The bedroom is the best place to explore new things, of course. Maji�s bedroom had a very high ceiling and white walls� well, mostly white. There were some castles drawn on the walls with crayon, and one even in pen. That one was her favorite, and it had taken her ten whole minutes to finish. And GREAT pictures. One picture had Grandma, and Papa, and auntie and two other girls and both uncles and Mommy, and some other people. They smiled a lot in pictures. Maji was in one of the pictures, too, tipped upside down and laughing. And also there were pictures of Quasimodo, and Cruella DeVil, and lots and lots of puppies. Maji�s bed was way too big for just one little tiny girl, because she shared it with five bears, a turtle, a puppy, a silly giggling Happy Halloween monster and no less than ten pillows of every different color. Ok, maybe five. And two blankets, one with Tweetie and one with little pink kittens. And that�s where Maji took Tufflemein for a few more questions. �Do you like to sleep in the dark, really?� YES, THE MONSTERS ARE NOISIER WHEN IT�S DARK. �Do they scare you?� NO. �Do they tickle you?� SOMETIMES, BUT USUALLY THEY ONLY SING. �Do you sing with them?� ONLY IF MY FEET ARE COLD. �Oh.� Just then, a very wiggly crocodile squiggled across the floor and under the bed. Maji jumped and gasped and tried to stare under the bed to see where it went without actually getting down onto the floor. That didn�t work very well. �Did you see the crocodile?� YES, DID YOU? She just furrowed up her forehead and tried to remember what color the crocodile had been. Crocodiles are good because they eat spiders, but sometimes they tickle you, too. They like the sink and the shower. Maji ran to see if the crocodile had gone into the shower. He wasn�t there. But when she turned on the water, pretty flowers started to grow on the floor where the water goes. Red and blue and pink and green and yellow and orange and blue-ish lavendar and even some grape colored ones, almost green and almost red-and-purple. Mommy yelled from the living room, �Majellyn Kamil!! Please turn off the shower and close the door so the floor doesn�t get all wet!� Maji sighed and closed the silver thing to make it stop and trudged back into the bedroom to ask Tufflemein if he liked the red flowers best.

When she got there, though, Tufflemein was busy scolding a bunch of bubbles as they scurried up the wall to the ceiling. YOU�LL POP, I TELL YOU, POP AND FALL RIGHT BACK DOWN. But they kept right on scurrying up the wall, and bumped into the ceiling, and just like he said, POP! They would fall right back down in little sparkly bits to the floor. One of them fell on Maji�s nose and made her face scrunch up in itches. �Tufflemein, did you make the bubbles?� Tufflemein jumped, because he didn�t know she was there. Maji giggled. He jumped again. She giggled again. And again, and again until suddenly Mommy appeared right behind her and scared her to death. �Maji?� That only made the giggling worse, and the bubbles stopped on the wall to turn and look at her. �Mommy, did you see the bubbles on the wall?� she asked. Mommy looked at all the walls, and then back at Maji. �No, love. Show me where.� But when Maji turned to point at the bubbles, they were gone and Tufflemein was holding very, very still� pretending to be frozen like a toy. �Oh, they�re gone now. And there was a crocodile under the bed!� Mommy and Maji crouched down onto their knees to scout under the bed for the crocodile, but he was gone, too. �What color was the crocodile, Maji?� �Purple. And orange spots. And he wiggled a lot, like this.� She wiggled to show Mommy just how, and Mommy hugged her. �I love you, Majellyn!