For the second time that night she checked under the bed…No nothing. What was that noise? There, there it was again…a slight ticking sound. Her brother had said something about the ‘Death Watch Beetle’ and she being a serious 6 year old…took things literally, so this black beetle (they always were black, weren’t they?) had to have a watch, surely? So, obviously he needed to tell the time for some reason, a bit like the rabbit in that Alice in Wonderland story that she likes so much. She wasn’t scared, of course not…the light was on…obviously nothing could happen while the light was on, she knew that and so everyone knew it, even 6 year olds. Actually she was six and three quarters, so important that three quarters, as she was older than her best-friend so she knew more about life. She knew about Beetles, therefore she wanted to see this one and as she was feeling sleepy she might miss it…so it better hurry up and come out from under wherever it was, because, yawn! …she was so, so tired…..
Morning arrived to find the little girl asleep on the floor, curled up in her duvet by the side of the bed. Her older brother tip-toed in and crawled under the bed from the opposite side, lifted a broken piece of floorboard, carefully removed his Grandfathers Old Gold pocket watch, replaced the board ever so silently and tiptoed out of the room again…
Some time later, the little girl woke from her slumbers and found she was still on the floor. She remembered the night before and smiling to herself she looked down at her left hand. There held gently in the palm of her hand was a little Black Beetle, wearing a gold chain around it’s neck … and from it there hung a tiny, tiny watch….
Lady P © 2009
Pen Pusher, I just write when the mood takes me, and wherever my imagination wants to go I try to follow....
This is lovely with a nice twist
and reminded me of something from my childhood. Like most small kids, I was afraid of things lurking under the bed and when I was about 6, my brother hid under mine and grabbed my leg as I was about to go to bed one night – as you can imagine, it freaked me out completely and for a time I would run and leap onto my bed from a distance – my father ended up building me box beds that were flush with the floor.
Ah, this is so sweet. Reminds me of that childhood belief in magic. Wonderfully written. Alas, it also reminds me of the time I visited Boston and came face to face with two HUGE cockroaches in the bathroom. Now, I’m not a small person, but I swear, they were almost as big as me!!!
Happy New Year my friend – and thanks for all of your visits and wonderful comments on my blog xx LD
my thanks to you Chloe, glad you liked the story…
It’s a pleasure to visit your site and read your work… xPenx
That’s my sort of story Pen, I’ve done similar, and am going to blog it,but maybe you’d better not read it, could upset you.