J. Timothy King

Joanna T. Knight is a pseudonym. It’s also an anagram of Jonathan T. King (which is also my name). -TimK

Once there were two bears named Carolyn and Amanda who were sisters and best friends.

One night, after their mother and father tucked them in and turned out the light, Amanda suddenly realized her night light wasn’t shining.

“Carolyn,” she said to her older sister, “I can’t see, because the night light isn’t working.”

“Don’t worry,” said Carolyn. “It probably just needs a new light bulb. We can fix it tomorrow. Just close your eyes and go to sleep. There’s nothing in the dark that isn’t there in the daytime.”

Amanda closed her eyes and tried to fall asleep. But she kept feeling someone in the room watching her.

She opened her eyes and looked carefully around the room. In the dark shadows, she saw something with long, skinny arms, wearing a hat, sitting on her desk chair.

She whispered at her sister, “Carolyn! A ghost!”

Carolyn sat up in a daze. “Huh? Where?” she asked.

“Right there! On the chair!”

Carolyn squinted at the shadows. “It’s just your hat and coat. You hung them there before you went to bed, remember?”

Amanda looked again. Her coat sleeves looked like the long arms of something sitting in her chair, wearing her hat.

“Oh,” said Amanda.

“Just try to go to sleep.” And Carolyn lay back down and rolled over.

But as soon as Amanda closed her eyes, she heard a noise outside the window. It went screech—tap tap tap, screech—tap tap tap.

She opened her eyes wide and shivered. The sound came again screech—tap tap tap, screech—tap tap tap.

“Carolyn?”

“What?” mumbled her sister.

“I think a monster is trying to get in our window.”

“It’s just the wind blowing the tree outside. Sometimes it scrapes against the house. Please, relax and go to sleep.”

So Amanda tried again to go to sleep. She closed her eyes and listened.

She heard a sound in the hallway. Pat pat pat pat pat.

It was getting closer. Pat pat pat pat pat.

Amanda couldn’t move. Pat pat pat pat pat.

And then it scurried across her bed and up into her lap!

Amanda bolted upright and screamed. She screamed as loud as she could.

And as fast as he could her kitty cat Whiskers ran off her bed and out of the room.

By this time, the whole house was awake. Amanda’s father came running into the room and turned on the light. “What happened?” he asked.

Amanda was crying. “My night light isn’t working, and I thought Whiskers was a monster and was coming on my bed to eat me.”

So he hugged her, and he tucked her in again and turned out the light.

He sat next to her and stroked her hair. “We can fix the night light tomorrow. But what you should do tonight is think about happy things. What kind of happy things do you like to think about?”

“How about rainbows?” asked Carolyn.

Amanda liked that idea. “Yeah,” she said, “and candy.”

“And birthday parties.”

“Ooh. And balloons in animal shapes!”

So Amanda closed her eyes and thought about rainbows and about candy, about birthday parties and cake and ice cream, and she dreamed she got a balloon shaped like her kitty cat Whiskers.

And she opened her eyes, and it was morning. She had slept the whole night.

And she forgot all about her broken night light, which they never did fix.