"Scott, have you tidied your room yet? Scott? Scott!"
     "Sorry Mum, I'm just doing it now," mumbled Scott, who'd been busy reading
a comic on his bed.
     "I told you I wanted this room spick and span before you went to school
today," said Scott's mum, as she stood at his bedroom door with her hands on her hips. "Just look at this mess!"
     Scott heaved a sigh as his mum walked away and began to quickly pick a few things up, throwing them into a pile in one corner of the room. He knew that she was right; his room was very untidy. There were clothes and books and comics scattered all over the floor, as well as toys galore. There was not a single bit of carpet left for anyone to walk on, which was why Scott was sitting on his bed. It was an island, in a sea of mess. Sometimes he thought that he must be the untidiest person in the world, but he didn't really care.
     Shoving a few comics under his pillow, Scott grabbed his schoolbag and raced downstairs.
     "Have you finished?" asked his mum, handing him his lunch.
     "Almost," he replied, with a smile. "I'll put the last of my stuff away tonight, I
promise."
     With that, he ran out the door to school, before his mum could remember that he had basketball practice that evening and wouldn't have time to clean his room.
 
                             ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

    The first lesson of the day at school was reading, and Scott found himself in
trouble once again.
     "Where's your reader?" the teacher asked him.
     "I think I've lost it," said Scott, hunting through his schoolbag, which was just
as messy as his bedroom.
     "I suppose you'll have to borrow mine again," said the teacher angrily. "This is
the fourth time you've lost your reader young man; you really are the most disorganised boy I've ever met. If you don't start to take more care of your things, I'm afraid I'll have to send a note home to your parents and give you a lunchtime detention!"
     "It looks like I'm going to have one of those days," Scott whispered to his friend Pete, after the teacher had gone back to her desk.

     When lunch time came around, Scott's bad day got a little bit worse.
     "Oh, yuk," he grumbled, staring at his sandwich. "Mum's given me tuna again. Do you want to swap sandwiches, Pete? I'm sick of smelly old tuna."
     "Sorry, no," replied Pete, shaking his head. "I hate tuna, but why don't you ask Sigmund, the new kid? Someone told me that he always has interesting sandwiches and he might be happy to swap."
     Sigmund was sitting on the other side of the schoolyard unpacking his lunch, so Scott walked across and asked him.
     "Sure!" smiled Sigmund, jumping up. "You can have my sandwiches any day; I love tuna."
     The boys eagerly swapped and Scott returned to Pete, who was rolling on the ground laughing.
     "What's the matter with you?" asked Scott.
     "Ha ha ha," spluttered Pete. "Sigmund's parents always give him really disgusting stuff, like walnut paste and bean sprouts and soy spread. I had a bite of one of his sandwiches once, and it tasted like slime."
    "How would you know what slime tastes like, anyway," grumbled Scott, looking inside the sandwich.
Sure enough, it was spread with a funny green paste that smelt like rotten seaweed.
     "Pooh!" he exclaimed. "I can't eat this!"
     "Well you can't get your tuna back," said Pete. "It will be safely in Sigmund's
stomach by now."
     "I thought you were supposed to be my best friend," said Scott.
     "I am, but I'm sick of you complaining about your lunch all the time," explained
Pete. "It doesn't matter what you have to eat, you always seem to hate it."

                            ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 
    Scott decided to sulk for the rest of the day. He was in a really bad mood by
the time school ended and he hurried home without saying goodbye to Pete. He
slammed the back door and stomped up to his bedroom, expecting to change straight into his basketball clothes. To his surprise, his mum was up there waiting for him.
     "Remember your promise to finish cleaning your room," she said. "You have to
do it before you go to practice, so you'd better get started on it right away. Oh- and
you can clean your schoolbag out while you're at it. I can see that it's full of rubbish."
     Scott flopped down on his bed and stared angrily at a bit of old chewing gum
he'd stuck to the ceiling. Why couldn't people leave him alone? If he wanted to be
messy, they should just let him. Even his best friend didn't understand, and he felt as though the whole world was against him.
     "Rats," he sighed, finally getting up and making a start on the rest of  the
clean-up. "I suppose I'd better get on with this."
     As he picked up some football cards that lay scattered about on the floor, Scott
suddenly had an idea. He went to his wardrobe and opened the door, peering inside it. There was an empty space on the floor beneath where his clothes hung, and it looked just the right size...
     "If I'm careful, I should be able to chuck all my things in there without Mum
noticing," he muttered to himself.
     Scott got to work, picking everything up and throwing it into the back of the wardrobe as fast as he could. In ten minutes his room looked  tidy and he was feeling quite proud of himself. Then he remembered that he was supposed to sort out his schoolbag as well. He tipped it upside down and a whole lot of old papers fell out, as well as the reader he thought he'd lost and half a packet of mints.
     "Great," chuckled Scott, popping one of the mints in his mouth. "This is the first bit of good luck I've had all day."
     He quickly picked up all the papers and was about to throw them in the wardrobe, when his fingers touched something cold and squishy. "Ugh," he shivered, when he saw it was Sigmund's smelly sandwich. "I thought I'd put this in the school bin; Pete must have stuck it in my bag as a practical joke."
     Because he was in a hurry to get to basketball practice Scott threw the sandwich into his wardrobe with everything else, intending to put it in the kitchen bin later, when nobody was around to see him do it.
      "Mum, I've finished," he called out,  pulling on his basketball singlet and shorts. "Can I go now?"
      His mum came up and inspected his room.  "Yes, you can," she said, with a smile. "For a messy person, you've actually done a very good job."
     Scott nodded. "It was easy," he said, standing in front of his wardrobe and thinking to himself
that his mum didn't know exactly how easy it had been...

