The Monster Under the Bed

 

     Jake sat in bed with his blanket tucked under his chin.  “Mom,” he called in a voice just above a whisper.  There was no answer other those coming from beneath the bed.  Clicks and squeaks that filled him with dread.

     His older brother Robert had told him about what happened to the last six-year-old who had heard the monster under the bed.  They had found nothing but one shoe.  The boy was gone.  No signs of struggle, no signs of foul play, nothing but one red sneaker.

     A very loud creak from under the bed was just too much.  “MOM!”  He screamed with all his might.  A light came on in the hallway, and the comforting sound his mom coming down the hall to save him from the monster that tormented him every night made him relax his grip on the blanket.  As she walked in the door, he stood and launched himself into her arms almost knocking her down.

     “Mommy, it’s under my bed,” Jake told her.

     “Honey, we’ve been over this many times.  There’s nothing under your bed.  The noises you hear are from you shaking the bed as you move.  Robert told you that story about the little boy who heard the monster just to scare you.”

     “It was there, Mommy.  I heard it,” Jake said as he pointed to the bed.

     “Okay,” his mom said, “let’s look together.”

     Jake’s mom put him down on the floor and together they went to the edge of the bed.  When his mom lifted the comforter Jake held his breath and closed his eyes waiting for that terrible moment when the monster under the bed would attack.  Nothing happened.  He opened his eyes to see an empty space beneath the bed populated by only a handful of dust bunnies.

    “See nothing there but dust bunnies,” his mom told him.  “I’ll get the hand vacuum out tomorrow and get rid of those.  Now, you hop back into that bed mister.  You have to get some rest.  Tomorrow is a school day.”

    “Okay, Mom.  I love you.”

    “I love you, too, Boogs.”

    Once his mom had gone back to her room and turned out the light, Jake pulled the cover up to his neck.  How could she say there was no monster under the bed?  Robert was twelve.  He knew everything.   Jake lay in bed for an hour with all these questions running through his head when suddenly he heard a squeak from beneath the bed again.

    “It’s just my imagination,” he told himself.  “I’m not going to bother mommy.  I’ll look under the bed myself.”

    He turned sideways in bed and leaned over the edge.  He pulled up the comforter and looked beneath the bed.  It was there!  The monster under the bed was there!  Its body was made of dust bunnies.  Its lips were licorice whips with needle-like teeth. 

     Wait!  They were straight pins.  Jack could see the little colored balls on the ends.  They were just like the ones his mom used to hem his pants.  So, that’s where they went! 

     Two shiny quarters were its eyes.  Its nose was a chrome saltshaker lid.  It had long floppy ears made from mismatched sweat socks.  It wore six shoes.  None of the shoes were a pair.  All the shoes were different.  The one that caught his eye was the red one that the monster had on his left front foot.  Robert didn’t lie!  They only found one shoe because the monster took the other one!

     Jake pulled himself back onto the bed and let the comforter drop.  What would he do?  He couldn’t call his mom.  She didn’t believe in the monster under the bed.  She’d take one look, and it would eat her.  The tie from her robe would become the monster’s new tail.  How would he keep her from using the hand vacuum to clean up the dust bunnies?

    “That’s it!”  Jake exclaimed.  “The hand vacuum!  The monster is made of dust bunnies, and dust bunnies hate vacuum cleaners!”

    Robert had told him the monster wouldn’t venture any further from under the bed than the comforter would reach.  He tucked the side of the comforter next to the wall tightly between the mattress and bedsprings ignoring the grunts, growls, clicks, and squeaks coming from beneath the bed.  He stood up on the bed, got a running start, and leaped towards the door.

    Jake had landed three feet or so beyond its reach.  He looked back to see the monster’s head draped beneath the comforter.  It gnashed its straight pin teeth.  That was the clicking sound he had heard!  He ran from the room.

     He ran to the pantry and got the cordless vacuum from its charger.  He ran back to his room hiding it behind his back.  The monster’s head was still sticking out as far as it could reach without venturing into the light rays coming into the room from the hall.

     “I got something for you, Mr. Monster,” Jake said as he pulled the vacuum from behind his back.

     The monster shrank back under the bed in terror.  Jake could see the dust bunnies tremble before their worst enemy.  He flipped the switch, and the machine roared to life.  He ran towards the bed, dropped to the floor, and slid towards the monster with the vacuum cleaner extended in front of him.

     The monster scrambled back under the bed towards the wall, but it was too late.  The dust bunnies that it had used to make itself real, surrendered beneath the power of the vacuum.  Swirling through the air, they were sucked to their doom inside Jake’s secret weapon.  One by one, the shoes stopped moving, the ear socks fell to the floor, the pins and licorice separated, the quarters clinked, and the saltshaker lid clunked as they hit the floor.  The monster was gone.

     He ran to the pantry, got a trash bag,  and dumped the vacuum into the bag.  He placed the vacuum on its charger and ran to his room. He quickly gathered up the shoes, socks, and other things that made up the monster, added them to the trash bag, and took them to the trash chute in the hall.  In the morning, they would be headed to the city dump.

    He crawled back into bed and listened to the silence.  No clicks, creaks, or squeaks came to his ears.  He was asleep in minutes.

    When he awoke the next morning, the smell of bacon was coming from the kitchen.  He quickly dressed and headed for the breakfast table.  His dad was already sitting in his chair reading the paper and sipping his coffee.

     “Morning, Sunshine,” he said.

     “Morning, Dad.  How was work last night?”

     “Same as always, Son, eight hours of wishing I was home and thinking of you.  I did hear the weirdest thing coming up from the lobby though.  Some kind of animal must be in the trash bin.  I heard squeaks, creaks, clicks, and growls coming from the trash chute.”

     “Dad, could we put the cordless vacuum in my room?” Jake asked.

     “Why would you want to do that?”  His dad asked.

     “Just in case, Dad.  Just in case.”