The Padded Palace Act IV: Chapter 9

Bzzzzz! Bzzzzz! Bzzzzz! 

The low rumble of Stacy’s cell phone on vibrate caused Stacy to stir from her heavy slumber. Sunlight poured into the bedroom and pooled around the bed, eliminating any possibility of her drifting back beyond REM sleep. “Ugh! Five mo minutes,” she grumbled, shielding her eyes with the crux of her elbow. However, the sun continued to shine and, more pressingly, her phone continued to buzz, eventually snapping her mind to groggy consciousness. 

Slamming her hand down on her phone, Stacy craned her neck to the side and strained to read the caller ID. Thankfully, it was Mal, so she didn’t have to pretend to be awake when she finally answered the phone, “Hey Mal…*YAWN*...what’s up?” 

“Yeah, that’s what we’d like to know?” said a male voice that certainly didn’t belong to her paid in-home caregiver. Seconds later, a pair of stern knocks on the door crackled downstairs loud enough to rattle the entire house, “You hear that?! Would SOMEONE care to open the ding-dang door?!” 

Batting her eyes as she ogled at her phone, it didn’t take long for Stacy to recognize who she was speaking to. She only knew one Daddy groan-worthy enough to say “ding-dang door” with a straight face. “Martin! Hey! Uhh, hang on just a sec,” she said, leaping out of the bed and sprinting into the bathroom to change into her PJs. To answer the door in Latasha’s clothes would only advertise that something was up. 

However, Stacy was only able to get partially undressed before a second, much less even-toned voice came through the speaker, “Ugh! Just gimme that! Stacy, it’s Carol! Pick-up time was 20 minutes ago! Why isn’t Connor answering his phone?!” 

Stacy gritted her teeth as she immediately doubled her efforts to redress herself in her childish pajamas. “H-Hey Carol, I promise, everything is okay,” she said as she struggled to sound reassuring. Having anticipated waking up with plenty of time to use Connor’s phone to extend their slumber party, her inability to fall asleep until hours before sunrise soiled any chance of an early rise. Slipping into her soft PJ top, she rapidly yanked her bottoms upward to finish her ensemble. 

SQUISH! 

A hint of crimson dusted Stacy’s face as her squelching diaper was squeezed against her princess parts, using the crotch of her pants as a wedge. As pleasurable as it felt, she was slightly saddened and embarrassed by her failure to stay dry as Big. The sentence, “Lastasha wouldn’t have wet the bed,” replayed in her head like a neverending shame siren. Shaking off her melancholy, she cast aside her intrusive thoughts and quickly pieced together a plan. 

Lightbulb! 

Hurrying over to the shower, Stacy forcefully cranked the water on before proceeding to close the shower stall door and make her way downstairs. Arriving on the first floor, there was one thing she still needed to take care of before she could get the door. She held her breath and silently opened the nursery door to peek inside. The relief she felt as she listened to a choir of snoring was all the confidence boost she needed. She’d talked her way out of worse pickles than this. Sealing the nursery shut, she compelled her shoulders to ease back, got into as Big of a mindset as she could muster, and readied herself to face off against the REAL Bigs at the front door. 

CLICK! 

“Hey guys,” said Stacy meekly as she cracked open the door and peered outside at the Big trio of Carol, Martin, and Mal. Gulping hard, merely looking at all three of them assembled side-by-side had her shrinking even further away from the coveted caregiver role. She refused to cave so easily though, pushing herself to be bold as she widened the door, “Oh, geez! Time really flies when you’re having fun, huh?” She giggled alone at her attempt at levity. 

Folding his arms, Martin had dealt with Stacy enough times to know when she was up to something. “Where’s Connor? All three of us have tried his phone. We had half a mind to contact Latasha too before you answered yours,” he said, his usual, kindly demeanor buried beneath the face of a frustrated parent. 

“Yeah, and we still might!” Carol chimed in, going full Karen and delivering a powerful warning with only five single-syllable words. 

Looking to Mal for help, Stacy’s grin faltered as even her own caregiver refused to back her up, “You’d better start explaining, young miss.” 

Spinning a web of deceit in her head, the last thing Stacy wanted was for Latasha to get involved. Not only would she be likely to receive swift justice for her behavior last night but there was a good chance that Latasha could immediately cut her trip short to ensure the sanctity of her house. All the work she’d done to reveal the kind of guy she assumed Connor really was would be gone by dinner time. No matter what happened, she needed to keep them from calling Latasha at all costs. “Okay, for starters, I’m super sorry if you guys were panicking for the last twenty minutes. I promise, nothing bad is going on,” she said, her supposedly genuine capitulation sounding more like an obligatory TubeTuber’s apology. Thankfully, her apologetic lip service was enough to get Martin and Carol to take a breath, permitting her to continue chipping away at their austerity, “As far as Connor’s phone is concerned…he’s a little preoccupied at the moment.” Pointing upstairs, she prompted Martin and Carol to stick their heads through the doorway. The noise of a shower running was unmistakable. 

