“Mornin’ beautiful”
Julia opened her eyes to see Brian, her beloved husband of five years.
She smiled. He must have come home early from work. He worked night shift, but Julia and Breanna were usually up long before he came home. Breanna was their three year old daughter and she loved greeting her Daddy in the kitchen for breakfast. So excited, that she usually woke her Mommy up before it got light out.
But it was light out today.
“What time is it?!”
“Oh about 7:30. Bre Bre must have decided to let us sleep in” Brian said with a smile. “Maybe we should go wake her.”
Breanna was scared. Her Mom and Dad had changed her to a “big girl bed” and all sorts of strange things had happened.
The first night, she woke up on the floor, the second she woke up and extra pillows were on the bed.
Every morning she woke up with something different in her room, the little tea table that her parents had given her was moved closer to the window. The baby powder was spilled on the carpet. It was always something small, but her Mom laughed it off or sometimes scolded her, depending on what it was.
The last week though, was the scariest. The last week was when the lights appeared.
Julia got out of bed and stretched. “What made her sleep in do you think? Or maybe she’s FINALLY decided to give Mommy a late morning!” She said giggling as Brian rubbed his face in her messy hair.
“Whatever it is, I have my wife in the morning all to myself for once!” He grabbed her, squeezing her and edging her back to the bed.
Julia squealed.
“Fine! Only a few more minutes though, and only a cuddle! Nothing else!” She rubbed her tummy, “This little guy in here is getting hungry!”
Laughing the collapsed onto the bed.
The lights showed up about a week ago. The first night, it was when she was just closing her eyes and drifting into dreamland. The coloured lights suddenly appeared just outside of the window, five at a time. When she got up and ran to the window, it suddenly disappeared and didn’t come back the rest of the night, no matter how hard she tried to fall asleep again.
The second night, they came back, but didn’t disappear when she tried to stare at them. The just floated in the air. The did not get brighter or darker, they did not grow or recede. They just floated. She liked them. They were pretty. She just wished she could touch them.
The third night, her nightlight flickered about six times and then the lights appeared outside of the window. There were more groups of five now. About six in all. Mom had taught her to count to ten, so she knew there were six. They started vibrating and spinning until there were six small white circles of light. They were so beautiful, just like the fireworks at Mickey’s house where they went a few weeks before.
The fourth night, they reappeared and repeated their dance, but then she heard people talking to her although there was no one there. They sounded really pretty. It was like the one of the singers on treehouse, but higher….and she heard them in her head, not out of them. She put on her Mickey Mouse hat that Minnie had given her and danced. Then, they disappeared as quickly as they had come.
Tonight, she was waiting for them. She had her Mickey Mouse hat on and her Disney Princesses robe. She even had her pearls on. Her Mom had some just like them. She had dressed up for them. Her Grandma loved when she dressed up, perhaps they would too?
Julia and Brian lay next to each other, rubbing her tummy.
“Maybe I’ll go get Bre Bre now.” she said, “no sense in letting her sleep any longer, she won’t take her nap.”
Brian sighed. “Fine, if you HAVE to!” He gave his wife one more squeeze and then pat her bum as she got out of the bed. “Go wash up, I’ll get breakfast started. What do you feel for?”
“Well, I just want some toast and oatmeal please.” she said as she headed for the washroom, ” but Bre has been getting chocolate Mickey Mouse pancakes since we went to Disney. I think we should start taking the chocolate out though – I have some blueberries in the fridge.”
“Change chocolate for blueberries immediately?” laughed Brian, “can we go with a scream-free morning and switch chocolate for chocolate chips instead first?”
Julia laughed, “Sure, that’s a good idea, I forgot that the one at “Mickey’s house” were complete chocolate with chocolate chips and whipped cream! Sure, chocolate chips – but only a few!”
The lights appeared and were spinning their sweet little dance, but tonight was different. There were only three of them instead of the six. She wondered where the rest of the lights had gone. Never mind, she would dance in her costume for them tonight. Maybe they’d be back tomorrow. She started spinning and dancing to the ethereal music and did not notice that there was only one spinning circle of light hovering outside the window.
As the music ceased, she laughed and collapsed onto the rug, breathing hard. Her hat toppled off of her head as she lay on the ground, but she would pick it up after she rested. She looked out the window. There were no more lights, yet her room was still lit up. She sat up, confused and then noticed that the light was coming from under her closet door and under the door out to the hall.
She knew she would get in trouble if she went out into the hall. She had stopped that months ago. Mom had said that she was so good at staying in the room, that she would take her on a trip. That’s how they ended up at Mickey’s house. She wished she could live there. Cinderella asked her to spend the night, but she didn’t like to sleep in anyone else’s room. That is, except in Grandma’s room, that’s because she had a big bed with lots of pillows, and Grandma let her look at tv in the bedroom.
She got up and stepped towards the closet. The white light throbbed, getting brighter and dimmer, as she approached. She grasped the pink, jewelled handle and turned, pulling the heavy white wood door open. The light was coming from one of the circles. It had appeared in her closet! She was so happy that she squealed. Perhaps she could give it a hug, the same way Mickey liked her hugging him!
Before she could step forward, however, the lights stopped spinning and went back to five coloured lights. Intrigued, she stared with her mouth open. The lights moved together to the center of the circle, becoming white and extremely bright when they did. She closed her eyes against the brightness, and then sensed it had gone away. She opened her eyes, thinking that the lights had disappeared.
They had disappeared, but in its place was a tall man. He was mudgreen with yellow eyes. He stepped forward towards her.
She was scared so she ran to her bed and climbed on, hiding under the covers. Perhaps he would go away like the lights go away. She peeked out to see if he had left, but she had looked out just in time to see him grab her around the waist. She struggled and tried to scream, but although her mouth opened and she thought she was screaming she only heard it in her head.
The man tucked her under his arm, rolled in the blankets and headed back to the closet. His large foot stepped onto her Mickey Mouse hat. She screamed again, silently once more, and then started weeping. The man took her into the bedroom closet, and closed the door.
“Bre, Bre, time for breakfast!” Julia was so proud of her. Not only had she slept through the night, she had not run out of her room to find her, nor had she come to wake her Mom up before the sun awoke.
She knocked, but there was no answer.
She opened the door and peeked in, “Bre Bre, do you want some pancakes?”
The room was empty. Bre Bre was gone.
Julia screamed.. Brian ran up the stairs just in time to catch her as she fainted.
When she awoke, a crumpled, stained Mickey Mouse hat was her only clue to what might have happened the night before.
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For the IndieInk Writing Challenge this week, Fran challenged me with “When she awoke, a crumpled, stained Mickey Mouse hat was her only clue to what might have happened the night before. ” and I challenged Allyson with “Write a piece based on the following quote from V.S. Naipaul: ‘As a child I knew almost nothing, nothing beyond what I had picked up in my grandmother’s house. All children, I suppose, come into the world like that, not knowing who they are.’”
