29

Sam woke us up in the middle of the night.

“Mondo!” he screamed. “Mondo!”

“Shhhhhhh,” shushed Dad.

“What’s wrong?” I said, barely awake and very confused. “What’s going on?”

“It’s Sam,” said Dad in a whisper so loud it was almost a shout.

“Mondo!” yelled Sam.

I reached under my pillow for my flashlight. I turned it on and pointed it at Dad.

“Turn that thing off,” he said, squinting his eyes and waving the light away.

I pointed it at Sam. His eyes were closed. Closed! He had a big smile on his face. He was sound asleep, holding Mondo in his arms.

“Mondo,” said Sam, his eyes still closed.

That’s when it started. It came from somewhere outside the tent.

“AAAAAARRRRRRRRROOOOOOOOOO …”

“What is that?” I said.

“AAAAAARRRRRRRRROOOOOOOOOO …”

“It sounds like Rupert,” said Dad, listening carefully. “Or at least I think it’s Rupert.”

“WOOPAH?” said Sam. He was definitely awake now.

“AAAAAARRRRRRRRROOOOOOOOOO …”

“WOOPAH?” Sam said, even louder.

“Sam!” shouted Poppy from his bedroom window. “Quiet down out there! Go back to sleep. You’ve woken Rupert with all your noise.”

“WOOPAH?” said Sam.

“AAAAAARRRRRRRRROOOOOOOOOO…” Rupert continued to howl from inside the house.

“That dog sounds like a wolf,” I said.

“WOOF?” said Sam, clearly alarmed. “BIG WOOF? BAD WOOF?”

“It’s not the Big Bad Wolf,” said Dad, trying to calm him. “That was just a cartoon. There’s nothing to worry about. Go back to sleep, Sam.”

Sam stood up, still holding Mondo, and marched out of the tent.

“What are you doing?” said Dad. “Come back into the tent, Sam.”

“Bye-bye, Woof,” said Sam, poking his head back into the tent. “Tham home.”

“What are you talking about?” I said, worried about where all this was leading. I didn’t want to go home. I wanted to stay in the tent all night. I wanted to wake up in the tent in the morning. “Listen to Dad, Sam! Get back in the tent! We’re not going home. Just go back to sleep. Everything’s okay. When we wake up we’ll have waffles with Poppy. Come on. PLEASE! Don’t ruin everything.”

“Tham home,” said Sam. “Tham home.”

“AAAAAARRRRRRRRROOOOOOOOOO …”

“Bye-bye!” Sam shouted, marching into the darkness. When we caught up to him we came back to the tent, got our things and put on our shoes. We walked home in our pajamas.

....

We all went straight to bed. I could hear Sam. He was still talking in his crib. Or maybe he was sleep talking. I don’t know.

“Bye-bye, Woof,” he kept saying. “Bye-bye, Woof.”