Empath's Sleepless Night

"Empath's Sleepless Night" is a mini-story that is part of the EMPATH: The Luckiest Smurf story series.

Story
It was sometime after Empath's daughter Psycheliana was born that Tapper had seen Empath come into the tavern in the middle of the day. "Salutations, fellow Tapper," he greeted, sounding exhausted. "Do you have any fresh acorn brew to serve this smurf?"

"Great Smurfiny Crickets, my fellow Empath, you sure looked like you haven't smurfed a wink of sleep last night," Tapper commented as he went to get his friend a mug full of fresh hot acorn brew. "I take it that you're starting to get used to being a new parent in the Smurf Village."

"This smurf spent a whole night trying to get Liana back to sleep, Tapper," Empath said as he received his brew and drank a sip. "This smurf could sense when she needs a bottle or a diaper change, but somehow she won't let any Smurf except this smurf come to handle her in the middle of the night to make her settle down."

"That is strange indeed that an infant like her would refuse any Smurf but you to handle her in the wee hours of the morning," Tapper said. "I'm not sure that Smurfette would like it, knowing that she is fully capable and equipped as a Smurfette to do the feeding, but is somehow kept from smurfing it by her own child."

"Smurfette takes care of the child throughout the whole day, so it would make sense that she would want her own Papa Smurf to handle her during the night," Empath said. "It's just finding out that this is how it's going to be for the next 20 years of Liana's life that this smurf isn't thrilled about."

Tapper chuckled. "The twenty years of Hades, as I would come to call it, which I'm sure every one of our parents except your Papa Smurf smurfed through when we were the little ones in diapers. Many a Papa Smurf would tell you of the horror stories of smurfing through nights of having to smurf their children to sleep when their Mama Smurfs would have their rest so that they would smurf the energy of smurfing with the children during the day."

"It's really that terrible for your Papa Smurf to tend to you when all he wanted was at least one good night of sleep, and he wouldn't be able to have it for 20 years of his life?" Empath asked.

"It seems that sleepless nights are smurf for the course when it comes to being a Papa Smurf, though it was only through the unfortunate circumstance of you being smurfed away to Psychelia that your Papa Smurf was spared those 20 years," Tapper said. "Not that smurfing 50 years of his life mourning for you was a much better deal."

"This smurf senses that he would rather have those years of tending to this smurf as a baby than those years of mourning, but it seems like they were more than made up for when Miracle first came into the village," Empath said.

"Well, at that point every Smurf was having trouble sleeping, including the Smurf who smurfed charge of Miracle for the night, Empath," Tapper said.

"If that was supposed to help prepare the Smurfs for becoming parents, the lesson seems to be lost on most of the Smurfs, Tapper," Empath said.

"There are some things in life that you can never be too well-prepared for, Empath, and it would seem that parenting is one of them," Tapper said. "Still, the thought of someday becoming a Papa Smurf and having to experience both the joys and the torments that smurf with the job is one that I'm willing to experience for myself when I and Siobhan decide to smurf the knot together."

"So you're willing to sacrifice even the possibility of having private moments with her when you become a parent?" Empath said. "This smurf is starting to feel some level of regret that Smurfette and this smurf won't have much of them until Liana's old enough to not need to wake up this smurf for everything in her life."

"That's one of the things that I envy the Almighty for being able to smurf...giving His undivided attention to everyone for their needs everywhere at the same time," Tapper said. "We as limited creatures have to divide our time with the ones we love, and that means someone has to smurf without us for a certain period of time, which hurts even if we undersmurf the purposes for smurfing so."

"If only we could be everywhere at the same time providing for everyone's needs, no matter how small those needs seem to be, maybe we wouldn't have these '20 years of Hades' to live through as Papa Smurfs," Empath said.

"Well, you know that I will be here to smurf you the acorn brew to smurf you through the rest of the day whenever you need it, Empath," Tapper said. "In the end, you'll see that smurfing through those '20 years of Hades' will be worth it in the long run."

NOTE: This was inspired by "One Sleepless Night", a mini-story in the HERO: The Guardian Smurf story series.