She couldn't sleep. It was past the midnight hour and she still didn't feel the least bit tired. To the outsider, there was no plausible reason. She was in a warm nightgown, under a comforter of down feathers. It was to be expected, though, considering that for the past four years of her life, Christine slept curled up next to her father. Even though Papa has been sick for the past year with a cough, he still let her curl up next to him. Now, Mama Valerius had the nerve to tell her that she couldn't sleep next to her papa.
Christine shook her golden curls in frustration. She was usually a meek child, but this made her mad! Christine crawled out of that soft bed to find her father. She tiptoed down the hall to her father's room and quietly cracked the door open to make sure no pesky doctors were there. She was surprised to find it empty; she pushed the door open even further in hopes of finding her father, but to no avail. Where could Papa be, if not in bed? He hadn't had the strength to sit up in several weeks, let alone get out of bed!
Acting unusually mulish, Christine went off to find her father. She peeked into every room she came across, and nimbly hid in the nooks when a servant walked by. Frustration was building in the small Swede until she found him. He was curiously sleeping in the parlor. It was an odd place to sleep, but Papa, sometimes, was an odd man. Gaily, Christine crawled on the floor to her father. They used to play this game before Papa became ill, who could sneak up on whom first? Papa usually won, but Christine savored the few times she was able to catch him unawares.
Within a foot of her father's resting place, Christine suddenly stood up. She noticed that her father was lying in an odd sort of shallow container. It was made of smooth wood and shaped vaguely on the shape of an octagon. This intimidating box made Christine pause her game. What could it be? Then, it occurred to Christine with a laugh. It was some sort of treatment of Papa's illness. The doctors tried many curious treatments on Papa; Christine winkled her nose when she remembered her father smoking a pipe with cow feces in it, what is to stop them from using this?
With an impish smile, Christine crawled up in the box next to her Papa and fell quickly fell asleep.
In the morning, Mama Valerius was horrified to find her Swedish Angel curled up next to the corpse of her father.
AN: This won 19th place out of 25 over at PFN. I am so proud of this story, because my morbid muse was on holiday in Majorca and didn't help.