                               ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

     A whole week went by and life seemed to get better for Scott. He kept his bedroom looking neat and tidy by throwing things into the back of his wardrobe, so his mum stopped nagging him about the mess. He'd found his reader, so the teacher wasn't angry with him any more. He made friends with Pete again, and he even had ham sandwiches for lunch three days in a row, instead of tuna.
     On Saturday night, Pete came over to sleep at Scott's house. The two boys were playing a computer game in his bedroom after dinner, when they heard a noise coming from his cupboard.
     Slither, slither, CRASH
     "Uh-oh, I think I've piled too much stuff in the back of my wardrobe and something must have fallen over," said Scott.
     Then he told Pete all about the new way he'd found to keep his room tidy.
    Pete shook his head. "Why don't you just put your things away where they belong?" he asked. "It
wouldn't take very much longer to do the job properly."
     "Yes it would," laughed Scott. "This way is much easier!"
     He opened the wardrobe door and prodded the pile of toys and junk with his foot, pushing it further backwards. Everything looked okay, but a strange smell drifted out of it, and into the room.
     "What have you got in there?" asked Pete, wrinkling his nose.
     "All the hot weather we've been having must be making my basketball socks stink,"  said Scott.  "I know they're in there somewhere, and I suppose I'd better look for them tomorrow and put them out to be washed."
 He quickly shut the door and the smell was gone. The two friends went back to their computer game and forgot about the smell and the noise...

                             ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

     Later that night after the boys had gone to bed, Scott woke up feeling uncomfortable. It was very hot in his room and he sleepily got up and opened a window. Pete was lying in his sleeping bag on the floor gently snoring, and a cool breeze drifted into the room. Scott was just about to climb back into bed when
suddenly, he heard a noise again.
 
     Slither slither....
 
       Slowly he turned around and looked at his wardrobe.
     "Oh, no!" he gasped, not daring to move.
     A green light was glowing spookily around the edges of the door, and the horrible smell that the boys had smelt earlier began to fill the room.

    Slither slither, bump bump....

     "Pete!" hissed Scott. "Pete, wake up!"
     But Pete snored happily on.
     The green light got slowly brighter, and Scott could see something moving around in the wardrobe, through the crack under the door.

    Slither slither, bump bump BUMP!

     All at once, a luminous green tentacle poked out from underneath the door. It felt its way around the carpet and Scott took a step backwards. Then, it reached up towards the handle and tried to turn it.
     "No!" screamed Scott, at the top of his voice.
     He was so frightened that he grabbed hold of the sleeping Pete's arm and made a run for it, pulling his friend out of the bedroom and into the hallway. Lights switched on in his parents' room, and Pete finally woke up.
     "Hey, what are you doing?" he asked. "Where's my sleeping bag?"
     Scott pointed fearfully back into his bedroom.
        "There's a creature in my wardrobe and it's trying to get out," he squeaked.
     Then the boys heard the strange slithering noise again, followed by another bang.
     "Don't be silly, it's probably just the wind," yawned Pete, peering sleepily into the dark room. "I can't see anything in there."
     "What's going on boys?" asked Scott's dad, coming out to see what was wrong. "Who screamed?"
      "Th-there's something in my bedroom," wailed Scott, his teeth chattering with fear. "It's in the wardrobe, and I'm not going back in there for anything!"
     Scott's dad switched on the bedroom light and walked over to the wardrobe.
The door was now wide open, and he looked inside.
     "Why, there's nothing in here but a terrible mess and a revolting smell," he said. "You must have been having a nightmare."
     "I thought I told you to clean your room up properly!" exclaimed Scott's mum, coming to take a look. "No wonder you had a nightmare; you must be feeling guilty about throwing all your things higgledy-piggledy into the wardrobe, instead of putting them away where they belong. Why, there's hardly room for your clothes!"
     "I'll clean it first thing in the morning Mum," promised Scott. "You'll help me, won't you Pete."
     Pete didn't really want to, but he nodded his head.
     "Can we sleep in the loungeroom for the rest of the night?" asked Scott.
     "I suppose so," grumbled his dad. "Now I think we've had enough of this nonsense; I'm going back to bed."

