Now I Lay Me Down To Sleep Read online

need to go to bed ourselves.”

  She pulled away from him and turned toward the bedroom, shrugging off her nightgown as she went. Danny followed, still fuming a bit, but not enough to keep his sweatpants from joining her nightgown.

  In the girls’ room, Kaylee and Carly spoke in low voices. Their eyes were indeed fixed on the closet door, and the covers were pulled up as far as possible without leaving their feet exposed.

  “I don’t think there’s such thing as a Closet Monster,” Kaylee said, more to comfort herself than anything.

  “I bet there is,” Carly replied. “I bet there is, an’ it’s waitin’ in the closet right now to see if we’re asleep yet or not.”

  “No it’s not. There ain’t no such thing as a Closet Monster.”

  “Yes there is,” Carly insisted. “Why would Daddy tell us there is one if there isn’t one?”

  “He’s tryin’ to get us to go to sleep. I bet you a million dollars there’s no such thing.”

  “You don’t have a million dollars!”

  “Yeah I do,” Kaylee said. “I have a hundred billion million dollars, an’ I bet a million of them that there ain’t no such thing as a Closet Monster. Daddy’s just makin’ it all up.”

  “Well, I bet you a thousand dollars that there is a Closet Monster, and it’s sittin’ in there right now listening to us!”

  “No, there ain’t,” Kaylee declared, shaking her head. “An’ I don’t hafta put up with you saying there is. I know there isn’t, ‘cause I’m smart, an’ you’re a poopy-head.” She popped her tongue out at her younger sister.

  “You’re a poopy-head, and I don’t like you anymore ‘cause you’re mean to me!” Carly kicked Kaylee in the shin, and the situation devolved quickly into slaps and hair-pulling until Danny’s voice came from down the hall.

  “I know I don’t hear you two in there…”

  “Shut up!” Kaylee hissed, clamping a hand over her sister’s mouth. “You’re gonna get us in trouble.”

  Carly glared at her sister until Kaylee took her hand away. “I dare you to look in the closet,” she whispered.

  Kaylee considered it for a moment before replying. “Why should I look in the closet?” she asked. “I know there’s nothin’ in there. You should look in the closet, ‘cause you’re the one that’s scared of it. I dare you.”

  “Huh-uh,” Carly said , shaking her head. “I dare you to look in there, ‘cause you’re wrong. I bet the Closet Monster’s in there, so you need to look in there, so it can eat you all up, an’ I don’t hafta share my toys with you no more. I double dare you.”

  “Well, I triple dare you to look in there, crybaby. An’ when you get out of bed, I’m gonna steal your pillow so you don’t get poopy on it, you poopy-head.”

  Carly popped her tongue out at her sister. “Fine! I’ll show you who’s scared! An’ when I open the door, I’m gonna tell the Closet Monster what a mean person you are, an’ then he’s gonna eat you all up, ‘cause you’re mean to me! He likes me, ‘cause I’m nice, an’ he’ll do what I tell him to.”

  “Shut up and tell him to eat me, then, Carly! I ain’t scared of your stupid monster ‘cause I know it ain’t real!”

  “Fine! I will!” Carly snapped. She pushed the covers off of her and swung her feet out of bed. She started to take a step… and froze. The space between the bed and the closet suddenly seemed to stretch for miles, and she wasn’t at all sure she wanted that much room for the Closet Monster to get a running start after her. She stood and stared until Kaylee’s voice intruded on her thoughts.

  “Go on, chicken! What are you scared of, Carly? I think you’re a chicken and a crybaby, and if you don’t go look in the closet, I’m gonna tell Mommy and Daddy that you kept talking an’ you wouldn’t let me sleep, an’ then you’ll be in trouble!”

  Carly swallowed as she turned back to face her sister. An idea was forming in her four-year-old mind.

  “I think you’re the one who’s scared to open the door,” she accused. “I think you’re too scared to get up and look for yourself, so you try an’ be mean to me to make me do it for you. You’re mean an’ scared.” Her daddy would have referred to it as “reverse psychology”, but Carly didn’t know that; she just knew she’d hit a nerve when Kaylee grew paler in the faint glow of the night light.

  Kaylee snorted a shaky laugh. “I’m not scared,” she stated.

  “Uh-huh, you are too scared,” Carly said.

  “No, I’m not, an’ I’ll prove it. I’ll open the stupid door, an’ then, when there ain’t nothin’ in there, I’m gonna come back an’ beat you up ‘cause I don’t like you.”

