The Bedtime Story.

The Bedtime Story

Characters:

3 Very sleepy overimaginative dolls.

After a long day at play Caitlyn, Dawn and Alison were bushed and about ready for bed.
"Please tell us a story!" insisted Caitlyn,
"A nice juicy ghost story, with mummies and spooks!" Dawn interjected.
"Or one with aliens and space ships and ray guns!" Alison added.
"Alright already! But only a short one" I conceded.

Mummies!! Aliens!! Wolves!!

The 3 of them settled down under the blankets, ready to use their imagination in the time honoured manner of bedtime stories.
"Once upon a time there were 3 girls who were in school together.."
"What were their names??" everybody chorused.
"Does it matter?"
"Of course it does, you can't have a bedtime story with a lot of people without names" Dawn explained.
"Exactly, what good would Little Red Riding Hood be if she didn't have a name? just plain old Little Red!" Alison was quick to add.
"Let's call them Anastasia, Shelby and Maureen." Caitlyn was quick to volunteer.
"Eeeeeeeeeewwwwwww, what kind of names are Anastasia, Shelby and Maureen?"
I shook my head in amazement because even I could not work out where Caitlyn came up with those three. "Lets stick with Sue, Jane and Sharon."
Three heads nodded in agreement.

"One weekend Sue, Jane and Sharon decided to have a picnic out in the nearby woods. They cut sandwiches, baked an apple pie, mixed up some nice fruit juice and loaded up their picnic basket. Then they donned their best picnic clothes and walked to the woods."
"Did they have a blue checked picnic cloth and straw bonnets?" wondered Dawn.
"What would they want bonnets for? Who's car would they take it off?" asked Caitlyn.
"No silly, not a car bonnet, a bonnet is a hat" explained Dawn.
"No its not, a bonnet is a hood!" teased Alison.
"Isn't a hood a bad guy with a machine gun in a violin case?" asked Caitlyn.
I had to stop this before it got out of control. "Enough, sheesh, for the purpose of this story a bonnet is a hat and a hood is the thing which you find on jackets and coats. Now lets get on with the story."

"I bet they had a bee in a bottle" ventured Alison knowingly.
"Why would they want a bee in a bottle?" I asked.
"Well, whenever you have a picnic there is always a bee that chases you around. You may as well bring your own and avoid any strange bees."
"That's right, you never know where those bees have been."
I sighed, this was going to take awhile. "Alright they have a bee in a bottle and have gotten a quote on ants as well." That seemed to satisfy my audience and I continued with the story.

"It was a beautiful day, in fact somebody had highlighted the calendar and written "A perfect day for a picnic" on it. The 3 girls lived close to the wood and they were able to walk there without too much trouble."
"Is there a wolf in this story?" Caitlyn asked, "I don't like wolves and I may need to close my ears if there is one."
"Caitlyn, you are being a real wuss!" Alison teased.
"A wuss? A WUSS? If being afraid of hungry members of the Canis Lupus family with lots of teeth and a bad reputation for eating grandmas and little girls then I am all for being a wuss." Caitlyn admitted with as much dignity as she could muster.
"Don't worry Caitlyn, we will make sure no wolves have you for lunch" I re-assured her. "Anyway, the girls soon came to nice piece of level ground and agreed that it would make a great spot for their picnic. They spread out their blue picnic cloth and laid out their sandwiches and apple pie, freed the bee from the bottle and sat down to enjoy their lunch."
"I bet there is a wolf watching behind a tree." Dawn said, smug in the certainty that she had this story down pat.
"No ways, I bet that an alien space ship comes down and beams them up and gets their bits all mixed up and they come out with too many arms and elbows on their knees." Alison was quick to add.
"I am sure nothing happened." Said Caitlyn thoughtfully.

We all looked at Caitlyn, "well, wolves and aliens are old hat, what we need is something really normal like a fox with a broken paw or a bunny with sore feet coming out and asking for help."
"Caitlyn? Did I just hear what you said? You don't want aliens or wolves?"
"Nope, I want a nice clean story, no violence or blood, nobody being eaten or disintegrated, no green slobbering monsters or guys from Eastern Europe with overgrown canine incisors."
We were totally taken aback by her determination to have a clean story. "Ok. Lets try this. As they sat and ate their sandwiches they heard a bell ringing. It was the local ice cream man and he had a problem, he had run out of ice and all his ice creams were melting and he was willing to give them to the girls in exchange for a piece of apple pie."

"Oh no, this is getting really scary, I have never heard of an ice cream man giving anything away!" Alison was quick to point out.
"I bet he has some kind of sleeping drug hidden in those Eskimo Pies and wants to kidnap the girls and make Little Girl Pies out them." Dawn followed up equally quickly.

We all looked at Caitlyn, waiting to see what she would say. She blushed sleepily, "Don't look at me, I like nice sweet stories with happy endings."
"Cait, can't we at least squeeze in a ghost?"
"Or a witch?"
"Nope, happy endings only."
"What if the girls get a tummy ache from too much ice cream?"
"Or they get caught in a worm hole on their way home?"
I laughed, "Sorry girls, but Caitlyn is right, we need happy endings and as much as we enjoy having the pants scared off us, the right thing to do is to have a happy ending before bedtime so you wont have any bad dreams. Besides, don't you like ice cream?"
That stumped the critics momentarily,
"Only if it is choccie flavour with pieces of mint and nuts in it!" admitted Alison.
Dawn licked her lips, "Hmmm, I love strawberry with lotsa syrup on and a cherry on top."
"Caitlyn? What about you? what kind of ice cream do you like?"
Everybody gaped because Caitlyn's eyes were closed and she was asleep, a smile on her face, her breathing soft and even. I tucked her in and kissed her on the forehead. "Ssssh, don't wake her. Goodnight girls, sleep well." I whispered, "sweet dreams."

Dawn blew a kiss and Alison puckered her lips "Mwaaaaaaaah!"
I turned off the light, and closed the door. Peace had been restored. Sleep had conquered the 3 girls once again.

Peace descended on the house once more and the fears and dreams of dolls were satisfied, until the next bedtime.