Monsters in the Night
There is an alley outside my window. I don’t like it.
It’s the place where cats and garbage cans gather at night to groan and complain. Sometimes men stumble through and stop to pee on the wall. That’s against the rules.When I was a little fellow, I thought that monsters lived there, hiding in the stink and dirty bits.
I didn’t know that monsters could just slither through your door. A turn of that knob and in they walked. They wore a special invisibility suit that made people see them, but not realize they were actually monsters.
Every night, I lie in my bed and stare at the old fashioned clock with the moving hands and tick-tock face. If the little hand makes it to the number one, I can take a deep breath and flop into my pillow. The monster won’t come. He sleeps too.
Tonight, I’m lying there, watching the clock slowly move closer and closer to the number one. It’s so close that I almost want to reach out and give it a little push. I’m breathing hard in anticipation when I see the door knob turning.
Everything stops.
I see him and bury my head into the pillow. My body wants to scream, “Mama! Help me! Mama!” But the monster will kill her if I do.
He quietly approaches my bed and pulls my head out of its hiding spot, tossing me hard, like a wet towel, onto my back. My pajama pants fly across the room, one leg chasing the other.
In the silence of his hideous roars, my mind has become the setting sun and approaching moon. I know the monster is there, but he’s lost in the darkness. I think I’m in a rocket ship, flying far, far away. I can float in the air and jump along the stars, leaving monsters far behind.
I make it back to my bed, when the monster grows weary and begins to slide away.
He’s almost through the door, when he turns his hollow eyes to me for one last look.
“Say it!” The flames shoot from his mouth and I can feel the burning heat. “Now! Say it!”
I don’t take my eyes off of him, although I can’t really see him anymore.
“Goodnight Daddy.”
