Three Orphan Pilgrimage (The Alternative to TWDG's Final Season) [Walking Dead]

72. The Simple Life

Clementine smiled as Omid spun plastic shapes and pushed along colored beads built into one of the walls of his new playhouse. Between it, the abundance of toys the others brought back surveying the surrounding area yesterday, and the ones they had brought in from the Brave, the young tyke had a veritable fun house to enjoy in his new room. He had already spent all morning hurrying from one plaything to the other, barely willing to stop even for breakfast, and Clem hadn't missed a second of it.

"Clem, can you help me with this?"

Clem spun around and saw Sarah holding a headboard against a mostly assembled crib. She hurried over to her friend and grabbed hold of the piece.

"Just keep it there for a moment," instructed Sarah as she removed a screwdriver from her pocket. "This will only take a minute."

"This is a lot bigger than his old crib," noted Clem as Sarah screwed the headboard in place.

"I don't think his old crib was even a crib."

"It wasn't? What was it then?"

"I think it was a bassinet."

"A what?"

"A cradle."

"...a what?"

"You know, like a baby crib."

"I thought cribs were for babies?"

"Well some of them are for newborns," said Sarah as she tugged on the headboard. "I remember reading about that in one of our parenting books."

"And this one isn't?" asked Clem as she watched Sarah lean the new crib forward.

"No, the box on this one said it's for babies over a year old." Sarah set the finished crib upright; Omid's entire old crib could have fit inside of it.

"Hopefully he'll actually sleep in this one," said Clem.

"If he doesn't, don't forget it's your turn to stay with him tonight," said Sarah before taking a breath. "I'm more worried about him getting out of it though." Sarah moved over to where Omid was stacking wooden blocks and scooped up the toddler by his armpits.

"Ah-wah-duh-dee!" he protested as he was carried away.

"This will only take a minute." Sarah placed Omid in the crib and took a step back. Watching carefully, Clem noticed he seemed confused at first, then stepped forward to examine the bars. Omid stretched his short arms up as far as he could, but could only briefly touch the top of the crib with his fingertips. Listening to Omid grunt, Clem found herself disturbed by how distressing he found his new crib the longer he was trapped in it.

"Ow-sah!" he pleaded in desperation as he struggled in vain to even take hold of the top of the crib. "Sah-rah ow-sah!"

"It's okay," said Clem as she found her arms shooting forward without thinking. "I've got you." Clem hurriedly picked up Omid and set him on the floor, where he rushed back to his tower of blocks.

"Well I don't think he'll get out of that," said Sarah.

"Yeah, but is that really a good thing?" asked Clem.

"What? Yes."

"It's just... it's like we're putting him in a cage."

"It's... it's not all the time," reasoned Sarah. "And it's just so he doesn't wander off and hurt himself. He's got a lot more room here than in the Brave."

"I know all that," said Clem as she watched Omid carefully tried to add another block to his tower before knocking it over. "It's just, I remember when I lived in that cabin, and how much I hated it; how long will he spend in here before he wants to leave?"