Halloween with Morry

For a seven year old, Jimmy was a pretty typical boy. He was kind of short and what his mom called husky. Dad gave him a close brush cut at the beginning of summer that was now growing out. It spiked on it’s own now. He was tough and afraid of almost nothing. Actually, his father was often heard calling him “Red Chief”, telling friends that most living things were afraid of Jimmy. His mom would wrinkle her nose and squirm when he would show her a frog or snake but secretly smile to herself at her little man’s teasing. He was very much his father’s son.

The walls of his bedroom were filled with posters of movie monsters; from Lon Chaney as The Wolfman and Boris Karloff as The Mummy to modern movie monsters of Jason and Michael Meyers. The shelves were filled with the monster models he and his dad put together (well his dad put together, Jimmy just watched for most of them). Jimmy knew every one of the monsters wasn’t real; they were all make believe. But there was a monster he was afraid of. Dad didn’t know about it. His mom and sister didn’t know about it. Even his best friend didn’t know about it. And it was very, very real.

This monster lived under his bed. He knew it was real. The thing would stretch it’s slimy green arm from under the bed, searching for his foot. It’s long, sharp nails would run along the bottom of his foot.

After the first couple times the monster touched him, Jimmy began shoving anything he could under the bed. Toys, his and his sister Molly‘s, books, clothes, whatever he could find. He had hoped it would keep the monster from coming out. Then there were the covers. Jimmy was always covered from his neck to his toes, even in the heat of summer. Everything was working out fine. Almost a year had gone by; he had not been touched at all. The plan worked! But then today, Halloween, his mom said something that made Jimmy’s skin crawl. “Clean under that bed or there will be not trick or treating for you young man.” Jimmy’s nightmare come true.

He sat in the middle of the room, staring at the bed. Not looking under the bed itself, just the bed. What was he going to do? He didn’t want to miss out on Halloween but Jimmy also didn’t want to tell his mom and dad WHY he didn’t clean from under his bed. As he sat there staring and thinking; thinking and staring. He suddenly sat bolt straight; his eyes wide.

He’d make a deal. Maybe like in that story The Devil and Tom Walker the librarian at school read to them. He begins to grin; he knows it’s a deal the monster can’t refuse. Grinning from ear to ear, Jimmy began to remove toys, both his and his sister’s, clothes and what may have been food at one time. He not only put his away but his sister’s as well. Clothes here put in the hamper; Jimmy did not expect to see them again. He had grown in the past year.

With everything out from under the bed, Jimmy was ready to deal with the monster. From across the room, Jimmy stands bent sideways at his waist looking under the bed. Nothing. He wipes his sweaty palms on his jeans and moves in closer. Still nothing. With the broom in his hand, Jimmy swipes it along the underside of the bed. Nothing, not even a cobweb.

He knelt there at the side of the bed. The blank look on Jimmy’s face said it all, “Where is it?” He was shocked it wasn’t there. But as his grandpa used to tell him, “Don’t look a gift horse in the mouth.” He had know idea what that meant but he didn’t think this was the time to find out. He heard something. It was his best buddy, Billy, calling him to play. He grabbed his mitt and out he went. Jimmy forgot about the monster for the afternoon.

After dinner, Jimmy and Molly began getting ready for their night of begging door to door. They were dressed as their favorite fantasies. Jimmy was The Wolfman. Dad did his face makeup so he would look hairy and Mom found an old grey wig for him to wear from a thrift store. She took one of his older suit coats and tore the sleeves. It was a size or so too small for him and he’d flexed what muscles he had to tear at the seam in the back. It gave the illusion of bursting out of his clothes during his change.

Molly was two years older and going through what Mom kept telling Dad was a perfectly normal phase. She was now into “boy bands” and Miley Cyrus. So Molly, in her long blonde wig and wireless microphone danced a few steps ahead of Jimmy and their parents.

Jimmy spotted Billy and the two put their heads together, whispering. The two boys had been plagued by the same bully at school since they were both in kindergarten. Jimmy had spilt he guts to Billy about the monster. He was now telling him about his plan. Billy thought it was brilliant. Billy had also thought Jimmy should leave his brain to science. However, when Jimmy asked if he’d like to sleep over, he gave him a sideways glance and said no. So Jimmy was on his own.

