Hi, everybody. Hopefully you shall enjoy this one. It came to me and I felt like sharing...

“Mommy, may I take some cheese and crackers with me to bed?” the little girl asked as she skipped merrily down the two steps into the kitchen.

“No,” Jennifer sighed with a smile, “Sweetie, you’ve already had supper; you don’t need anything else.”

The little girl said nothing for a moment, her eyes glazed as if in deep thought. Jennifer took the time to examine her daughter. Aiko was Jennifer’s vision of an angel; she was nearly four with platinum-blonde hair and big, deep blue eyes. She had a tiny button nose and had, as of yet, not lost any of her baby teeth. “But Mommy,” Aiko’s high pitched voice demanded her mother’s attention.

“Don’t ‘but mommy’ me,” Jennifer said from where she sat at the table, “you’re not allowed to have food in your room anyway. Now please, go and brush your teeth and I’ll be along to tuck you in as soon as I’ve finished marking these papers,”

“I won’t eat it tonight.” Aiko said suddenly, “I’ll save it, incase I’m hungry before breakfast time,”

“Aiko, you’re rarely out of bed before breakfast time. Now please go and brush your teeth and get into bed.”

Aiko looked disappointed, but obeyed. She ran up the stairs and skidded around the corner in her feety pajamas. Once in the bathroom, she brushed her teeth, being careful to get them clean without causing herself pain. She noticed far too late the toothpaste cap disappearing down the drain, and decided not to bother telling her mother. She skipped off to bed and fell asleep before Jennifer came to tuck her in.

Jennifer related the story to her older sister the next evening while Aiko played in her room.

“I don’t think it’s strange at all,” Jessica said with an unsympathetic smile, “she’s probably just growing,”

“But she didn’t say anything about being hungry…she just looked disappointed and went to bed. She was asleep by the time I got there.”

“Jenny,” Jessica looked her sister in the eye, “there’s nothing wrong with Aiko. She isn’t strange, she’s not deformed. Michael leaving hasn’t screwed her up any. Don’t worry about it,”

“I suppose you’re right,” Jennifer pondered and added, “but Michael leaving only didn’t screw her up because she wasn’t big enough to notice. What am I going to tell her when she asks me what happened to her daddy?”

“You’ll tell her that baby’s are made a long time before they’re born, and in between the time she was made and the time she was born, her daddy lost his job and became a drunk and then after she was born he left.”

JessicaÂ’s solution was met by a scathing stare from her sister.

“Or that he wasn’t ready to be a daddy yet, so he left. You can leave out the drunken and verbally abusive part if you want,”

“Oh, lucky me,” Jennifer said sarcastically. She would have mentioned the other problems she was having and implored her sister to help, but Aiko’s little blonde head appeared in the doorway. “Ready for bed?” Jennifer asked, glancing quickly at her watch.

“Yup; we’ve been playing a lot. Can you read me a story?”

“Well, sweetie, I’ve got Aunt Jessie for company, how about tomorrow I read you two—who’s been playing a lot?”

“What?” Aiko’s squeaky voice replied.

“You said,” Jennifer breathed, “or I thought you said, ‘we’ve been playing a lot’.

“Oh. I did.”

“Why?”

“Why what?” Aiko smiled. In all honesty, she did not know what her mother meant, and it was that fact she found amusing, not that her mother was confused.

“Why did you say ‘we’? There’s only one of you, Sweetie,”

“Oh, but there were two of us playing,” Aiko giggled, “I meant me and Mr. Sandman,”

“You and Mr. who?” Jennifer’s shock and discomfort was beyond evident.

“Mr. Sandman,” the child repeated. She looked as though she might cry at the panicked expression of her mother, but added “he visits me,”

“Jenny,” Jessica put a hand on her sister’s arm to silence her objection, “lots of little girls have imaginary friends. It has nothing to do with you-know-who or the D-I-V-O-R-C-E, so just calm down.” She turned to Aiko and said, “What does Mr. Sandman look like, honey?”

“I don’t know,” Aiko said, secretly trying to remember what imaginary meant, figure out who you-know-who was and what word her aunt had spelled.

“But how can you not know? Haven’t you seen him?” Jessica spoke in a patronizing tone thick enough to make Aiko feel sick.

“Yes. I see him lots of times. But I can never see his face. He always stands in the shadows and his hat makes it so I can’t see him. He has a detective hat,”

“Oh, I see,” Jessica answered, “and is Mr. Sandman old or young?”

“I don’t know. He’s big like a grown up,”

“Well, then don’t you think he’s a grown up?”

“I guess,” Aiko conceded.

“Well,” Jessica said, trying to dislodge the character from her niece’s brain permenantly, “why don’t you ask him to read you a story?” Aiko looked at the floor the way she did when she was caught stealing cookies. Her aunt smiled at her, happy with her own genius at curing the child, “Now, there’s really no Mr. Sandman, is there, Aiko?”

