Elizabeth had a nightmare last night. It freaked her out so bad she actually came in and crawled in bed with me and Steve, which she hasn’t done in yeeeeeaaars. I mean, at nine years old she considers herself to be “practically an adult” (her words), so it was rather unexpected when she showed up in our room at 4am.
I asked her what the nightmare was about. Any glimpse into the workings of Elizabeth’s Brain is a rare treat; she’s not really one for the oversharing.
“There was this clock,” she shuddered, snuggling up close to me.
A clock? Didn’t sound all that scary to me.
“It’s hands were vestigial,” she continued, “but it had big round eyes like hollow craters.” (Yes, she really talks that way.)
“Like those really old versions of Mickey Mouse?” I asked. Those old Mickey Mouse cartoons where he has empty gaping holes for eyes give me the wiggins.
“No, because they had these tiny pupil-holes in them that let light in…and monsters out.”
“Monsters came out of the clock’s eyes?”
“Yeah. The clock was hanging on a wall, and it had motion sensors in its eyes, and when I walked past it it said, ‘I can see your future.'”
I was beginning to see the creep factor now. “Did it tell you your future?”
“It said, ‘You will want to partay!!’ and then monsters came out of its eyes.”
“To, um, ‘party’ with you?”
She shuddered again. “Yeah. They were all made out of light particles.”
“Wow. Pretty scary dream.”
“Yeah.”
“You can stay in here.”
She couldn’t get back to sleep though, and she was still wigged out about it when she left for school this morning. When she got home she drew a picture of the clock, and titled it “My Greatest Fear.” It was indeed a very freaky-looking clock. It’s “vestigial hands” were tiny useless things in the center of its face, and it had huge round eyes and a big evil-clown smile.
She’s never been an afraid-of-monsters sort of kid. Gotta say…for a first monster, an evil fortune-telling light-particle-monster-producing clock is pretty impressive. I’ll probably dream about that damn thing myself tonight.
An Invincible Summer 