Our Life Together

Bad Kids

"Jack! Olivia!" I run around the house looking for them "Where are you?!?"

I look upstairs where they aren't supposed to be and still don't find them.

"This isn't funny! Mommy needs to see you!" I open all the bedroom doors. They aren't in any of the rooms and I start to get freaked out.

"Did you find them yet?" Brad runs up next to me "I looked in the yard and they aren't there."

"No." I start to freak out "Where the hell are they?"

We stand still for a few seconds trying to think when we hear something. Brad walks down the hall towards Liam's room and stops.

"I think that was a flush."

I follow him through the room and into the bathroom where we find both kids laughing.  We stand at the door not knowing if we should be happy we found them, or scared they did something.

"Did you just flush that?" I ask them pointing to the toilet.

"Yeah!" Liv says "I do!"

"Honey, why did you do that?" Brad asks worryingly "You don't even use the potty yet."

"I peed!" Jack announced "I let Liv flush."

Brad and I look to each other in fear knowing damn well it wasn't pee they flushed.  They did something bad and aren't going to tell us.

"Were there any toys in there when you flushed it?" He asks "We need to know so they don't get stuck."

Olivia grabs my arm and pulls me over to the sink.  The terrible liar in her comes out and she points out everything that was there before and is now missing.

"Shit." I mumble "Why did you do that, Jackson?  You know that's bad."

"I sorry." He says cuddling up to Brad "I fix it."

Brad picks him up and carries him downstairs to where he gets some of his tools he'll need.  I keep Olivia with me and out of trouble.

"You can't do this again!" I lean down to her "You won't ever get those toys back and now daddy has to fix everything."

She starts to cry, obviously upset with the fact that Brad and I are mad at her and Jack.  I make sure she's okay and then go back to remembering what exactly was on that counter.

"Jack, what was on here?"  I ask once they get back "Was it toys?"

"Bath toys."  He says smiling "All them!"

"You flushed ALL your bath toys down the toilet?  All of them?" Brad tried to get a clear answer out of him "Even the big ones?"

"Yep."

"Do I need to call someone?"  I know this will probably be a disaster "The plumber that got my ring out of the sink was really good."

"The same guy that asked you out later that night?" He replies smartly   "No thanks, I think I can handle it.  Just get them out of here before they do something else stupid."

I grab the kids and pull them out of the bathroom while they scream the whole time.  Jack doesn't seem to think he did anything wrong and Olivia won't stop crying because she knows she's in trouble.

"You need to sit over there on the couch until I tell you to get up."  I point out a spot for Jack "You know you aren't allowed to flush toys down the toilet.  You better hope daddy can fix it!"  He walks over giving me his "look" that he always thinks I'll give into.  I move on to figuring out what I can do to punish Olivia, but I don't really have any ideas, so I just make her sit like Jack.

"Jen!"  Brad yells "I need you up here!"

I make sure the kids are okay and run up to him.  The bathroom is practically flooded and he is soaked.  He's holding a towel on a pipe in the back of the toilet.  I quickly grab some other towels to dry up the floor.

"Call my dad." He finally says "He's good at fixing this stuff."

"Are you sure you don't just want a plumber?  I'm sure there's plenty of others that would be good."

"Jennifer." He sighs "Call my dad."

I go back downstairs to call him, and wait for Liam and Gabe to get home from school.  They run in the house, get Jack and Olivia all excited and then go upstairs and see what happened.

"My room is ruined, mom!"  Liam complains "They're so annoying!  All they do is ruin everything."

"I know it is, Liam."  I try to call him down "Dad and grandpa are working on fixing it right now.  We'll finish the rest of it once this part is done."

He stomps through the kitchen and up to the steps.  I hear footsteps reach my room and then the door slam.  A few seconds later, the same thing happens and I know that either Gabe followed him or Brad told him to get out of our room. 

"Mommy,"  Olivia walks out to me making grabby hands "Up?"

I pick her up because I can't resist her face and carry her back into the living room "I think you two need to finish cleaning up your mess in here and then we can watch a movie to keep you out of trouble."

I sit down on the couch between them as the movie starts.  We watch for a while before I feel something wet hit my head.  At first I ignore it, but then I hear an unsettling sound.  I look up at the ceiling and see what I was hoping I wouldn't.

"Brad!!!" I yell as the ceiling starts to crack open "You need to come down here!"

I grab the kids off the couch just as the crack spreads a good few feet.  Water pours down from it as Brad and his dad make it down the steps.

"Shit."  Brad runs in to look at it "Are you guys okay?"

"Yeah, we're fine."  I watch as water floods my living room.  The couch is completely drenched and ruined, the hardwood floor are probably ruined as well, and my ceiling has a huge crack in it.

"Okay,"  Brad looks at me in defeat "I guess you can call the plumber now."