It should be stated that these stories deal with Noah, the soon to be 4 year old...Camren (5) has either been at school or, perhaps mercifully, taking a nap during the described incidences.
I blame it all on Loser by Jerry Spinelli. I loved the chapter on the furnace monster. Maybe it's because I grew up in houses that seemed to have creepy basements with questionable lighting and big furnaces. That may be the reason I responded to Noah as I did on that 1st day, I'm not sure what motivated Karl, you'll have to ask him.
We'd gotten a magnetic dart board game at a yard sale for the boys to play with. It was hanging on a hook on the open door that goes down to the basement. Now I really wouldn't consider our basement creepy. Fairly decent lighting, several windows, sort of finished....but Noah wanted someone to come and stand by him while he played darts, because it was "scary to the basement". Karl had been home for lunch and as he was going out the door said to Noah something along the lines of "There is nothing to be scared of in the basement, just monsters." to which I followed up "Oh, just the furnace monster and he doesn't come out during the day." The result of that day was that Noah and I went hand in hand, turned on all the lights and carefully explored the basement to see that there was only the bathroom, the bedroom, the TV room and Bombie's (Karl's) tools. A few days later if you asked him what was down there, he'd say, "Just Bombie's tools."
Misti was a little upset that we'd told Noah there was a monster in the basement....she kept saying that he gets scared at night and climbs into their bed to sleep. In our defense that had been going on long, long before we mentioned the furnace monster. This is the kid that has grown up watching jurasic park movies, I personally will take a furnace monster any day over a dinosaur!
Fast forward a couple of weeks... it's late afternoon on a Wed., Karl is home from work, Camren is napping. We're just waiting around for Misti to get home from work and come pickup the boys. I was laying on our bed talking to Karl who was at the dressing table, Noah was exploring the usually off bounds room, when he noticed the heater vent and asked, "Where does this go?" Karl responded with, "That goes to where the furnace monster lives" Right about then the dryer buzzer went off and I went down to take care of the laundry. While I was hanging up clothes, I heard Noah's little voice call out from the vent "Hello, anybody down there?". I just couldn't help it, I reached up and with the palm of my hand banged twice on the furnace ducting, then finished hanging up the clothes. What I didn't know was that at the banging noise, Noah's eyes grew large and he jumped back from the heater vent. I have no idea how Karl stayed composed. When I got back up to the bedroom a minuet or so later, Noah came to me and said, " Gramie, the furnace monster banged at me!" He didn't seem frightened, it was more like he was in awe that it had happened. I lifted that sweet little boy up onto our bed so he was standing and facing me eye to eye and said, "Noah that was me." "It was?" he replied. "Yes", I said....big sigh from Noah as he turned to look at Karl.. "Oh, Bombie teased me!".
So, now Noah knows that we have a furnace monster. It lives in the basement and it's job is to warm up the house with it's fire when it is cold....I think if we let Noah name the monster, er, the furnace, he'll be just fine.
1 comment:
I would like it to be made known that it is the "monsters" under his bed that he is scared of. Not the dinasours that are old and dead in our world as he says it. So yes I still blame you, a little for the fact that he still won't sleep all night in his own bed due to the fact of monsters!!! He tells me that he feels them bump his bed in the night. I still blame you he is convenced that there are monsters in your basment and therefore must be under his BED!! I really hope that this will be a story that he will cherish when his is older, much older.
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