Tip Tip Tap

Tip Tip Tap

The girls told Father they did not want to go to bed when they had their dinner. They had told Mother when she came up to read to them and tuck them in. They even begged to sleep with Gramma for the night. All they got were resounding nos all around.

Tip Tip Tap

So they climbed up the stairs and had gotten ready for bed. Brushed their teeth and combed their long red hair. The entire time afraid of the night to come

Tip Tip Tap

The girls knew that once all the lights were out, and the whole house was asleep that the sounds began. From under the bed a whirring and a tip tip tapping sound issues. The little red-headed girls moaned in distress.

Tip Tip Tap

The sound just would not stop. It kept going, getting louder, then fading away. Whir whir whir. Tip Tip Tap. Any louder and the girls would scream. What kind of Monster played with its prey like this?!

Tip Tip Tap

Whir Whir Whir

Click Click Clack

The girls were shivering in their nightgowns when the new sound starts up. Click Click Clack. Whir Whir Whir. The sound sets the girls' nerves on edge. They want to holler. They want to scream. They don't want to wake Father on a weeknight and get into trouble. Father never understood.

Tip Tip Tap

Click Click Clack

Whir Whir Whir

The monster was just toying with them. Antagonizing them, drawing out the moment it would come out and gobble them up. Soon, very soon, it would be the right time for the monster to come out and attack the two young girls.

The younger girl clutched the older girl, both shivering from something other than the cold. The older girl gripped her younger sister even tighter. Both girls were scared to even put a toe out of the bed. Neither wanted to run to the bathroom to pee.

They just knew that the first step out of the warm blankets would be their doom. The girls knew that the monster would reach out and grab them as soon as their feet touched the ground. For surely that is what the monster waited for each and every night, lying in wait under the bed.

Click Click Clack

Whir Whir Whir

Tip Tip Tap

Hum Hum Strum

What in the world? Both sisters scream at the top of their lungs. A new sound added to the other noises. This one sounded like the monster had an out-of-tune ukulele. Hum Hum Strum. The young red-headed girls screamed again.

They could hear the house waking up with a start. Mother yelled at Father that something was wrong. Gramma rushed down the hallway, hobbling with her can. The little girls screamed again.

Tip Tip Tap

Hum Hum Strum

Whir Whir Whir

Click Click Clack

Whackity Whack

What was the monster doing? The girls screamed again, just as Father came barging in with an old wooden baseball bat. Father looked around the room, demanding to know what was wrong.

The girls were really scared at this point. More scared of the monster than Father, to be honest. They told him in thin, shaky, watery voices that the monster was back under their bed.

Father, kneeling down on his knee, looked under the bed. Jabbing the bat underneath the bed he pulled out an old ukulele with two strings. Reaching back under the bed, he pulled out the plastic drum that went with the stringed instrument.

Whir Whir Whir

Tip Tip Tap

By this point, Father gave the girls an odd look. Sweeping with the bat under the bed, he knocked several toys out of the bed. In the center of the pile was a simple wind-up duck. Its mechanism was stripped out and went off on its own.

Whir Whir Whir

Tip Tip Tap

Father said he thought it was time both girls cleaned their room. Suddenly, both little girls blushed. The monster under their bed was a broken duck.