✅ My Sister's Problem

68. Ultimatum

This is a bonus chapter dedicated to Jay, with thanks for becoming my 20th supporter on Patreon. Thank you! I'm sorry your bonus is quite a short one; but if it's any consolation you can already see the first third of chapter 69 on Google Docs. I hope you enjoy!

"I realise that yesterday didn't quite go according to our usual routine," Mum said with a wry smile. She'd waited for me and Lindy to exchange good mornings and get comfortable in our seats at the kitchen table before she started; this was something she actually wanted us to hear.

"Yeah, we had to look after a big baby. Maybe–"

"Shush, Linda, Mummy's talking."

"But she–"

"Are you that eager to be the baby today?"

Lindy went quiet then. As much as she loved to tease me, she didn't want to risk being on the wrong end of that punishment. I didn't think it would happen anyway; but it made the point that Mum was serious

"Anyway, yesterday was a bit unorthodox, but I'm not planning for that to become the norm. Of course, you know what plans are like when we're here, but I don't think you should be looking for ways to tease your baby sister. Sally has admitted to what she did, and accepted her punishment without protest, so I consider that a closed case. However, I did enjoy having a little one to take care of again. So I am going to add to the rules sheet that if either of you has a little accident while we're away, you're going to be treated like a baby until morning. I think that's only fair, don't you?"

We both nodded, but I could see the sparkle in Lindy's eyes. If I even said the word 'accident' to describe any kind of incident, she was going to surprise me by insisting that Mum honoured her word. That was a big thing: following rules equally, not playing favourites. And I was sure my sister would look for any opportunity; which worked fine for me so long as I hadn't expected it. I could give her a chance to get me babied again, and she would be happy to have got one over on me.

"In addition, I notice that Sally said you might have considered the possibility of using those recordings to exacerbate your sister's problem. That is not acceptable, at all. If I believe that either of you is trying to trick, force, or otherwise push your sister into those kinds of embarrassing situations... you will be in diapers full time for the rest of the week, or until your sister can convince me to forgive you. Understand? I don't know what kinds of tricks you may have come up with. I know that Harper Eisen had some ideas about using her family's secret library of herbs to cause bedwetting, and has experimented on many of her friends with variable success at sleepovers. And I would be surprised if she hasn't shared at least part of this information with one of you, as she finds it very difficult to keep even a minor success to herself. So I would like you to know that deliberately doing anything that could increase someone else's chance of having an accident – including simple things like topping up a glass when she's not looking so she doesn't realise how much she is consuming – yes, I saw that, Linda – Any attempts to make your sister wet herself for the purpose of humiliation will result in you being a baby until she forgives you."

Lindy was a little pale now. She knew she was the one in the hot seat; and she knew that I'd gotten a milder punishment than I otherwise would have done yesterday because Mum thought we were both responsible.

"I promise," I said. And I really meant it; that experiment in the car had proved to me that nothing good ever came from trying to get revenge. "I just want a nice holiday, like we used to have."

"Good. Now, you both know that I've brought along a couple of things that might allow you to feel even more humiliated, and need more help from the adults. Each of you now knows what one of those items is, but if I see bullying, you will get both. Understand?" I guessed that she meant those mittens. Which, presumably, were not the same as whatever punishment she'd asked Lindy about subjecting me to yesterday. We both nodded, feeling some mixture of curiosity and apprehension.

"Now, we all ready for the first proper breakfast of the vacation?"

Of course we were. The first time we'd come out here, Dad was waiting to hear if he still had a job, and Mum had been reluctant to put me in daycare so that she could return to work and make ends meet. I didn't remember our first house, but I remembered that the beach house was where I had first experienced Mum's fried breakfast. Another tradition, another memory. Hash browns, bacon, mushrooms, and tomatoes. A little treat when Mum had the time to cook; but at the beach she always found the time.

My portion today was a little lighter; I said that I wasn't that hungry. Lindy didn't need to know that I'd been up an hour before her and had a little breakfast treat of my own. And before the plates were cleared away, we were already deep in discussion about what to do for the day. We had an itinerary stuck to the fridge with an odd butt-shaped magnet; and we'd all agreed that we would follow it this year. For the tenth year in a row, it started with 'Day 1: Ackerman Lighthouse', which we almost instantly dismissed because it was too far to drive on the day after our long road trip. We didn't need to mention that the museum at the lighthouse had stopped doing tours three years before. It would always be on the first day of our schedule, and now we would never actually have the opportunity to visit.

We eventually settled on walking along the beach, or the cliff path, to see how far we could get without encountering some obstacle. It was something we'd done in past years, but not with any kind of regularity; and I wondered if our increased fitness would allow us to get farther; maybe even to one of the towns farther along the coast where we could stop for ice cream before getting a bus or taxi part of the way back to our beach.

The first argument of the week was over Lindy's insistence that I wasn't allowed to bring my skates. Most of the clifftop path wasn't going to be suitable for them, and my offer to rush home ahead of them and put the dinner on when we turned around was vetoed by Mum on the grounds that the coast road to the north had way too much high speed traffic to be safe for skating. Today was a day of walking. I sulked a little, of course, but it wasn't like some big serious thing. Just a little disagreement that was sure to be the butt of a joke at some point as the week went on.

We picked a direction, packed a bag with some just-in-case waterproofs and a selection of sandwiches, and twenty minutes later we were setting off for what would probably be my longest walk of the year so far. And I totally didn't see Mum slipping Mister Tunes into the inside pocket of her balled-up spare clothes. Just in case I was the one to misbehave, I guessed; and I didn't need to be aware of that, because it wasn't going to happen.