Awake At Midn igh t

By Kai t l ynWu

My watch read almost midnight. Why am I up so late, I thought to myself. From the U.S to Tokyo is a big time difference, that’s why my watch didn’t read eight o’clock. I stretched out my legs and lay on the marshmallow-colored couch. We were staying at our aunt and uncle’s house for our visit. I heard footsteps. I thought someone was coming down the stairs, so I didn’t move a muscle and I was as still as a rock. I was scared because I didn’t know who it was. I slowly moved further away from the stairs and my head turned for a moment to see what it was. I was so frightened I thought that I was in a scary movie. The suspense grew in me as I slowly backed away. The footsteps grew louder and louder until I could see a familiar face. It was Ethan! I was very relieved that it was just my cousin, but also confused because Ethan was only two. Is he sleepwalking, does he think its morning? I saw he started to pull out his train tracks that he often plays with in his free time. Ethan’s eyes were open so I knew he wasn’t sleepwalking. “Kaitlyn, Chloe let’s play,” he shouted. I was shocked that Ethan wanted to play, but I walked slowly over to him and explained that it was bedtime. He wasn’t listening because he just kept building and building, so I decided to just go along with it until I could convince him to go to bed. I thought about how I could make him to go to bed. It struck me like a lightning bolt. Just tell him that you promise to play with him tomorrow. Ethan looks up to me a lot and he always asks questions about what I do. I realized that I should explain things to him.

“Ethan go to bed and tomorrow I promise to play with you,” I explained. He ran upstairs and didn’t come back down. I learned that little kids look up to you a lot as a role model and when you promise them something you should always remember to do it with them. Sometimes the strangest things happen, but they always spark a memory and make you learn new things. This is one memory I will never forget.