"Oh no, I'm sorry Rob, I need to go. Somethings wrong with Pita." Before Mr. Crawford could answer her, Evelynn Westbrook had hung up the phone and was running up the stairs to see Pita. "Pita? Where are you darling? You're father just called and-" "I know. I heard." Sniffed the little girl. "Oh, honey. What's wrong?" "I think you know what's wrong." Pita replied sadly. After suggesting a number of entertaining activities, that were all in turned down almost immediately, the sitter finally sighed and left the bedroom. Mrs. Westbrook headed for the kitchen and then sat down with a steaming cup of coffee. She was about to start a crossword puzzle when her phone started vibrating. It was Mr. Crawford. The sitter greeted him and answered his hurried questions for about forty-five minutes, until she had the chance to question Pita's father. "So, how is Liliana doing?" "She's fine. The epidural went remarkably well, though they thought they might have to do a second one. Apparently, one of the nurses accidently got confused….." Rob Crawford went on and on, before Evelynn cut him short and asked who's phone he was using. "Oh, I borrowed it from a nurse, who, let's just say, was much more, welcoming than some others." Pita's babysitter, having heard the strange story of Penelope, chuckled slowly. "Alright, I believe it's time to hang up now. Good night." Mrs. Westbrook managed to sound jovial. ✵ ✵ ✵ ✵ ✵ ✵ The next morning, Pita, sitting sulkily in the back seat, was driven to the hospital by her sitter. When they arrived out front, Mrs. Westbrook unlocked the car door and led her charge inside. Although Pita had made up her mind to irritate her babysitter until bedtime, she could hardly keep back her amazement at the tremendous size of the building. Living in the suburbs her whole eight-year life, Pita had never seen such a colossal structure. It suddenly occurred to her that she must have seen this building at some time in her life. After all, she had been born here. This lifted the girl's spirits slightly, but not enough to cancel out the dread of being……replaced. Replaced. That was another one to add to her list of horrible words. That list went a little bit like this:
Shock
Edmund
Hatred
Surprise
Replaced
And, while she was at it, Pita added a few other random words to her mental list:
Frogger
Rosette
Hufflepuff (She later greatly regretted adding this word, and therefore burnt the entire list.) Bibliographies
Before Pita had found out that her mother was pregnant, she never would have even dreamed of creating a list of horrible words. But now, things were- well, different. They soon arrived at a desk on one of the upper floors, where an older-looking nurse greeted them and asked who they were visiting. Mrs. Westbrook gave her their information and then directed Pita to rub hand sanitizer on her hands. They stepped into the hall and walked along it for some time. When they reached the door and the sitter opened it, Pita Crawford took a deep breath, put on her most indignant face, and followed her inside.
