Wanderlust

Lola’s Mum tuckered her tenderly into bed.

There was an odd noise,“pfff” and a horrible smell.

“Say ‘excuse me’, dear.”

“But Mum, I didn’t do anything.”

Lola’s Mum nodded knowingly and smiled, “Good night darling”.

“But I didn’t do anything...”, said Lola plaintively. Mum had already left the darkened room.

She quickly fell asleep.

In the night Lola was awakened to the sound of light snoring. She listened curiously then sat up. It couldn’t be coming from her sister’s room or from her parent’s room. She listened again, all was quiet and still. Perhaps she’d imagined it.

Lola snuggled in and once again fell asleep.

“Achoo!”

Lola’s eyes opened wide and her heart raced. She jumped out of bed. The noise seemed to have come from under her bed. She looked cautiously, peering into the shadows. There was nothing there!

Lola inched back into the corner of the room. She watched her bed silently, not daring to move.

The bed shivered as if someone were sitting on it. Now it wobbled; “ah” it said.

“Hello” said Lola.

“Hello” said a deep and slow, but friendly voice.

“W W Who are you?”, Lola stuttered.

“Who are you? “, said the voice. It seemed to be coming from near her bed.

“I’m Lola and this is my room.”

“It’s a lovely room; it’s my room too.”, said the voice. Lola crept forward and then with a sudden movement grabbed the bed coverings and pulled them off.

“Oh, hello”, said her mattress, “I can see much better now”. Lola stared with her mouth wide open; for there, looking back at her was a big friendly mattress face.

“You’re a mattress, you’re not supposed to talk or even move. You’re just supposed to lie there.”, said Lola.

“What if should want to go travelling?”, asked the mattress.

“You can’t. You have no legs.”, said Lola.

“But a snake doesn’t have any legs and it travels very well.”, counted the mattress.

“But you’re too wide and square to be a snake”.

“What if I should want to swim?”, asked the mattress.

“Swim! You can’t, you’re soft and fat, not at all like a fish!” said Lola

“But a walrus is soft and fat and it can swim very well”, counted the mattress.

Lola was becoming exasperated.

There was a long pause.

“I could always fly.”, said the mattress thoughtfully.

“You can’t”, said Lola, “you too heavy”.

“A plane doesn’t...”, began the mattress.

“But a plane has engines!”, interrupted Lola.

“...but a bird doesn’t have engines.”, said the mattress.

“A mattress can’t fly!” declared Lola firmly.

This seemed to silence the mattress and before long she once again heard the sound of quiet snoring.

After a time, Lola climbed carefully back into bed. She arranged her pillow where her feet would usually go trying not to wriggle too much. What curious development. Lola fell asleep not sure what to think.

In the morning, she found her bed was made and she was facing the right way around. Was it all a dream or did it really happen? Perhaps, Mum or Dad had come in during the night and fixed up her bed?

Lola got ready for school. Over breakfast she mentioned an odd dream about a taking mattress. Her Dad smiled but didn’t ask any questions so she let it drop.

School was uneventful but when she arrived home the whole house was in a great commotion.

“There’s been a robbery!” declared her sister Elsie.

“What do you mean?”, asked Lola.

“Well the odd thing is that it’s only your mattress which has been stolen”. Elsie explained that Mum had been busy that afternoon with baby Lang when she heard a kind-of-thumping from the bedroom hallway. By the time she got there she heard splash in the pool. She rushed to the window overlooking the pool and saw a huge wet bird, or maybe some kind of bat heavily flapping its way over the trees and into the sky. It was very wet and square.

Lola didn’t know what to say.

There were police in her bedroom asking questions and taking notes. It was all very strange and nobody seemed to know what to make of the whole affair.

Lola decided not to make things more complicated by telling them all about last night. They might, after all, think she was crazy. Everyone knows that mattresses can’t walk, swim or fly.

That night, she had to sleep on the spare bed in Elsie’s room. Mum made sure the window was locked, pushed the chair back into the corner, kissed both children tenderly on the forehead and switched off the light.

“Goodnight Mum.”, said Lola.

“Goodnight Lola .”, said Mum.

“Goodnight Mum.”, said Elsie.

“Goodnight everyone.”, said the chair.

© Mark Wilson 2008