Chapter 17: Babysitting Before Christmas

"Make sure she goes to bed before ten," said Nancy before heading out from the front door.

I watched as the mother backed the Camry into the street and drove off. Since Mark was in prison, Ella had to find another boyfriend and it didn't take long for her to find someone else. This new guy whose name I didn't know was, in my opinion, worse than Mark. Whenever I see him with Ella he is always bossing her around, telling her what to do.

I looked at my watch and noticed it was six o'clock. It was already dark outside. It was cold as well, so I started to regret wearing shorts. I wore shorts because it was warm in my bedroom because we had central heating. When I went outside though I realized it was cold but by the time I was outside I was too lazy to go back in to change.

I walked upstairs to Lily's bedroom and when I opened the door I found the little girl lying on the carpet while playing on her computer. She was playing the first Quest for Glory originally called Hero's Quest. It was a very old game that Lily liked.

I managed to steal five gold bars from underground, each one worth about a quarter of a million dollars. This made me more than a millionaire and after I gave one gold bar to little Lily I was still a millionaire. I could see by standing in the little girl's bedroom what she had used her money for. She had in her room not only a new computer but also a new TV that she kept on all the time. She kept the volume low though so it wouldn't distract her. Since the electronics were on I felt the air getting warm as I walked in. It was cold and dark outside but inside Lily's room it was warm, almost humid. For a moment I thought I could see this warmth because some of the air in the bedroom looked blurry and cloudy.

Lily paused the game she was playing, reached under her bed, and pulled out a box.

"What's that?" I asked.

"It's your Christmas present." She handed the box to me.

I sat on Lily's bed and looked at the red-and-green wrapping paper. "Can I open your present now?"

After she nodded, I opened Lily's present. Lily had given me underwear, about five pairs. They were girlie underwear, the kind that Lily would wear.

I looked up at her as she climbed onto the bed.

"Your daddy told me you stole my panties," she said, "so I got you some more panties."

I looked at the five pairs of little-girl panties, all of them pink, and each one crafted with different pictures. One had love hearts drawn on it while another had fluffy teddy bears.

"Have you worn these?" I asked.

She shook her head. "Nope, they're brand new!"

"Oh... thank you," I said.

"Did anyone else give you presents?"

I shook my head.

"What about Ella?"

"No, not yet."

She reached under the bed again and pulled out a heavier box. The box was covered with blue wrapping paper.

"Another one!" I said, suprised at my own enthusiasm. I tore away the wrapping paper.

It was an electric shaver. I wore shorts, so Lily pointed to my legs.

"Your legs are hairy like a gorilla," she said. "You can use it to cut the hair on your face, too."

With my fingers on my face, I felt the beginnings of a moustache forming underneath my nose.

Lily grabbed the box and opened it, quickly taking out the electric shaver and installing the batteries. When she turned the electric shaver on, it made a soft humming noise. My legs were spread out on the bed, so Lily actually grabbed my right knee with her left hand and moved the electric shaver down halfway between my knees and shins. I was going to protest, to tell her she was going to get my hair all over her own bed, but I resisted because of the feel of the little girl's hands clutching my legs.

It was completely dark outside now. The bedroom window was slightly open, letting air flow in slowly. The air flowing in brought along with it the distant sound of cars on a freeway many kilometers away. I stared at the bedroom door, hoping nobody would enter as Lily shaved my legs. Nobody was home though--that was the reason why I was babysitting Lily--but still I was worried.

A minute later, my right leg was completely hairless. All the hair had fallen on the blankets. Lily was going to have an itchy night tonight. I got off the bed, walked to her desk, and grabbed the rubbish bin, hoping to sweep all the hair into the bin before it had a chance to get caught between all the cracks between the blankets. I heard the noise of spring compressing, and when I turned around to face the bed, Lily was standing on the bed, using her feet to kick away all the hair. As she did this though she slipped and fell, rolling around all over the hair.

"What a mess!" I said, grabbing her and keeping her still. "You've got hair all over your clothes. You'll have to change and have a shower or you'll be itchy."

At the mention of itchiness, Lily sat up on the bed and started scratching herself. She then put her little finger in her ear and started twisting it around.

"Is something crawling around in your ear?" I asked.

"I think I have a hair in my ear."

"Don't pick your ears."

"Why not?"

"If you have something in your ear and you start picking it, you'll push it in further." I went on the bed and crawled over to the little girl. "Put your head down on the pillow and face the affected ear up at me."

The little girl lied down as directed. "What will you do?"

"I'm going to suck it out."

I brought my mouth down towards her head and covering her right ear with my lips. I then started sucking in air from Lily's ear. The little girl giggled wildly underneath me, flailing her arms and legs everywhere as I kept sucking.

"It tickles!" she said. "It's so cold."

I could taste from her ears a sharp and sweet-smelling odor that filled my lungs. When I ran out of breath, I stopped sucking but still kept my mouth over her ears. Saliva leaked from the rim of my mouth onto her skin, down her cheeks, some dripping towards her neck. I felt an itch at the back of my throat. The hair in Lily's ear must have been in my mouth. Now that I had stopped sucking, Lily was no longer squirming underneath me. My lips came off her ear. As I tried to catch my breath, I lied down on the bed and looked up at the ceiling. Lily wiped my spit off her face and rubbed the spit against her pajamas, creating a temporary stain on the lime green material.

"Thank you," said Lily, looking down at my eyes as I looked up. "Did you eat the hair?"

I tried to swallow the hair but managed only to swallow air. "I think it's stuck at the back of my throat near my tonsils." I inserted a finger inside my mouth and tried to pick the hair strand out, but the picking only seemed to make more portions of the back of my throat itchy, which made it harder for me to locate the hair since I was approximating the location of the hair based on which part of the throat felt itchy. Now my whole throat felt itchy, not just the part where the hair was. All the prodding with my finger must have had an effect on my salivary glands because my whole mouth was fast becoming a lake of spit.

Lily stepped off the bed momentarily and came back after grabbing a small flashlight from the carpet near the computer. She told me to lie down before she folded a pillow into two and slid it under my head. She flashed the light into my mouth and told me to keep my mouth open and to keep my head still. I took my fingers out from my mouth and lied back on the bed with both my hands by my side. Lily then put one leg over my body and straddled my belly. My belly was pressed up right between Lily's legs. The little girl then put the flashlight into my palms.

"Put the light in your mouth," she said.

I did what she said, flashing the torch into my mouth as I opened them wide. I felt like I was at the dentist. Since Lily was no longer holding the flashlight, this freed up her hands to do other things. With her left hand she stabilized my jaw and kept my mouth open. Her scrawny little fingers gripped on my skin tightly. She inserted her right forefinger into my mouth. One of her eyes was shut to prevent double vision. She moved her eyes close to my mouth till I could feel her nostrils pushing air on my chin. I could smell her forehead and her hair. The nail on her right forefinger was now swimming in the lake of spit in my mouth. I felt the finger poking the back of my throat and immediately I felt the gag reflex coming on, but I suppressed it because I didn't want to vomit or spit all over Lily's face, which was so close to mine.