THE MYSTERY OF THE DISAPPEARING BED

                       A very short story . . .

                                           by Evelyn Sichi
 
 
   

          Janey loved to spend time with her grandmother. She called

     her "Pete" because all of her grandmother's family and friends

     did.

          Janey's grandfather had become very ill and Janey's grandmother

     had cared for him.

          After his death Pete had sold their small house and moved to a

     large apartment building in a busy city. When Janey's parents first

     took her to visit, she thought her grandmother was very lucky to have

     an elevator to bring them all up to the third floor.

          When the elevator trip was over they'd walked down the hall to

     Apartment 3B. When they knocked, Pete was waiting for them with a hug

     for each.

          They'd then entered a living room with a striped couch and

     matching chair. Janey's grandmother showed them her tiny kitchen and

     even tinier bathroom.

          "Aren't there any more rooms?" Janey had asked.

          "That's it," replied her grandmother. "I only have a 'single'."

          This couldn't be.

          Something was missing. Where was her grandmother's bed? She

     surely didn't sleep on the couch every night. Then Janey noticed large

     white doors. To where could they lead if there were no more rooms?

          Just then her grandmother asked her, "Janey, would you like to

     meet 'Murphy'?"

          "Murphy?" asked Janey.

          Then with a twinkle in her eye, Pete opened the white doors

     and carefully pulled a large, creaking bed down to the floor.

          "A Murphy Bed," she laughed. When you stay overnight here, you can sleep

     on it."

           From then on Janey did spend many nights in the city with her grandmother

     and Murphy.  She liked to tell stories with her grandmother and then fall asleep

     listening to the sounds of the traffic going by on the boulevard below.

     Copyright 2001 by Evelyn Sichi for Storybookonline.net