I was seven years old. I had just moved into a new house in a remote, middle-of-nowhere town that I didn’t know much about. It was the middle of summer vacation and there was no bedtime and no wake-up time; kid paradise. I stayed up until Mom and Dad made me go to bed and didn’t wake up until I was darn good and ready. Normally, I listened to Mom and Dad when they told me that it was time for bed. I’d grumble a little or stall sometimes, but normally I was good about it. That night, though, I decided that I was going to have a midnight rendezvous.
The day before, I had been watching Tom and Jerry on my favorite channel, Cartoon Network. I saw the episode where Jerry and Nibbles attempted to sneak past Tom and get a midnight snack. That’s when I decided that I wanted to do that some night; sneak past my sleeping parents and get to the refrigerator and back to my bedroom without getting caught.
When it came to the night I picked for my midnight-snack adventure, I went to bed like Mom and Dad told me to after they kicked me off of the videogames without being fretful or whiny a little bit before ten o’clock. I was so excited. Staying up all the way until midnight and not even get caught… It was unheard of to my sheltered seven-year-old mind. I lay in my bed; watching, waiting for my parents to go to sleep. When they finally did at about eleven o’clock, I was ecstatic. I could hardly hold still. Midnight snack, here I come!
I stared at the clock. 11:59 p.m.: The longest minute of my short life. After what seemed like an eternity, the clock read 12:00 a.m. Time to move, I thought to myself. So I set off from my room at the end of the hall to the other side of the house and into the kitchen. I got there in one piece and I was so proud of myself. I looked in the refrigerator for something yummy to snack on. There was nothing. I succumbed to taking something boring and went with a glass of chocolate milk to take back to my room. There had been nothing yummy to eat in the whole kitchen. I should’ve taken this as some kind of harbinger that my little plot wasn’t going to end well. I started sulking back to my room.
All of a sudden, I realized how dark it really was. I could hardly see my hands in front of my face. Seeing as I didn’t know the house very well, I didn’t want to chance it and went back to the kitchen for a flashlight. Once I had it, I switched it on, turned the rest of the lights back out, and set off to my room with my chocolate milk. Little did I know, something was shuffling around in front of me. I heard a growl and nearly jumped out of my skin. Flashlight held in front of me, I continued to my room at a faster pace. I was going to get to my room and jump into the covers of my warm bed. If that growling thing was going to kill me, I wanted to at least die comfy. I was almost to my room when in my flashlight shone a pair of bright yellow eyes. My screams reverberated throughout the house. The surprise and sheer terror caused me to drop the glass of chocolate milk. It shattered and the liquid went everywhere. I ran to my parents’ bedroom. Having heard my loud scream, they were already awake. I was crying and apologizing for staying up late and I begged them to go get rid of the yellow-eyed growling monster.
My parents left the room to go clean up my spill and see what “monster” I was talking about. When they turned on the lights, they saw nothing but my dog, Bailey, licking up the spilled milk. They both started laughing. I came out to see what they were laughing about and didn’t understand. I asked them and they proceeded to explain to me that dog’s eyes reflect yellow when light is shined onto them. I laughed along with my parents. It was just my Bailey dog who had thwarted my plan. I planned on taking a long respite from sneaking around at night. I had learned my lesson. There was nothing wrong with sleeping at night. The last thing I needed was a real growling yellow-eyed monster next time.