No More Naps!

I wanted to capture a part of my childhood.

  “No More Naps”

By W. Parker

 “ I am NOT going to take a nap!”
squeaked the little boy.
“I don’t WANT a nap!
I don’t NEED a nap!
He stamped down hard
on his little foot,
making very little noise.
“I’m not taking a nap.
You can’t make me sleep
if I’m not sleepy!”  
He scrunched his face up,
bunched his fists against his ribs
and glared fiercely up at his mother.

1
“You don’t have to sleep.”
said his mother in a reasonable voice.
“Go to your room
and play with your blocks.
I need some peace and quiet.” 
She pushed him gently into his room 
and closed the door behind him.

2
But the little boy
did not want peace or quiet.
He did not want
to play with his blocks.
He wanted to explore.  
There were birds and trees outside. 
The sun was shining on the lake.
His mother went into the kitchen  
and he went silently out the door.

3
Just outside the house 
he found a long line of ants.  
He put his nose very close,
watching their tiny legs
marching over his finger.
“Where are you ants going,
what are you doing?” 
The ant column disappeared, 
one end under a rock,
the other end under the stoop. 
“Do they take naps?” he wondered.

4
He marched down the hill
and into the neighbor’s house.
“Hi John” said the little boy.
“What are you doing here?” said John. 
“You should be taking your nap.”
“Not me. I’m too old for naps. 
Do you take naps?”
“When I’m done studying,” said John, 
I’m taking a nap.”
The little boy left quickly. 

5
He walked down the lawn
toward the lake.
Quickpaw lay in the grass
under a giant poplar tree. 
As the boy approached
the cat rolled on his back.
There was a lot of
tummy rubbing and purring.
“Quicks, you nap all day long.
Don’t you want to know what’s going on
while you’re sleeping?”
Quickpaw purred
and slowly blinked his eyes,
watching a Cardinal
skipping along the branches
just above him.

6
The boy headed down to the lake.
The purring sound
quickly fading behind him
as the sound of his dog Freckles grew,
growling and digging
in the bank for a muskrat.
His black nose was covered in yellow clay.
The boy dug frantically with Freckles.
“Is there a sleeping muskrat in here?” 
They dug until a frog jumped near the dock. 
	
7
Lying on the dock,
they searched the muddy water below.
“Where IS that frog?”
he said to his dog.
“Do you think he’s sleeping?”
The boy washed his hands, 
carefully wiping them clean on his shirt.
“There,” he said to Freckles,
proudly showing his hands,
“Mom will never know I got dirty.”

8
The boy and Freckles sat on the dock,
watching the muddy water clear,
slowly revealing minnows, 
tadpoles and crayfish.
“Freck, do they ever sleep?”
Freckles just licked him on the nose.
“If they did, then POW,
a snack for the big fish.”

9
They saw the frog jump again
and they leapt
into the shallow water
next to the dock.  
here was a great deal of splashing
and they very nearly caught the frog
three times.

10
He saw someone fishing
next to the cypress tree.
“Hi Mr. Florimbio”
“Mmmmm” he said, opening one eye.
“What are you doing out young man?”
“I’m exploring,
to see what I’m missing
when I nap.”
“Hmm. Someday, when you’re older,
you won’t want to miss your nap, 
or have it interrupted
by a splashing, yapping boy.”
“But what about your bobber?
You could miss a nibble.”
“That is a chance I’m willing to take.
Yes indeedy, sometimes life
is just one risk after another.  
Now skedaddle, 
go pester those turtles
on the drainpipe.”
 
11
Freckles and the boy 
sat by the bank of the dam
and looked at the turtles
stacked up on the drainpipe.
“What a boring pile of rocks.”
He threw a stick at them.
Freckles gave a lazy woof.
“Wake up!” he said,
“There’s tadpoles and crayfish 
and minnows and mud. 
How can you sleep
with all that going on?”

12
Freckles leaped up from the bank
and dashed off
into the kudzu after a rabbit.  
The boy tried to keep up, 
but the dog and the rabbit
sprinted down the steep bank of the dam, 
across the small meadow,
along the drain creek
and out of sight.  
He could hear yelping 
faintly in the distance. 
Looking down at his legs
he sighed, “Stupid short legs.” 
 
13
He sat down, 
surrounded by the kudzu. 
He saw a big banana spider 
resting in his web like a hammock.  
A small breeze sprang up from the lake
and swayed the leaves slowly,
back and forth,
back and forth,
rocking the spider.  
“Boy, what a great day!”
He laid back
on the cool green leaves,
looked up at the bright yellow spider,
past the white clouds
and into the deep blue sky beyond.
“Naps,” he yawned, “are stupid.”

14
The boy’s Mom moved the leaves aside.
She picked up her son 
and carried him along the dam,
past the turtles. 
“Thanks Gene.”
"No problem Trish.
I had my eye on him."
She carried him past the dock,
past the tadpoles and the crayfish,
past the frogs, the minnows and the muskrat.

15
Halfway up the lawn
she passed Quickpaw purring quietly,
a tiny pile of red feathers
scattered around him.
Further up the lawn
she called out, “Thanks John, I found him.”
She walked up the path
to the back stoop,
stepped over a line of ants
and into the house.

16
The boy’s Mom carried him into his room,
laid him down on his bed, 
and gently peeled off his clothes.
She kissed his forehead,
the only clean spot on him,
and pulled the cover over him.
“How can you get 
so filthy in fifteen minutes?”

The End