When I was a kid one of my best friends had a very unusual mother. She was a really nice lady though when she was not acting strangely. She made great cookies and snacks for example, but still she was, let’s face it: weird. Sometimes she was weird in scary ways, too. Let’s call my friend ‘Pea Jay’ so he will remain anonymous. His dad traveled a lot for business. His mom did not like that very much because she liked to have people in the house all the time. Whenever his dad was out-of-town Pea Jay was allowed to have parties and most of the time I stayed overnight. One night he had invited the whole gang over to watch really horrible and scary movies on DVD. After everyone else left, Pea Jay and I tried to go to sleep but we kept playing tricks on each other. We were trying to scare each other, but mostly we ended up laughing and laughing. Finally his mom said we better go to sleep or she would send us both to my house. I knew that would not make my mom happy, so we calmed down and fell asleep.
We were fast asleep until we heard a weird quiet voice saying “Something’s in the bed.” We just stared at each other with huge eyes. Then we heard the voice again, “Something’s in the bed.” All of a sudden the door burst open. Pea Jay and I screamed! It was his little sister. How embarrassing. She was scared too. She told us her mom kept saying “Something’s in the bed” over and over. She said that their mom was not exactly asleep but she was not exactly awake either. The little sister said their Mom was standing at the side of the bed slowly waving her hands over the bed saying the same words. It sounded like their mom was casting a spell while she was in some kind of a trance.
His little sister said since we were the only men in the house we had to go see what was going on. Well, that was nice to be called a man, but I was not very sure I really wanted to be in the same room with their weird mom. Maybe she was still asleep or maybe she was hypnotized or maybe it was something even worse. I felt shivers up and down my back. My friend grabbed my arm and we ended up in the hallway headed towards their mom and dad’s room. The hallway was pitch black but up ahead, their mom’s room had some kind of glow. We were at the doorway. Pea Jay pushed me ahead and I pushed Pea Jay ahead at the same time. What happened was we both fell crashing into the room. We stayed on the floor and peeked over the top of the bed. The moon was shining through the window behind their mom’s back.
The curtains were blowing all over; they were blowing in front of her but she paid no attention. She had her hands above the bed with the palms down. Her arms and hands were moving in the curving shape of the number eight parallel to the bed. She was still saying “Something is in the bed.” Then she said, “There it is! There it is! The magic is in the smoked!” Pea Jay, his little sister and I could not stand it anymore, first we stared at each other in a moment of shared, silent terror. After two seconds we screamed and screamed. I was the first one running out of the room and down the stairs. The other two followed me. Then the mom followed all three of us racing behind us with her arms over her head, muttering something. What happened next must have been pure luck. The first rays of sunrise were peeking over the horizon as we ran across the yard. For a moment she raised her arm to shelter her eyes and when she lowered her arm she was normal again.
Sometimes I wake up at night sweating and frightened because I am sure I see Pea Jay’s mom standing there at the foot of my bed, slowly moving her hands over my bed while I am sleeping there. She is saying over and over again, “Something’s in the bed.” Always after I visit my friend’s house and see his mother again I cannot forget the portrait of his mother with the moon glowing behind her and the curtains blowing around her face. After I return home to my own mom; she gives me cake and milk to calm me down. Then I feel safe again. Her cakes make me forget everything, like nothing happened. That is until his mom is at the foot of my bed again, in the night, chanting “Something’s in the bed.”
