Sobbing, the brown haired little girl held her knees and rocked back and forth on the damp ground. She was wet, cold, hungry, and very lost. And very scared too.

In the distance she could hear traffic moving, but the park she was in was mostly empty of people, except at the far end where some swings were, which had a number of kids of several ages playing on them. Several parents were watching them carefully while talking or walking dogs. All normal activities, things she herself didn't do. Not that she really wanted to but even if she had, there were other problems.

The heavily overgrown corner of the park she'd wormed her way through the bushes to hide in was empty of passers-by, being some distance from the paths, and covered in blackberry brambles which had snagged her clothing and her hair on the way in. It was only her small stature that let her do it at all, and she was covered in dirt as a result. Sniffling, she rubbed her nose with her fist then wiped it on her shirt, wishing she was somewhere else. Somewhere warm, where people didn't yell at her for no reason.

"Hi!" a completely unexpected and cheery voice suddenly said from behind her, making her squeak in shock and look around. There was another girl about her own age kneeling on the ground there, taller and skinnier, with a gap-toothed grin in a rather grimy face under black curly hair done up in a ponytail. She was wearing a T-shirt with the words "Monsters are cool!" on it in happy blue lettering, a light jacket over the top, and jeans.

"I'm Taylor. What's wrong?" the girl said, studying her curiously.

The sobbing girl sniffed hard while staring at the other child.

"You look cold. Here." Taylor said, not waiting for an answer before she pulled the small backpack she was wearing off her back, then took off her coat and held it out to the girl. "Go on, you need it more than I do," she urged as the other girl gaped at her, somewhat shocked. Eventually she carefully took the offered jacket and put it on over the thin blouse she was wearing, immediately feeling warmer.

"Thank you," she said in a small voice, her voice hoarse from crying.

Taylor smiled again. "You're welcome," she replied, pulling her backpack in front of her and opening it. She rummaged around inside for a few seconds. "You can share my lunch. Mom won't mind." Pulling out a bag of chips, she popped it open and handed it to the now rather confused and formerly crying girl, who was gaping at her, somewhat overwhelmed by the aggressively friendly approach. She wiggled the bag enticingly when her new acquaintance hesitated. "They're nice. I've got juice too."

Very slowly, the first girl reached out and put her hand into the bag, coming back with a handful of potato chips, one of which she tasted, before shoving it into her mouth. Seconds later all that was left were crumbs. "Wow, you were hungry," Taylor said, her eyes wide and an approving tone in her voice. "Here, take the bag." She handed it to the other girl, then delved into the backpack again. "Apple or orange?"

"What?" The question was puzzled.

"Juice. You want apple or orange?" Taylor held up two cardboard boxes, one in either hand, shaking each in turn.

"Apple. Please."

"Sure." She handed over the relevant box, then pulled the straw off the side of the other one and stuck it through the small foil covering in the top before noisily sucking. Her new acquaintance followed suit, rather less noisily. "Want a sandwich? I've got two. Peanut butter or tuna and mayo."

Shortly both girls were eating, Taylor giving the other girl interested looks now and then. When they finally finished, her new friend started talking. Some time later Taylor was hugging her and looking irritated, although not at her. The other girl was no longer shivering and appeared much less uncomfortable although still upset.

"Meanies," she growled under her breath. Deciding that her new friend needed something special, she reached into her backpack again and pulled out Thuley, then shoved it into the arms of the startled freckled girl. "Here, he's really good at cheering people up," she advised. "Nice people, anyway. Mean ones don't really like him."

Her friend, somewhat cautiously, held the little doll and after a while began smiling. Taylor smiled back as she plotted.


Pausing outside her daughter's bedroom door, Annette cocked her head and listened. She could hear laughter, in two distinct voices, one of which she recognized and one of which she didn't. The first was obviously Taylor, but she had no idea who the second was, aside from it not being Emma who would have been the normal candidate. Curious, she pushed the door open a crack and peered in very quietly.

"...and the mean king was beaten by the cool fairy queen, who beat him up a little then punished him for a hundred years, just to make sure he knew that he was very naughty indeed," Taylor said, waving her arms expressively as she told a story that Annette was quite familiar with although her daughter was, as usual, putting her own spin on it. "Then she freed all the other prisoners and gave them cake. And everyone was really happy. Except for the king of course, but no one cared about him any more. Then she flew away and lived happily ever after."

The other girl, who was sitting on Taylor's bed wrapped up in the duvet that normally covered it, giggled, her freckled face alight with interest. Annette studied her, wondering where Taylor had found her and what they were doing. From what she could see the girl was roughly Taylor's age although somewhat shorter, her face showing signs of having been recently crying. Probably quite a lot if she was any judge. And it was in severe need of a wash too, a streak of mud running up one cheek and another across her forehead. Both hands were filthy as well, giving the impression that the girl had been crawling on the ground or something. Her clothes, from what the woman could see, were unsuitable for the slightly chilly and damp weather, her feet were bare, and when she looked around she couldn't see any sign of a coat or other outerwear than Taylor's familiar one, which was tossed on the floor next to her backpack.