                             ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

     Scott sat shivering on the couch with a blanket wrapped around him, while Pete rolled his sleeping bag out on the loungeroom floor.
     "I can't go back to sleep," he said. "I know what I saw; there was a tentacled creature in my cupboard and if I hadn't woken up, who knows what might have happened to us. I practically saved our lives!"
     "Are you sure it wasn't just your next door neighbour's cat?" asked Pete, who was beginning to wonder what was the matter with his friend. "You might have mistaken his tail for a tentacle; after all, there was nothing in your room when your dad switched the light on."
     "It wasn't a cat's tail," insisted Scott. "And whatever it was, it could easily have escaped out of my bedroom window while we were standing in the hallway."
     "It just doesn't make sense," Pete frowned. "All that was inside your wardrobe was a messy load of toys and junk. A tentacled creature wouldn't bother to hide in it, although it sure did smell. Did you throw one of your mum's tuna sandwiches in there?"
     "That's it!" shouted Scott, suddenly remembering what he'd done. "Sigmund's sandwich! The smell coming out of my cupboard was the same as the paste in Sigmund's sandwich!"
     Pete began to laugh. "You threw Sigmund's yukky old sandwich in there the other week? No
wonder your wardrobe stinks!"
     "Pete, what if... what if whatever was inside Sigmund's sandwich sort of grew?" whispered Scott. "We've had a lot of hot weather lately, and plants and mould and stuff like hot weather, don't they?"
     Pete laughed even harder.  "Are you telling me that you think Sigmund's sandwich came to life and turned into a tentacled creature? You've gone mad!"
     "Quiet, boys," they heard Scott's dad call out. "You're keeping us awake."
     Scott looked at his friend and scowled. "Just wait until morning," he said. "There's sure to be some evidence left in my wardrobe."
     With that, he lay down on the couch and pulled the blanket over his head. Pete shrugged his shoulders and lay down too. He thought that Scott must be feeling really guilty to make him think that a sandwich had grown and come to life in his cupboard...

                             ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

     The next morning, the boys were up bright and early. Scott's mum made them breakfast, although Scott hardly touched his.
     "Are you coming up to help me clean my room?" he asked Pete.
     "Okay," agreed Pete.
     He could see Scott was still annoyed with him because he didn't believe him about the creature, and he didn't want to upset him any further.
     The two friends left the breakfast table and climbed the stairs to Scott's bedroom. Although the window was open, as well as the wardrobe door, both boys could still faintly smell the strange smell of the night before.
     "It smells like rotten seaweed," said Scott. "And that's exactly what Sigmund's sandwich smelt of."
     "Well, let's find that sandwich and you'll see it didn't come to life and walk out of here," said Pete.
     The boys were about to hunt through the pile of stuff on the wardrobe floor, when Scott noticed something on the carpet.
     "Look at this," he frowned.
     A little blob of green goo was sticking to the carpet outside the wardrobe. Pete put his finger on it, and then brought it to his nose.
     "Yuk," he said. "That's the smell, all right."
     The boys began to carefully pull all of Scott's things out of the wardrobe, one by one. Almost everything had green goo stuck to it, and there were even small pieces of goo stuck to the inside of the door. Scott crawled across the floor on his hands and knees, staring at the carpet between the window and the wardrobe.
     "It definitely came this way," he said. "There's even a blob of the stuff stuck to
the windowsill."
     Pete stared at the green goo, remembering the noises of the night before. It hadn't been Scott's imagination, after all!
     "I'm sorry Scott," he whispered. "I didn't believe that there was something in your wardrobe before, but I do now  And what's more, I've been through everything in here and there's no sandwich. There is a piece of plastic sandwich wrap, but it's empty."
     Scott stared at the sandwich wrap and shook his head. "I know it's crazy, but I'm sure that sandwich came to life and walked out of here. I don't know how, but it really did happen."
     Pete nodded solemnly. "Sigmund's sandwiches are pretty strange and come to think of it, so is
Sigmund. Who knows what was in that smelly paste."
     "I wonder where the creature went?" said Scott, with a shiver. "I hope it doesn't come back."
     Pete looked around Scott's room. "I think the best way to stop that from happening is to make sure this place is spotless," he said. "Let's get to work."
     The two friends spent a hard morning cleaning up. They stood all of Scott's toy cars on a shelf above his bed and put his other toys in a milk crate, storing it under his desk. All of his books and comics went back on his bookshelf and his sweaty old sports socks and basketball singlet went straight into the washing basket. Any rubbish was tossed into a rubbish bin which Scott stood outside his window. Then the boys filled a bucket with hot soapy water and scrubbed all traces of the green goo out of the wardrobe, and off the windowsill. Scott even picked the chewing gum off the roof above his bed.
     "We're finished at last," sighed Pete, sitting back and looking at their handiwork.
     "I hardly recognise the place," said Scott. "It's too tidy."
     "At least there's nowhere for a creature to hide, or grow now," said Pete.
     "What could Sigmund's mum have put in that sandwich?" wondered Scott.
"And what would have happened to me if I'd eaten it?"
     "Probably nothing," said Pete.  "Sigmund looks perfectly okay and he eats that
stuff all the time."
     "Well, I'm going to ask him what was in it when I see him," said Scott, crossing
his arms. "I want to know!"

