I wanna sleep with you and Momma. Me and my family. We're
scared of that Thing." Tommy knew it was no less than his duty to
protect them all. "Oh, now, Tommy! You don't mean to say you're afraid of a little old
mouse? A big boy like you?" "Well, Mr. Bear is--I don't--Daddy! It is there, honest it is, in that
hole and it's hungry and it'll come out in the dark and--"

"Tommy! A little mouse! Get on into your room now and no more argument." Tommy's face began to crumple. If he had to, he would fight this one
out all the way--tears, tantrum, kick, scream, gasp, hold his breath
and turn blue--

"Now, now, Tommy-boy." Daddy did mean well and sometimes he was even
right and so Tommy always did try to do what Daddy said. "Tommy, you
mustn't let things like that bother you. If we can't catch the little
mouse, forget it. There's nothing more we can do, so just don't think
about it. You see?" Sniff. "No." "Don't think about it, that's all. There is nothing there that can hurt
you, if you just don't think about it. So don't think about it--that's
Daddy's big boy." "Well-ll.... And then can we sleep with you and Momma?" Aunt Martha rang in her nickel's worth. "A boy ought to be ashamed to
be afraid of a little mouse." "It's not--"

"Not what?" "Uh--it's Mr. Bear that's afraid. Of the--"

"And you just stop that nonsense about those ridiculous stuffed
animals, you hear me? Nobody should make such a fuss about a little
mouse." "Momma does. Momma!" Tommy let two fat tears trickle down his cheeks, a
warning, but he meant them too. "Momma-a-a, can't we--"

"All right, all right! Stop this stupid wrangling! You know how it
gets on my nerves. For goodness' sake, let him sleep with us tonight. Anyway, _I_ don't blame him. I wouldn't sleep a wink in the same room
with a mouse. Be sure you shut our door tonight. Tight." "You're spoiling the child," said Aunt Martha sourly. "Auntie," said Tommy, "I bet you're chicken to let your door stay open." "Well!" huffed Aunt Martha. "The impertinence! I certainly _shall_ keep
my door open. No mouse is going to keep me from getting good, fresh
air." *       *       *       *       *

Tommy was a very bright little boy. Now, with the door shut in Momma
and Daddy's room, and Aunt Martha's door open, he wouldn't think about
the Ugly Thing in the hole--waiting for dark, real dark--to come
out--and eat. "All right, Tommy. This once you can sleep with your mother and me. Get
on to bed and mind you sleep quiet. And don't spread those stuff--your
family all over the bed either." "Yes, Daddy. And, Daddy--"

"What?" "I won't think about it now, the Thing in the hole." Tommy said his good nights. Tonight he even kissed Aunt Martha as if
he meant it. And he took his family and he went to bed in Momma and
Daddy's room. He did not think about the Ugly Thing. He went right to sleep, lying at
the edge of the big, big bed. Tommy, and Old Rabbit, and Kokey Koala,
and even Mr. Bear went right to sleep. Outside the wind blew hard and harder and the rain drove down and it
was dark. The television reception was bad. Everyone went to bed early. Good night. Lights out. In Tommy's room it was quite dark with only the faint, watery rays of
the street light on the corner swimming in through the rain. In the
closet there was a stirring, a fumbling, a tearing and the hole in the
blackness grew, was forced, bigger, wider, as the Thing pushed and
ripped at whatever was barring it from the warm, red, oozing food it
craved; it must have; it would have. And, in a sudden gust, the wind blew harder still. Somewhere in town,
blocks away, a wire fell and blue sparks flashed and crackled in
the dripping night. In Tommy's house the refrigerator went off, the
electric clocks stopped. The street light blinked once and was gone and
in Tommy's closet there was a sudden, mighty surge of effort, a break,
and something, not a sound, but something, a harsh and bloody sense or
feel of rending greed flowing outward from the closet in a wave. Aunt Martha, in her sleep, said, "No. Oh, no!" Daddy interrupted a snore with a strained grunt. Momma whimpered softly
and hugged to herself her swollen stomach. Tommy blinked and was awake. Soothingly, he patted Kokey and Old
Rabbit. He squeezed Mr. Bear's paw. Then he slipped his hand into the
opening in Mr. Bear's overalls and took out Daddy's cigarette lighter. He knew how to work it. But first he waited. "Don't think about it," Daddy had told him and he didn't think about
it, really. But he couldn't help feeling it. The Ugly Thing was out,
clear out of the hole now, and moving. He could feel that and the awful
hunger moving with it. Aunt Martha's room was closest and her door was
open. Momma and Daddy's room was closed. The Ugly Thing moved fast,
faster, and reached out, thirsting, hungering....

From Aunt Martha's room came the quavering wail and from the Thing
there flowed a sense of vicious, evil joy. There it was, but was it enough? Tommy hugged Mr. Bear once, tightly, and slipped noiselessly from the
bed. He wasn't thinking about it, he couldn't, he wouldn't think about
it. But he knew what he had to do. He had the lighter. At the bedroom
door he worked it. Opened the door a crack; thrust it out. And then, in
a little rush, back to bed where he lay quietly, and he didn't think
about it, he and Mr. Bear and Old Rabbit and Kokey Koala. *       *       *       *       *

After a little, the sense of feeding hunger was gone and the feel of
the Ugly Thing was gone, back into the hole in the closet, forced back
by the flickering yellow light of the flames started by the cigarette
lighter. Then, when the smell of smoke grew thick in the room and he
could hear the crackling of the fire burning the house, Tommy shook
Daddy awake. It wasn't hard to get out through the bedroom window, except for Momma. But she made it all right. And Tommy had a little trouble holding
tightly to each member of his family as Daddy lifted him out of the
window, but they made it all right too. Of course Aunt Martha didn't
make it--how could she? But it was fun watching the firemen in the rain
from the Krausmeyer's porch next door as the house and the closet with
the hole in the closet all burned up together. Aunt Martha? "Funny thing," Tommy heard one fireman say to another the next day, in
the sunshine, as they looked over the smouldering ash, "the old bat
must have been as dry as dust inside. Twenty years in the department
and I never did see a body so completely consumed--teeth, a little
bone.... Hey, get on away from here, son! Get along on home with you!" Daddy and Momma said Aunt Martha had gone away on a trip. Tommy might
have known pretty well where she had gone, if he had thought about it,
but he didn't think about it. None of his family did. What for? Aunt
Martha had had to go away, sure. She went. All right, who missed Aunt
Martha? Anyway, there were lights in all of the closets in the new house they
moved to and lots of room for everyone, even baby sister.