Once upon a time, a very long time ago, there was a little boy named Derek. Derek lived with his mother in a small cottage at the edge of the deep woods.

Derek was really getting to be a big boy now, he went to kindergarten.

One morning Derek woke up very frightened. He just knew that there was a big, ugly, hairy monster under his bed. It was waiting for him to put his feet on the floor so that it could grab him. But Derek was much too smart for that mean old monster. He stood up on the edge of his bed and jumped as far as he could, then ran into the other room.

When he got into the other room, he found his grand daddy drinking a cup of coffee. Granddaddy looked at Derek and could tell that something was wrong.

"What's wrong, Monkey?" Granddaddy asked. Granddaddy sometimes called him by nicknames, but that was all right 'cause he knew that his grand daddy loved him.

"There is a bad old monster under my bed waiting to get me if I get close enough for him to grab me," Derek said.

Granddaddy smiled at him and said, "I think that you were just having a bad dream. There aren't any monsters in this house. I wouldn't let them come in here."

Derek knew that Granddaddy believed that, but he wasn't at all sure about it. Granddaddy could be wrong. Anyway Granddaddy let Derek sit in his lap for a while. That always felt good.

Derek had his breakfast and had to get ready to go to school.

By the time that he was ready for school, he had pretty much forgotten about the monster. Then Granddaddy took him to school.

He had a good day in school that day. The teacher put a smiley face sticker on his folder. Derek knew that would make Mommy and Granddaddy happy. It made him happy, too.

When school was over, Granddaddy picked him up and brought him home. When Derek came in the house, Mommy's cat, Beast, greeted them at the door. Beast was a big old fat cat that liked attention. So Derek stopped and petted her for a while. That made Beast purr.

Even though Beast was real lazy and liked to sleep a lot, sometimes she acted real weird. Like she would run all around the house as fast as she could for no reason. And Mommy and Granddaddy both said that she was the only cat that they had ever seen that would chase her own tail.

Of course Derek was hungry when he got home from school, so he had something to eat. After he had eaten, he decided that he wanted to color, so he got out his crayons and some paper and colored for a while. Then he got out his cars and played with them some.

Then Derek decided that he wanted to go outside for awhile, so he got out his magic stick. You knew that Derek had a magic stick, didn't you? He had found it at the edge of the deep woods one day and it was a very magical thing. It could be anything that Derek wanted it to be, a fishing pole, a baseball bat, a pet dinosaur that he could ride, or if he wanted to ride real fast, a race horse. It could be a hammer or a wrench if he needed to work on something. Sometimes it was just a stick. Everyone said that Derek had a good imagination at times like that, but Derek still wasn't sure what an imagination was.

Derek was lucky that he had taken his magic stick with him because two lions and a tiger came running up to him. They thought that he would make a tasty lunch. So Derek's magic stick became a whip and he tamed those three big cats, then he sold them to a traveling circus that came by at that time.

Later it was time when Mommy started to cook supper and Derek wanted to help, so Mommy let him help cook. Supper always tasted better when Derek helped to cook it.

After supper Derek had his bath and got ready for bed. When he got ready to get in bed, he remembered the monster, so he knelt down and looked under his bed. There it was! Even though it was dark under his bed, he could see it! It was big and hairy and he could even see its eyes looking at him!

Derek ran into the living room and said, "Granddaddy! That monster is under my bed! I saw it! It is big and hairy and I could see its eyes looking at me!"

Derek's grand daddy got up and said, "OK, lets go see what it is." And they went back to Derek's room. Derek stood by the door while Granddaddy knelt down to look under Derek's bed. "Well, there is something big and hairy under there. Go get me the broom so I can pull it out."

Derek ran to the laundry room to get the broom. He thought that Granddaddy was brave to pull a monster out from under the bed.

He gave Granddaddy the broom and stood back while Granddaddy reached under his bed with the broom. Then Granddaddy reached under the bed and grabbed the monster and pulled it out. He laughed a little as he handed Derek his big teddy bear that he had gotten a year ago. Derek hugged the teddy bear. When he had first gotten it, it was almost as big as he was, but he was much bigger now.

Then Derek remembered the eyes looking at him. "Granddaddy, this isn't a monster, but I saw its eyes looking at me. Maybe the monster was hiding behind my teddy bear when you looked."

Granddaddy knelt down again and looked. "Oh, I see it now," Granddaddy said. "It is a real beast!" Then Granddaddy made a kind of funny whistle between his teeth and Derek heard, "Meoww," and Mommy's cat, Beast, came out from under the bed. Granddaddy laughed and said, "There are the eyes that you saw. Now hop in that bed."

Derek had to laugh, too. He got in the bed and Granddaddy pulled the covers up over him and said, "Night, night."

Derek said, "Night, night," and went to sleep.

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