As I lay in my bed with the lights off I could here my Mom and Dad sleeping soundly next door. My
sister was in the bed across the room, talking in her sleep; she always talks in her sleep.
The sky was bright, with the moon shining heavily on the curtains that fluttered in the window of our
room. The wind was blowing softly outside, making the branches of the trees dance, creating shadows all
through our room. Somewhere up in the hills I could hear a coyote howling at the moon, but wait a
minute, that howling was a lot closer than usual!, and tonight it seemed a lot more eerie than just a
coyote! Was that really a coyote howling I just heard or was it that Scary something my Grandpa Joe
used to talk about sitting around the campfire on hot summer nights as we roasted marshmallows. My
mind began to race! What if it was!
Suddenly, the shadows around the room began to take Strange and Scary shapes, and what was that
sound I heard scratching at the side of the house just outside my window. I thought to myself, There is
nothing there, this is just my imagination. The wind became stronger and the curtains began to flap in
the window. My heart started to pound. What was that sound I just heard in the hallway outside my
door. The shadows in the room began to rush around the room. I wanted to scream for Mom and Dad or
even to wake my sister, but I thought, she would laugh at me and call me a sissy. What was I to do?
I was scared and terrified and didn’t know what to do. Then a thought came to me. My Loveable Hairy
Tickle Beast, protector of sleeping children from Ghosts, Goblins, and other Scary things in my sleep,
was in my closet, but that was across the room. How could I get there without one of those Scary things
jumping me and carrying me off forever. I had to find the courage! I knew if I could get my "Tickle
Beast" all of these scary things would disappear and I would be safe again.
As I slowly and quietly slid my covers from around me, I set one foot on the cold floor beneath me, and
then the other, being ever so careful not to breathe to loud in fear of these scary things hearing me,
because if they did I knew that would be it! Placing one foot in front of the other, my heart wanting to
jump out of my chest, I eased my way across the room as if I wasn’t even moving. Closer and closer I
inched my way to my closet, where I was assured safety. Shadows dancing all around me, as if they
couldn’t even see me, noises from the hallway wanting to break my door down, scratching at the window
wanting to sweep me away, turned every step into a surge of fear that I would never see Mom or Dad
and for that matter, even my sister, who was still chatting up a storm in her sleep with all of the chaos
going on all around me.
As I looked at my closet I realized, to my surprise, that I was almost there. It had seemed like an eternity
of sneaking across my room as I reached for the handle of my closet.
As I opened the door of my closet, my heart immediately came to a standstill, a smile came across my
face, and it seemed as if the whole room was filled with pure white light. There was my Loveable Hairy
Tickle Beast! The shadows were quickly swept away. The noises in the hallway became desperately
silent. Even the scratching at the window decided it had better not do what it was doing anymore and the
coyote’s howl returned to the hills far away, where it belonged.
Ever since that most terrifying night of my life, I never go anywhere without my Loveable Hairy Tickle
Beast!. I know he will be there to guard and protect me from those Ghosts, Goblins and Scary things in
my sleep. I know when I’m feeling lonely or sad he will be there to cheer me up and he even has a book
on how he and his family live that will help me improve my life and the things I do, like when I do
something wrong, not that I ever do, the book he and his family have, help me to make it right.
Oh, every since that frightful night I have asked my best friend,
"The Loveable Hairy Tickle Beast", to
bring his entire family over to my place and live in my bedroom. This way I know there will never be
another night like this one, ever! He even brought his own house with him and his family to live in my
bedroom forever! They are called The Loveable Hairy Tickle Family.