“But mom, I can’t sleep without it.” Samuel cries out as his mother drags him to his bedroom.
“You can stand one night away from your blankie. It’s past your bed time, young man.” Samuel’s mother’s words drop on him like a lead weight. “I’ll help you look for it in the morning.”
Samuel gives his mother a puppy dog glance. “You promise?”
“I promise.” Samuel’s mother tucks him into bed. She walks towards the bedroom door. Stopping once to turn off the light and blow Samuel a kiss. “Sweet dreams, Sammy.”
“Good night, mom.”
Samuel’s mom smiles before she closes the door behind her.
A few hours drag by as Samuel tosses and turns trying to force himself to sleep, but sleep does not come for the child. “I need my blankie.” He cries out to the darkness. Samuel sits up, a thought arises. “I have to find it.” He throws his covers off of him and places his feet on the floor. “But if Mom catches me up she’ll ground me for sure.” He sits for a moment, weighing the choices at hand.
Samuel decides that finding his missing blankie is worth the risk of his mother catching him. No punishment could be worse than a sleepless night away from his precious blankie. He tiptoes to the bedroom door and crouches to peer through the gap beneath the door; the coast is clear.
Samuel reaches for the doorknob, missing it by a few inches. Refusing to give up his rescue mission, Samuel rummages through his toy chest, throwing toys out of the box behind him, and retrieves a plastic robot arm. He reaches once more, this time with the extended reach of his toy, and grasps the doorknob and twists. The door creaks open. Samuel lets out a silent cheer and high fives the robot arm. He slides the arm down the back of his shirt for safe keeping. As he walks around the door to exit, he steps on a toy screwdriver that had been tossed aside during his search for the arm.
Determined that the screwdriver will be of use in his endeavors, Samuel places it into his pajama pants. He creeps out of his bedroom. The change from being in the dark bedroom to the lit up hallway burns Samuel’s eyes and he groans in pain while rubbing his eyes.
His mother, hearing the groan, calls out from a different room. “Samuel? Is that you?” Footsteps are heard as she approaches the hallway.
Without hesitation, Samuel shuts his bedroom door and hides in a nearby closet. Through a crack in the door, he watches as his mother enters the hallway in search of him. Having no luck, she exits the hallway. Samuel lets out a sigh of relief and exits the closet. As he walks down the hallway, an idea occurs. “Maybe I brought it downstairs when I was playing army men?”
Samuel turns the corner of the hallway and immediately drops to the floor. His mother is sitting on a sofa in the next room watching TV. Samuel crawls on his stomach behind the sofa and around his mother. In his attempt to remain silent, he bumps into a tall stand holding a vase of flowers. The vase wobbles on the stand.
Samuel’s mother turns around just as the vase stops wobbling. “What is with me tonight? I keep hearing things.” She turns back around and continues watching TV.
