Snake

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Dan carefully got out of bed, grabbed Pablo, his old teddy bear, and quietly left his room, making sure the door was completely shut behind him. Then, when he was sure the door was closed, he ran as quickly as he could along to his parents’ bedroom.
‘Dad, dad, there’s a snake in my bed.’ Daniel’s dad put the light on and sat up. He looked at Daniel through sleepy eyes.
‘What?' he said.
‘Dad, a snake!’ Daniel said, holding Pablo by the leg.
‘It was probably just a bad dream Daniel, go back to bed.’ His Dad’s voice was thick with sleep.
‘No dad, it was a snake,’ Daniel said.
Daniel’s mother had now woken up. ‘Go back to bed Daniel,’ she said in her angry voice. ‘It was just a nightmare.’
But Daniel was not going back to bed, no way.  There was a snake behind that door. He sat at the top of the stairs, tears in his eyes, hugging Pablo.
‘You saw it Pablo, didn’t you? It wasn’t a dream, there was a snake,’ he said to the silent teddy bear.
Daniel looked at the crack under the door. Could the snake crawl under it? It looked too small for that big, fat snake to get through but maybe they had magic powers.  It was chilly on the stairs; Daniel’s pyjamas were no protection from the cold of the night. But he was not going back to bed.
‘Why don’t they believe me?’ A tear fell down Dan’s face.
Then, a light came on in his parents’ room. Dan was in trouble now; they’d told him to go to bed and he’d not done it. His parents would be angry. Dan looked up to see his father standing over him.
‘Let’s have a look for this snake then, shall we?’ he said in a calm voice that surprised Dan.
Dan stood up and took his father’s warm hand. Daniel hid behind his father’s legs as his Dad opened Dan’s bedroom door and put the light on.
‘See there’s no …’ He went silent when he saw the huge creature on Dan’s bed.

This time it was Dan and his father who ran as quickly as they could along to his parents’ room.

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