Whatever you do...

 

Chapter 4: ...do not forget anything!

 

Sam overlooked the ridiculous scene that was going on his living room. His youngest children were frightened and the older ones were stunned. So was he by the way. Peregrin had been out of control ever since he had come back to consciousness after having been kicked in the head by Dumbar the dwarf. Now he was dancing on the table singing that he was a clown. Suddenly the living room door flung open and in the door way stood Meriadoc. Sam was surprised to see Meriadoc up and running so soon. He was about to raise his hand to wave to Meriadoc, when a frying pan, thrown by Peregrin, hit him in the back and he fell over. When he had gotten up again and looked at Meriadoc, he saw the hobbit’s jaw had dropped.

 

“Ah well, you don’t see hobbits like this every day,” Sam thought. In a split of a second, Sam realised something else: everybody had been so busy trying to keep Peregrin in order that nobody had taken the time to take care of Meriadoc and probably nobody had told him what happened to Peregrin either. Sam started to make his way towards his Brandybuck friend.

 

“Hey Meriadoc! I think we need to talk!”

 

“About what?” Meriadoc said in amazement, still staring at Peregrin.

 

“Well, about Peregrin of course!” Sam said while trying to avoid more flying objects as he made his way through the room. Finally he reached the door, pushed everybody into the main hall and closed the door behind him.

 

“Oh boy, have I got news for you!” Sam sighed.

 

The six hobbits, namely Sam, Meriadoc, Ruby, Robin, Bilbo and Primrose, went to the kitchen. There, the four youngsters got a cup of hot chocolate and were sent to bed straight after that. When they finally were alone, Sam sat down.

 

“Okay, spill the beans, what exactly do you know?”

 

Meriadoc told Sam he had found out about the fight between Dumbar and Diamond Took and that he also knew about the cause of the fight. “So mainly the only thing I still need to know is, how is Peregrin doing now, and from what I’ve seen it’s not to good…”

 

Sam sighed. “You can say that again… It’s not good at all, my friend, not good at all…” He drank a little from his thee. “Me and Gimli had brought Peregrin to the living room and we were trying to bring him back to consciousness, when we heard someone leave. Only seconds after that Frodo and Hamfast came in to tell us that Diamond had insulted Dumbar so badly he had decided to leave. We also heard that there had been a big fight and that everybody had been forced to hide. I told Frodo to go and look for his siblings and take Hamfast along with him. When they had left I put my mind back to Peregrin. He was in a much worse state than you were in, but I seriously thought he would only have a headache when he’d wake up. How wrong could I be? After a little while Peregrin woke up, mumbled something and fell asleep immediately.”

 

Meriadoc smiled: “Typically Peregrin.”

 

Sam continued his story: “So we thought, yes. Me and Gimli left Peregrin there while Diamond took care of him. I took a quick look at my children. I didn’t like the fact that Frodo hadn’t been able to find Ruby, Robin, Primrose and Bilbo, but I had to take care of you first, before I could go and look for them. We found you in one of the smaller rooms of the western side of the house. Estella was with you, she was very desperate if I may say so, she thought you were going to die! Me and Gimli took a look at you and soon saw you would be fine. We were about to leave, when we heard someone scream. Only seconds later Merry and Pippin came in to tell us that Diamond had come running out of Peregrin room in complete shock and wanted to see Estella. So me and Estella went to see Diamond, while Gimli stayed with you. That was the third time that day I had to run through my house. My dear, where is the world going when a hobbit can’t walk through his own house anymore?! I can remember my gaffer saying that…” One look at Meriadoc’s face told Sam that he should stick to his story. “But…er…well…that’s a nice story for a different day, hehe. So, we came to the main hall where we found Diamond, she was indeed in total shock and she could only say ‘Peregrin, my dear, Peregrin’. I took a deep breath and I opened the door to the living room expecting to see something horrible, but all I saw was Peregrin standing at the window. I closed the door behind me, and Peregrin looked at me. ‘Is this your garden,’ he asked. I told him it was. ‘You’ve done a great job, have you ever considered becoming a gardener?’ I was surprised he asked me such a thing. ‘Do you know me?’ I asked him. ‘Should I?’ he answered. Can you believe it?! Then I asked, ‘Did you know the woman who was in here with you?’ And then I knew why Diamond had freaked, Peregrin told me he had never seen her before.”

 

Meriadoc’s eyes grew big; he couldn’t believe what he was hearing.

