It was a dark and stormy night. Like most dark and stormy nights, Carla had gathered her children in the den, made pallets and turned the television to the cartoon channel. She was as afraid of storms as the three kids but she couldn’t show it.

The rain had been pouring down for hours. The wind was howling, so she turned up the volume on the television. Thunder was getting closer and lightening flashing faster.

“Mommy, is the storm here?” Jamie, the five year old, asked.

Carla smiled weakly as she turned from the window, “I think it is.”

Lightening struck a tree in her front yard and thunder shook the entire house, sending Carla backward onto the pallet with the kids. The screams from the children dissolved as their mother comforted, “You’re okay.”

“Who’s that?” said Jamie, pointing to the window.

Carla’s scream drown out the thunder as she looked into the large bulbous black eyes that occupied most of the oval shaped grey head which was peering through the curtains at her and the children.