Jennifer was not the type of person to sit idly by while someone else did her job. This was true of her in all respects, except that of parenting. Jessica had three children, all older than Aiko, all on honor-role at school. It was JenniferÂ’s firm belief that Jessie knew far more about child-rearing than just about anyone else in the world.

“Yes there is,” Aiko said, meeting her aunt’s eye.

“How come you looked so embarrassed?” was Jessica’s swiftly patronizing reply.

“Mr. Sandman,” Aiko said defiantly, “is real,” she sighed, “but he…” she looked back at the floor, “he can’t read,”

Jessica let out a soft chuckle, “did you hear that, Jenny? Her imaginary friend is illiterate,”

“Aiko, head for bed. I’ll read you two stories tomorrow, if you like,” Jenny said. Aiko looked highly disturbed and did as she was told, whereupon Jennifer turned to her sister, “something about that isn’t right,” she said with a sigh.

“Jenny, it’s fine. She’s fine. It just shows she’s creative. I’m sure she’ll out grow Mr. Sandman in no time,”

“Are you sure,” Jennifer said, almost in a whine, “I mean, what if she’s developed this guy because she’s lonely? She doesn’t know any of the kids at daycare, and I’m always so involved in my marking and getting things ready for class. Maybe I don’t spend enough time with her…or maybe she doesn’t spend enough with kids her own age,”

“Jenny,” the exasperation of Jessica was beyond evident, “she’s not even four yet. Most kids that age don’t spend time with kids their own age. And you spend plenty of time with her. It’s nothing to be worried about. Peter thought that Tinkerbelle followed him everywhere until he was nearly seven, and he’s on honor role.”

“I guess you’re right,” Jennifer said, allowing herself to feel relieved.

The rest of the evening was spent on the discussion of JessicaÂ’s children, Peter, Jason and Trish, and how they achieved the highest marks in each of their classes. To this information Jennifer played close attention, praying to learn any trick that would help Aiko turn out normal. After quite some time, Jessica set out for home, and Jennifer went to make sure Aiko was properly tucked into bed.

The old house they lived in had been known to be drafty; that is, before Jennifer had had it insulated properly. It had been two years since a cold draft blew down the hallway where AikoÂ’s room was, and it caught Jennifer by surprise. She reflected that this was likely going to mean more repairs and more money down the drain. The cool air seemed to come from AikoÂ’s room, and more than anything, Jennifer worried that she would catch a cold. Grabbing an extra blanket from the linen cupboard, she opened the door and walked quietly into AikoÂ’s room.

To her horror, Jennifer found AikoÂ’s bedroom window was wide open, and snow had begun to gather on the little girlÂ’s desk. Aiko was seemingly sound asleep in bed, her breath clearly visible, lit up by the moonlight that was streaming in through the open window.

“Aiko,” Jennifer shook her urgently.

“What, Mommy?” the little girl inquired drowsily.

“Aiko, Sweetheart,” Jennifer laughed nervously, “why on earth have you got your window open? You’ll catch a cold.”

“I didn’t know it was,” Aiko answered. She pulled her quilt up around her neck.

“You didn’t know it was open?”

“No,”

“Aiko, that is simply not good enough. Mommy’s had a hard day and I don’t need you lying to me right now.”

“I’m not lying.”

“Well if you didn’t open the window, who did?” Jennifer’s fright came through her voice in the guise of annoyance.

“I don’t know,” the little girl yawned, “I guess Mr. Sandman did.”

“Aiko,” her mother scolded, “I don’t want you telling stories."

“I’m not,” the little girl said, sitting straight up in her bed.

“Why would Mr. Sandman have opened the window?”

At her mother’s question, Aiko seemed to lose all the frustration she acquired from being accused of lying. She let out a soft giggle, “so that he could leave,” the child spoke as though nothing could be more obvious, “he stayed with me until I got to sleep. I asked him to tell me a story but he couldn’t because he doesn’t know any. And anyway, he doesn’t really talk much, so he couldn’t really tell me a story.”

“Aiko, I want you to listen to me very carefully. I don’t want to hear another word about Mr. Sandman. Now I am closing your window and I expect it to stay closed.” Jennifer closed the window and locked it. She then put the extra blanket on top of Aiko’s bed and left the room.

The next day brought new worries into JenniferÂ’s mind. She decided that what had bothered her about the night before was not that AikoÂ’s window was open, nor that she had lied about how it got that way. The most upsetting thing, she had been trying to put her finger on all day. It was nearly the end of her final class when she figured it out. The locks on AikoÂ’s window, which she had so vehemently locked the night before, were child-proof. There was no way Aiko should have been able to undo them and even if she had, the window was stiff. It was counterweighted, so that once it was open it stayed open, but Jennifer herself had to struggle with it.

Jennifer suddenly found herself wishing that Aiko had been lying.