Last night at 3:30 am, Molly started to cry a tired, mournful cry. It started slowly and then built up with intensity.

This was certainly not the first time Molly had woken up crying in the middle of the night. The last time she woke up crying, she was about to vomit. The time before that was actually pretty scary. She had decided to sleep on the floor next to her bed and somehow ended up stuck laying on her back directly under her bed.  Her crying was muffled by the bed above her, which made the scene all the more scary.  She was really upset and took a while to calm down.  After that, she started sleeping on top of her bed again every night.

So back to last night.  Kit and I ran towards the sound of Molly’s crying.  Molly was standing in the dark on the step stool at the sink in the girls’ bathroom, crying loudly.  We asked what was wrong.  Over her cries, Molly managed to say, “I need a bookmark!” and then burst into tears.  Kit and I looked at each other puzzled.  I actually had to step into the hallway to cover my laughter.  We then ran off to find something to pass as a bookmark.  We gave Molly a scrap of note paper, and she went right back to her bed happily and stopped crying.  When we asked if she needed anything (like to be tucked in or a hug) Molly said “No, get out of here.”, not in an angry way, but just to say, “No, I have it covered from here.”

We may never know why she needed that bookmark so badly, but it was definitely a bookmark emergency.