 

“Then I decided to ask Peregrin the most crucial question of all. ‘Do you know who you are?” I asked him, yes. ‘Well,’ he said, ‘of course I do! I’m…’ He was silent for a few minutes and then he said, ‘Second thought, I don’t know who I am’.”

 

“What?!” exclaimed Meriadoc, “How can he say such a thing?! Has he lost his mind?!”

 

Sam sighed once more. “No, not his mind, his memory. He doesn’t seem to remember anything that happened in the past years. He only remembers the things that happened in his first two years.”

 

“So basically,” Meriadoc said slowly, “he thinks he’s two years old.”

 

“Sort of, yeah,” Sam said.

 

The two hobbits sat in silence for a while. In the end, Sam got up to get back to the living room.

 

“Sam,” Meriadoc said. “Why is Peregrin acting so weird, saying he’s a clown and all…”

 

“That’s thanks to Faramir. You know when I found out Peregrin had lost his memory, I send word to Gimli, who should know what had happened in my opinion and I asked him to stay with you until you woke up. Estella couldn’t do that anymore, because she had to help Diamond keeping her calm. Frodo and Merry did their best to keep their brothers and sisters from panicking, because they are not used to so many things happening in such a short while. I had put Peregrin in a room next to the living room, so the others could use that place to sit a little. I tried to find out if Peregrin remembered anything at all, but as I said before, it’s not much. I took him for a walk through the house hoping he would remember anything, but he didn’t. Or maybe he did, I don’t know. When we came to the place where Dumbar and Diamond had fought, he might’ve remembered something, because he started screaming and throwing with the pieces of the paintings. Luckily, Elanor was around. She helped me to bring Peregrin back to that little room next to the living room. Peregrin sat down silently for a while and then he asked me who he was, but before I could answer him, he had pushed me over and walked into the living room and screamed ‘Can anybody tell me who I am?’ and that’s where Faramir comes in. You know, he really takes after his dad…”

 

“Saying all the wrong things at the wrong moments, you mean?” Meriadoc grinned.

 

“Exactly,” said Sam. “So after Peregrin had asked that question, Faramir jumped up and said ‘You’re a clown!’ and that’s when he started dancing on the table and you came in with the four lost Gamgee children.”

 

Suddenly there was a loud bang in the living room. Sam ran, once more, through his own house and Meriadoc followed him as fast as he possibly could. When they came to the living room, they saw Peregrin lying in the floor, knocked out, once more.

 

“You stupid dwarf! Is that you’re kind’s favourite thing to do?! Knock my husband in the head?!” Diamond yelled at Gimli.

 

“I’m sorry, Diamond, but I couldn’t bare to hear that ‘I’m a clown’-song once more! And he is a nightmare when he is awake! I just couldn’t help myself!” Gimli said on his behalf.

 

“So you hit him in the head with a book?!”

 

“Well, he’s calm now, isn’t he?”

 

Before Diamond got the chance to strangle Gimli, Estella had pushed her into the kitchen and Sam took a look at Peregrin.

 

“Alright, this hobbit goes back to his couch again…” he sighed.

­­­­­­­

Night had now definitely fallen over Hobbiton and all the Gamgee children (and Faramir) had been put to sleep. Meriadoc had spent all evening in the kitchen with Peregrin, desperately trying to make him remember something. So far, no result. And Gimli had gone out for a little walk. In the living room, Sam and Estella were drinking a cup of tea.

 

“It sure has been a busy day,” Estella said to Sam.

 

 “Yup,” was all Sam could say to that. Behind them they could hear a door opening. In came Rosie, still in her night gown.

 

“Rosie!” Sam said, “You should be in bed, you should rest!”

 

“I know,” Rosie said, “but this baby is one day old and he has hardly seen his father.” With that she sat down and gave the baby to Sam.

 

They had all sat there for quite a while, when somebody knocked on the front door. It was highly unusual that a hobbit goes to visit another hobbit after sunset. Or, was it no hobbit? Who knows, it could be Dumbar, who decided to come back. Sam got up to open the door. His heart sank lower with every step that he took. The last visitors that had come to his house had only brought them bad luck and for some reason Sam was sure that this visitor would not be any different.

 

Who is at the door? A hobbit? A dwarf? And is Sam right? Will this visitor also bring bad luck?

 

Coming soon: chapter 5: …don’t stop moving!