“Jenny, come on, it’s time for school!” Jenny’s mother shouted up from the base of the stairs.
Jenny had been in her bedroom, but she came out into the hallway to respond. “I can’t! Muffin’s missing!”
Carol started to talk, then rolled her eyes and trotted up the stairs so she didn’t need to shout. “Sweetheart, you’ve been late for school three times this month already.”
“But Muffin…!”
“I know,” Carol said tiredly. “Where did you see her last?”
Jenny led her into the bedroom and pointed at the bed. “Sixteen, there are sixteen of them. Daisy, Jada, Summer, …”
“Okay, I get it. But no Muffin.”
Jenny nodded, biting her lip and waving her left hand in the way that suggested a meltdown was imminent.
“Where did you see her last?”
“I counted them last night! Daisy, Jada, Summer, …”
“And was Muffin there?”
Jenny closed her eyes and listed the names silently. “Yes,” she said after a minute. “Sitting between Daniel the Tiger and Hannah the Platypus.”
Jenny’s mother surveyed the bed, first counting off sixteen stuffed animals, then lifting each one, then the pillows. “Is she under the bed?”
Jenny looked at her mother with wide eyes, shaking her left hand rapidly now. There was no way she was looking under the bed. Her mother knew full well who lived under there.
“Okay, sweetheart, we’ll find Muffin. If she was in the bed last night, she’s in the bedroom somewhere.”
“Maybe she was eaten by the monster under the bed.”
Carol thought for a moment about starting down this conversational path, then closed her eyes, took a breath, and decided to start her search.
Getting on all fours, she looked into the dark abyss where the monsters definitely didn’t live, under Jenny’s bed. Some dust bunnies, a pair of shoes, and a notebook covered in reflective unicorn and fairy stickers, but no Muffin.
Having pulled the stray items out of the darkness, her mother stood up again. Next stop: The dresser.
Jenny stiffened up as her mother moved in that direction. Carol noticed the change, and now Jenny was shaking both of her hands rapidly.
Carol stopped and turned back to Jenny. “Is there someting you want to tell me?”
Jenny shook her head slowly, without breaking eye contact. There was deep anxiety in her eyes.
“Where’s Muffin?”
“I don’t know!” Jenny stomped a foot defiantly.
“Is she in the dresser?”
Jenny looked out the window, humming to soothe herself.
Carol nodded and opened the top drawer of the dresser. Muffin Puppy’s sideways smile greeted her.
She lifted Muffin and held her out to Jenny, crouching as she did so. “Babydoll, what’s going on?”
Jenny grabbed Muffin and squeezed it tight, turning away.
“Is there a problem at school?”
Jenny sat down on the ground, her back to her mother, and curled up around Muffin, humming a song her mother didn’t recognize.
“Okay,” Carol said. “No school today. But we need to work this out.”
Jenny nodded her head, and curled up into a tighter ball around Muffin.
Carol sat on the bed. She picked up Daisy Bear and started idly brushing her fur, waiting for Jenny to calm down enough to talk.