Smooth Sailing

October 10, 2005

October 10, 2005

"Is Everett in bed yet?" Phil asked, peeking his head into Everett's bedroom. Audrey shook her head. Her son still refused to fall asleep, and Audrey was running out of options. He was in his pajamas and curled up in his brand new bed, but he still wouldn't close his eyes. She had done everything, yet Everett was still staring at the ceiling, wide awake.

"Do you want to try getting him to fall asleep?" Audrey asked, desperate to go to bed herself. She had other things to do that night, and she didn't want to stay up the whole night, especially when she had work the next day. "I've tried everything already."

"I can try," Phil said as he entered the room. "Everett, do you want to hear a bedtime story?" When the little boy nodded, Phil picked out one of Everett's favorites and started to read.

"Mama!" Everett shouted suddenly.

"What is it, Everett?" Audrey asked.

His still limited vocabulary didn't allow him to elaborate, so Phil and Audrey could only guess at what their son wanted. "Maybe he wants you to read the story," Phil said.

"I already read him a story, and he didn't fall asleep," Audrey argued.

"Yeah, but you can do all of the silly voices," Phil said. "I'm thirty seven years old, and even I find that to be supremely entertaining."

"Entertaining isn't what we're looking for when we're trying to get him to sleep!" Audrey exclaimed. It was starting to get late, and Audrey had no real desire to argue with her husband. In fact, the two of them had already agreed to watch a movie later that evening. They just had to get Everett to bed first.

"Maybe you could try rocking him," Phil suggested.

Audrey groaned, but she did give it a try. To her surprise, Everett did finally fall asleep. Once it was obvious that he was in a deep sleep, Audrey placed him onto his bed, tucked him in, and planted a kiss on his forehead. Then, Phil and Audrey left the room and headed into the living room to watch a movie, or more realistically, half of a movie before Phil fell asleep in Audrey's arms.

Audrey had just started the movie when Sylvie ran into the living room. "Sylvie?" she said. "What are you doing out here?"

"Mommy!" Sylvie exclaimed. "I had a bad dream!"

"What happened?" Audrey asked as she held her daughter close to her. Sylvie quickly dissolved into a crying mess, but from what Audrey could deduce, Sylvie's nightmare involved a clown, a killer lamp, and some sort of monster that sounded suspiciously like a raccoon. The whole dream sounded more surreal than scary, but Audrey could see how the dream could terrify a three year old.

"Mommy, how do I make it stop?" Sylvie asked as Audrey handed her a tissue.

"You just have to remember that it isn't real," Audrey said.

"That's hard!" Sylvie complained. "It seemed so real!"

As she looked into her daughter's tear-filled brown eyes, Audrey thought of her own childhood. Like Sylvie, Audrey had been plagued with nightmares as a child, but her grandmother had given her a spider web to catch any evil that floated through the air. It was a tradition: one that Audrey had failed to pass on to her children. Audrey was planning to make a dreamcatcher for Everett - in fact, she had the supplies for it in front of her - but she was ashamed that she had never done the same for Sylvie. Perhaps Sylvie was a little bit old for it, but it was better to do it late than never. It might just help Sylvie ward off her nightmares. "How about this? I'm making a dreamcatcher for Everett, and I'll make one for you too. It's a charm from my tribe, and the web will catch any harm that might be in the air, just like a spider web catches whatever comes into contact with it," Audrey said, quoting her grandmother. "Do you think that would help?"