Rowan and His Under the Bed Monster.

The story of how one family dealt with an apparent invasion of childhood nightmares.

The DeWitt household had an everyday sense of calm and purpose that began before Sarah was born.  Everyone knew Jason and Ashlyn as step-mom and dad.  Jason and Ashlyn’s oldest child was Sarah, and she had a little brother named Rowan. 

Rowan was a fine boy who loved to play jokes on people.  Rowan’s favorite target of his often-devious plans involved his big sister Sarah.  Nighttime for the DeWitt family involved a sense of calmness and warmth. 

Life was good with the DeWitt family until one day when all this changed.  That one night, life turned upside-down when Rowan yelled out with startling loudness as he screamed,  “Get Out!” “ Go Away!”  “Get Off Me!”

Mom and dad rushed into Rowan’s room where he was thrashing about in his bed.  Rowan was still asleep, and he was having a most horrible dream.  Dad quickly grabbed Rowan up close to his chest and kept hugging him until he woke up.  “Wow”, dad said to Rowan, “That was a really bad dream!”  Dad kept talking to Rowan until Rowan could pay attention to his surroundings.

Rowan’s shouting out in his sleep was worrying the family and they soon developed a sense of  urgency for a fix.  As it was, Rowan experienced bad dreams and nightmares over the next few nights.  Mom and dad realized that the best way to help  Rowan was to consistently encourage him that the problem was with his dreaming.  They kept reassuring him that everything would be OK.

“Why can’t I just have a quiet night again?” asked Rowan.  Rowan had those puppy dog eyes the he used in the past to help get some attention from mom and dad.

Mom and dad began to read a lot on the internet in a desperate attempt to find some answers for Rowan.  Mom and dad agreed that if things didn’t get better soon, they would call Dr. Kate for some real help.

It seems that everyone began to dread the coming of bedtime, especially mom and dad.

Some folks that worked with dad at his job had noticed he was distracted at work.  Mom’s circle of friends offered advice.  Rowan’s situation was beginning to get frustrating for everyone.

As Rowan’s parents, they constantly worried about what they should do and when should they do it?

Rowan’s yelling out in his sleep was happening more and more and everyone in the family was badly shaken.  Mom and dad were deeply worried that they were doing something wrong.  Were they responsible for this horrible turn of events?  Even worse, they began to wonder if Rowan had something wrong with him.

On one particular night, mom and dad, once again went to Rowan and hugged him until he quieted down.  “You just had another nightmare.”

“Yep”, Rowan whimpered.  “When’s it gonna’ stop?”

“We’re working on it son.” 

As it goes, the DeWitt family was staying with dad’s mother, Nanna Maggie at her house in Tennessee while dad attended college full time.   Rowan was a fun child, and he knew how to play.  Rowan loved his father’s taste in music, his style of cooking and his way of finding cool things to do.  Rowan’s trouble was at night, and it was deeply concerning with mom & dad, and they did not know what to do.

Nanna Maggie watched her family with worry and concern and so  Nanna began to develop her very own plans to best handle the situation.

A few days ticked by as Nanna developed her ideas.  At one point, mom and dad were ready to call Doctor Kate when Nanna Maggie called the family together for a family meeting.  She directed them to sit together in the family’s living room.  Nanna always had a strong sense of strength and purpose and now, they could all see Nanna’s determination.

Nanna had designed and pieced together a toy stuffed animal that she now held in her hands.  She offered it in slow motion to Rowan.  She told Rowan to pay close attention to what she was about to say.  Everybody leaned in to listen more intently. 

“Rowan, this is a monster!  However, this is your monster.  What you do with your monster is that you give it a good hug.   When you do that, it starts to read your insides.  Your monster knows what you like and what you don’t like,; but more importantly, it knows what you are afraid of.  Once it reads your insides, you then kiss it and place it under your bed.  Next, you turn into your covers and get ready for sleep.

Your monster will fight off all those scary things that come into your dreams at night. 

Once your monster starts to do this, then you will start to dream good dreams, happy dreams.  And Rowan, there are two things that your monster will do to let you know that it is doing quite well.  These two things are that he poops dust bunnies, and that he will eat one sock from a pair of socks.

That very night, Rowan slept soundly feeling safe and secure.  Everything was quiet and calm and right with the world.  And then Rowan got many more good nights.  Before long, the DeWitt family believed that the nightmares were finished.

Mom, dad, Sara, and Rowan were feeling confident that they were finally  returning to more normal living.

Thirteen years later, dad was helping Rowan pack his belongings for his trip to college and under Rowan’s bed, dad discovered Rowan’s monster that was still in really good shape.  Dad thought that thirteen years was a long time for Rowan’s monster to be hanging out without having some ill effects.  Dad held the monster up and asked Rowan, “Have you named him?”

“Yep!” Rowan replied,  “His name is Bailey.  And he’s still working!”  Rowan had a most entertaining expression that when he was really, really happy he couldn’t help but show it.  Rowan would grin so intensely that his mouth would open, and his tongue would curve up over his upper lip.  Kinda like when a dog shows that he likes his food.

And so now, as a young man, Rowan’s friends are becoming moms and dads themselves, and when they hear about “Nanna Maggie’s Original Under the Bed Monsters” they all perk up and want to know more.  Most of them want a monster of their very own.

And so, they go get one.