Next time your children get angry with each other - check for Lobs. |
FOutside the window of the children's room, was a Lob, a type of fairy, named Mysary (My-suh-ree, which is just another name for misery). He stopped to peek into the the window to see what was going on. No one noticed the Lob because it is dark outside and Lobs wear small black little coats that look like rainclouds with arms and a face. The only thing that Lobs do all day and night long is think of the many different ways they can stir up trouble and make humans angry with one another. Lobs like it when people are upset because the angry feelings are what Lobs have for dinner. Mysary saw the perfect opportunity to make trouble tonight! He quietly slipped through the crack in the window sill and reached over to pick up the little girl's stuffed toy horse that she slept with each night. Then, he flew it over to the little boy's bed and put it under the blankets so only the head of the horse stuck out over the edge. “Heh heh heh,” he snickered to himself while he greedily clasped his hands together, “This will surely make the Sister angry enough that I'll have a great dinner of both boy and girl mad feelings tonight!” Then, he wondered what else he could do. He looked around the room and spotted the little boy's favorite pair of boots. Mysary grabbed the boots and snuck them underneath the girl's dresses in her wardrobe. He clapped gleefully and thought, “That will give me a great breakfast of mad feelings, too! I'm so clever and children are so easy to make mad.” Soon, the children where finished brushing their teeth and doing their other night-time things. They each gave a hug and kiss to Nana and Grandpa, then headed up the steps to climb into their snuggly beds. When they got up to their room, Sister immediately noticed that something was wrong. She looked around the room while Brother climbed into bed. Brother didn't see Sister's snuggle toy when he crawled under the covers. But Sister did. She marched right over to her brother's bed and snatched the horse out from his bed. “You took my horse!” she accused. “No, I didn't.” “I found it right where you hid it, under your blankets!” She waited for him to say something. “But, I didn't hide your horse. I promise,” he complained to her. Sister got even more angry with her brother for lying to her. “Yes you did. I know you did. You're lying! I'm going to hide something you love now!” Mysary watched with a huge smile upon his face as the fight started to get bigger. He congratulated himself on being so clever that he made the girl so mad so fast! Brother didn't like being called a liar. He wasn't telling a lie. Sister was just being bratty and he decided to tell her so. “I'm not lying!” he yelled. “If you hide something of mine, I'm going to tell! You're just being a brat!” Mysary was delighted with the mess he'd made. He was going to have a feast tonight! Nana called up the stairs to the children, “You two need to turn out the lights and go to sleep. We have a busy day tomorrow.” Mysary became bitter after the fighting stopped so soon after that adult told them to go to sleep. She was making his dinner smaller and he was so hungry. Sister sulked over to the light switch, still feeling extra angry that Brother wasn't telling the truth. She hugged her horse tight, turned out the lights and crawled into bed. She had forgotten already that she said she was going to hide something that Brother loved. Mysary waited until the lights were out, so the children couldn't see him, and he crept back into their room. He found a huge pile of mad feelings, glowing the color of sickness, beneath the head of Sister's bed. Each time he took a bite, Sister made more glowing mad feelings for him to eat. She was still feeling angry that the boy took her snuggly horse and then lied about it. Girl mad feelings were delightful and he ate until she went to sleep and stopped making the mad feelings. Then he went over to Brother's bed and slunk beneath the head of his bed. Brother didn't have as many mad feelings there for him to eat, thanks to that Nana person stopping the fight. Mysary sighed in protest, but then remembered about the boots he'd hidden. He ate the small pile of angriness under the boy's bed. He was pleasantly full for tonight, anyway. Mysary decided to sleep under the girl's wardrobe tonight so he would be sure to awaken in time for the fighting and, most especially, for the feast of breakfast. In the morning, the children were up early. Both children had forgotten all about their disagreement the night before and were getting along splendidly. Mysary was still in his cozy spot under the wardrobe, where the children couldn't see him. The boy and the girl got dressed for the day and went downstairs to have breakfast with their slippers on still. That was how things were run around their house. Mysary's stomach started to growl. He told himself to be patient, that it was almost time for them to get their shoes on and the feast would be on. Just then, the boy came into the room looking for his very most favorite boots. He wore them every day he could, even in the summer time when it was hot. Mysary watched as the boy looked where the boots normally were and Mysary's eyes began to twinkle with delight. He watched the boy look under the bed, and Mysary laughed quietly to himself. He watched the boy look under Sister's bed and Mysary had to cover his mouth so he didn't make any noise. He watched the boy look in the drawers of his chest and Mysary delightedly looked under the boy's bed to see the pile of mad feelings start to collect. It was a delicious pile of glowing sick mad feelings, even in the light of day it