by LilJennie
Baby Jennie sat in her playpen but didn't feel like playing. She picked up a teddy bear and cuddled it, which helped, but not much, so she put it down again. She found her pacifier and put it in her mouth, and the soothing feeling she got all over as she sucked on it helped distract her for a while. But then she looked out into the playroom where she and Miki had tried to catch a sunbeam, and it all began again.
"Aww, why are you crying, Sweetheart?" said her mommy TJ, coming into the playroom. She knelt down by the playpen and stroked Jennie's red hair. "Is it because of Miki again?" Jennie nodded and kept crying. She hadn't even noticed herself beginning to cry. It had just happened automatically, as it does with all babies. "Well, we don't know where she's gone or when she's coming back," TJ said, "but there's nothing we can do but wait. And maybe you can find something else to do."
Jennie didn't know what else there might be. She looked at her shadow on the wall and wondered why she couldn't grab it, no matter how hard she tried. She looked at a toy with colorful beads that slid along colorful tracks and wondered what made colors different. Each time she wondered something, she remembered how she and Miki would think of these mysteries and find out the answer.
Then she had an idea.
"Mommy," she said, sniffling, "I gonna find out where Miki wented to."
"Oh honey," said TJ, "how are you going to do that?"
"I solve the mystry. Me an' Miki good at that." Jennie wasn't very good at talking, but she was a very smart baby girl. She just hoped she was smart enough without the help of her friend, who was also very smart. Would she be able to solve a mystery without Miki?
"Well ... all right, but just try to be careful," said TJ. "Do you want out of your playpen? Let's check your diaper ... soaking wet! We'll get you changed, and then you can start solving mysteries."
TJ took her into the nursery for a change, then brought her back to the playroom. Jennie sat on the floor among the toys that had been left out since Miki had last come over to play. Marbles were strewn about on the floor, hurting her knees when she crawled, so she tried to avoid them. Miki had a special jasmine-scented baby powder that her mommy Lisa used on her, and Jennie thought she could still smell a hint of it. She crawled over and looked out the window. It was raining, just like that day they had solved the mystery of where the rain went.
Then she thought. Why had Miki put all the marbles on the floor? The two girls had never played marbles. They had been trying to solve a mystery ...
"The Sandman," said Jennie, remembering. "We were gonna try to catch the Sandman." Yes, the mysterious character who made little girls go to sleep, sending them off to Dreamland. Miki had thought that if they left marbles on the floor at naptime, he would slip and fall, and the noise would wake them up, and they would see him. But Jennie thought back, and realized that there hadn't been any noise, and when she had awakened from her nap, Miki had been gone.
"I know!" Jennie shouted. "I know who gots her!"
"What's this, Jennie?" asked TJ, hearing Jennie shout and coming into the playroom.
"Is the Sandman! He gots Miki!" Jennie said. "He was mad that we tried to catch him so he taked her away!"
"Well actually, it was time for her and Lisa to go, and she was still sleepy, so Lisa just carried --"
"Mommy, we gots to catch the Sandman so we can make him bring Miki back!" Jennie said resolutely. "Or else she gonna be gone forever!"
"Aww, Jennie, honey, that is so sweet," said TJ, "but the Sandman's just a story. We can't catch him."
"Never?" said Jennie, her eyes welling up with tears.
"I'm sorry, sweetie."
Jennie turned to the window again, tears falling from her eyes like the rain. She sniffled. "Miki," she said, "where you go?"
[Author's Note: Among other things, Miki Yamuri and I wrote several "baby mysteries," where the two of us tried to figure out things that seemed mysterious to the mind of a baby, leaving it deliberately unclear whether we were really babies or mentally-regressed adults. They were very fun to write and very sweet and innocent, and this story refers to one that we were working on when she vanished offline. I'm still sure that she's just on vacation, but the little baby girl part of me is sad and worried, leading me to write this. It took about half an hour and probably isn't very good, but I tried to express what that part of me feels. I hope she comes back soon!]
