A REINDEER IN MY SINK story

Susan yawns, fingers
reaching into the darkness
of night, it’s time
for a drink of water, leans from
her bunk bed

and pretends she’s a
Fire Lady. After all, girls can
be firemen, right?

Leaving comfy covers her
tippy-toes climb one at
a time down the
cold wooden
ladder, oh
BRR!

Careful now, don’t step
on brother’s sleeping face,
if he wakes up he’ll
SCREAM! and

the drink of water Susan
hopes to get will be
a wish. So, like
a ghost she

squeaks her way across
the old floor, past her
parent’s room then
the one next door

and almost pops her eyes
when she sees, a
Reindeer in her sink!

Who let him in? Did mommy?
Does Daddy know?

The funny looking animal
gives a grin, shakes
his head, the one
with a little chin.

Antlers in a friendly
dance, clapping
hooves cause
quite a noise
as he said,

“Someone’s here to
give me a soapy
bath, hooray.”

Susan looked around. Since there
was no one else, it must be true.

She began to scrub and wash
then wash and scrub, right
up to his hooves as water tumbled
and splashed
almost like Niagara Falls over
the tiny sink not far from the hall.

She hurried to do this chore, to
give a helping hand to a Reindeer
from the wild outdoors.

How did he get here? How?
she wondered again as she wiped
his antlers dry and slid
down on his very cute nose.

Finally finished she gave a
tired soapy wave, then sat down.

“Before leaving let’s dance,”
said that reindeer to the little girl
with mussed-up hair.

They skidded and clattered
and thudded across
the slippery bathroom floor. No
one came to see what
the thumping was all about, since
everyone was asleep in their
dreams this night.

The party was such fun, a
parade of toys and stuffed animals
soon came from Susan’s room.
Then drums sounded,
whistles blew and sweeping
furry bear feet scampered
across the floor.

Then it was over, all that work
and fun came to an end.
Now the reindeer soon tip-toed
through the open door.

He lifted one hoof to his very
cute nose, “SSSH” it seemed to say
as Susan zigzagged back
down the hall to her waiting room.

“Where is Susan?” Mommy and
daddy asked in the morning. “She’s
usually first
to the Christmas tree.

Now where can that girl be?” They
wondered out loud with a
scratching of heads. “It’s time to
climb those steps and see,”
they said.

And following a trail of water
coming down the stairs, saw the
messy sink full of mud
even the floor was a dirty brown.
“MUD!!” They yelled together.

One more trail of water led them
to their little girl’s room. “SSSH,” Her
brother whispered, and pointed to Susan
curled like a candy cane in her bed.

Everyone wondered why she
needed sleep at this time of time.

Now dear readers and listeners
too, when Susan comes
awake, will she
remember? Or will she
think it was just a silly dream?

About one Christmas night and a
REINDEER in her sink!

* * *

© Richard & Esther Provencher 2004
All Rights Reserved

Co-authors Richard and Esther Provencher invite you to check out the URL below to view their three novels written during Richard’s recovery from a stroke, which gob-smacked him in 1999.

URL for Richard L. Provencher
http://writers.ns.ca/Writers/rprovencher.html