The thing that she noted with more surprise than all this was that the unknown girl was hugging Taylor's doll Thuley to her chest, which was pretty odd. Her daughter didn't generally let other people hold the little tentacled horror she loved so dearly without trusting them a lot.

Opening the door further, she stepped inside, both girls looking at her, the new one with a suddenly worried expression that quickly closed down. "Hello, Taylor. I see you've made a new friend," she said, keeping her voice light and friendly since she was more than a little worried about how abruptly the other girl's face and demeanor had changed. She looked positively scared now, and was almost hiding inside the duvet while holding Thuley so tightly that Annette worried she'd pull his head off.

"Hi, Mom," her daughter chirped. "This is Amy. She's staying with us now, OK?"

Annette stared at her daughter, who grinned back. Then she sighed heavily. Kneeling down next to the girl, she put her hand on her head and stroked her hair, while looking seriously at her. "Taylor?"

"Yes, Mom?"

"I think you have a story to tell. Two hours ago you went to the park to play on the swings. This… isn't quite what I expected when you got back."

Taylor nodded vigorously. "Yep, I went to the park, but the swings were all being used by bigger kids, so I went exploring instead. I found Amy in a bush."

"A… bush."

"Yep. A big brambly one. It had blackberries. Look!" She held up a plastic bag which was half full of the fruit, then took one and popped it into her mouth, which Annette noticed had a little smear of purple juice in the corner. "They're really nice," she added in a more muffled tone while chewing.

Suppressing a slight sigh of amused resignation, Annette asked, "Why was Amy in a blackberry bush?"

"She ran away from her mom, who was mean to her." Taylor shrugged as if that was obvious. Annette glanced at the other girl who was peering out of her protective duvet fort with wide worried eyes. "Her new mom, I mean. I think." She leaned a little closer to her own mother and whispered, "She was really upset and cold and wet and hungry. She'd been there since last night I think, she got lost and was scared."

"I see." Annette pinched the bridge of her nose and went on, "So you brought her home."

"Yep. I shared my lunch with her first, though, and let her have my coat because she was shivering."

"Why didn't you tell me when you came in?"

Taylor looked innocently at her. "You were busy in the study and I didn't want to disturb you?"

Amy, very quietly, giggled.

Annette, very quietly, sighed.

"Oh dear. This is going to be complicated, I can just feel it..."

"So I told her she could stay here because you're the best Mom in the world and Dad is the best Dad. And Bob likes Amy too, although she hasn't met him yet." Taylor sounded entirely cheerful and full of happiness. Turning to Amy, she explained, "Bob is the monster under the bed. He's nice. Jim is the one in the closet and he's a bit of a poohead but Bob and I sorted him right out a few weeks ago." She looked thoughtful, tilting her head to the side, and continued, "Maybe I should get a bat of my own? Mom, can I have a bat like Dad's? In case I need to make another example?"

Stroking her daughter's hair, Annette smiled slightly. "We can ask your father when he gets home, dear. But right now we need to talk about Amy." Turning to look at the other girl who was staring at her, somewhat less fearfully but still with a worried wrinkle to her forehead, she said calmly and softly, "Hello, Amy. I'm Annette, Taylor's mother."

"Hello," a small voice said from within the duvet.

Smiling, Annette asked, "So how did you end up in the park?"

It took a while, but she eventually got the entire story out of the girls, and when she did she wasn't too happy. By the time her husband came home, she'd calmed down enough to explain things to him as well, which was good as at least one of them needed to have a clear head.

Then they made some phone calls. Things did indeed get rather complicated at that point.


Some hours later Danny and Annette stood at the door watching the car belonging to Sarah Pelham drive off, Amy looking back at them out the rear window. A small hand lifted in a wave, which they returned.

Behind them, Taylor said in an upset voice, "I don't want Amy to go."

"I know you don't, dear," Danny replied, crouching down next to her and pulling her into a hug. "You did a very nice thing for that poor girl. But we can't just say she can stay, she has a family of her own."

"I know that, but she's not happy," Taylor insisted earnestly. Her eyes were slightly red from her feelings. "Her new mom isn't very nice to her. She said her sister is all right but too noisy a lot of the time too. I think she wants some place quieter with people who are kind. We're kind!"

"Yes, I agree," he said, brushing a strand of curly hair off her face. "You are very kind, and very nice. I wouldn't have exactly said you were very quiet at times, but..." He grinned as she pouted. "When you and Emma get going, it gets very loud indeed."

