The Dome Chronicles: Lies

Four

“Toby! Peyton! Get in here!” 

They both scramble to their feet and run into the kitchen, probably thinking I’ve started a fire or something. The chat is still lighting up with comments about the babies and Nicholas, so I flip on the TV to see what everybody’s making such a big fuss about. Sure enough, they’re showing footage of mom and Nicholas in the hospital, doing an interview with NikTV, the local news channel.

Toby frowns. “What is it?”

“You seriously made us run in here for nothing?” Peyton gasps, clearly out of breath.

“No. Look.” 

The camera pans over to my mom sitting on the bed, holding both of my sisters, and Nicholas sitting beside her, holding my brother. The interviewer stands beside Nicholas, holding a microphone. 

“So, Mayor Johnson, Natalie. How do you feel about these three little bundles joining your already-hectic household?”

My mom laughs. “You’ve got that right. Yeah, every day is crazy, but that’s the life we live.”

“And it’s only going to get crazier,” Nicholas adds. “With the election coming up, I’ll be working overtime; it’s going to be a challenge, for sure.” He adds a convincing smile to seal the deal.

Toby scoffs. “Of course he has to plug the election.” 

“Typical.” Peyton rolls her eyes.

The interviewer laughs, but I can tell it’s fake. “Speaking of the election,” he says, “How’s that going? Do you feel as if your odds are the same as always, or have they changed?”

At this point I see my mom give the interviewer a “please don’t bring up the election, it’s literally all he talks about,” look. 

“Yeah, well, I definitely have some serious competition this year, but I really think I can do it. Again.” He smiles at the camera.

“Why does he always have to do that?” Toby whines. “It’s like he’s--” 

“Shhh,” I clamp my hand over his mouth. “Just listen.”

He proceeds to lick my hand before I pull it away in disgust. “Ewww.” I tiptoe over to the sink and lather my hands with soap. I love Toby, but he’s disgusting.

Toby just smiles mischievously, then we all turn our attention back to the TV.

“And Nicholas, do you think these three little bundles of joy will hinder or help your chances?”

Nicholas grins. “I think it’ll help,” he says. “It’s always fun having a new baby in the house, or in this case, three.” He glances at my mom, who is sporting an obviously fake smile while she adjusts the position of one of the babies.

“What do you mean?” she asks him. Her smile quickly fades.

“I, uhhh…” He chuckles nervously. 

“Well, this is awkward,” whispers the reporter into the microphone, scratching the back of his head. He clears his throat and puts on that cheesy, fake smile again. “Well, I think that’s all the time we have for today, folks. I’m Jax Dawson for NikNews 9. Back to you in the studio, Jan.” 

I flip the TV off and puff out my cheeks, slowly letting the air come back out.. “Nicholas embarrassing himself--and us-- on live TV...check.”

Peyton shakes her head. “No kidding.”

“Hey, uh, what time did mom say she wanted us to come back to the hospital today?” I ask, trying to change the subject. 

“I think she said around noon. What time is it now?” Peyton asks to no one in particular, pulling out her phone. “Oh. it’s 12:30. We should probably get going.” 

“But we haven’t had lunch yet,” Toby argues. “And I’m hungry.”

“That’s a valid point--lunch is important. I’ll go grab the kids.”

Toby claps his hands excitedly, then goes to drain the noodles.

“Hey, guys?” My siblings are playing tag again. I swear, that’s the only game they know. 

“It’s lunchtime!” All of a sudden, the attention shifts from their game to me, who just announced that lunch is ready. I have to duck off to the side to avoid getting run over by the mob of hangry children that emerges from the living room. They all take their seats and are practically drooling with anticipation. 

“Yo, Toby, are the noodles ready yet?” I ask, walking towards the kitchen again.

“Almost.” I can sense the tension in his voice as he looks back and sees all the kids sitting at the table.

I stifle a laugh. “Here, let me help.” I walk over to the fridge, grab the milk, and set it on the counter. Looking back inside, I realize that we’re out of butter.

This is just great. I can’t leave to get any because I’m the one in charge, and I don’t quite trust Toby and Peyton to take over yet.

“Toby, bad news. We’re out of butter.”

“Dang it. I was almost done with it, too!” Toby throws his hands up in frustration. “What are we supposed to do now?”

“I’m not sure.” 

“What’s going on in here?” Peyton walks nonchalantly back into the kitchen, with Devyn sitting on her shoulders. 

Toby and I give her a ‘why do you have Devyn on your shoulders, I thought that was the type of thing parents do’ look. 

“Oh, right.” She brings our sister over her head and sets her down on the floor. She smiles. “I have a way with kids.” 

“Yeah. I see that.” 

“So, anyway, what’s with all the commotion? Did you make all the noodles then realize we’re out of butter?” she jokes.

“Uhhhh…”

“You made all the noodles and then realized we’re out of butter! I can’t believe you…” 

“Why don’t I just go get some?” I suggest, shrugging my shoulders. “The store is five minutes away.”

“You trust us to look after the kids?” Toby butts in, looking confused. “But you’ve said before that you would never leave us in charge.”

