Poem: "Tucked Away"

This poem came out of the October 18, 2011 Poetry Fishbowl.  It was inspired and sponsored by zianuray.  Sometimes, even the extraordinary people want a little taste of the ordinary ... even if it doesn't always work out that way in the end.  You can find the other poems in the Monster House series via my Serial Poetry page.

For my birthday,
I wanted to do something ordinary,
so I asked to have a slumber party.
It took a while to talk my parents into it
but eventually they agreed.

Six little girls from my class
got to come over,
while our nonhuman housemates
made themselves scarce.
The house seemed oddly empty.

We had fun, though,
playing Monopoly and Twister
since Hide and Seek was,
as my mother said,
inadvisable.

There was a bit of a scare
the next morning
when Susie turned up missing.

We ran through the house
looking for her,
and I finally found her
tucked away in the bathroom closet,
sound asleep.

The monster in the closet
spread his hands and whispered,
"I swear I never set foot out of this closet,
but it didn't do any good."
Susie was wrapped in a spare blanket
and curled like a kitten around his ankles.

"Well, at least we tried,"
I said, bending down
to shake Susie awake for breakfast.
"Don't tell anyone," I advised her.

"Who would believe me?"
said Susie.  "Except for you."
We shared a conspiratorial grin.