When I was about kindergarten age, I shared a room with my one year old brother. Maybe he was two, I don't know. Anyway, his crib was in my room and every night when I went to bed, we laid quietly for a few minutes. Then he would say my name. I figured if I ignored him he would assume I was asleep and leave me alone. This never worked. Even if I was asleep, he would say my name over and over until I responded.
"What?" I would finally ask.
"Good night," he answered.
"Good night," I said.
We sat in silence for a minute, then he would start saying my name again, over and over and over.
"What?"
"I love you."
Oh man.
Silence, then my name again repeated infinitely until I answered. His questions were endless.
"Are you asleep?" "Will you play with me tomorrow?" "Do you like my Tonka truck?"
No matter how tired I was, we had to engage in conversation before sleeping.
Don't get me wrong, I loved my younger brother. I was even old enough to appreciate how cute he was. He was like a postcard of cuteness. But when my mom laid him down for a nap in the middle of the day, my adorable little brother turned into a monster.
Since we shared a room, I often went in there while he was napping. I remember the first time I saw his sleeping little form and I went over to pat his golden curls and feel his soft cheeks. If he was cute when he was awake, he was probably ten times as cute when he was asleep. But the being that greeted me was too terrifying to touch. His eyes were half open and the color was gone. He looked like a possessed demon baby. He twitched and I ran from the room.
I told my mom something was wrong with my brother. She went in to check on him and said he was fine, he was just sleeping. "But his eyes. His eyes!" I said.
"People do that sometimes when they're sleeping."
But in all my seven years of life, I had never seen that zombie face before. I wasn't sure if I could trust my cute little brother anymore. When he woke up, I was sure he would be different, scarier. Maybe he wouldn't annoy me when we went to bed anymore. I would give anything to exchange that scary kid for the one who asked me questions all night.
When he did wake up, I forgot about his zombie face, and he returned to being the super cute little kid I'd always known, all giggles and cherub-cheeks.
But the next time he napped, it happened again, his zombie eyes. I went into the room and stared down at him, afraid he was going to jump up and strangle me with an iron grip. I tried closing his eyes, they opened again. I tried waking him up. He just drooled. Even his drool seemed scary.
I had nightmares about my zombie brother waking up from his nap and terrorizing the family.
Eventually, he was moved out of my room and I forgot about his scariness. Since then, I have seen several people sleeping with the zombie eyes and I always think of my adorable/zombie brother.
Right now Mia is sleeping on my leg.