“Daddy, Daddy, I had a bad dream. I had a bad dream!”
I opened my eyes. 4:19 AM. My wife shook me.
“I got it, I got it. I’ll check on him.”
I stumbled down the dark hallway and into his room. He was sitting up in bed, crying, clutching his blanket. “I had a bad dream, Daddy.”
I sat down next to him and put my arm around his shoulder and pulled him into me.
“It was just a dream, Jack. Just a dream. It wasn’t real. It was just a dream.”
He snuggled into me. I rubbed his hair and snuggled back.
“Do you want to tell me about it. What happened? What did you dream about?” As a kid, I was terrified of robbers breaking into the house to come and get me.
“Chawlie had a toy caw, and he was playing with it, and he didn’t share.”
I almost laughed out loud. Instead I tucked him back into bed and sang him a song, until he fell asleep.