Bedtime for Benjamin

Bedtime for Benjamin

Abigail Rice

‘It’s not fair!” said Benjamin to Batu, “I hate going to bed!”

Batu was Benjamin’s best friend. Batu was a teddy bear. Batu never talked. He only listened and smiled. Benjamin loved Batu.

“I said it’s bedtime!” called Benjamin’s Dad from the bottom of the stairs.

“NO!’” yelled Benjamin at the top of his voice.

Then he squinched up his eyes, wrinkled his nose and poked out his tongue with all his might.

“Pthh,” he spat.

Batu laughed so hard he nearly fell out of bed, but nobody heard him.

When Benjamin’s eyes opened, they opened really wide indeed! Dad had come upstairs and was standing right in front of him.

“Aghh,” he cried.

Then he ran in circles on the landing trying not to be caught. Dad was running round in circles too. They were both getting rather dizzy.

“Gotcha!” said Dad as he swept Benjamin off his feet and carried him over his shoulder to his bedroom.

Benjamin was not happy. He wriggled and squiggled and growled like a bear. Then he puffed up his face like a balloon until it went red. Finally, he pushed out his bottom lip and pretended to cry.

But nothing seemed to be working. Dad was putting him to bed anyway.

“Good night, Benny Boy,” said Dad as he blew out the light and shut the door.

“Humph,” said Benjamin. “It’s not fair!” he said again.

“Why are adults allowed to stay up? Every night, I have to go to bed while they have fun. It’s so boring! I can hear them talking and laughing. But I have to sit here by myself and have no fun at all.”

Batu didn’t say anything, but this hurt his feelings.

“By yourself?” he thought. “No fun at all?”

“I know what I’ll do,” said Benjamin, “I’ll sneak downstairs!’

With that, Benjamin went over to the bedroom door. Very quietly, he opened it.

 ‘Squeak,’ said the door.

“Shhhh,” hushed Benjamin.

Then he froze. Had they heard him? He could hear them still chatting so he squashed himself through the gap in the door and tiptoed across the landing.

‘Squeak, squeak, squeak,’ said the floor with each step.

“Shh, shh, shh,” hushed Benjamin back .

He froze again. “I don’t think they heard that either.”

He was now at the top of the stairs.

“One step at a time”, he thought. “Slowly.”

 ‘Creak, Creak, Creak…’

“Oh dear”, he thought, “maybe I should go faster.”

‘Creak, Creak, Creak…’

“Oh, that’s no good! I’ll have to crawl down on my tummy!”

There is more to this story. If you’d like more information, please contact me 🙂