Six In The Morning

Ellie had been working us for a couple of weeks. She would visit us bedside about an hour before our alarm clock would start our day. To avoid her from preventing our slumber, Abbie let her join us in bed until we got up. Before we knew it, Ellie began joining us earlier and earlier.

In order to nip this practice in the bud, we decided that she would not be allowed to sleep with us at all. The night of our decision, she came in around 2 a.m. Abbie denied her access and sent her back to bed. "You are not going to sleep with us," she told Ellie.

Around 3 a.m. Ellie shuffled into our room, whispering to herself loudly, "I want to get into bed." She then stopped, and swiveled her dwarfish body around, and began staggering back out of the room as she reminded herself, "I can't sleep in there."

She then stopped a second time, paused, and returned to our bed. "I can't get in bed. I can't get in bed. I can't sleep in there," she convinced herself in a reminding whisper. She then converted her voice to a normal tone and asked my wife, "Can you tuck me in?"

Abbie, half awake and laughing agreed, and they swaggered back to her room.