Then we wouldn't have to wait so long

The little girl's name was Aislinn and a giant lived under her stairs. She, of course, had never seen the giant, because everyone knows that if you saw one, your eyes would fall out and turn into aloe vera on cement cracks. Besides, the giant was far too big for her to completely see. Everyone knows that too.

Aislinn knew that a giant lived under her stairs because she could feel it waiting for her to step on the fourth step, because the gap between the fourth step and the fifth step was the only place in all of stairs of all the world where giants could slip their hands through to grab little girl's ankles under their frilly nightgowns. Aislinn always made sure her feet didn't land on that step -- she'd jump from number three to number five every time.

One night though, she woke from a dream were she chased dogs through a field of bluebells, and found herself thirsty. She got out from bed, careful not to trip on the hem of her frilly white nightgown and tiptoed out of her room, and down the hall.

Aislinn was yawning and rubbing her eyes as she went down the stairs, one step at a time.

She couldn't hear the slight rumble underneath her, crouching under the stairs. And there was simply no way she could see the hand -- as big as her daddy's car! -- slip from between the gap of stair step five and stair step four, and the finger that traced some little whirls and swirls in the wooden surface of step number four.

"Waaaargh," yawned Aislinn the Little Girl, rubbing her little girl eyes.

And the sound rumbled and rumbled. And the finger traced and traced and whirled and swirled.

. . .


*


Sasha is sleepy. Broke too. But the sleepiness is more immediate.

And, like OMGWTFBBQ! -- in ZoeDee's words: "Keep it local, luv."