Alex looked up lazily from the flickering fire. �Well� Maybe, but only if you two promise to keep quiet and go right to sleep afterwards.� The children promised and Alex looked into the fire again as he search his thoughts for something that would interest them though he really couldn�t think of anything that they would want to hear. And then he remembered something that his Grandmother told him when he was about their age. �Okay I gotta story for ya-�
�Is it scary?� They both asked without missing a beat.
�Um, yeah sort of, but anyway hush up and let me tell it. When I was ten years old my Grandmother, your Great Grandmother, told me a story about something that happened when my mother, Barbara, was just about my age now. She told me that the washer had broken down and the company who manufactured it gave them a replacement. Well her brother, Doug, was in the moving business and he brought the new washer down from the factory and had gotten it into the house and into the laundry room and hooked it up. Grandma said that Barbara had put all the stuff back in place around the new washer then her and Doug sat down at the kitchen table for a bit and talked about the washer, his job and the family until she noticed something moving from the laundry room near the washer and then rustling sounds brought Doug�s attention to what Barbara was looking at.�
�What is it?� Doug whispered.
�I don�t know but if it�s a rat can you please kill it?�
�Oh I guess so.� He joked.
And then she saw it again, �Oh My God!� and covered her face as she turned her back to the laundry room. Doug calmed her down enough to get her to tell him what she saw. She said it was thin and tall, like a person, and then it disappeared but that was enough to freak her out. Hearing this made him feel a little worried and he wondered if there was some one in the house with them, he went to one of the draws along the counter and found a large knife then cautiously made his way towards the laundry room but when he peered in it was empty and there was no place for an intruder to hide except near the washer and he checked there too but no one was hiding there. He came back into the kitchen, �There�s no one in there.� And returned the knife back to its draw, the knife made such a loud clink that it frightened the animal that was hiding in the laundry room.
They both turned to see the washer pitch forward and then fall back against the wall, Barbara jumped up on the table and Doug looked back at the knife and said, �To hell with that!� and went after the frying pan that was in the cupboard above the stove then went into the laundry room and kicked the things that were around the washer but nothing scurried, hissed, or moved, except for the mop and broom that fell by his feet. He looked over at Barbara, �It must be under the washer.�
�Be careful!�
�I will.� He put the frying pan on the washer and picked up the mop and broom, when he looked up it was staring at him from behind the washer, Doug grabbed the frying pan, it disappeared back behind the washer, and he swiftly moved back from the washer holding the frying pan up. He waited but nothing happened so he went back into the kitchen, but cautiously eyeing the washer as he moved near and then past it.
He grabbed a six pack out of the refrigerator and sat down at the table, put the frying pan down, pulled a beer from the plastic ring popped the top and drank it down quickly. Barbara sat back down in her chair and asked, �What did you see?� Doug looked at her then took another beer. �It was as tall as a man. But nothing I ever seen before! Pinkish-like skin, if that�s what you can call it.� Doug took another drink, �And Barbara, it had no eyes! Not even a mouth, or hair either. Then it just disappeared behind the washer.� He grabbed another beer and Barbara got up from the table, �I�m gonna call the police!� Doug turned around, �And tell them what? That you saw an alien in your laundry room and it�s living behind your washer?� Barbara grabbed the phone, �No, I don�t know!�
She laid the phone down and walked back into the kitchen and sat down at the table, she looked over at her brother who was looking a lot better after three beers and watched as he slammed his fourth down and grabbed the frying pan, �what are you going to do?� she asked. �I�m going to show it whose boss around here!� Doug walked over to the washer, looked around then put the frying pan down and grabbed a broom and shoved the stick end behind the washer, he could hear it moving around back there but the broomstick wasn�t touching it. He quit and pulled the broom out and heard it panting. Then nothing, no sound at all, �It must�ve gone under the washer.� Doug threw the broom back behind him and then grabbed the washer and pulled it away from the wall and it made a loud scraping sound like metal on metal. He grabbed the frying pan and cautiously looked behind.
�On the floor was a mass of pinkish slime.�
What was it?� Asked Nicholas.
�I don�t know, but I do know that it�s time for you two to get some sleep.�
�Aw!� They both gripped and lazily stood up and rubbed their butts that ached from sitting too long on the hard flat surface of the rock and slowly walked to the tent where their mother had been for the past hour reading a novel about espionage. And as they climbed into the sleeping bags Elizabeth closed her book, turned off the lamp and everyone lay down to sleep.
