by
Popop
Jack was a brave boy. Just three years old he could jump from the sofa to the ottoman without ever falling, (even though his parents were not pleased when he did that). He could run as fast as a rabbit. He could lift a very heavy chair and move it to the corner so he would have room to play with his trains and trucks. He was also a very smart boy. He knew the names of all the dinosaurs. (Tyranasaurus Rex was his favorite.) He went to pre-school three days a week and sometimes learned bad words from other children, which did not please his teacher or his mom or his dad or his grandmom Jo. He could not understand why it was OK to say “stupendous” but when he said a shorter word, which needn’t be written here, he got in BIG trouble. So he didn’t say the shorter word, except once in a while it slipped out and then he had to have a serious talk with dad and then warm up the time out chair.
Best of all Jack liked to pretend he was Spiderman. He ran and jumped and lifted and caught make pretend bad guys, as he saw on TV. Once in a while that got a little out of hand as well so he had to have more serious talks with dad and the time out chair didn’t get too lonely. But most of the time Jack was a well behaved –well pretty active—little boy who made everyone happy when he was around.
But Jack had one big problem. Jack didn’t like the dark. Even though his mom and dad told him the dark was there to help him sleep at night next to his trusty dog Tillygirl, Jack just wasn’t very comfortable with the light out. So his parents left the light on at night and he slept
fine… except for the closet.. In the corner of his room, next to his toy chest, was his clothes closet where his best dress-up clothes were hung. Dad told him there was nothing else in that closet but Jack was not so sure. How can you tell there is nothing else if it’s so dark you can’t see inside?” Jack knew about witches and monsters and bad guys from TV. He also was told many times about fairytales not being real but still…if you can’t see inside the closet how do you really know?” At least that’s what Jack thought about when he was trying to close his eyes and go to sleep. And sometimes it was worse than that. If mommy left the closet door open the darkness might escape and come into his room and then anything might happen!
Jack’s mom and dad didn’t know what to do. How could they show Jack that the dark was friendly and not scary? Do you have any ideas? Well they didn’t. This was too bad because Jack was such a happy boy and this was the only thing that was spoiling it (except for the occasional talks with dad and time out, but those weren’t so bad either).
Well, that went on for a while until Grandmom Jo had a very good idea.
“Lets make a trap for the darkness,” she suggested. “I’ve got a very special shoebox that likes it dark inside. We’ll put this box here right outside the closet door and I’ll make a tiny, little hole in the side. It’s a very special hole. Things can go into it and get trapped. If the darkness comes out of the closet it will go right into this hole and be trapped inside the box. Nothing can escape so you don’t have to worry.”
So Grandmom Jo put the box by the door and I guess it worked because the darkness stayed in the closet, and Jack went to sleep, and that’s the end of the story. Good night.
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