blanket fort

For the dVerse prosery prompt “clouds“, and for H_, the little one:

 

Yesterday the little one whimpered as the swab was inserted, while her brother sneered “my finger goes much further up my nose than that!” And demonstrated.
Today we are sunshine and storm clouds – like a holiday picnic on brittle ice.
The little one is collecting the eggs, telling me about a hen gone broody, making chocolate crackles for everyone and sharing them out.
I try not to snap at her to leave me alone as I fill in close-contact declarations, notify HR… and wait. But I do snap. And her sunshine is eclipsed by the storm clouds of my fear.
But these clouds are clearly foreign. Such an exotic clutter against the blue cloth of the sky that she is trying to spread over us. She raises her blue sky like a blanket fort, for us to creep beneath.

 

The prosery prompt:  it must be prose, no longer than 144 words, and include the lines “But these clouds are clearly foreign, such an exotic clutter Against the blue cloth of the sky” –from “Clouds” by Constance Urdang. Punctuation may be changed only.