Tara’s room was a mess! She would start a task and then midway realise that she had to do something else. Immediately, she would move on to the next thing. She was unable to finish any task till the end!
The result was that there was always a pile of dirty laundry on the floor. Her toys never went back to the shelf once they came off and books were strewn all over the bed and floor. Tara would just move her things to one side, make space on the bed, and go to sleep.
“Tara, tidy up your room! Otherwise, alligator monsters will come!” her mother would say. But Tara would not listen at all.
One night, as usual, Tara just moved her things away from the bed, made space to lie down and went to sleep. That night she dreamt of small red-eyed monsters with spiky tails and teeth like alligators, walking all around her room. They did not disturb her. Although, it seemed that they were chanting something softly.
Next morning, Tara remembered the dream but did not understand it.
A few days later, she saw the same dream, but this time, the monsters walked around her and looked at her strangely. Some tried to come close, but at the last minute, turned back and left her. They were still chanting.
It was a very strange dream indeed!
Some days passed, before the dream came again. Tara was half-awake when she saw her books, toys and clothes that were lying around in her room, turn into these small alligator-like monsters. This time, they surrounded her and had small swords in their hands. They pushed those pointy swords at Tara. It was scary!
Tara could not stop them. She seemed to be frozen! They poked their pointy swords in her sides and hands, legs and then eventually tied her with her own ribbons and belts that were lying around in the room. “Clean, my little bird, clean!” they chanted.
The small army of monsters tortured Tara a lot. She kept crying for help, but none came. The chanting continued and loudly too.
The next morning, as soon as Tara got up, finding herself free, she quickly cleaned her room–laundry in washing, books and toys on shelves. From that day onwards, no monsters have come, but there are still some days when Tara can hear, “Clean, my little bird, clean!”
