"Mom, can I sleep with you and Dad tonight?"

It was almost John's bedtime, and he was tired; they'd gotten his furniture where he wanted it (his bed, a chest of drawers that had been put in his closet, a short, but long, bookshelf for his books and a few toys and games, and a table with a few John-size chairs) but a lot of his clothes and toys still had to be unpacked (Mom said she would help him in the morning) and they'd gone out to eat (Dad had found a pizza place nearby, and it was good) and then they'd gone grocery shopping afterward because there wasn't anything in their pantry or fridge for breakfast or lunch. When they'd come home, everything had been fine, but John didn't like coming home to the new house yet. He liked the old house, and Grandma and Grandpa's. Mom gotten the bath ready, and he was a big boy so he could take a bath by himself just fine… he just needed help rinsing his hair. Mom had found his pajamas, and he was ready for bed… but he kept thinking about the room across the hall. He didn't like it; he didn't like it at all. Roxanne had started barking while Mom was helping him rinse his hair, and even though Mom said she must've seen a squirrel out the window going to bed, or heard a car outside, John knew that she was barking at whatever was making the room across the hall feel so bad.

"What's the matter, John?" Mom asked as she unmade his bed. "Is it because it's a new house?"

John started to nod, but then shook his head. It wasn't because it was a new house; he slept just fine in Grandma and Grandpa's house, even when it was his first time to spend the night.

Mom knelt down next to him looking concerned, "what's going on?"

"I don't like the room across the hall, there's something scary in it."

"Like a monster?"

"I don't know. When Rachel and I went upstairs when we first got here, I got a bad feeling when I went in that room, and then after you got all of Rachel's and my stuff moved, and you came to get me and Roxanne, I looked in the room and I felt really scared. And Roxanne looked like she was about to start growling, and then she was barking when you were helping me rinse my hair."

"Oh, sweetie, she was barking at a car, or she saw a squirrel in the neighbors tree going to bed. There's nothing in that room to be scared of."

John shook his head, and Mom wrapped him in a hug, sitting down on the floor and pulling him into her lap.

"Do you know what it is?" she asked him.

"What?"

"It's your imagination. You have such a good imagination. And remember before we stayed at Grandma and Grandpa's house when Mom and Dad were watching a scary movie after you went to bed, and you came to ask for a glass of water and you saw some of the scary things?"

John nodded. It was a really scary movie, Mom had to stay with him in his room until he fell asleep because he'd started crying.

"You're remembering the movie, and because it's a new house, your imagination is going craaaaaaaaazy!" she hugged him tight and shook the both of them when she said 'crazy' and John laughed. "See? That's all it is."

"But what about Roxanne starting to growl at it?"

"She was probably sensing how scared you were and was wanting to protect you

"Really?"

"Really. Like how she wakes you up when you have a nightmare and gives you kisses."

John nodded, and Mom smiled.

"See? There's nothing to be scared of. And I need you and Roxanne to sleep in your bed tonight, but I'll leave your door open, and we'll leave our door open so you can call us if you get scared. But you're going to have to be really loud since this is a bigger house, okay? And I'll shut the door to the other room, okay?"

"Okay," John nodded. The way Mom explained it sounded good, but he wasn't too sure. But if she was closing the door to the other room, then nothing should be able to get out.

"There's my sweet boy!" Mom said happily, and kissed him before getting up, "alright, hold my hands, WHEEEEEE!" and pulled him up as well.

She tucked him into bed, and was about to turn the light off before John realized something:

"Mom, we forgot to put my stars up!"

"I knew I forgot something! But they've been in the box all day, I don't think they'll shine very long."

"What if we hold them up to the light?"

"Okay, we can try it."

She had marked on the boxes of John's stuff where everything was, so she found them really quickly, and John was happy that she hadn't told him to wait until tomorrow. He didn't have a nightlight like Rachel had when she was his age, but his stars on the ceiling made him feel better.

When they'd gotten all the stars out and were holding them up to the light, Dad came in.

"What's going on up here?"

"I forgot to get John's stars out," Mom said, and Dad nodded.

"Well, we better get these all juiced up, it's way past your bedtime!"

"Sorry, Dad."

"It's okay, sometimes we just have to stay up a little late," Dad smiled, and lifted John up high towards the light so he could hold his star closer.

