THE TWIN BEDS

It seems I've come full circle in my life, at least as far as my sleeping arrangements go. I'm sleeping in the bed I first slept in as a child -- the first one I ever remember sleeping in, at least.

The twin beds I now have in the master bedroom are the very ones that BJ and I slept in from the time I was about two 1/2 or three until the upstairs were finished and they were moved into BJ's new room.

BJ and I bonded in these beds. Every night before we went to sleep we had a little ritual we went through. We had our prayers first -- our own version of "Now I Lay Me" and then there was a little chant that we recited with each of us alternating lines. It went like this:

"Goodnight" "Goodnight"

"Sleep tight" "Sleep tight"

"To wake up bright" "In the morning light"

"To do what's right" "With all our might"

And I think there was more but I can't remember it.

We whispered together every night but sometimes we were too loud. We would hear one of our parents call from the living room to settle down and go to sleep. When we didn't take heed after several warnings, we would hear Daddy's feet hit the floor from the rocking chair, and we knew we were in for it. A pop on the rear was likely. By the time he got in there, we were "fast asleep" with the covers pulled tight up to our necks. Of course, smart Daddy that he was, that didn't fool or deter him at all. That probably didn't happen more than once or twice in our entire life, but I remember it well. I wonder what they talked about after he went back in there.

Ah, such memories!!

Well, as I have said, I am back to where I started, sleeping in one of them -- with Rufus.

But we don't have our chant -- or maybe we do -- it's just in a different language.