by Gail Moore

The other night, my older two children were on sleepovers, this doesn't happen very often, and, as I found out, the twins don't like it. You see, the twins are in separate bedrooms, sharing bunk beds with an older sibling, and so, I've never thought about them having regular four year old nighttime sleep problems. Now I know differently.

It started when Jeremy told me he needed the lights on to sleep. When I questioned this new sleeping arrangement he broke out in tears, it was needed, he explained to me, "to keep the ghosts away." Ghosts? This was the first time I had ever heard him voice this concern. After all the scary movies they'd watched before bedtime with nightmare side effects, this new revelation was shocking to me.

Ghosts? "Yes," he told me, "they'll get into my room." He explained to me that "ghosts can't get into my room when there's an older person sleeping with." say, like his eight year old sister.

"Would it help if you sleep with your twin brother in the other room?" I asked. He said, "Probably not." but he wanted to try. So, off we went to the next room. Zachary sat up asking, "What's the matter?" Jeremy explained the situation and said that it was now necessary for there to be lights on in the bedroom and for the door to be shut so as not to allow the ghosts to enter. Upon hearing Jeremy's dilemma, this sagely four-year-old told his fraternal twin that there was nothing to worry about, "The door can remain open because there is a secret weapon in my bedroom. An invisible shield at the door protects ghosts from entering into the room." There was however, a different problem in Zachary's opinion, "There's a ghost dog in the neighborhood." whom Zachary added could be heard barking just outside his bedroom window. I stepped in at that point to mention that we have a dog that goes outside every morning and evening to do his duties and at one point his barking may have been mistaken for that of a ghost dog.

Zachary was adamant that our dog doesn't know how to bark and impersonated the only sounds he has ever heard his dog make. Realizing that he might not have ever heard our dog bark as he doesn't very often, I decided to do my own impersonation of our dog barking. This didn't cut it with my intelligent son, he has never heard this sound from our dog and he knew that the sound he had heard was definitely that of a ghost dog.

At this point, it was evident to me that I was not going to win either argument or that they were in the process of working it out without me, and so, I left the room and went to my bedroom. I sat there listening for half an hour as they discussed the fears that had enveloped them at this point in time, but then, the discussion moved on to Jurassic Park, the Lost World, Zachary's present passion. After much talk about dinosaurs they became quiet and I had time to assimilate the past hour. Twins live in a great world, helping each other through tough spots without the interference of adults, working out problems on a level each can understand . We should all be so lucky!

Gail Moore, Temiskaming Multiple Births