“I know what I’ve said, Toby. I just… I might as well go get some quickly so we can just finish the mac and cheese and get to the hospital. Nothing will go wrong, I promise you.”

I grab the keys to my car and head down to the store. I haven’t even gotten inside when I feel my phone buzzing. 

I knew I shouldn’t have left Toby and Peyton in charge. Somebody’s probably hurt. This is all my fault…

Fearing the absolute worst, I pick up the phone and see Toby’s picture pop up. “Hello?”

“Hey, uh, Freaya, we’ve got a little problem.” I hear his shaky voice on the other end of the line.

“Why? What is it? Is somebody hurt?” A million different reasons as to why my brother’s calling start running through my mind.

“Um, well, see, Ronan and Finn were messing around, playing tag--their go-to game, right-- and things got a little out of hand. I was standing in the kitchen, and all of a sudden I heard this crash and-” 

“Toby, stop dragging out the story and tell me what happened!” I’m getting a little worried, and people entering the store keep giving me concerned looks.

“I was getting there!” he huffs. “Well, anyway they were running and Finn bumped into the entable and knocked it over, but Charlotte was standing right on the other side, so it pinned her underneath, and now Finn’s got a bruise and Charlotte won’t stop screaming and-”

“I’ll be right there.” I start jogging back to my car and unlock it with my keys

“But what about the butter?”

“Who cares about the butter? I’m coming home!”

“I care about the butter! I’m starving!”

“I understand that, Toby, but there are bigger issues that we have to address right now!” I wedge my phone in between my head and my shoulder while I start the ignition. I might have to break a few laws on the way home, but that’s a risk I’m willing to take.

Speeding is only illegal if you get caught, right? 

Yep, I’m pretty sure, that’s how that works, I decide.

I’m pulling back into the driveway in a matter of minutes, and I can hear the commotion from outside. I pull into the garage, then turn off the car and bolt into the house. Right away, I see Charlotte being consoled by Peyton, and Toby nursing Finn’s bruise with an ice pack. The other kids are nowhere to be found. 

“Where are the other kids?” I ask right away. 

“They’re watching a movie downstairs,” Toby responds, removing the ice pack from Finn’s knee. He observes the bruise for a second, grimaces, and then reapplies the pack.

“How’s Charlotte?” I ask Peyton, who’s relocated to the recliner with Charlotte in her lap. 

“She’s calmed down a bit,” Peyton replies, glancing at Charlotte then back at me. “You look frazzled, are you okay?”

“Yeah, I am, because Toby sounded so scared on the phone, and I feared the worst.” I sigh and plop down on the couch. “I knew I shouldn’t have left.”

“Freaya, we’ve got this. Toby was just over exaggerating,” she shoots him a ‘why did you have to call her, we’re perfectly capable of taking care of our own siblings’ look. “Just run back to the store, grab the butter, and finish making lunch. We’ve got this.” 

I return from the store to find everything exactly as it was before. A couple of the kids have lost interest in the movie and are back upstairs, grilling Peyton and Toby about lunch. I just smile and respond, “I’m finishing it up now. Why don’t you grab a seat and I’ll have it ready soon.” 

It isn’t until all nine of us are sitting at the table, eating happily, that I can finally take a deep breath. I successfully went to the store for five minutes and came back to find everybody fully intact. Phew.

When everybody is finished eating and has put their dishes in the sink (which I’m sure I’ll end up doing later), I instruct them to get their shoes on. It takes a shorter amount of time than expected to get everybody’s shoes on the right feet (and make sure they have the right shoes on. For some reason, my siblings have an insane amount of shoes). I smile as I see Tauren grabbing Faith’s shoes and putting them on for her as she sits in her chair at the dinner table, completely content. I swear, my heart might just melt. Before I can blink, we have all the kids in the van and buckled. I’d consider this a successful morning; usually it takes twenty minutes just to get shoes matched to the right kid.

We arrive at the hospital, and I pull out the preschool ring again. After this morning’s incident, I’m not taking any chances. The receptionist smiles as we pass the front desk, recognizing us immediately.

After begging to let him do it (because Ronan got to do it yesterday and life is always fair), Finn presses the button for the elevator and it opens right away. We all squeeze in, and I make sure to do a headcount before I let the doors close. I don’t know how I would explain to mom and Nicholas that we lost a kid between the front doors and the elevator--a whopping distance of about 100 feet).

When we get to the third floor, the doors open to reveal a couple of doctors whose faces turn from pleasant to apologetic when they see our large crew. I don’t know why people always feel bad for us. Mom and Nicholas chose to have a lot of kids, and I’m positive they wouldn’t have it any other way. 

Especially Nicholas. My stomach churns when I think about the interview they did on TV this morning. I still can’t believe he’s exploiting his kids to get elected…

Peyton steps in front of our group to knock on mom’s door and make sure it’s ok to enter. Nicholas yells “come on in!” from inside the room so she pushes the door open. He and Mom greet us with enthusiasm as the little kids rush over to give their mom and dad a hug. 