They got all the stars juiced up, and Dad got them stuck on John's ceiling where he wanted them to go.

"Okay, NOW it's time to tuck you in!" Mom said as John climbed into bed for the second time.

"Sweet dreams, John," Dad said as Mom pulled the covers back up, and they both kissed him, before Roxanne jumped up at the foot of his bed.

"Alright, lets see how these stars do," Dad said, and then turned the light off. "Alright!"

They were glowing brightly, and John smiled before cuddling Bunny to his chest.

"Good night, John," Mom and Dad said as they left the room.

"G' night!" John told them.

"I'll make sure Rachel knows to make sure the door to the other room stays closed, okay?" Mom said. Rachel was still watching TV, since she didn't have to go to bed as early as John did.

"Okay," John nodded, and closed his eyes.

John slept soundly for the entire night. He didn't have any nightmares, and he guessed that he really had stayed up late because he didn't need water, or to go to the bathroom or anything. He'd fallen asleep almost as soon as he closed his eyes, and hadn't woken up until Roxanne licked his face, and he could smell breakfast cooking even from downstairs.

"I'm up!" John laughed, and Roxanne panted happily, jumping off his bed.

He went to the bathroom and washed his face, while Roxanne sat in the doorway and waited for him. Mom had dug out the step-stool last night when he'd brushed his teeth so that he could reach everything by himself. He hopped down, and walked across the hall archway to Rachel's door.

"Rachel, come on, it's time for breakfast!" John said as he knocked on her door (a little loudly, but she never woke up otherwise!)

"UUUUhhhhhhggggghhhh," came the reply.

John looked at Roxanne and shrugged, and immediately headed out into the main upstairs hallway, Roxanne following behind. He wasn't going to be the one to get Rachel up, she was grumpy in the morning!

Once in the hallway, the part that had railing on either side, however, he stopped short.

The door was open. Mom had said she'd close the door, and she always did if she said she would, and the door was open. Suddenly he didn't feel as happy as he had before. He moved over so that he was out of sight of the doorway, leaning against the railing closest to the front door, and slid along it until he reached the stairs.

"Mom!" John called out, and hurried down the stairs as fast as he could, Roxanne right behind him.

"Good morning, John," she said when he came into the kitchen. "Did you sleep well?"

"Yeah, but the door's open!"

"Huh?"

"The door to the other room! It's open!"

"Well, I did close it last night," she said. "Will you let Roxanne out, and go get Dad? I can't leave these eggs unless we want burnt ones for breakfast."

"Okay," John nodded, and gave her a hug. "Morning, Mamma."

She smiled and hugged him back.

John let Roxanne out, watching her to make sure she walked down the back porch stairs instead of just sitting at the door, before walking into his parents bedroom.

Dad wasn't in bed, but John could hear the blow dyer going, and walked through where their close was and opened the door to the bathroom.

Dad turned when he saw the bathroom door open in the mirror, "hey, John!" he said as he turned off the blow dryer, "what's going on?"

"The door to the other room is open. Mom said to get you to check it out cause she can't leave the eggs unless we want them burnt."

"The door is open?"

"Mom said she closed the door to the other room last night cause it was scaring me. I woke up this morning and it was open."

Dad seemed to remember what Mom had said, and looked a little surprised. "Well, that's strange."

"Can you come look at it?"

Dad nodded, and put down his hairbrush, "just real quick, though, I have to get ready for work."

He followed John out of the bedroom, and up the stairs, where the door to the other bedroom was wide open.

"Well, you're right, it's open," he nodded, and walked in the room. John stayed in the doorway, but didn't go in… of course, they didn't see anything. "I don't think it's proof that there's a monster in the house, though, John. Let me finish getting ready, and I'll get Rachel up and ask her; maybe she left her sweater in here or something and forgot to close it."

John nodded, and followed Dad back downstairs.

John stayed downstairs with Mom while she made breakfast, and Dad got ready for work. She let him help a little, asking him to grab her oven mitt out of the box nearest to the door in the dining room, or carefully grab butter knife from the drying rack next to the sink, or grab the butter and jam, if he could reach it, from the refrigerator. He slid his step-stool (he had another one that stayed in the kitchen) all around, moving it from spot to spot.

