K.) The Story of Terence Hammer

 

After a long day at school, little Terence Hammer got into bed.  At seven years old, he had a big imagination, a lot of energy, and little need for sleep.  Being stuck in a desk all day at school didn't help this, either.  Terence was wide awake when his mother sent him to bed, and pretended to fall asleep just for her sake.  He was really good at pretending, and was convincing enough to make his mom believe that he was fast asleep before his head hit the pillow.  As soon as she went to bed, however, Terence decided that he had more important things to do.  He got up and played with the toy trains in the corner for a while, pretending to be the station master and ordering them all to go here or deliver the cargo safely to some faraway place.  After getting sick of the trains, he moved on to building a palace out of Legos, and from there pretended to be the King of a faraway land where he had all the candy and toys he could ask for.  After a while of playing however, he began to get quite hungry and went to his closet, where he had hid some cookies before he went to bed.  He sat down and began to eat them, taking a break from being King for a while.  Mid-way through his snack, he heard a loud noise outside his window.  He became curious, and thought that this was the perfect time to become an explorer, one of his favorite things to pretend to be.  He quickly finished his snack and looked out the window.  He saw something in the bushes down below his window, but couldn't see what it was.  Terence knew that he had to get down there somehow; after all he was a world-renowned explorer and couldn't let the people down.  There was a tree right outside his window, and decided that the best way to get down there undetected would be the tree.  He got up on the window sill and reached for the tree.  He could barely get to it but somehow found the strength to jump onto a branch and slide down to the trunk.  It was a pretty skilled maneuver although dangerous for a young boy.  He jumped out of the tree, and landed on the soft ground as quiet as possible.  He crept over to the bush and looked behind it.  Disappointed that it was just a cat, he walked away.  Now tired and sick of playing make-believe, he walked back over to the tree, climbed up to the window sill and looked inside.  Looking back at him was his mother, and judging by the look on her face, Terence got the inclination that he wouldn't be sleeping for a long while.