Taleah The Tickle Monster (A Johnny Depp Story)

A First encounter with a Monster!

Four year old Lily approached her daddy carefully. This time she was sure she would get him, he was fast asleep on the couch, exhausted from his last press tour and promoting his new movie. She held a feather behind her back and crept closer and closer...

Then quick as a flash her daddy scooped her up and began tickling her senselessly.

Lily sqeauled with glee. "S-stop Da-a-addy! AHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!" She giggled.

He released her and she sat on his stomach. "Why can't I ever tickle you instead of you tickling me?" She asked, pouting a bit.

"Stop pouting or mommy's going to come" Johnny warned "And you know how much mommy hates sad faces."

"Yeah" Lily sighed "but how come you're so good at tickling?"

"Well, I had years of practice" he told her.

"Practice?" She asked.

"Yeah, from the master" he explained.

"There's a master at tickling?" She asked, unable to believe it.

"Yeah, of course!" He said "haven't you ever heard of the tickle monster?"

"Yeah, he tickles kids!" Lily said.

"No, she tickles kids!" Johnny corrected her.

"She?" Lily asked "The tickle monster is a girl? No way!"

"Yes way!" He said "Her name is Taleah, she used to hide under my bed and you know what? I was the first person she ever tickled!"

"No" Lily shook her head "Your lying!"

"You want me to tell you the story of how I met her?" He offered.

"Hmm... Okay!" She said, shrugging.

"Okay, so this happened when I was fifteen" Johnny began "I was a bit of a bad boy back then, but that was just  the type of boy Taleah loved to tickle!"

                   ~1977~

🎧 15 year old Johnny's P.O.V 🎧

I had just come home from hanging out with my friends. We ended up trashing the classroom of my least favorite teacher. What am I saying? I don't even have a favorite teacher, let alone a least favorite.

I tip-toed in the door, it was two a.m and I didn't want to wake up my family. Mostly because if they caught me coming in this late, they would chew me out and question me to where I was! I really didn't feel like getting grounded for another month.

I breathed a sigh of relief when I got to my bedroom. I gently closed my door, so I wouldn't wake anyone.

I flopped onto my bed and looked around at the towers of moving box's that held my stuff from our last move. What was the point of even unpacking? We were just gonna move in the next few weeks anyway!

My family moved from house to house like most people changed their underwear. My dad's job as a civil engineer is the cause of it, I understand he wants to keep our family afloat, but I'm not sure it's right to keep moving us all around like this.

I sighed and went to bed. I was almost out like a light when I felt someone poking my foot. I noticed a pair light blue eyes peeking out from the end of my bed and a head of blue hair.

I scrambled out of bed and turned on my bedside lamp. When I looked again with the lights on, it  wasn't there anymore.

I grabbed a flashlight off my night stand and shined it underneath my bed, thinking it hid under there. But there was nothing under my bed.

I got back up and knocked over some box's, which made a loud crash. I heard the click of my parents light switch come on and knew I was busted!

My mom and dad came in and looked around, they saw me on the bed with my clothes on instead of my P.Js and scowled at me.

"Johnny, where did you go?" My mother asked, rubbing the sleep from her eyes.

"I just went to the library to study with some friends" I lied.

"The library closes at six, Johnny!" Said my dad "I came in here at seven- thirty and you were gone!"

'Crap!' I thought 'now I'm really busted!'

"Johnny, where we're you for real?" Asked my mom.

"I was at the batting cages with the guys?" I tried lying again.

"Yeah right!" Scoffed my sister Christi, who was leaning in my doorway. "You can't hit a baseball to save your life! You even failed gym! How does someone fail gym?"

"Thanks Christi" I quipped sarcastically "I can always count on you to have my back."

"Enough!" Said my mom "Johnny, just tell us where you were without lying."

I sat there, I couldn't honestly tell them where I was, they'd ground me till I'm fifty!

When I didn't say anything, my dad grabbed my electric guitar out of the corner of my room.

"Until you come clean about where you were, no guitar!" He said.

"WHAT?!" I yelled "dad! come on, so I was out a little late!"

"A little late!" He shouted back "it's past two in the morning!"

"Okay, so I was out really late!" I said "You can ground me for a week or a month! Just please don't take away my guitar!"

"I'm taking it!" He scowled "and that's final!"

"Mom?" I pleaded, hoping she would try and talk him out if it.

"I'm sorry, Johnny" She said, leaving the room behind dad.

I slammed the door behind them and flopped onto my bed, grumbling angrily.