on monsters under the bed..

When i was little there were monsters under my bed......... and every night my dad would tuck me into bed .. and i do mean TUCK!! all the covers .. all the way round the bed would be tucked in tight .. so tight that i could barely move......... He understood about the monsters under the bed.... and my fear that if even one lil toe escaped over the edge of the bed then "they" would chomp it off....... the bathroom light was left on..and i even had a night light .......... BUT i knew! better than any grownups that the monsters hid in the shadows..... they were clever monsters and they were patient monsters.... they knew how to hide and wait..

My parents were worried about me.. about my monsters under the bed.. they even went so far as to get sedatives for their then 4 year old daughter. i remember the talk in the family about how i was very high strung.. and how i needed to be sedated.... i knew i just needed to be still during the night.. to stay on the top of the bed.. securely tucked in.. safe and sound......... and i knew i had to find a champion.. someone who would stay with me in the bed and keep me safe....

One summer on our annual vacation to York Maine (i guess i was about 8 years old at the time ) i saw a stuffed monkey in a store window........ not your usual skinny silly looking monkey holding a banana.. no this one was a good size.. with blue overalls and a red shirt.. and i knew i had found my "champion" ... BUT my parents poo-pooed the necessity for a stuffed mangy monkey.......... i was heart broken......... all winter long i saved my allowance... my piggy bank virtually bulged at the seams by the time summer rolled around again and the annual trip to York was planned. i was gonna buy this "champion" myself !!! and i can hear many of you thinking .. but the monkey was gone........ no you are wrong.. the monkey was still there .. in the same store window.. like he was waiting for me... and this time my parents couldn't say no.......... i bought that monkey and he became my champion! i don't even remember if i named him.. i must have cause i named all my dolls and stuffed animals.. i only remember that he was my champion.. and from the day he climbed into bed with me there were no more monsters haunting my room.

The night before i got married .. many years later.. my mother dragged this monkey out of my bedroom and made some silly speech about how battered and chewed and mangy he looked.. and how she hoped that after some 10+ years my husband to be wouldn't look like this... everyone laughed.. i didn't get the joke....... my parents could NOT believe that the monkey was packed into a box and moved to my new home.. my married home......... but he went.. oh he didn't move into my bed....... but he was with me...... and many years after that i went and found him hidden away in a box in the basement and tried to give him to my baby daughter...... who screamed in terror at my "champion"...

Sometime later... in a major clean up .. i packed my champion away for the last time and sent him off to the garbage.... i was all grown up right?? i didn't need a champion anymore to keep the monsters away....... but i will admit i shed a tear or two.. Fast forward to a year ago.. Valentine's day...... and my Sir arrived with flowers and holding the flowers was the cutiest teddy you ever did see... i immediately named him "cuffs" and he immediately moved into my bed. i don't need a "champion" anymore.. i have my Sir and cuffs.. and a nice BIG double bed .. during the week when Sir isn't with me i sleep dead center ...... safe from lil toes slipping over the edge........... cause ya just never know what might be waiting in the shadows.........

(thanks to kaya for the inspiration for this blog)