Money | Alcoholism
Hidden Under the Mattress
Children naively tuck things away in the belief they are safe
“In skating over thin ice our safety is in our speed.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson
My younger brother and I slept in bunk beds.
I was on the top bunk so I was often hanging over the edge talking to him late into the night. Bunk beds are unlike any other place for slumber. There was a hierarchy as the top was often for the older sibling. Every movement was felt by the other as we shifted in the night.
Whispers were told through the mattress. Games were played as creeping hands would make their way up and down the sides of the bed to scare the other. But the stacked beds mostly represented safety.
No matter what was lurking in the home, real or imagined, there were always two of us to fend against it.
The bed was also a place to store our most precious possessions. While everyone knew we kept things hidden under our mattress, we would still wait until no one was in the room before we pushed up the mattress to place or remove items from their hiding place. This was also where we kept our money.