Dad went through the candy, just as he did every year. Jimmy and Molly noticed that the candy Dad liked best was always the candy he found to be suspicious. After watching some old horror movies and eating candy, Mom announced it was time for bed. It felt like a cold iron hand clamped around Jimmy’s heart. Sweat formed on his upper lip. Slowly, he climbed the stairs.

Once in his room, he looked around the room. Nothing was different from that afternoon. He slipped into his pajamas, took a quick look under the bed then made a mad dash to the bed. Shaking, he pulled the covers around him.

Then it dawned on him. If the monster was still here, how would he get it to talk if Jimmy was wrapped like a mummy in blankets. The blankets prevented the monster from coming out. Very slowly, he started to move his foot from under the quilt. A few minutes later, he heard it. The slithering sound of the monster moving under the bed. Jimmy tensed in the bed, forcing himself to relax. He could do this. Then he felt it.

The long nail of the slimy finger slowly moving from the ball of this foot to his heel. Jimmy cleared his throat, just a couple of small coughs.

“Hey, Mr. Monster! I’d really like you to leave me alone.” His voice shaking only a bit.

“My name is Maurice, but please, call me Morry. All my future meals do. I can’t leave Jimmy. You are my human for the moment, you, my dear boy, were assigned to me. By the way, I’m not here to eat you. I just always wanted to say that.”

Jimmy was impressed but not enough to allow Morry to stay. He knew not every human had a monster under their beds or in their closets. Billy didn’t have a monster.

“Tell me Morry, why am I your human? Why doesn’t every human have a monster? What are you going to do to me?” Jimmy was getting less scared and more interested.

“Questions, questions.” Morry began to explain the order of monster and human relationships. Monsters scare and humans get frightened. “You see Jimmy, the relationship is chosen for us. I didn’t choose you and you certainly didn’t choose me. Usually these things are done at the time of the human’s birth. I’ve been with you that long. Seven years. Seven long years. I’ve watched you grow into a strong willed young boy. I’ve had other humans before you and I will have others after you. It appears you are too strong willed for the Elders liking. You, Jimmy, are a very brave young man.

“By the way, all the toys, books, clothes and anything else you stuffed under the bed? Doesn’t stop a monster from being under the bed. They just gave me something to do. We are flexible beings and can change our size at will. Now, Jimmy, let’s get down to business and get this done. I have to break your strong will. I must scare you enough to become a sniveling crybaby as it were. And I’m sorry I have to do it. I like you Jimmy.” Morry’s voice was soothing, smooth and almost hypnotic.

Through blank, staring eyes and a mouth drooping open (if his mom were to see him now she’d ask if he was catching flies), Jimmy’s mind began to float back to the surface. “WAIT!”

Morry did not expect this. His victims never spoke before the end. He was losing his patience with this boy.

“I…want…to make…a deal…with…you.” Jimmy was having a problem finding his voice.

“What kind of a deal?” Morry was never given a proposal before. This intrigued him.

Jimmy shifted in bed, hung over the side and was looking Morry right in the eyes. He began whispering to the monster that had lived under his bed for the past year. The monster who scared him. Morry began to nod his head, he seemed to like the idea. He didn’t think here would be a problem. He thought of himself as a freelance monster. Putting a slimy hand out, he took Jimmy’s and considered the deal sealed in a gentlemanly manner. Morry was a monster that stood by his word.

Jimmy watched as Morry left his room by way of the window. He was almost sad to see him go. What was he thinking! Jimmy shook his head. He was happy Morry left. Even happier that he made the deal with Jimmy.

The next morning, with a bounce in his step, Jimmy walked to school with Billy. As they came to the corner of Main and Elmwood, their steps became slower. They were passing the house of Boris; the bully that had bothered them for the past three years. Billy cringed as Boris came out of the house. Standing there and shaking in place, Billy squeezed his eyes shut waiting to get slugged. Nothing happened. Boris walked by, never saying a word to them. He hung his head like he was looking for spare change on the street. Jimmy whispered to Billy and nodded. As the two friends began to walk to school, Jimmy looked back at the window of Boris’s bedroom. Looking out at him was Morry giving him the thumbs up.