The cot

The cot mattress lay on the dark blue carpet again, skewed diagonally, one corner shifted slightly under my daughter's bed. Uncovered by any sheet, its dull flower pattern shown under a scrunched child's sleeping bag.

It's not so unusual a sight in my dear teen daughter's bedroom--she hosts many a girl sleepover in her otherwise cordoned off haven. This room is off limits to all but the invited, and is especially closed to siblings. Set apart from the rest of the house, it even has its own smell, that of an air freshener that wafts out into the hallway whenever the door is cracked a smidgen.

But this was a weekday and there was no sleepover. Admittedly, it took three days for me to notice it, but that's because I am one of the forbidden except for once a day when I step over books, magazines and dirty laundry to make the bed.

I figure it this way--she gets up so early there's no time to make the bed herself. Yet it's nice for her to come home to a made bed, the only tidy part of her room. So every day I dutifully make her bed, sometimes stepping over the skewed cot mattress to do it.

Making the bed this morning, it finally dawned on me to ask nobody in particular, "why is the cot mattress in here this week?"

My husband is away all week, and things are a bit topsy turvey. My eight-year-old feels lonely without him, necessitating extra hugs at night. That may be why I'm so tired and not noticing things. My little guy wakes me up for those hugs.

Sibling issues among my four are often worse, too, when hubby's away, and my dear teen daughter and the eight-year-old are no exception. They've been snapping at each other a bit. I am ever hopeful for the future, though, because my teen really does have a good heart, beneath all the vicissitudes of adolescence.

Today I thought to ask dear daughter about the cot mattress, but I forgot until after she'd left for school. So her eight-year-old brother became the recipient of the question. It's amazing how much a little brother knows about the goings on of siblings, so I thought it was worth a shot.

So on the way to school, I asked him in the car--why does your sister have the cot set up? "Oh" he said," that was for me while Daddy's away. She said I can come in and sleep there any time I feel lonely. I was there last night."

My heart goes ka-thump today.