Scary

It was 11:15 PM. I was struggling to keep my eyes open so I could catch the end of the Daily Show. The weight of the day was slowly lifting off of me and my muscles were becoming paralyzed; relaxed by the warm comfort of the blanket. Just a few more minutes. Blink. Just a few more…Blink. Just a few...A really long blink. I could feel the remote sliding from my hand. I let it go.

What seemed like a second was actually fifteen minutes when I shot up in bed to the scream I heard on the monitor. Max was yelling. A bad dream. He was calling out in his sleep. I waited a moment, hoping he would fall back to sleep. The green indicator lights on the monitor went quickly from four back to one. Silence. I put my head back on the pillow. I checked the alarm clock to make sure it was set. Blink. I looked at the monitor lights again and could see them pulsing from one to three. What was that noise? It sounds like Max is jumping on the bed. He yelled again.

I went upstairs to calm him down. I opened the door to see that he was on his knees, half hopping half rocking back and forth on the bed.

“Hey Max.” I whispered knowing the monitor was still on in our bedroom. I did not want to wake up Wyatt or Lauren. “What’s wrong?”

Max mumbled something I did not understand. He said it over and over again. I reached and maneuvered him back onto his pillow. “It’s okay. Daddy is here. Go back to sleep.”

He mumbled again as I stroked his hair. He was quickly back asleep. I went back to bed. I checked the clock. 11:35. I grabbed the remote and flipped the channel to Letterman. I heard the intro music and I was asleep again.

“DADDY!” Max’s scream, amplified by the monitor 10 times, woke me up a half hour later. It was not his normal voice. He sounded terrified. I ran up the steps two at a time. I flung open the bedroom door. He was standing on the bed with his arms outstretched, his eyes wide with horror. Once I got close enough to the bed he leapt into my arms.

“What’s wrong Max?” I said looking him up and down for any injuries.

He mumbled. “Hisawpomosis. In the bed.”

“What?” I asked trying to figure out if he was still sleeping.

“Hisawpomosis. Hisawpomosis. In the blankets.”

I moved the blankets and the pillows looking for whatever was bothering him. “What Max? What do you need?”

“Hisawpomosis. In the bed. Hisawpomosis.”

I put him on the floor. I looked into his eyes. He was awake. “I am here. It is okay. Tell me slowly, what is bothering you?"

“His. Awp. Omosis.”

“Hippopotamus?”

“Yes! In the bed.”

I picked him up and took him to my bed. Needless to say I did not get any sleep that night. And I also need to call an exterminator.