Story of the Rat Girl

Story of the Rat Girl

As with many young children, they dream. Many dreams are forgotten, but some remain in your memories long after the children are grown. Sometimes, adults also have dreams that will affect their children. Such is this story.

As with many children, when I had a bad dream, I sought the comfort of my mother. Therefore when I had a bad dream, I would go downstairs to my parent’s bedroom and climb into bed with them. I would try to get between both of them; there no bad dreams could find me. But this action was filled with its own peculiar dangers. If I climbed into the bed on my mother’s side, she would wake up quickly and off to my own bed I would go. Many times, the trip to my bed would occur before the effects of the bad dream had worn off. Then, not only would I be scared in my own bed, but I would feel that mother did not want me. She had left me to the affairs of the monster that was out to get me.

My objective for the best case scenario was to climb into my parent’s bed on my father’s side. He was a much heavier sleeper and it would be hours before my mother even was aware I was there. When mom would take me to my bed, the bad dreams were gone and I could feel asleep quickly and happily.

One night I had a very bad dream. What is was I no longer can remember. I certainly did not want to go back to my bed too soon, so my only option was to craw into my parent’s bed from my father’s side of the bed. My father was sleeping on his back with his left leg raised and bending at the knee. It made the leg look like a mountain under the sheets. I thought this was great because it would give me a good hold to use to get into the bed. The problem was that Dad was dreaming also.

His dream was just as bad as my dream. He was dreaming that he was somewhere and that a rat was crawling up his leg. Unfortunately, when the rat started to climb up his leg, it was the same time I was climbing into his bed using his elevated leg to pull myself up.

Dad woke up suddenly, grabbed the rat and threw the rat violently against the wall. But I was the rat. Yep, Dad grabbed my by the arm and tossed me against the wall. I hit the wall about 2 feet from the floor and slid down to the floor. I was shocked to say the least. I started crying and saying, “Daddy”. He immediately was wide awake and realized that it was his little girl climbing up his leg. He got out of bed and comforted me. After making sure I was alright, I asked him why he threw up against the wall. He told me that he thought I was the rat.

Mom woke up and back to my own bed I went. I didn’t mind going back to my own bed now. For some reason, climbing into my parent’s bed was just as scary as my bad dreams. That was the last time that I ever crawled into my parent’s bed again.

Lesson: Dreams can affect your children well into adulthood. Always try to listen to the child’s dream and find a way to explain the dream so that the fear will vanish. Do not believe that a child’s fear is a small thing. It can haunt them for the rest of their lives. Do not belittle their experience, but try to change it into a positive remembrance.