AmericaxLittle reader - Uncle Alfie part 2

_____ held back her little tears while her Papa kissed her on the forehead telling her to be good for Uncle Alfred, have fun and he would be home that evening. But as soon as he had driven off the little girl buried her face in her Uncles strong shoulder and whimpered – she always got sad when her father went away.

This was a completely new experience for Alfred, he had never seen the little girl cry before because Mathew was always to carful to take good care of her.

“D-dudette?” he said leaning back to see the sniffing child in his arms, “don’t cry doll! I-it’s ok! The hero’s here to help you!”

But little _____ didn’t take any notice of his comments. Alfred racked his brain for ideas on how to cheer the girl up – he hated watching kids cry. Walking back inside the house he heard the house phone going off. Popping _____ on the couch he answered it with an overly loud “YO it’s Alfred! Who’s this?”

“What? Alfred you git! What are you doing there and why are you answering the telephone!?! I called to tell Canada that my plans changed and he can bring ____ over so- oh forget it can you just put Matthew on!”

Alfred paused, slightly peeved that his brother always asked the British man to care for _____ instead of him. ‘Heck I bet he even asked Francis before he thought of me!’ he mentally grumbled while Arthur yelled at him from the other side of the line annoyed about being ignored.

“Dude chill! I can’t put Matt on because he’s not here so there!” the American said smugly.

“WHAT!?!?! WHERE IS HE!?!?!?! WHERE IS ______!?!?!?  IS SHE OK!?!?!?!” the older nation stressed and Alfred rolled his eyes, once again peeved that no one trusted him.

“____ is fine! I’m looking after her and-“suddenly he was distracted by a little hand tugging on his trousers. _____ had one hand on his pant leg and the other rubbed her now red, still teary eyes.

“U-uncle Alfie” she said before she began tearing up again. ‘Oh no! I left her in the lounge alone and she’s still crying! WHY DOSE SHE KEEP CRYING? If she keeps that up ___ will make herself sick - what do I do!?!?!’

“Alfred! ALFRED!” the phone screamed at him and he tentatively listened once again.
“Y-yeah bro? What’s up?”

“DIDN’T YOU LISTEN TO A WORD I JUST SAID?” Arthur sighed loudly then said in a strained voice, “I just wanted to know if _____ was ok, she always gets teary when Matthew leaves. If she is too much for you to handle bring her over to me and I’ll take care of her.”

“In your DREAMS BRO! The Hero will be the BEST baby sitter EVER!” and with that he slammed the phone down to hang up. At least now he knew what the problem was! ‘I’ve just gotta stop her thinking about Matt!’

“Hey doll! Let’s go play a game!” he suggested nervously as the child sniffled.
“Ok U-uncle A-Alfie…..what game?”

America paused to think for a moment then announced loudly “COWBOYS!”
Soon the little girl’s tears dried up as they ran about the house building ‘campsites’, fighting bandits and later on alien bandits. Alfred piggy backed _____ around the house whooping and jumping all over the place to make the child shriek with joy.

Soon they lay on the lounge room floor completely exhausted from the game and surrounded by pillows, blankets and toys. “Well doll, it’s about time for lunch….how about a trip to McDonalds!” he said sitting up only to see the little girl lying still on the ground with her tongue hanging out.

‘OH NO WHAT HAVE I DONE!!! I’VE KILLED MY NEICE’ he began to stress then saw the little form shake as if it was giggling. Grinning widely he stood and began to walk over to the girl, “oh no, ____ is dead! What will I do?” he said playing along with her charade while the child tried her best not to laugh out loud.

“I know!” he said getting closer, “The hero will save her life by reviving her….with TICKLING!” The child squeaked and chortled as Alfred tickled her sides and tummy. “Come on _____ who’s the hero? Who is the awesomest uncle you have?” he cooed tickling her till the little girl managed to squeeze out her answer. “U-UNCLE ALFIE! UNCLE ALFIE IS A HERO! HE’S MY FAVOURITE UNCLE!!!”

