Pillow Talk

Ezra has been crying about going to sleep nearly every night for weeks.  He’s afraid there is going to be a fire and he’ll sleep through the alarm.  Nothing we do or say or pray seems to comfort him.

Tonight, as the boys went to bed, Ezra started to get upset again.  I left the room quickly, thinking that my presence may be adding to the hysteria he whips himself into.  He and Zach were both in the bottom bunk — I guess they don’t get enough of each other all day long — and I hoped they could work it out together.  Still, I stood outside their room, waiting to see if he was going to need me to go back in.

He was whimpering and said to Zach, “I can’t sleep.”

“Try to think of something nice,” Zach replied.

“But when the word fire comes into my head, I just get scared.”

“Well, don’t think about that word.”

“I already did.”

“Did you pray?”

“Yeah, but it didn’t work.”

“Well, here,” at which point I heard rustling.  “Eagle is on one side of you and Turtle is on the other.”

There were a few seconds of silence, after which Zach added, “And I’m here too.”

Whew.  I had to muffle my own tears so as not to give away my position.

It may not be great for all of their other social development, but homeschooling has been great for their fraternal development.