Chapter 41 – In Which Nile Goes Temporarily Bald
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The jubilant parents arrive home from the hospital at the same time as Aunt Francine, who has just been promoted after working extra hours. Congrats, Francine!
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Skyler really likes babies. He’s reminding me of Ash as a child. When his baby sister comes home for the first time, he wakes right up and sits alert in bed, looking very excited.
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Something strange happens to Nile soon after the birth of his daughter. He loses his hair. I have no idea how or why.
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“Where’d your hair go, Uncle Nile?”
“I haven’t the slightest. Bedtime, little one.”
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Gladys is a very happy mother, paying the utmost attention to her little girl. Rose never cries for longer than a minute before her mother is there to take care of her.
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Francine gets another promotion and decides to join the symphonic branch of the music career. I kind of love her new Quartet Member outfit.
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Speaking of outfits, look at teenage Leonard Kindle’s! He twirls into this outfit before heading off to work at the bookstore or something. Is he adorable, or is he adorable?
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Skyler is making great use of his child years and teaching himself to bake. He’s better at it than his big brother was. He fills the fridge with perfect pies and cupcakes, setting his family members up for great moods for days to come. (I would say weeks, but everyone always devours all the baked goods before I get a chance to ration them, so...days. It's gonna be days.)
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He’s also working on his handy skill, inadvertently. I suspect he mostly likes to show Clover how to build stuff with blocks.
“Building with blocks is a very serious endeavor, Clover. You have to think of an idea BEFOREhand, using a blueprint if possible, and then work strategically with the different sorts of blocks you have available to you. It’s a lot of work. Clover, are you listening?”
“Uh huhhhhh.”
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“See? With a great deal of patience and persistence, you can come up with designs that are both beautiful and functional, like this one!"
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“Then you can knock it down! Hahahah!”
Good to know you’re still just a kid, Skyler. For a second there, you were growing up a little too fast.
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Speaking of growing up, Caspian is showing increased signs of maturity lately. His primary social objective these days is to get his eldest nephew to like him, for some reason. Maybe he feels bad for stealing candy from Canyon as a baby? I don’t know. Either way, he’s suddenly set on revealing all his evil plans to Canyon in an attempt to reconcile.
Clearly, it’s going well.
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“Guess what, Uncle Caspian! I don’t care about your masterminded plot! Nyah-nyah!”
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Caspian is utterly speechless in the face of this insubordination. I’m really not sure why he’s surprised, honestly.
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Canyon: “You’re just a lowly thief at the mercy of your superiors in that criminal organization you work for! You’ll never be the Emperor of Evil!”
Caspian: “Whoa, whoa, I never said I wanted to be Emperor of Evil! I’m going to be a Master Thief, and—why am I even talking to you about this?!”
I was going to ask you the same thing, Caspian.
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In other news, Clover has reached the end of her toddler years and is about to grow up into a child. I think she’s ready.
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Off she goes!
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Traumatized by her unflattering new haircut, Clover heads upstairs to the dresser and mirror.
Francine: “Is that…my daughter going up those stairs? She’s so grown up already…”
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Clover rolls the Disciplined trait and consequently selects a more streamlined look for herself. (I promise, that hairstyle looks much cuter when she’s not directly facing the camera.)
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She gets started right away on using her fully-functioning-human capabilities.
“Seriously, Uncle Nile, I don't understand––where did your hair go?!”
“I didn’t know when you were a toddler, and I don’t know now. Please stop asking me this question.”
In the end, a shower fixes Nile’s hair dilemma. Someone explain that logic to me.
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Nile and Gladys are great parents to their baby daughter, but you can tell they’re getting weary of the crib stage.
“She’s crying again. Is it your turn, or my turn?”
*sigh* “I don’t even know anymore.”
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When she needs a break from the kids, Gladys happily runs away to her favorite fishing spots and jubilantly catches blowfish to her heart’s content. (I think she has a secret Angler trait.)
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Things are busy in the Kindle house these days, but there’s always that underlying note of normalcy and calmness, largely thanks to the many couch potatoes running sitting around.
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That is, until Clover shows up.
“Good evening, everyone.”
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Time is flying, in spite of everything. Canyon isn’t far from aging up to young adult, while his baby sister has yet to show her true face to the world. Lots of exciting stuff coming. See ya then!
