Frankie's Blankie

Gerard was sat contently on the multicolored carpet of the daycare room. He had a Batman action figure in one hand and a Robin in the other, and they were in search of the Joker's secret lair. They'd just found the mountain where they suspected it was hidden when Gerard heard a soft sniffling. He looked up and glanced around until his eyes fell upon a tiny person curled up in the corner of the play area- it was Frankie! He had his face buried in his knees and he looked like he was shaking. The teacher didn't seem to notice (to be fair, she was pretty tied up; Ryan had finger painted all over his face- again) so Gerard decided that he needed to investigate. He liked Frankie, and wanted to help.

"Frankie?" The four year old knelt in front of the crying boy. He noticed that something was..different. "Are you okay?" Frank looked up and shook his head solemly. His cheeks were wet with tears and his nose was red. "What happened?"

"I l-losed my blankie," he whimpered. Ah, that's what was different. It was a very common sight around the daycare to see Frankie going about his day, dragging his beloved blanket behind him. He was only three -just a baby- so nobody made a big deal about it. That blanket gave him comfort, even Gerard knew that.

"Ohhh," his mouth formed an 'o'. "Where?"

"I dunno," Frank wiped his arm across his face, more tears forming in his eyes.

Gerard wrapped his arms around the younger boy. "Don't cry Frankie! I'll help you look for it!"

Frankie sniffled, "Weally?"

"Yeah!" Gerard chirped. He stood up and held his hand out and helped the other boy up. "You don't 'member were you left your blankie?" Frank shook his head. "We just have to look extra hard then!" He gave a big cheesey grin, making Frank smile. Gerard grabbed the younger boy's hand and together they began their search for Frankie's blankie.

Gerard decided that the best method to find the blanket was to look everywhere that Frank had been that day. He specifically remembered seeing Frank bring it with him to daycare that morning, so it had to be there somewhere.

Their first stop was the block corner, where Frank had built a fairly good sized tower (especially for someone of his small stature) earlier. There was currently nobody playing there, so all of the blocks had been returned to the large bin in the corner.

"D'you think it's in there?" Gerard asked. Frank stared at the bin with owlish eyes and shrugged.

"I dunno," he stuck the tip of his thumb into his mouth.

"Let's look!" The two boys began digging through the blocks, dropping many of them on the floor in the process. Eventually their fingers hit the bottom of the bin and they were still blanket-less.

"Aw man!" Gerard crossed his arms. Frank's bottom lip jutted out in a pout. "No don't get sad! We just gotta look more. What else did ya do?"

"Um," Frank's chubby little face screwed up in concentration. "I gotted snack from my cubby!"

"Let's check there!" The pair was about to head out when their teacher, Miss Hayley, called to them.

"Gerard, Frankie, clean up your blocks if you're done playing." She reminded them sweetly. The boys quickly scooped up all of the blocks and dumped them into the bin. Once they finished, they raced over to the cubbies lining the wall, searching for the one labled "Frankie". Gerard pulled out the contents- a Ninja Turtles lunch box and a set of spare clothes, but no blanket. This was getting serious now!

Gerard carefully put Frank's stuff back and tugged on his hair in thought. It wasn't by the blocks and it wasn't in the cubby. Where could the blanket be?

"What else did you do today Frankie?"

"I goed to the potty!" Frank answered, hoping he was doing a good job helping. He was very happy that Gerard was looking with him, but he was really missing his blankie.

The boys crossed back to the other side of the room where there was the door that lead to the bathroom. It was a single-person restroom, and the classroom rule was that only one person could be in there at once, so Gerard went in since he was leading the investigation. The bathroom was small, so it didn't take long to see that the missing blanket wasn't in there.

Gerard walked out empty-handed, much to Frank's dismay. The three year old started sniffling again. Gerard pulled him into a hug to try to comfort him.

"Alright boys and girls," Miss Hayley's voice announced. "It's almost naptime, so start cleaning up your toys!"

That's when the tears started up again. It was a wonder that he'd lasted this long without his beloved companion, but there was no way Frank could take his nap without his blanket! But it was still nowhere to be found and Miss Hayley said it was almost naptime, and they were running out of time and places to look.

Gerard decided that the situation was now super serious and he needed more help. He took Frankie's hand in his and lead the boy over to Mister Ray. He was Miss Hayley's helper. He was seventeen and he had really cool hair and a guitar that he played sometimes during circle time, so Gerard felt like he was obviously the perfect person to ask for help.

He tugged on Mister Ray's pant leg and the teenager turned to him, kneeling down when he saw that Frank was crying.

"What's wrong kiddo?" Frank was still crying, so Gerard supplied the facts.

"Frankie losed his blankie an' we looked for it all over an' we couldn't find it an' it's almost naptime an' he can't have a nap without his blankie an' now he's cryin' again but we looked in the blocks an' the cubbies an' the potty an' it wasn't anywhere an' I dunno what to do!" He rambled out in one long breath.

"Woah calm down little man," Ray said, putting his hands up with a smile. "Frankie, do you think you maybe left it outside on the playground?" he offered an idea.

Frank sniffled and hiccupped quietly. "M-maybe?" He wiped his tears with his hand.

Ray stood up. "Stay right here, okay?" He turned and walked over to Miss Hayley, who was putting a box of crayons in the craft cabinet. He talked to her for a minute and she glanced over at the boys with a sympathetic smile. Ray returned and held his hand out to Frank. "Let's go, Miss Hayley said we can go look outside." Frank took his hand and Gerard took the other because of course he was coming along. Mister Ray took the boys down the hall and out the double doors that opened to the playground.

"Alright Frankie, let's find your blanket, okay?" Ray gave an encouraging smile and Frank nod-nod-nodded. They split up, Ray followed Frank to the swings and Gerard looked by the sandbox. They continued on for a few minutes when something caught Gerard's eye on top of the playset with the big slide. He scrambled over and up the ladder. His suspicions were right, he found Frank's blanket! It was a bundled up pile of blue fabric sitting in the corner next to the slide.

"Frankie!" Gerard called. "I found it!" He held it up just to make sure Frank didn't think he was joking because he wasn't, he really found it. Even from across the playground, he could see Frank's eyes light up as he ran over to the playset with Ray in tow. Gerard held onto the blanket and went down the slide, feeling rather heroic, like Batman or something. If Batman rescued lost blankets.

"Good job, Gerard." Mister Ray praised.

Frank giggled and bounced up and down excitedly. "My blankie!" he squealed. Gerard handed him the soft but very well worn-in blanket and he snuggled it against his cheek like he always did, soaking in the comfort from the baby blue fabric that he'd been missing. "Thank you Geward!" He wrapped his arms around Gerard happily. Gerard hugged him back and smiled, feeling very proud of himself.

"You're welcome Frankie."

"Alright little dudes, let's get back inside for naptime." Mister Ray said. He took their hands again and they walked back into the daycare, with Frank cuddling his blanket the whole way.

XXX

When they got back to the room, Miss Hayley and the other kids had already laid out the nap mats on the floor, and she had set out Gerard's and Frank's for them. The rest of the class was already getting settled when they walked in. Mister Ray smiled at Miss Hayley and quietly told her that Gerard had found Frank's blanket.

The boys tugged their mats until they were right next to each other. As Gerard got comfortable on his, Frank snuggled right up against his side with his blanket tucked up at his face and his thumb stuck in his mouth. He dozed off rather quickly, but Gerard laid there for a few minutes, smiling to himself about how he helped Frankie and saved the day.