Shorties: Number 17

Sleep continued a game of hide and seek.  Lying in bed only invited frustration.  Instead of being teased yet again, she sat in the darkness of her room.  Seeking to prevent night from filling her with depression, she lit a candle. 

Across the room in a thread worn chair she stared at the single tongue of flame as it danced around the wick.  Shadows gyrated in tandem with each shake and rattle.   Absentmindedly, she hummed a tune last sung to her youngest child.  It was a silly song about elephants playing on a spider web.  At the end of each stanza, the elephant called more friends to join.  She mused at the absurdity of such a thought.  In her sleep depravation, she nearly burst out laughing.

How different her life now.  Could she ever have imagined she would sit here 14 years ago on her wedding night?  Never!  At one point, she couldn’t fathom having children or her own home.  That was on the morning after she wed.  Everything in her life before then was filled with childish thoughts.  Now she was grown up and couldn’t think childish things. 

Was that what pulled her mind away from slumber?  Was there still something inside calling her to childhood?  Now that she had children, a husband and a home, she couldn’t imagine life any other way.  It wasn’t a perfect life, but it was hers.  She was content with her life.  She probed the depths of her heart.  Something was hiding there. 

Was it using the shadows of the candle as camouflage?  With each flicker it, chameleon like, changed in conjunction.  Many nights would pass before a glimmer of light first cast a ray on the goblin.  Such little demons have a way of burrowing deeper when threatened.