Toby’s Other Friend

Everyone should have a best friend; it is just wrong not to have one.

It was Halloween when we met, and I have to say that it was perfect timing. My mom had made me a costume and I was lucky enough to go out as Batman, with the belt, the weapons and other stuff that made it look like I really was a superhero (I always wanted to be a superhero). My friends were already out there, and I would meet them on the corner to head out, just like we always did. I brought out two bags with me – just pillowcases, but the best – and came home straining with them both. My mom had me take a bath after I got home and then I just had to go to bed (a school night, she said). Only had one or two candies (some caramels and Rockets, always my favorites), and then I put the bags under the bed.

“Ouch!”

Now, I thought that was a little strange. I was an only child and I did not have any of my cousins coming over – not on Halloween, anyway – and I had no radio on. And I knew that I should have been scared. But I wanted my candy.

And I wanted to look.

“What? Who’s that?”

I was smart enough not to shout. And whoever it was under the bed was smart enough to not say a thing.

So, what could I do?

I kicked the bag again.

“Ow…ow!”

“Hey, hey!”

I wasn’t sure what I was saying. But I had to say something.

And the bag was moving.

“Y’know, if you are under there, I am going to kick it again.”

“All right, all right…Just a sec.”

The bag slowly rolled out and then he showed himself. Now, people always wonder what they look like; the monsters under the bed. They might think that they are all the same, or that they are all different types and have to look out for one another if they get sent to someone's house. But this was something that I did not expect at all.

It was small, about my size, not too dark or light, and covered with something like fur that was a shade of blue in the dark room.

And it was smiling.

“Well, this is really awkward.”

I couldn’t think of anything to say.

“You see, you were not supposed to see me at all. You’re just supposed to complain about me and then when a parent comes in, I take off. You only caught me off guard because…it’s Halloween.”

For some reason, I thought that was really funny. I had to laugh a bit.

“What’s funny?”

“You. I have a monster under my bed telling me that it is there for the candy.”

It did look down at the bag as I said that, so I thought I was right. But it was pretty annoyed now.

“I am not here for the candy.”

“No, I guess you don’t. You eat kids?”

“Hey, I’m a monster, not an animal!”

Again, I laughed. And when it thought about it, it laughed, too (still wasn’t sure whether it was a boy or girl). It had a slight growl in its throat which was disturbing, but it was happier now.

“This is so dumb.”

“You’re right. I have so many questions for you.”

“Great…” It sat on my bed.

“Why are you here?”

“Okay. I am a monster under your bed. Why do you think I’m here?”

“Well, I thought that you were going to eat me…”

It groaned again. “Please, I don’t do that. None of us do.”

“Okay, so you are here, under my bed…to scare me?”

“You got it…but I think that ship has sailed. You scared?”

I looked at the thing that had been under my bed now sitting on my bed.

“Not really.”

“Cool. I screwed up the one thing that I was supposed to get done. Wonderful.”

And I don’t know why I said it, but it seemed right to go this way?

“You want some candy?”

It did smile at me, a lot of sharpened teeth there…

“Actually, yeah. Why not? I usually don’t have any until well after the holiday.”

I looked in the bag, and then thought of another question.

“What’s your name?”

“Hmm…good question. Don’t really have one.”

I thought that was sad, and then I looked down. I was holding a fun-sized version of a Toblerone (who left that in there?).

“Toby?”

It looked at me with wide eyes and mouthed the name before speaking.

“Toe…bee. Toby. Okay, it is really my name? I like that. Toby… Toby! Toby! Toby!”

He was almost shouting, so I had to shush him.

“Sorry. This is really odd. Most little kids don’t have these kinds of conversations with us.”

“Us? Well, how many are there…?”

We stayed up pretty late talking about being a monster under the bed. And Toby liked that he did not have to scare me, even if he was breaking some sort of vague rule. I had a new friend and a great secret.

*

A few weeks go by and that is the best part of my life as a little kid. I came home from school, saw the pillow sack get smaller and smaller while Toby never really got any bigger. We would talk a lot, and he knew all about my mom, her boyfriends (I called them “uncles”, but he knew what I was doing, and what she was doing), and school.

School…

I was having a hard time at school and he knew all about it after a few weeks of my complaining…

“This older kid, Robby Curtis… He just doesn’t like you.”

“Yeah, that’s why he trips me, pushes me. Hates that he has to be in our math class because he can’t figure out what a fraction is all about.”

“I see, I see…” Toby was grinning. For the first time, I felt really uncomfortable.

“What you thinking?”

“Nothing, nothing… I just want to check up on him.”

Now, I knew that there were monsters under other beds – hated calling them “monsters”, but Toby said it was a union thing (whatever that meant) – and he could find out very quickly about this kid. I did not really believe it or care, but I was happy about it.

“You gonna scare him?”

Toby, heading back under the bed, turned and smiled at me.

“Something like that. Just wait.”

And he disappeared. I thought that he wanted me to follow him, but I was not sure how that would have worked. I found a roll of Rockets and organized the colors. There was something about his last line…

And he was gone the next night.

So was Robby. At least, that is what we were told. Mr. Heagan came to our class to tell us that Mr. Curtis was missing. “And I want you boys and girls to start going home in pairs directly from school. No more after-school activities for the time being.”

I heard the others in the room groaning and complaining, but I did not say a thing. There was nothing to do after school that I liked, and I rode my bike, at least until the snow started and then I walked with some of my friends who had also been bullied. That was strange. At recess, after the announcement, some of the kids thought that the one who got Robby must have been in the neighbourhood.

“Perverted uncle?”

“Crossing guard?”

“That cashier at Mike’s Milk Stop?”

I heard every single thing you could hear before the bell rang and we went back to classes.

And that was one week of worry at our school…

And Toby was back.

“Hello.”

I was in bed when he spoke and almost jumped out and hit the side table.

“Toby!”

He slid out from under the bed, moving smoothly and coming up to his full height in front of the door. It wasn’t like he stood up; it was just him floating there.

“I am back. All done.”

We were facing each other across the bed now. I was catching my breath and he was smiling again.

“All done?”

“Yes. Everything is taken care of.”

It was very cold outside, and I felt some of it in that room.

“Toby, you didn’t…? I mean, you were not…?”

His smile was swallowed up by his stare.

“He was not treating my friend fairly. He was a bully, a meanie, and a pretty bad boy. You should see how he behaves with his parents. Well…behaved.”

I was actually scared now. My mom was in her room down the hall and I thought about running past him and asking if I could sleep with her. She would have laughed at me if I explained why; also, she would say that “no twelve-year-old boy should be scared of his own shadow”. But I was not looking at a shadow.

Was I?

“Okay, well, I think that I should go to bed now.”

I went under the comforter and looked away from him. Toby was still standing in the room and I knew that he had something to say.

“You're angry with me? Really? I am here to help you and you get upset because of a bully? That doesn’t make any sense. You really don’t make any sense at all.”

I don’t know why I knew, but I felt that he was going back under the bed very slowly. But before he did so, he said one thing that still haunts me.

“We're friends.”

I did not see Toby after that. No one ever found out about Robby Curtis and I wasn’t gonna say a thing. The strange thing is that other kids began to go missing, too. Some of the kids were bullies to not just me, but also my friends. One older kid was missing and they found that he had a knife in his backpack when they went through his things at school. And there was also a teacher from our gym class who spent a lot of time idling around the girls’ locker room after classes (some of them complained about this before he disappeared). No one found him, either.

And I stopped going out for Halloween. I was too old to be a hero.