unDead Dixie Debs Anthology (Sneak Peek Short Story)

Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep is one of the short stories that will be featured in unDead Dixie Debs, a new horror anthology I will be releasing in June, comprised of all my previously published short stories. I hope you enjoy this piece!

Copyright © 2011 Claudia Lefeve

Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep

“Mooommm!”

"You want to take this?” Mary glanced over at her husband who had already settled in to bed.

“I think she wants you.” He rolled over so that his back faced his wife.

She pushed the covers off her. “Fine, but you better not fall asleep by the time I get back.” It wasn’t that she expected to get down and dirty when she returned, but she said it on principle. It wasn’t fair that her husband got to fall asleep while she stayed up tending to their daughter.

Mary slid her feet into her slippers near the foot of the bed and padded her way over to her daughter’s room. “Sophie, what’s wrong? Do you need some water?”

This was becoming routine with Sophia. Every time she had problems falling asleep, she called out to her mother. It didn’t seem fair that all the parental duties seemed to fall on her, Mary thought for the second time that evening.

“No, it’s not that. It’s my math test tomorrow.”

“What about it?” They’d already had the conversation during dinner. Obviously, Sophia wasn’t paying attention during the ‘just do your best’ lecture. Her daughter’s restlessness was always over something trivial: an upcoming spelling bee, the monthly visit to grandma’s, or what she was going to wear to school. This was becoming their nightly ritual as of late.

“I want to be number one,” Sophia whined.

Mary thoughtabout that for a moment before responding. This wasalways a rocky subject to talk about with kids. You wanted them to do well, but you didn’t want your kid to become a sore loser, or worse yet, a bad winner. “Well, honey, you are number one. Daddy and I think you’re super duper special.”

“But I can’t sleep unless I know I’m going to ace it.”

Think...think fast, or you’ll be here all night, Mary thought. “Sophie, did I ever tell you the story of the worry dolls?”

Her daughter sat right up in bed upon hearing this. “What’s a worry doll?”

“Well,” Mary started, “they’re a group of dolls that you tell your worries to before you go to bed. You tell one of your worries to a doll, place it under your pillow, and she keeps it while you sleep. When you wake up, your worry will be gone.”

Mary had grown-up with her own set of worry dolls. Her mother, who had moved to the states from Mexico before Mary was born, had given her a set when she was a little girl. Now, as an adult, Marry didn’t believe in the little Mexican dolls, but perhaps passing down the set would get her own daughter to finally sleep.

“I want one!”

Mary figured as much. She knew that as soon as she mentioned the word ‘doll’, Sophia would be all over it. “Let me go see if I still have them,” As she tried to think of the last place she saw the old dolls, she walked back to her bedroom and headed straight for the closet.

“What’s she harping about now?” Steve rolledback over in time to see his wife enter the walk-in closet.

“Nothing,” Mary called over her shoulder, going through her drawers in search of the little wooden box. She was sure she still had them, even after all these years. “She’s just stressing over her math test tomorrow.”