the house.

After a while, I watched Kate walk into the house with three packets of groceries.

"Wow, you cleaned the kitchen well!"

"Thank you!"

"Okay listen, my parents are going to be here in a few hours. You will be picking them up from the airport, while I sort things out here. I will cook the food and set the table. You will go to take a shower and get ready to pick them up. Now go!"

"OK! Let us do this! Question, is your mom still coming?"

"Seriously, you will be fine. Stop being a big baby and Go!"

I laughed and swiftly walked towards the kitchen so that I could put my dishes in the sink. Once it was there, I walked up to the shower and took a new set of clothes. Through the noise of the high pressure water, I could hear the sound of a baking machine going off.

Now, if I know my wife correctly, I know that she can not bake - even if her life depended on it. I tried to be respectful every time she baked something and asked me to taste it, but it is next to impossible.

I got out of the shower and got dressed. I put on some fancy sunglasses and walked down the stairs.

"Oh my, look at you. Why the get up?"

"What, can not I look good for your dad - and your, 'mom'?"

"Come on now! She is not that bad Miles. Just do not do anything stupid while they are here. You should be fine."

"Should' That sounds very reassuring."

She tilted her head and smiled.

"Now Go!"

"I still basically 5 hours before they land at the airport. Do not worry yourself too much."

Just as I reached for the door, I heard Kate scream.

"OH MY GOSH!"

I turned around and faced her.

"What?!"

"Before I had left for the supermarket, I put the chicken in the oven and, and now it is EVERYWHERE!"

"What do you mean it is everywhere?!"

"It exploded! I left it in the oven for too long."

"So that was the pop I had heard."

I said this quietly enough for it to be considered a whisper, but not quietly enough for Kate not to hear.

"A 'Pop'? What on the sweet planet of Earth do you mean by 'Pop'?"

"Okay, while I was having breakfast, I may or may not have heard a 'Pop'. I thought it was the broom falling but, I guess I was wrong."

I watched in horror as her face turned red. Just before she could scream the top of her head off, I interrupted her.

"Hey, Listen okay, I messed up. I will fix all of this and get food for tonight. Do no you fear, when Miles is here!"

She was not entirely amused with my proposal but it had calmed her down so I will file that under unqualified success.

"But first, you shall pick my parents up from the airport."

"No. I will pick them up from the airport after I fix all this. Their plane does not even land for a few hours. And when it does land, they have to deplane the aircraft and go to through security and all of that stuff. I would still have plenty of time."

"Okay. Please go now."

"OK OK!"

I raced out the front door and jumped into the driver's seat. I started the engine of the car and drifted out of the driveway. It really was not a problem that the had made so much of noise, considering the fact that we did not have any neighbors living alongside us.

I drifted off towards the grocery store. I drove rather recklessly towards the store, and I overtook almost every person on the road that day. I checked the time on the clock that was situated on the dash board of the car, and saw that I had just under an hour before I began to fall behind schedule.

I went in circles around the parking lot of the grocery store, before I finally saw an open parking spot. I sped to the spot before someone took it from me. I had successfully parked the car. I pulled the keys out of the car, and ran towards the entrance of the grocery store.

That was when I realized that I was in trouble. The doors to the grocery store were shut. In complete confusion, I searched around for an explanation. I then saw a sign with the trading hours of the store. The time at that moment was one o' clock in the afternoon, and the grocery store had closed for lunch at half past twelve. I stood at the entrance of the grocery and stared at the closed doors.

I shuffled and paced around the entrance of the grocery store, trying to think of a solution for the dilemma we were in. I knew for a fact that if I went home empty handed, Kate was going to kick me where it hurt.

After a few minutes of puzzling my brain for an answer, I remembered that there was another grocery store that cooks brilliant chicken for you. There was only one problem, it was near the airport. That meant that I had to pick it up on the way to the airport and try to hide it from Kate's parents, her mother specifically.

I drove back home, through the traffic. Once I had pulled into the driveway, I saw Kate peering through the kitchen window. She swung the front door open.

"Please, PLEASE, for the love of everything, please tell me you found something."

"Well yes, but actually no."

I watched her face turn completely red.

"What do you mean by that?"

"Well, the supermarkets were closed, but do not worry. There is a grocery store near the airport. I can order it from here and on my way there, just pick it up. I will try to hide it from your mother, I mean your parents, until I get back here after picking them up from the airport.

Kate dropped her head into her hands and sighed out of frustration.

"Fine! Please get it done. I am begging you!"

I jumped back into my car and raced towards the grocery store that near to the airport. As I slipped through traffic, I could see their plane as it landed. I parked the car and ran as fast as I could towards the grocery store.

I bought the cooked chicken and went to pick Kate's parents up from the airport.

I hid the food under a blanket in the backseat of the car. I raced to the airport and parked in the nearest parking spot I could find.

Before I left the car to pick them up, I decided to check if the food was still okay.

Thankfully it was, so I left it and ran into the arrivals area. I was surprised to see only Kate's dad waving at me. Which was odd.