  Threat delivered, Kaylee pushed back the covers and swung herself out of bed. The soft thump of her feet on the floor caused Carly to gasp, which in turn stopped Kaylee cold.

  “Maybe…,” Carly said when her sister looked at her across the bed. Carly’s eyes flickered between Kaylee and the closet door. “Maybe you shouldn’t open it, Kaylee. What if there really is a monster in the closet? I didn’t really mean it when I said you was scared. Maybe we should just get back in bed.”

  “I don’t care,” Kaylee said, sounding braver than she felt. “You’re just a chicken, Carly, an’ I’m gonna prove it. I’m gonna open the door and show you there ain’t nothin’ in there, an’ then I’m gonna go tell on you to Mommy and Daddy, and they’ll give you a whippin’ and everything.”

  “Kaylee, don’t. Please don’t open the door,” Carly whined. She stepped back closer to the bed, ready to jump in at the first sign of danger. “I don’t care if you tell on me or not. I just don’t want you to open up the closet. You’re right, I’m scared.” Carly’s eyes were huge as she stared at her sister; sweat gleamed on her forehead. “Just don’t. Okay?”

  The sight of her little sister standing frightened by the bed, willing to take a spanking to prove she was sorry for insinuating she was a coward moved Kaylee, although she would never in a million years let Carly know how relieved she was that didn’t have to open the closet after all. “All right, Carly. I won’t open the door, an’ I won’t tell on you. This time. But I get all the Polly dolls for a whole week, and I get to use up all the hot water in the bathtub before you take a bath.”

  Carly was crestfallen, but she nodded her agreement to the terms. “Okay,” she said in a small voice. “Just as long as you don’t let the Closet Monster out.”

  “Okay,” Kaylee agreed, and started back to bed.

  Something bumped inside the closet. It was just a soft thump, barely audible under other circumstances, but to the two girls in the dark, it was as loud as a gunshot. The night light flickered, then steadied.

  “Kaylee?” Carly whispered so low she was almost unintelligible. “Did you hear that?” She was shaking, one hand already clutching at the covers as she readied herself to jump back into bed and pull them over her head. “Did you hear it, Kaylee? What was it?”

  Kaylee had frozen in place when she heard the noise. One leg was raised and almost in bed, the other levering her up on her toes. “I don’t know,” she replied, her voice as low as Carly’s. “I bet it was just some toys fallin’ over. I bet it was.” She was trying to sound brave, and did a passable job of it, until another bump came from the closet. This was followed by the unmistakable slither of something sliding over a mountain of toys.

  The night light flickered again, almost went out entirely, and remained low for several seconds until it steadied again.

  “Kaylee, get back in bed,” Carly hissed as she boosted herself into it. “Get back in bed and pretend to be asleep, so the Closet Monster won’t come eat you.” She flopped back and pulled the covers up to her eyes.

  Kaylee didn’t listen to her, though. She pulled her leg back out of the bed. She flicked her eyes away from the closet door for just a moment to look through the pile of debris beside the bed. There was a whiffle ball bat half buried under some Blue’s Clues and Madeline dvd’s. She stooped, grabbed the bat, and stood back up.

  The closet
door shook a little as something bumped it from the inside. Carly let out a gasp that disappeared into the covers over her face.

  Kaylee raised the bat over her head, her knuckles white as she tightened her grip on the handle. She kept her focus on the closet door, as if she could see through it to whatever was making the noise. She raised one foot, careful to set it between the small mounds of toys and clothes on the floor.

  “Kaylee,” Carly whispered. “Come back. Don’t leave me all alone with the Closet Monster.” She was peeking over the edge of the blanket, watching her older sister as she made her slow way across the minefield of their floor. She gulped air, then pushed the covers down and swung her legs back over the side of the bed. She landed and took a step forward, then froze with an uncertain look on her face. “Come back,” she whispered again.

  Kaylee ignored her sister’s pleas. She continued across the floor at a snail’s pace, now past the foot of the bed, now past the dresser, now four feet from the closet…

  “Kaylee,” Carly implored. Her eyes were brimming now, and a tear made its way down her face. She felt her heart pounding in her chest as she shifted her weight from foot to foot and tried to will herself forward. Her bladder felt like a rock.

  Kaylee glanced back at her, one finger over her lips, ordering Carly to silence. She turned her attention back to the closet as another thump on the door echoed in the room.

  “I don’t believe in