The Sheep Said Nothing

 by Andrea Mulder-Slater

 

The house was two stories high with big, boxy rooms, low pile carpet and very little furniture which meant our voices echoed every time any of us spoke. 

 

There were what seemed like 10 bedrooms on the second floor, and in the basement was a barn full of animals, resulting in the entire house smelling of hay and horses. 

 

It was our first night in the place and I was asleep, in a room on my own, when I heard and smelled what I thought was a goat at the foot of my bed. 

 

I turned on a small reading lamp and saw a sheep staring at me, eyes wide open. 

 

Something else with an unfamiliar scent was in the room too, but it stayed in the shadows where it was was too dark for me to see. 

 

Clearly the gate separating the house from the barn had been left open, I thought as I got up to switch the big light on. 

 

When I turned around, I saw a tiger standing behind the sheep which wasn't startling to me at all. I was mostly just annoyed that I had to walk the two creatures back to the basement barn in my bare feet. 

 

Fortunately they followed me easily down the hall. But halfway to the gate, the tiger turned to me and asked if he could please have a bubble bath, with his favourite red ball. The sheep said nothing. 

 

I wasn't alarmed that the tiger could talk. Instead, I was irritated that I had to fill the bathtub instead of going back to bed. But the insinuation was that if the tiger didn't get a bath, he would take out his frustrations on the other barn animals. 

 

So he got his bubble bath, with his favourite red ball. And the basement barn animals stayed safe.

That's when I woke up. With a terrible migraine. One of the worst I've ever had. And no, I hadn't been drinking. 

 

The weirdest thing about this dream is was what happened after I told my family about it. 

 

When my headache started to clear in the afternoon, I had a quick look at Facebook and this talking tiger Marketplace listing popped up on my feed, which begs the question... should I buy it? 😳 🤔

 

 

 

No, really.

.............

(Had my phone been in the room while I was telling the story, I would have believed Facebook was eavesdropping, but it was nowhere near me.)