glowed brightly to Mysary's eyes. He decided to take a chance and he whispered from his hiding spot, “Your sister hid your boots!” Brother looked suspiciously over to his sister's wardrobe. He was sure he'd heard someone say his sister had hid his boots. He was getting so angry. He didn't do anything with her old horse and she hid his boots! He was sure of it. He stomped right down the steps and angrily told Nana what Sister had done. “Make her give them back!” When Sister walked into the room, Brother just walked up to her and punched her in the arm! Nana had no idea what was going on, but she knew it had to stop. “Sister, did you hide Brother's boots,” Nana asked. “No, Nana. I didn't do anything with his boots. But he took my horse last night and hid it under his blankets,” she complained. “I did not! You hid my boots! What did you do with them” Brother demanded to know. Nana had no idea what was going on. So, she did what every adult would do. She separated them. “You go sit on the couch,” she told Sister. “You go sit at the table,” she told Brother. “Neither one of you move. I'm going to look for the boots.” Mysary was thrilled because the pile of mad feelings under both beds were really getting huge! He really had a feast going. It was enough for a week already! He didn't even notice that the mad feelings were pushing the beds off the floor because he couldn't eat fast enough. And he was so involved with eating that he didn't notice Nana poke her head in the room and see him. Nana stayed quiet, and went back down the steps to the children. “Come with me, you two, and be very quiet,” Nana told the kids. She watched them stick their tongues out at each other before following her up the steps. “Shhhhh. Don't say a whisper of a peep! Look into your room but don't make any noise.” Each child looked into their room and had to cover their mouths when they saw Mysary eating the glowing stuff beneath their beds. He was positively gorging himself and never even noticed them! Nana motioned to them to go back downstairs, “Shhhhh,” she reminded them. When they got down the stairs, she asked them, “Do you know what that is up in your room?” The two children looked at one another and shook their heads, “No, Nana. What?” “That's a Lob. Do you know what Lobs do?” The kids again shook their heads no. Nana explained, “Lobs eat angry feelings. They enjoy it when people get mad at each other. So, they sit around and do nothing but try to think of ways to make trouble between people so they will create mad feelings.” Brother and Sister looked at each other, then back at Nana. “Lobs often hide the things each of us love so we will blame someone else and get mad. We leave all our feelings under our beds so we can take them with us into our dreams,” Nana continued. “Do you know how to get rid of a Lob?” “Noooo,” the children said breathlessly, “How?” “Well, first, you have to apologize to the ones that you were mad at. They never hid anything from you and they didn't understand what you were talking about when you were getting mad.” Nana stopped and looked at the children, waiting. “I'm sorry, Sister. I really didn't take your horse. I know how much you love it,” Brother started. “Me, too. I didn't hide your boots. I promise. I'm sorry I got mad at you,” Sister said. Nanna continued explaining how to convince a Lob to move on to another house. “The next thing you need to do is play a game on the Lob. He's upstairs right now feasting on your mad feelings and you can thank him for eating those up instead of leaving them for you to take into your dreams. Mad feelings make bad dreams, you know. The game goes like this: You go into your room and offer to help find the missing things. When other things are missing, you wink at the other one, give each other a hug, and offer to help find it.” “Ohhh, we'll go do that right now!” But Nanna stopped them, “Wait! There's more! After you find the missing things, give each other another hug and tell each other you love them. That's it. The way to get a Lob to move on is to starve it of all the mad feelings that it wants to eat!” The children flew up the stairs and into their room. “I don't know where your boots are, Brother, but I'll help you find them,” Sister said. She gave her brother a hug and started looking for the boots. “Thank you, Sister! I wonder where they could be,” Brother said. They looked all over the room and at last looked in Sister's wardrobe, where they found the boots. “Oh, thank you,” exclaimed Brother, “I love you so much!” “You're welcome. I love you, too,” said Sister and gave him a hug. Mysary couldn't believe what he was seeing. He waited for them to leave the room for the day and started thinking of new ways to cause problems. He decided to hide their pajamas so the children would get in trouble with the adult, with the Nanna. “That should do it!” When the kids came home that night, Nanna told the children to go get ready for bed. They discovered that their pajamas were missing. So, they winked at each other, went down to tell Nanna their bed clothes were missing and then offered to help each other find their jammies. When they found them, they gave each other a hug and Nanna a hug. Each told the other how helpful they were, thanked each other, and told one another how much they loved them. There were no mad feelings under the beds for Mysary to have for dinner that night. His tummy rumbled. He was not happy. It was time to move on. Mysary waited for the children to fall asleep before he snuck out the window sill he came in. The next day at school, each of the children heard one of their friends complain about being mad over missing things and blaming their brother of sister. |