Sharon’s note: Kids, am I right? Warning: One bad word and a sympathetic situation.
“Shut up!” Sunny wailed.
“The monster under the bed’s gonna eat your face!” Jimmy crowed, and tore across the living room to avoid his sister’s wrath.
She tried to run after him, but she caught her toe on the carpet and fell face first. Rolling to her side, she wailed, “Mom! Jimmy’s being a jerk.”
“Leave your sister alone.” Susan, their mother murmured, not bothering to look up from her textbooks on the table.
Out of his mother’s line of sight, Jimmy faced away from his sister, pulled down his pajama bottoms, and waved his behind at his sister.
“Mom!” Sunny bellowed. “Jimmy’s waving his ass!”
“Hey, language!” Susan snapped her head up to glare at her daughter. Of course, by the time she looked at her oldest child, he had pulled up his pants, and was literally batting his eyelashes to look innocent.
His mother didn’t believe him for a second, but she was tired. Giving up for the night, she barked, “Bed!”
Both children forgot their squabble and united in an effort to whine their way out of bedtime. Susan was having none of it, and eventually herded them off to their perspective bedrooms. With blessed silence decending upon the house, she took her book to study in bed.
When she couldn’t keep her eyes open anymore, she put the book on her nightstand and turned off the light. Staring into the dark, she asked, “Was I ever that much of a brat when I was a kid?”
“Oh, yes.” A voice from under the bed chuckled.
“Quiet, you.” Susan kick the side of the bed with her heel, causing the monster to laugh harder before she turned over to go to sleep.
Gray Matters: The Works of Sharon and James Gray 