“Hey, guys,” Mom shifts one of the girls over to make room for Charlotte, who is already attempting to scale the side of the bed. “What took you so long? It’s past noon.”

Toby, Peyton and I give each other nervous looks. “Uhhh…” I stutter, scratching the back of my head and hoping that one of them will come up with an excuse so we can avoid telling our parents what actually happened. 

“You know these guys,” Toby starts, giving Finn a pat on the head. “They were just goofing around and it took us a while to get moving.” He nods, confident with his answer. 

He’s technically not wrong.

“Toby,” Finn tugs on his older brother’s arm. “I have ta go potty.” 

“You didn’t make them all go before you left?” Nicholas turns to me. I don’t know why he’s surprised. It’s hard to get six kids to use the bathroom when only three of them are fully potty trained.

“Hey, it was either feed them lunch or make them all go potty. You can pick one or the other, not both,” I put my hands up defensively.  “If I’d have done both, we never would have made it here.” Nicholas looks confused, but my mom nods in agreement. She gets it.

“Okay, let’s go.” Toby takes Finn’s hand and leads him out into the hallway. 

“Actually, I have to go too,” Peyton jumps in, and starts to follow them.

“Girls can’t go to the bathroom alone! That’s an actual rule.” I dart out of the room, quickly realizing that this was my one chance to be off of babysitting duty, even for three minutes. I’ll take what I can get. 

As we strut down the hallway towards the bathrooms, a set of doors off to the side closed off with yellow police tape catches my eye. 

“Hey guys, look at that.” I point to the doors on our right. They’re obviously off limits, seeing as they have police tape across them and there's no light coming from the windows. 

“Huh, that’s weird. I wonder where they lead.” Toby looks just as intrigued as I am. I walk over to the doors and motion for Toby to follow me. 

Peyton sighs heavily. “Guys, focus!” 

I ignore Peyton’s warnings as I jiggle the door handles. They're locked. 

“Crap,” I mumble, secretly hoping they were open.

"What?" Toby questions, his eyebrows furrowed. “What’s the big deal? It looks sketchy, anyway, why would you wanna go in there?”

“I have spent the past two days watching my eight younger siblings and feeling like a stay-at-home mom. I can’t have a little adventure?”

“No, you can’t!” Peyton protests. “Now, you can try to get in those doors and risk getting murdered or you can do what you’re getting paid for and take Finn to the bathroom!” 

“Since when did you become the sensible one?” Toby asks, looking confused.

“Fine. Whatever. I’ll take him to the bathroom, you guys stay here and plan out your suicide mission.”

“Suicide mission?” I yell after her. “The doors are locked!”

“Good!”

“Good!”

“Fine!”

“Fine!”

I turn back to the doors in frustration and jiggle the handle again. Still locked. I can’t help but be mad at Peyton. She couldn’t even take care of the kids for five minutes without calling me for help. She’ll never understand my struggle.

She and Finn come back down the hallway a couple of minutes later. Finn is smiling contently, but a scowl forms on Peyton’s face when she sees me. I have no idea why she’s so mad. I’m the one who should be mad.

We walk back to the room in silence, and I push the door open when we reach it. Suddenly, what should be an enjoyable day has turned into a sour one.

A couple of hours later, just as I think I’m about to go crazy being stuck in this cramped space with six little kids and three screaming babies, an angel comes to save me. 

My hunger.

“Man, am I getting hungry,” I say, pulling out my phone and checking the time. “I could really go for some fro-yo or something.” 

“If you want money for fro-yo, just ask.” Nicholas pulls a bill out of his pocket without even looking up from his phone.

“Wait, you’re getting fro-yo?” Toby pipes up. “I want to go!”

"Me three!" Peyton exclaims, jumping up with excitement. "Wait, where are we going?"

“To get fro-yo,”I reply. “I can probably only take Peyton and Toby. Any more than that, and it would probably be a lot to handle. Also, $20 would definitely not be enough.

“That’s fine,” My mom muses, preparing to feed one of the babies. “Have fun, and don't take too long. I expect change back.”

We dart out of there as fast as we can, reeling with excitement. Dad would always take us to the frozen yogurt shop when we were little. It’ll be nice to go back there again; we haven’t been there in years. 

I stop dead in my tracks as we pass by the locked doors with the police tape. I don’t know why, but something is telling me that I need to see what’s behind them. I jiggle the handle again, for good measure.

It's open.

“Freaya come on!” Toby shouts from down the hallway. “My stomach waits for no one!” He laughs, and turns back around.

I debate for a second about whether to follow my siblings. It could be locked again by the time we get back; then I’ll never get the chance to see what’s behind them. 

“Are you coming?” Peyton yells. “You have the money!” 

I smile at my sister’s wittiness. I think I’ll take my chances. 

I start jogging to catch up to my siblings, who are a couple hundred feet in front of me. By the time I reach them, I’m breathless. This is what I get for stopping to stare at some doors.

As we near the front doors of the hospital, I shout, “Last one out to the bus has to change the triplets’ diapers!” 

I can’t help but laugh as both of them start racing out to the bus. It doesn’t matter who gets out there last; I’m always going to be the one changing the diapers.