"Three... two…one...here I come!"
She opened her eyes to the now empty room and gave a bizarre laugh. She rubbed her palms together in anticipation.
She could already figure it out. The closet in the pantry.
Bernadette moved slowly towards the pantry, while trying out other rooms. She didn't want to hurt the boy's ego by discovering him too soon.
She called out several times. Apparently, he had gotten the most important rule of all; never to make a sound.
Bernadette tip-toed to the closet and called out in an eerie voice, "oh tooda, I know you're in there!"
Creak!
She opened the closet and Water shot out at her like a little rocket.
"Mom! How do you always find me?" He asked excitedly.
"You silly, you always hide here." She laughed and pinched his nose.
"Mom, it's your turn!" He jumped a bit as he showed his excitement.
"Okay, my little munch hamburger sweet little boy!" Bernadette tickled his tummy and he shrieked excitedly before closing his eyes to let Bernadette hide.
Today, she was off duty and had decided to stay home and have some fun with Walter. She had originally wanted to meet with her friends, but later decided to accompany him.
It was a perfect day for playing hide and seek, bubbles, superheroes and other fun games he, Walter, could think of.
Best of all, Tracy was out doing God knows what. Otherwise, she wouldn't let her play with Walter.
She found it weird that she was very overprotective of him though she wasn't his real mom.
Every time she thought of it, she would feel pained that her father would cut her out of her own brother's life like that. What did she do to him?
She understood that she might have offended him by refusing to go to business school and ultimately take over his company, but was that enough for one to outlaw his own blood?
As her thoughts were running wild, she heard a soft voice call out.
"Found you mom!"
Bernadette jolted and came out from behind the door.
"You really did find me!" She rubbed his head.
"I learn from the best teacher!"
"Awnn!!! I'm flattered. Come." Bernadette pulled him along and led him to his room.
"Let's play action figures!"
Bernadette suggested with great enthusiasm.
Walter rushed over to his toy collection and pulled a handful of action figures.
"I'll play villain, mom!" He blurted out all joyous.
"Let me play villain. How can my cute baby be a villain?"
Walter pouted and said, "But mom is not a bad person."
Bernadette sighed and thought for a moment before revealing a wicked smile, "how about we both play heroes and let Aunt Tracy be the villain? Only if you don't tell her, though."
"Great. I won't tell Tracy." He raised his hand and promised.
Bernadette was baffled at first. He had never call Tracy like that, well that would only be when she was around.
They took their favourite action figures and started building story lines.
The villain, Tracy, was killed by Walter's hero.
They played and laughed a lot making jokes about Tracy.
After a while of playing with action figures, they moved to play Scrabble. Bernadette was not used to playing word games. She would rather spend her time doing nothing. This gave Walter the advantage of always beating her.
Today, after winning 3 in a row, Walter felt that Bernadette was letting him win.
"I can't beat you at this," she threw the tiles away in frustration and grabbed her hair.
"Then let's play something else!" Walter suggested. He didn't like when his mommy was sad.
Yes, he had to teach her Scrabble some time!
"So, what shall we play?" Walter asked with his interest piqued. Whatever we play, as long as she picks it will be fun!
"How about we play.... Chef?!"
Chef?! Walter was a bit confused.