“Ah…I see,” said Carol, her anger beginning to simmer due to a surprisingly even-keeled explanation. Although, she was still fuming from the heart attack Connor gave her. Searching for a reason to still be upset, her reasoning pivoted, “Perhaps picking a later shower time would’ve been wiser. Latasha wouldn’t be pleased to hear how the caregiver she left in her sted is missing in action like this.” 

Sensing Carol’s fury was weening, Stacy only needed to dodge a few more questions before she could drive this thing home. “You make a good point. Connor probably should’ve waited,” she said, opening with a concession as a means of persuasion, “He just wanted to shower before Ellie and Riri woke up, so he deputized me to keep an eye on the sleeping angels. You see, for the past few weeks, I’ve…been exploring the older, Middle Space side of my kink personality, which is something Latasha’s been allowing me to do…with Mal’s permission, of course. Right, Mal?” 

Standing on the edge of the porch as far away from the conflict as possible, Mal didn’t so much as flinch when Carol and Martin turned to stare them down. “Yep, my little miss is growing up,” she said, aiding and abetting her employer’s misdeeds at the drop of a hat. 

Stacy subdued her reaction to Mal's compliance, though it was incredibly difficult not to let a pair of horns sprout out of the top of her head. Mal was truly worth every penny. Sadly, despite acquiring a foolproof alibi for her sudden turn to the Switch side, not everyone was convinced. 

“Ya know, my baby girl loves to come home and tell me all about her day, no matter how mundane it may have been,” said Martin, his tone betraying his benevolent smile as he raised a suspicious eyebrow on Stacy’s way, “I don’t know. This just seems like the kind of thing she would’ve mentioned.” 

With how close Stacy was to getting away with everything, to be thrown a last-second curveball was agonizing. If she were able, she would’ve let out a scream loud enough to shatter every window in the Padded Palace. Knowing she had nothing to back up any claims she could make about Riri, she did the only thing she could do and deflected. “I was kind of shy about it at first so that might be why, though I can’t exactly speak for Riri. What I can say is that Connor was planning to call you all after his shower. I know it’s probably too late to ask but the four of us had been talking about seeing a matinee before we split off,” she said, ramping up the disappointment in her voice. This may not have been the most ideal time to drop a line about extending their overnight party into the next afternoon but she needed to take Martin’s attention off her Middle Space fib somehow, “It’s the whole reason Riri and Ellie are sleeping in since the movie would be during naptime.” 

While neither Martin nor Carol would ever dare to admit it, Stacy had done well working down their justified vexation to the point where her somber pouty face was doing a number on their heartstrings. In the end, based on all the evidence they had in front of them, this entire brouhaha appeared to be nothing more than an innocuous misunderstanding. 

Not wanting to deal with the double-trouble tantrum from waking Ellie prematurely only to tell her that she wasn’t going to the movie theater, Carol placed her hands on her hips as she was unable to fully suppress her annoyance. “Ah, geez. You four just love to give us headaches don’t you,” she said, letting out a light-hearted scoff, “I suppose a movie wouldn’t be out of the question. What do you think, Martin?” 

“Well, it’s not like Riri and I had anything planned today,” he said, displaying how much of a push-over he could be under the right circumstances. Moreover, he couldn’t help but contemplate all the home improvement work he could do with Riri out of the house for another few hours, “I can be back here at four to pick her up but I expect her waiting by the doorstep when I get here.” 

Inching out in front of Martin, Carol added, “Same for Ellie. AND I expect a phone call from Connor when he gets out of the shower.” 

Holding her hand stiff against her forehead, Stacy playfully saluted Martin and Carol. “You got it!” Receiving a nod from Martin and a headpat from Carol, the two Bigs each gave brief goodbyes as they made their way back to their cars. This left her alone on the porch with Mal, whose expression had yet to waver since her big lie about Middle Space Stacy. 

“I think I need a raise,” said Mal plainly. Whether she had been waiting for the perfect moment to pounce on Stacy’s wallet or was merely taking advantage of a golden opportunity was anyone’s guess. 

Regardless, there was little Stacy could do but relent, “Yeah, sure. Just be back around 4 pm.” The odd pair parted ways as she closed the front door, giving her a moment to let what just happened sink in. She rested the back of her head against the door, her legs nearly crumbling beneath her weight as she mumbled victorious, “And the Oscar goes to…” 

Coasting between the fiery high of outsmarting a pair of Bigs and the smoldering anxiety of how badly that whole conversation could’ve gone, Stacy waded through the living as she made her way to the nursery to check on Connor, Ellie, and Riri. Luckily, their collective snoring had grown louder in her absence. “Looks like our fun isn’t over quite yet,” she cooed quietly as she leaned her chin against one of the crib beams and gazed upon her adorable Littles. 

TO BE CONTINUED…