The two of them laughed as Alfred stopped tickling and sat on the floor for a moment to catch their breath. The young man smiled smugly to himself, proud of how he had stopped _____ from crying. Then remembering Matthew’s instructions, looked seriously at his niece and said “right-o doll! Time for lunch! You gotta have three square meals a day remember! But you have to wear your coat if we’re going to Maccas!”

Soon the two were off walking to the fast food joint where he bought ____ a happy meal and two supersized Big Mac meals for himself. Once they had burned their way through the food Alfred took ____ to the park.

The two chased each other, Alfred pushed ____ on the swings and _____ received many piggy backs. Alfred helped _____ climb trees and swung her around in the air to her childish delight. Many single mothers watched on as the two had fun on the play equipment together playing superhero’s sighing over the handsome blonde who was ‘so good with children’.

Later when Alfred had purchase some bread for ____ to feed the ducks with, one woman dared to come over to him. “You have a lovely daughter” she gushed truthfully, after all not many people thought the child wasn’t absolutely adorable.

The American grinned as he carefully kept an eye on the girl mercilessly throwing bread like missiles at the ducks and ordering them to ‘eat so you don’t get hungry later! You gotta have three square meals a day you know, Uncle Alfie told me so!’

“She is cute isn’t she! _____’s my leading lady! I have the best niece in the world!” he said flashing the woman a grin before running over to scoop her up and throw her in the air, _____ squealing in surprise.

Soon it began to get dark and Alfred carried the exhausted child home protectively in his arms. He put together some grilled cheese sandwiches for diner then sat patiently in the lounge eating ice cream while ____ watched ‘Giggle and Hoots goodnight hour’.

Alfred checked his phone finding that Arthur had left several worried messages to tell him what to do with ____. But he just ignored it – after all, the hero always knows what’s best for his leading lady/awesome side kick right?

Once the TV show was over he ran a bath for ____ and went to clean up the house, which looked like a tornado had ripped through it. It wasn’t long before ____ had her teeth brushed, warm Pj’s on and was trying to walk down the stairs without tripping.

“Hey! Here’s my awesome side kick, let me help ya Bucky!” Alfred said scooping up the little girl and carrying her up to her bedroom. “So….what now” he said tucking ____ in.

“Papa and Papy usually sing me a lullaby and read to me….or Uncle Arthur tells me a bedtime story that he makes up ALL ON HIS OWN!”

“Fine! Well I’m much better than Uncle Arthur or ‘Papy’” he quietly sniggered to himself at France’s nickname. Then racking his brain he tried to think of a story he could tell unsuccessfully.

“Uncle Alfie?” ____ asked seeing the look of concentration that crossed his face. She scurried over to her book shelf and pulled out a cowboy storybook bringing it back to him. “Uncle Alfie can you read this one?” she asked with an innocent smile.

“Sure doll, if that what you want!” he said leaning back against the bedhead and pulling name into his lap, relieved that he didn’t have to admit that he couldn’t make up stories like Arthur could. They pulled the covers up and Alfred began to read.

~

Later that evening Matthew came bustling home, he was rather happy to find the door locked and opened it with his key. Walking in the Canadian man was astonished with how clean the house was! Everything was where it should be and nothing was out of place, the complete opposite to what Mathew had expected from Alfred.

Walking upstairs he saw ____’s coat hanging up on the door knob and her shoes neatly placed outside the door. There was not a sound as Mathew peeked into the little girl’s room to find _____ lying safe and snug in Alfred’s arms, a story book in her lap. He noticed that she was clean and in her pyjamas with a big smile on both their sleeping faces.

Mathew took the book and placed it back on the shelf then went to kiss ____ goodnight when stirred and sleepily whispered “Papa…..I think Uncle Alfie is a hero too……” before drifting back to dreamland again.

Mathew smiled turning off the light and closing the door.

“I guess Alfred was a good Babysitter after all…”