                             ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~      

     On Monday morning, Scott and Pete arrived at school early and waited at the gate for Sigmund to arrive.
     "I don't  think we should tell him anything about the sandwich coming to life," said Pete. "He'll either think we've gone nuts, or he'll never eat anything his mum and dad give him for lunch again."
     Scott nodded. "Okay," he agreed. "Besides, he might tell some other kids what we say and I
don't want the whole school thinking we're crazy."
     At last, when it was almost time for school to start, Sigmund arrived. A big black car with dark tinted windows pulled up outside the gate and he hopped out. He saw Scott and Pete and waved, before whispering something to a strange looking lady who was staring out of the car window. She had a very pale face, long dark hair, and black glittering eyes.
     "This is my mum," said Sigmund proudly.
     Sigmund's mum smiled at the boys, showing them a row of crooked yellow teeth.
     "My son tells me that he gave you one of his sandwiches," she said to Scott.
     Scott nervously nodded. "Er, yes. It was very nice, thank you."
     Suddenly, Sigmund's mum began to laugh. "Ah, but I don't think you ate it all up, like a good boy should," she cackled. "That sort of sandwich needs to be eaten right away. It's so full of goodness that it can get very... lively... if you don't."
     "W-what do you mean?" asked Scott.
     "Well, unlike most parents, I always know if Sigmund has eaten his lunch," she replied. "If he doesn't, it always gets back to me!"
     With those words she winked at Scott, wound up the window, and then drove away.
     Scott and Pete stared at the back of the car in amazement.
     "Did you see that?" croaked Scott. "Something's hanging out of the boot."
     Pete nudged him in the side and pointed at Sigmund, who was busy looking for something in his schoolbag and hadn't seemed to notice anything strange at all.
     "Sigmund, what exactly was in that sandwich?" asked Scott.
     Sigmund shrugged his shoulders. "How should I  know?" he replied. "My mum makes it herself and it's supposed to be very nutritious. I think it tastes awful, but if you like it so much, I can swap
sandwiches again."
     "NO!" yelled Scott and Pete at the same time.
     "Er, I mean, no thank you Sigmund," said Scott, trying to be polite.
     "Your sandwiches are very nice, but Scott's mum is giving him ham from now
on, so he won't be swapping any more," explained Pete.
     "Okay," said Sigmund. "But if you ever have tuna again, I'm your man."
     "I'll remember that," said Scott, trying to smile.
     Sigmund walked off and the two boys waited until he had gone.
     "I'd swear a green tentacle was hanging out of the boot of Sigmund's mum's car," whispered Pete. "It was kind of waving around..."
     Scott nodded. "I saw it too," he said. "The creature in my wardrobe must have found its way
back to her."
     "Weird," said Pete. "Sigmund's mum is definitely weird."
     "So is Sigmund," sighed Scott. "But somehow, I can't help liking him. He's so... friendly."
     "I know what you mean," agreed Pete.
 "I'm definitely going to keep my bedroom spick and span from now on, even if it means a bit of extra work," said Scott. "I'm not going to risk that monster coming back!"
 "Well, at least your parents will be pleased about that," chuckled his friend, as the bell rang and the two boys went to class.
                                                                           
                                                                           THE END

Copyright 2009: Heather Hammonds
This story may be downloaded and used by individuals, or classes for the purpose of study, research, criticism or review, or as permitted under Part VB of the Copyright act. No part of this story may be othewise reproduced without permission from the author. Enquiries should be
directed to the author's e-mail address.