"John, will you go let Roxanne in? I'm almost done."

John nodded, and ran over to the back door, where he could see her waiting through the door-window. She panted happily as she came in, hurrying over to where Mom had set down her food and water bowls (in the breakfast nook next to the counter) and then walked into the kitchen when she found the food bowl to be empty.

"John, can you feed Roxanne her breakfast?" Mom called from the kitchen.

"Uh huh!" John nodded, walked over and picked up the empty food bowl, walking over to the pantry, with Roxanne right behind him. She was a good girl, though, and when he opened up the dog food, she waited for him to fill it up.

"Remember, John, just one scoop!"

"Okay!" John remembered, but Mom always told him anyway: one scoop for breakfast, and another scoop and a bit of chicken that was specially made for dogs for dinner. Ever since he'd turned five, he'd fed Roxanne most of the time.

John was putting the dog food away when Dad came out of his and Mom's room and headed up the stairs to wake up Rachel. John hoped Rachel had just dropped her sweater or her sunglasses in that room and had forgotten to close the door, but he didn't think so.

Roxanne followed behind him as he walked over to where her bowls went.

"Sit," he told her, and she did. "Good girl!" he exclaimed as he put the bowl down, and she dug in.

"Thank you, John, you're a big help! Now go ahead and wash your hands; breakfast is almost ready."

Rachel and Dad came downstairs just as Mom was starting to dish up the food onto everyone's plates.

"I didn't open the door John," Rachel said immediately, and John felt like he'd swallowed ice.

"Well good morning to you too!" Mom replied, a frown on her face.

"Sorry Mom; morning," Rachel backtracked.

"Thank you," Mom said, smiling again.

"But I really didn't open the door. You told me to leave it closed," Rachel said.

"Well, it was open when John got up, so let's see if we can figure out what happened, okay?" Mom nodded.

John dried his hands and hopped down from the step-stool.

"It's not the air, I think that would close the door," Dad said. "Maybe the house shifted a little. It's not exactly new."

"That's right, maybe it's the house settling in, like the old one did," Mom said. "Rachel, can you help me set the table?"

"Sure," Rachel nodded.

Dad grabbed a few plates too, and John jumped back up on the step-stool to get forks.

"Does that work, John?" Dad asked.

Mom chimed in, "I must not have closed the door very hard, and so when the house settled in, it opened back up."

John nodded as they all sat down. He wanted that to be right, and Mom and Dad were both really smart, so it probably was.

"Yay! Mystery solved!" Dad and Mom cheered.

Dad said the prayer, and they all started eating. Mom had made scrambled eggs, croissants, and bacon: everyone's favorite, unless they had pancakes instead of croissants, then that was everyone's favorite.

"Mom, can Roxanne have some eggs?" John asked.

"Of course she can," Mom nodded. "Can you give me her bowl?"

John slid off the chair, grabbed Roxanne's bowl (which made Roxanne stand up from where she'd been laying on the floor, and start wagging her tail) and climbed back up in the chair, passing it to Mom. Mom gave her a spoonful of her eggs, Dad put in a spoonful of his, and John put in two, since he knew Rachel wasn't going to share.

John climbed back down, and Roxanne immediately sat down, tail thumping on the floor.

"Good girl!" John told her, and put the bowl back where it had been.

They finished eating, and Dad had to go to work. He kissed everyone goodbye, before heading into the garage.

"Okay, you two, help me clean up and we can keep unpacking!" Mom said, and Rachel and John hopped up (well, John slid out of his chair.)

Cleaning up from eating wasn't really fun, but as Mom always said: the faster it gets done, the faster we can do something fun. So John and Rachel both helped Mom pick up the dishes and put them in the dishwasher, wipe down the table, and wrap up leftovers. With the three of them doing it, it didn't take very long.

"Okay," Mom said once she'd put the leftover croissants in a bag, "let's see who can find their clothes and get dressed the fastest! Brushing hair counts. 1… 2… 3… GO!"

John and Rachel raced to and up the stairs, Roxanne wagging her tail and following behind. When they got to the top of the stairs, John couldn't help but look to his left:

The door was closed, just like they'd left it. He smiled, and ran to his room with Roxanne in tow. Mom and Dad were right, mystery solved!

At least, that was what he wanted to believe, but he didn't think so.