Keeper

Chapter 20

"Come on Wander, bath time!"

That's what Wander heard when he woke up the next morning. Sylvia came in wearing her blue shirt and pants. A green towel on her head which had to be fixed after Sylvia had picked him up. Sylvia grabbed a diaper from the bag that the owner of the motel had given her earlier that morning. The owner, Leslie Vargas also put more of her son's old clothes that he wore from when he was one.

Sylvia waited until she got the water at a lukewarm temperature to put Wander in the sink. The now undressed baby watched as Sylvia turned the faucet off and the water stopped coming out of it. Soap covered almost every part of Wander's body, from his hair, his belly, between his fingers, his legs, his feet, and lastly between his toes. Wander started splashing the water soaking himself and Sylvia only a little bit. Sylvia grabbed a cup from the cabinet and turned the faucet on. Water filled the cup and was dumped onto Wander's hair. And then Sylvia did it again to the other soap covered parts of the child's body.

Five minutes passed and Sylvia had Wander washed, a little dried off, and a fresh new diaper on. Wander grabbed onto one of the drawer doorknobs as he stood up and watched as Sylvia clean the rest of the sink from the bubbles.

"Sylvia's gonna be right back Wander, I'm going to go get you some new clothes," Sylvia told the boy.

"Okay!" Sylvia cheerfully replied to what he was told.

Wander watched as Sylvia walk away and turned back to face the sink. Wander looked away from the sink and found something not that far away from him, it was a penny. Sylvia's penny! Wander thought. Gotta get back to Sylvia! Wander looked down at his feet, he still didn't know how to walk yet, he only knew how to talk, stand, crawl, and other things, but not walking. I'm one now, Sylvia and Peepers can't hold and carry me forever! Wander thought. Wander took in a quick breath just to reassure himself and took one step. He closed his eyes and got ready for the impact of immediately hitting the floor. But he didn't fall, when Wander reopened his eyes, he was still standing.

Hey, this easy! Wander thought. He took another step with his left foot and again he didn't fall on his belly. He took four more steps until he reached the penny. He bent down and picked it up. Now, gotta get it back to Sylvia!

"Hey, kid whatcha doin'?" Peepers's voice came from behind the boy.

Wander wanted to show Peepers that he could walk now too, so he walked back to where he first saw the penny and showed it to Peepers. Peepers's eye widens which made Wander confused. Was I not supposed to get Sylvia's penny? Wander wondered.
 

"SYLVIA, WANDER WALKED!"

The suddenly excited scream made Wander stumble a bit, but he regained his balance and watched as the teen run off to Sylvia's room. Wander followed at a much slower pace and ended up at the same destination Peepers had run too. Once Sylvia saw him, she walked over and gave a kiss to Wander's right cheek.

"Good job, sweetie. Soon you'll be running and causing me trouble." Sylvia congratulated the younger child.

"Penny." Wander held out the penny.

"You can keep it as long as you can keep it away from your mouth, okay?"

"Okay!"

Wander let Sylvia put the green and white striped shirt on while still holding his new penny. My penny. Wander thought as he and Sylvia followed Peepers out. All mine.