"Except when it goes worryingly quiet," Annette put in as she closed the front door. "That's when the really odd things tend to happen."

Taylor snickered. Then she looked upset again. "I like Amy. Why can't we keep her?"

"You can't just keep any girl you find in a blackberry bush, dear," he told her in kind tones. "No matter what your Grandmother might tell you. That's not how it really works."

The girl folded her arms and scowled. "It should work that way. Poor Amy."

"Her aunt is going to let her stay at her house for a few days while she talks to her mother to find out what happened," Annette said, sitting on the floor and pulling Taylor into her lap, where she leaned back and hugged Thuley. Amy had given the doll back with reluctance when Sarah Pelham had taken her out of their house a few minutes ago, then thrown her arms around Taylor for several seconds. The blonde woman had smiled rather sadly at the sight, making Annette wonder what the true story of the girl really was.

"I'm sure she'll be fine," she added quietly, despite her own misgivings.

"She better be or I'll be mad," Taylor growled, staring into her doll's eyes. Then she looked up at Danny. "That reminds me, Dad. Can I have a bat of my very own?"

They exchanged looks of amusement and mild concern, before Danny ruffled her hair. "We'll talk about that tomorrow. Right now, it's your bedtime."

His daughter frowned slightly, then sighed. "OK."

"Don't worry, Taylor, Amy will be fine," he assured her. "And I'm very proud of you. You did a very good thing today, helping someone in trouble like that, even if you did it in a very… Taylor… way."

She smiled brilliantly at him after thinking it over, before jumping out of her mother's arms and to her feet, then rushing up the stairs in a thunder of small feet. He watched her go, then looked at his wife. She looked back.

"We haven't heard the last of this, I suspect," he said quietly.

"Probably not, no," she agreed as she stood up. "Poor kid."

"Well, we'll have to see what happens, I suppose."

There was a crash from upstairs. "That was Bob!" Taylor shouted.

"Tell him to be more careful!" Annette called back with a smile.

"Be more careful, Bob!" Taylor yelled.

Shaking his head, Danny accompanied his wife into the kitchen. They both needed a glass of wine after the last few hours.


Some hours later when the house was completely still and dark, only the light of the moon in a cloudy sky coming in past her curtains, Taylor stirred. Then she sat up, blinking, before listening for a moment.

Swiveling around on the bed she lay face down over the edge, her hair hanging down to touch the floor, and peered into the absolute darkness under it. "Hey, Bob, you awake?" she whispered.

"Great. Do you know the monster under Amy's bed?"

"Wonderful." She slid off the bed and slithered under it. "Come on, we have a job to do," her voice came faintly back to anyone who might have been in the room as she disappeared.


"Psst."

Amy muttered in her sleep, rolling over and flinging an arm out.

"Psst! Amy!"

Blinking, the girl opened tear-streaked eyes, despite having washed her face, then raised her head and looked around the unfamiliar room in her aunt's house. "Taylor?" she queried in a small puzzled voice.

"Yep!" The sound of her new friend's voice was a cheerful whisper.

"Where are you?"

"Under the bed."

Amy moved to look down at the floor. A head stuck out from under her bed making her jump. "Hi!"

She gaped a little. "Why are you under the bed?" she asked, very confused. "How are you under the bed?"

"I came to rescue you and Bob knows your monster Harry," the other girl explained, which didn't really clear all that much up.

Staring at her dimly lit friend's face, the streetlight outside letting her barely make it out, all Amy could really see was a wide grin with a tooth missing. Eventually she said, "My monster?" in a puzzled and somewhat worried voice.

"Yep. He's nice, he let us through without any trouble when I explained," Taylor smiled. "Come on, we need to hurry before someone hears."

"What?" Amy was now extremely confused.

Taylor stuck her hand out and made a pointing motion under the bed. "We need to go."

"Under the bed?"

"Yep."

"Why?"

"It's the way home of course." Taylor looked seriously at her. "Harry lets us through, and Bob takes us back to my house. Easy."

After quite a while, Amy shrugged and got out of bed, straightening the pajamas her aunt had given her, which had belonged to her cousin Crystal when she was little. Then, at Taylor's urging, she rather hesitantly crawled under the bed, quickly vanishing into the oddly impenetrable darkness.

"This is Harry, and this is Bob," Taylor's voice drifted out into the room.

"Eek!"

"They're nice monsters," Taylor patiently explained, her voice getting fainter. "And Bob doesn't really eat socks, that was Mike being naughty. He lives in the dryer. Mind your head here."

"This is weird," Amy's almost inaudible voice said, sounding almost happy.

"I know, right? But it's fun."

The room was silent once more until morning when Sarah checked in on her wayward niece.

And once again, things got rather complicated...