Capítulo 2: Pancakes
I think every mom has gone through this at some point. It's normal to wake up with your child at the foot of your bed, staring at you. But something is off with mine.
My five year old has been doing it every night for the past week. For some strange reason I've been waking up at 3:37 every night, and there she is. Clutching her teddy bear, staring with an emotionless expression on her face. It's been scaring the living shit out of me.
The first time she did it I assumed she had had a nightmare and asked if she wanted to sleep with mommy and daddy. She shook her head solemnly and ran into her room across the hall. I shrugged it off and went back to sleep.
The next night when I woke up at the same exact time I thought it was a weird coincidence, but decided to get up to get some water. Only when I sat up did I see her, standing at the foot of my bed in dead silence, staring.
"What's wrong, baby?" I swallowed nervously. I was starting to really feel creeped out.
She shook her head silently, never breaking her stare. Then she ran back to her room across the hall. I found it hard to fall back asleep that night.
I awoke with a feeling of dread on the third night. A glance at the alarm clock on my nightstand confirmed my suspicion. 3:37 AM. I braced myself before checking the foot of my bed.
There she was. Just like the last two nights. Staring.
"Kaitlyn, what's wrong?" My voice cracked just a little bit, I'll admit. Once again, she just shook her head and ran from the room, the clap of her footsteps echoing down the hall.
The next five nights went exactly the same.
The weirdest thing about it was that whenever I asked her about it in the daytime, she would just stare at me with a terrified expression on her face.
Today I decided to get an answer out of her and deal with this problem, once and for all. I can't keep doing this, it's really messing with my sleeping schedule.
I confronted her after making her favorite breakfast, pancakes. "Kaitlyn, sweetie," I began. "Can you answer a question for mommy?"
"Mm, hmm!" She nodded enthusiastically with a mouth full of pancakes.
"Why have you been coming in my room at night, honey?" She stopped chewing for a split second, a look of panic on her face. Then she took a big gulp of water and shrugged nonchalantly. "Just because."
"Kaitlyn, what did we say about telling the truth?" I used my authority voice now, the one that meant punishment if she didn't listen. She calls it my scary voice.
She looked up at me timidly, her little hand shaking as she held her fork. "You said to always tell you and daddy the truth, even if I'm scared to."
"That's right. Now why have you been coming into our room at night?"
She gulped as she looked down at her plate, the pancake still almost perfect looking, with one bite taken out.
"Kaitlyn? Answer the question."
"I can't."
I was taken aback. What was making her so scared? "Don't be scared, sweetie. You can tell me."
She looked up at me, the fear evident in her eyes.
I nodded encouragingly. "Well," She haltingly spoke in a quiet voice, almost a whisper. "I only come in your room cuz I hear you calling me."
What?
"You've been hearing me call you, baby?" I made sure to keep the fear out of my voice. She needed to believe I was in control of the situation.
"Uh, huh."
"What happens then, baby?"
"Well, after you called me the first time, I wanted to go back asleep, but you used your scary voice so I had to listen."
What the f!#k?
She continued. "When I got to your room, you were still sleeping. But..."
"But what? What happened?"
"But there was someone else on your bed." My heart dropped into my stomach.
I swallowed. "You mean daddy?" She shook her head. "Who, sweetie?"
She shrugged and started carving her little plastic knife into her pancake.
I could tell she wanted to stop talking but needed to know what was going on. "Has this been happening every night, Kaitlyn?"
She nodded, still carving her pancake silently.
I used my "scary voice" now. I needed an answer. "Who have you been seeing in my bed at night, Kaitlyn?"
She looked up at me with pure fear in her eyes, then began to slowly turn her plate around to face me. I now saw she had carved a face into her pancake, one with slits for eyes and a wide smile with huge sharp teeth.
"Mommy?"
I tried so hard to keep my voice from shaking as I replied. "Yes, baby?"
"It's behind you."
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