I dressed for the evening meal before the masters settled in for their dinner. Mrs. Wilson did herself proud, and the Hobbsons enjoyed their meal. The little girl, now dressed more formally in a cute blue dress, kept up a running narration about her adventures in the woods with her ‘friends.’
I could not hear all of it as I was in and out of the kitchen, but she mentioned Lord Gob, Lady Flit, and Mister Humpity, who I gathered was some sort of pachyderm. Her parents listened and made comments such as, “That’s nice, but I thought Lady Flit had gone to Florida for the winter,” as if they were speaking of real people.
I am not sure I approved of feeding the child’s fantasy world so completely, but they seemed a relatively solid family, and it was not my place to judge.
“You played all day, Penny,” Mrs. Hobbson said as the meal concluded. “So it’s time to do your reading and then to bed.”
“Mom!” the tyke protested.
“Don’t ‘mom’ me, young lady,” her mother said. “We let you play because it’s summer, but you have to read your books in the evening or we’ll make you do them in the daytime — and then no playing outside!”
The moppet acquiesced reluctantly and went off to her room to do her lessons.
I made an appointment with Mrs. Hobbson for the next day to go over plans for the weekend and then went to my room. I felt suddenly tired and sat back against the headboard fully clothed and dozed off.
I cannot say how long I sat there dozing, but I heard a noise. It was a giggle out in the quiet hall. The decidedly girlish sound was followed immediately by a deeper, almost animal sound that was half-laugh, half-snarl.
“Good lord!” I thought as I put on the lamp and moved to the door. “Does the girl have a dog in the house?” I opened the door to glance into the hallway. The corridor was dark with the only faint light aside from the lamp in my room.
I was startled to see the young girl Penny, dressed in footed pink pajamas apparently floating down the hall! She looked for all-the-world as if she was seated on an unseen horse!
I rubbed my eyes at the sight. As I did, the child, startled I suppose by my opening the door, tumbled the three feet to the ground with a cry of ‘oof!’”
“Ouch!” she said. I moved toward the child by instinct and scooped her up.
“Are you all right?” I asked.
“’Course,” she said with a pouting face. “Mr. Humpity was just startled by the light from your room. He’s shy. You scared him.”
“What are you doing out of bed at this hour?” I asked. The tyke made an elaborate show of brushing herself off and stood defiantly with her hands on her hips.
“I wasn’t tired no more,” she said as if I was an idiot to even ask. “And I had to go potty; then I went exploring with Mister Humpity.” She got a serious expression and looked around as if she had lost something.
“What is it?” I asked. “Did you lose something?”
“Mr. Humpity,” she said. “You scared him away.” She looked at me accusingly.
“Sorry,” I said. “But I had no way of knowing you were out here.” I found myself looking for whatever she had been standing on in the dark hall to pretend to be riding her magical elephant but could see only a bench, though it seemed too far away for her to have been standing on.
“Well,” she said. “How am I going to get back to my room?”
“You have legs, do you not?” I said. “That is how you got here.”
“I rode,” she said, now sure I was simple. “On Mister Humpity.”
“Well you can walk back,” I said firmly.
“It’s dark,” she said. “I … it’s a long way to my room.” She looked so pitiful I had a hard time not snickering.
“Would you like me to walk you back to your room?” I asked.
She nodded her head then added. “Could you ride me?”
“Ride you?” I asked.
“I mean, be my horsey!” she said. “It seems only fair since you scared Mister Humpity away.”
She looked at me expectantly. I knew that if I was going to fit into the household I would have to make my peace with the little vixen.
“I guess you win,” I said with a shrug. “I shall be your trusty steed.” I bent down with my back to her and, looking over my shoulder said, “Hop aboard for the bedtime express.”
She hopped up with her legs around my waist her hands around my neck. I put my hands under her legs and off we went.
The halls were silent as the tomb as I carried the girl along. She giggled and occasionally gave me orders like, “Faster brave stead!” or “Not so bouncy!”
“Do you always go exploring at night?” I asked her.
“Not all the time,” she said matter-of-factly. “Just when Lady Flit or Mister Humpity are restless.”
“Do your parents know?”
“Oh, sure,” she said, “They don’t mind as long as I don’t make too much noise or Mister Humpity does his business outside.”
I marveled at her bold-faced ability to lie.
“You’re a better horsey than Mister Kentworth,” she said as we approached her room and I moved to set her down. “But even he tucked me into bed.”
“Mister Kentworth used to give you horsey rides?”
“Uh huh,” she said.
“Did he do it often?”
“Kinda,” she said.
I paused to open the door to her room and flipped on the light. Inside were the pink and ponies I would have expected from a young girl’s room. I carried her to her canopy bed and sat on it.
“Do you know why he left?” I ventured.
The girl reluctantly climbed off my back and rolled onto the covers. “Yeah,” she said. She crawled around on the voluminous covers till she found a spot suitable to climb under the comforter. “I didn’t like him anymore.” She said the last with almost a snarl to her tone. “He wasn’t a good horsey.”
I looked at her with curiosity and wanted to ask more, but with the amazing ability of a child she dropped her head on her pillow and was instantly snoring.