~~~August 19, 1977~~~
"WAAAAAAAA" a tiny infant screamed. He was so tiny even by infant standards.
Right after the father cut the umbilical cord, the doctor took him in his arms. He then did all the necessary check-ups to ensure the baby was alright and that there was no urgent health issue due to his small size. He then 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— that 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," said the nurse with a smile before leaving.
"Do you see him? Isn't he beautiful?" said Jean, her eyes moist.
"Yes, I can see him honey," said Adam, smiling as he softly brushed the small hair from the tiny baby's forehead. "So... Aegeus?"
"Yes. His name will be Aegeus, Aegeus Granger," said Jean lovingly.
"Aegeus..." Adam said again, looking at the small baby.
"Yes. 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.
Jean was a devoted mother to her child, but even the best of mothers get frustrated, especially with a child as unusual as Aegeus. You couldn't help but get extra frustrated.
"WAAAAAAAAA"
Jean's face froze, her shoulders slumped, you could even see signs of despair in her brown eyes. The sleep-deprived mother then walked toward the source of the sound like a prisoner marching to 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, they usually stop after getting 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 it seemed as if he was staring at something floating right in front of his face— eyes fixed, the way an older child's might do when focusing.
Except newborns weren't supposed to be able to focus like that. 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.
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.
"Please, Aegeus, tell Mama what's wrong. Is that a bug? Is there a bug in here? Is that why you are scared?" Jean started checking his clothes, but upon finding no proof 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! HURRY UP AND COME IN HERE." She refused to suffer alone and quickly called her husband to suffer along too. She had long since noticed that her husband was suspiciously slow to arrive to her aid.
The baby 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 was planning to arrive 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, who had already given up on rocking back and forth, returned to her bug theory. And the moment she spotted her husband in the doorway, she shot him a glare, blaming him for his cowardice.
For days, Adam had racked his brain trying to figure out how to calm Aegeus down, before finally deciding to buy him a toy car.
"Look, Aegeus, it's a cool car~~," he said, pulling a toy car from his pocket. "See the cool car, Aegeus? Vroom vroom." Adam started making some car sounds, which for a moment seemed to have a positive effect on Aegeus, as he slowly began to calm down.
The couple's eyes were filled with an overwhelming sense of relief...
He then continued his effort.
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...
"WAAAAAAAA"
"WHY DID YOU CRASH IT?" screamed Jean at him, her eyes full of fire.
"I DON'T KNOW," Adam said, guilt washing over him as he thought, 'Stupid, stupid, stupid.'
"Look, honey~ the car is okay, VROOM VROOM ."
And after some 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
~~~
What do you think? If you like my story, leave a stone, if you hate my story, throw a stone, maybe it would hit my head. You never know...
Tell me, did you leave a stone or throw one?