Bedtime

by Vince R. Ditrich

I have just put my children to bed. It took a very long time tonight. This is a list of what I had to take out of their bunk-beds in order to make enough room for them:

1/ Shortwave radio.
2/ 1 pair of miserable looking gonch, powder blue, with a half-eaten Werther's stuck to them
3/ Hallowe'en candy wrappers (yes, Hallowe'en). See above.
4/ Discman and three non-functioning pairs of headphones.
5/ Annoying, battery powered video soccer game that makes sounds so grating that I will throw it in the yard as soon as they're asleep.
6/ Sponge Bob pyjamas, covered in something sticky. Don't ask.
7/ 7 extra blankets, in a twisted mound.
8/ A cuff link.
9/ The entire Harry Potter collection.
10/ My ancient and heretofore missing Sgt. Rock comics, which smell bad.
11/ One of my work socks.
12/ A large rock. Probably igneous.
13/ 1 Olympic sized soccer medalion.
14/ A smorgasbord of plastic firearms, a small Klingon dagger and some Nanchuks that look suspiciously like the legs to the couch.
15/ Mom's slippers.
16/ Etch-a-sketch.
17/ A bugle. Really.


Vince