Sitting, Waiting, Wishing

Amelia's Adventure With Dust Bunnies

Amelia’s Adventure With Dust Bunnies

Amelia is a little girl with an active imagination. Amelia’s had adventures in the Arctic, in the rainforest, even with a dragon, but today Amelia isn’t feeling very adventurous. Today Amelia has to clean her room!

Amelia was looking forward to a Saturday morning of cartoons, sugary cereal, and playing outside. Amelia’s mom had other plans. Amelia’s mom said Amelia’s room was a pigsty and must be cleaned before she could do anything else. Amelia huffed while she sat in her room thinking that it didn’t look much like a pigsty at all. So what if there were socks all over the floor, pajamas hanging from her mirror and cheesie bags under the bed. Amelia liked it that way! But Amelia decided to clean it up if it meant she could go outside!

Amelia picked up a cheesie bag that was half under the bed. She tugged on it but couldn’t get it out. It must have been stuck on something. Amelia wondered what it could be. Maybe it was one of those Dust Bunnies her mom was always talking about. Amelia closed her eyes for a second to imagine what they looked like.

Suddenly, the room started spinning and twirling and spinning some more! When Amelia opened her eyes she was under her bed, except she was so little! Her bed looked huge!
As Amelia looked around she couldn’t believe her eyes! There was her favourite pair of slippers! There was the sucker she lost two weeks before! Amelia saw all sorts of stuff she thought she had lost forever! As Amelia looked around some more she heard a quiet snickering in the background.
Snicker, snicker.
Snort.
Chortle.

Amelia squinted and looked into the dark corners. She thought she could see something moving…
Snicker, snicker.
"Ow! Don’t ye be pushin’!"
"I wasna pushin’! Stop yer yammerin’! She’ll ‘eer ya!"

Amelia took a step closer and listened for a moment.
"Hello?"
No answer.
"Who’s there?"
Still no answer.
"I can hear you, you know." Finally Amelia walked over to the dark corner. She saw a fluffy bunny that looked like it needed a bath…badly. It’s back was turned and it was facing a group of similarly dirty bunnies who were watching Amelia approach with wide eyes.

Amelia tapped the bunny on the shoulder. The bunny screamed, jumped, and turned around armed with one of Amelia’s dirty socks.
"Argh, why ye be doin’ that, lass? Ye almost scared the life outta me!"
"Sorry," said Amelia, "but I wanted to ask you who you were, and what you’re doing under my bed."
"Oh, we’re Dust Bunnies ‘o course! We live under all beds, or at least the dirty ones."
"Oh. But, how - ?"
"How do we get here? We move in ‘o course. Aye, we found this spot advertised in a paper." The Head Bunny pulled out a tattered newspaper ad and cleared his throat. "‘Nice, messy, very dusty and dirty. Cheesie eater, and sucker licker. Sock Monster comes free ‘o charge.’ Nice spot ye ‘ave ‘here!"

Amelia looked around "Sock Monster?"
"Oh, aye," replied the Head Bunny, "That there sock monster loves ter eat yer dirty socks. Sometimes 'e just collects 'em and sleeps in 'em, but mostly 'e likes ter eat 'em."
"But where is he?" asked Amelia.

The Head Bunny pointed to the other dark corner on the other side of the bed. Amelia squinted and took a close look. She saw something move and then step into the light. The Sock Monster was huge! As far as Sock Monsters were concerned. It looked somewhat like an elephant, but with short little ears. He definitely had the long trunk though. Amelia couldn't help but laugh a little at the pile of socks behind the Sock Monster.

"A sock monster, huh? I guess that's why I have so many mismatched socks."
"Yep," replied the Head Bunny, "The sock monster doesna really like ter eat more than one type 'o sock. He prefers a variety, he does." The Sock Monster nodded in agreement and wandered back into the dark corner.

