“But I don’t want to go to bed, the man with no eyes is waiting for me in the closet!”

Ann turned slowly and looked at Gretchen.

“Who?”

“The man with no eyes.”

“What are you talking about?”

“There’s a man with no eyes. He’s in the closet.”

Ann stepped slowly away from the closet. Everything inside her told her to jump forward, grab something as a weapon, and face the closet. Instead, she eased forward a step and pretended that the closet behind her was perfectly safe and devoid of any man with no eyes.

But as she stood there, steeling herself up, there was a creak from behind the doors to her back. She took another step forward.

“Gretchen, why do you think you see a man in the closet?”

“Because I do! He’s the man with no eyes. He crawls out at night.”

“He crawls?”

“Yes, on his hands and feet. Sort of like a big spider. But he only has two arms and two legs. So it’s kind of like Fifi when she scoots on the carpet.”

Ann didn’t know what to think about all this. The thought of a man with no eyes scooting out of the closet on all fours was enough to make her mind do a flip.

“Gretchen, stop creeping me out. Stories like that will not help either of us sleep.”

“Well wI don’t sleep when he’s out. He might eat me.”

Ann thought about this. She recalled how sleepy Gretchen was at times. She had often seen her napping in the afternoon on the living room couch. The back of her neck tightened as she tried not to panic.

“Gretchen, do you want to sleep in my room tonight?”

“No,” Gretchen said. “There is a flesh eating ghoul in your closet.”