Matt Brown: A Year of Short Stories

Ten: Under the Bed

You and Matt are sitting on the homemade couch that he had made when he got finished building the cabin. He decided to build a cabin when you were expecting your second child. The tire shack was just too smile for two adults and soon to be two children. That was six years ago. Now you and Matt have three daughters, Autumn who is 9 years old, Summer who is 6 years old, and Winter who is 3 years old. The girls and Matt have a little game that they play before they go to bed. It is basically where Matt has to check under the girls bed to make sure there are no monsters or creepy crawly things. Matt has been doing this since Autumn was a baby. So it is close to bedtime when the girls come into the main room and grab Matt by his hand. You just laugh at them because it is a every night thing for the girls, unless they are sick or at their grandparents house. You watch your husband and your daughter walk into the room. You can hear the girls giggling while Matt calls out any monsters or other things. You walk to the door and see your daughters and their father on their hands and knees looking under the bed. Finally you and Matt put the girls in the bed, you walk over to the bookshelf and grab the girls favorite book. You and Matt take turns every night reading a story to the girls. Tonight is your turn, so you read a story and when you finish you look at your girls and your husband, they are all sound asleep. You just smile at them and cover and kiss the girls goodnight and you gently shake Matt awake. You grab the battery power and you both walk out of the room.