Amelia watched the Sock Monster leave. She was stunned! Sock Monsters were real? Never mind that, Dust Bunnies were real! And they liked dirty rooms! But she had to clean her room.
"I’m sorry, but my mom said I have to clean my room"
"Aye, so clean. We’re alright under ‘ere."
"But, I have to clean under here too."
The Dust Bunnies all stopped. They’re ears fell, their whiskers twitched, and their eyes started to well up with tears.

"B-but ye canna clean ‘ere! Tis our home! There must be another way!"
Amelia was at a loss. How could she clean but still let the Dust Bunnies keep their home? They were kind of cute in a very filthy sort of way. And they did do a good job of eating her cheesie crumbs. Then suddenly Amelia had an idea.

She picked up a dirty sock and looked at the Bunnies.
"I have to clean my room, my mom said so. But I think I can help you stay here."
"Oh, aye? We’re listenin’."
"Well, I eat cheesies a lot, which you know. And I have a lot of mismatched socks -."
"Tha’s our sock monster. Loves yer dirty socks."
"Yeah, you mentioned that. Either way, he can't have the matching pairs, he can only have my mismatched ones. I need the good ones back."

Amelia heard a sigh from the other dark corner. After a few seconds it was raining socks. The Sock Monster was throwing all of Amelia's matching pairs of socks back at her.
Amelia picked up a sock, "Anyway, if you let me clean up, I promise I’ll leave all the dirt that’s in this dark corner. That way you can stay but my room still looks clean."
"Do ye promise to still eat yer cheesie things?" asked the Head Bunny.
"Of course, if you’ll help me clean," agreed Amelia.
The Dust Bunnies huddled together. As they huddled their ears rubbed together and created a huge cloud of dust. Finally the Head Bunny turned around.

"Okay. We agree to yer terms and we’ll help ye clean on one condition. We want two dark corners. For our Sock Monster 'o course."
Amelia smiled and picked up another sock. "Agreed. Now help me collect these socks."
Amelia and the Dust Bunnies worked together to clean. Amelia noticed the Dust Bunnies seemed to make her socks dirtier than they already were, but they were just going to get washed anyway. Eventually they got her room clean. That is, all except for two dark corners under her bed.

As Amelia picked up the last sock she looked at the Dust Bunnies. Their dark corners looked full of a lot more dirt than before they started cleaning. Amelia was going to say something but decided not to. At least her room still looked clean.

"Thank you, Dust Bunnies. You were a big help." Amelia smiled as she shook their hands. Amelia blew dust off her hands and looked at the Bunnies. "I have a gift for you." Amelia grabbed two mismatched socks and handed them to the Head Bunny. "I think you can use these more than me." The Head Bunny smiled and tossed the mismatched socks over to the Sock Monster.
"He gets right snarky if he doesna get enough socks ter eat."

Amelia smiled, and said thank you again. The Dust Bunnies cheered. As they cheered a huge puff of dust surrounded Amelia. Amelia closed her eyes and started coughing. As soon as she closed her eyes the room started spinning. Suddenly, Amelia opened her eyes and she was back sitting in the middle of her room, except now her room was clean! Amelia couldn’t help but start laughing.

Amelia’s mom heard the laughing and opened the door.
"What’s so funny, Amelia?"
"The Dust Bunnies helped me clean my room, mom. They promised to help if I kept two corners under my bed dirty for them. Once we were done I gave them two socks to give to the Sock Monster they have."
Amelia’s mom gave Amelia a funny look and shook her head, "You have an active imagination, sweetheart. How about some lunch?"

As Amelia was getting up from the floor there was a bumping and thumping sound under the bed, then a puff of dust billowed out from under it. Amelia’s mom looked from Amelia to the bed, to Amelia again.
"But -."
Amelia took her mom’s hand and lead her out of the room.
"Just an active imagination, mom. Let’s go have lunch."


The End.

Copyright Sara Janssen. February 2006. All Rights Reserved.

posted by Sara @ 10:50 p.m. Comments: 4