Little Wonders

2. A Bad Dream

2. A bad dream

John was sat on the sofa watching the TV which wasn’t on very loud. He was dressed in baggy P.J bottoms and I loose t-shirt that read ‘sleep is for workers!’

As it was everyone was asleep, except John, who decided (at 3am) that he had too much on his mind to sleep. He had trudged downstairs and turned the TV on. He had no idea what he was watching but he didn’t care, he wasn’t taking it in. There was one thing that was really bugging him, and he needed to sort it out, he just didn’t know how to.

He was so engrossed in his thoughts that he didn’t hear little padded feet coming down the stairs. He didn’t even notice when the owner of these feet was stood beside him.

“Uncle John?” Said the owner of the feet. John jumped out of his skin before he placed his hand on his heart and turned to look at the small boy beside him.

“God Tony! You scared me!” He whispered, catching his breath. “What’s wrong?” He asked the boy who had begun to cry.

“I had a bad dream!” He wailed through his silent tears. John patted the seat on the sofa next to him and Tony climbed up. John’s arms went automatically round the small boy who began to cry in his ‘Uncles’ chest.

“Want to talk about it?” He asked, pulling the six year old onto his lap. Tony nodded. “Okay what happened?” He asked softly, drying Tony’s tears.

“There were…. Aliens. And they tried to… tried to… they tried to… eat me.”  He whispered grabbing his Spiderman P.J top and placing it in his mouth.

“Now, I’m not going to lie to you.” John started. “There are lots and lots of aliens out in the universe.” This did not help calm Tony. “But most of them want to be your friend!” Tony looked at John, not too sure whether to believe him. “And those aliens that might want to hurt you never would. Do you know why?”

“Why?” the small boy asked, still chewing his P.J top.

“Because they’re all scared of me.”

“Really?”

“Really, really.” John smiled. “I used to be an alien…” he added quietly.

“Are you going to eat me?” Tony asked, his eyes now swimming in fresh tears.

“No.” John laughed shaking his head. “No-one is going to eat you while I’m alive.” He told him with a small smile. It took a minute or two before Tony believed him and nodded his head. “Now is there anything else you want to ask me?” John asked, recognising the glint in the boy’s eyes. Tony nodded. “What is it?”

“When are you going to marry Rosie?” He asked smiling, apparently forgetting that less than 10 minutes ago he had, had a nightmare. John’s cheeks reddened at the personal question. He had made the mistake of telling Tony last week that he wanted to marry his sister. And ever since then Tony had pestered him wanting to know when they were going to marry.

“I… I… um… I dunno Tony.” John mumbled, his cheeks reddening even more.

“Can you marry her tomorrow?” Tony asked

“Um… no… I need to ask her first…”

“Why?”

“Well… because she might not want to marry me.” John mumbled, hoping that she did.

“She does! She told me last night!”

“Did she?” John asked, not too sure whether to believe this little boy or not.