"Did the sock talk?" He asked himself as he reached for the items. "Maybe Johnny horse did or cowboy Bob."
But when he looked at them on top of his bed they said nor did nothing.Then the noise came again, a kind of squeak but not the kind a mouse makes. No, he thought, that was a hinge that made the noise.
It couldn't be a hinge because there was no door or gate under the bed, so how could a squeaky hinge make a noise right beneath him? Tim jumped off and looked again. He ran his hand over the floorboards, and save for a few dust bunnies, didn't feel a hinge.
He decided to lay down on the floor next to his bed and wait for the noise. He waited and waited, but not a squeak, not even a peep came from under the bed.
When his eyes grew weary and the floor too cold, Tim grabbed his blanket and pillow to settle in and wait on the floor for the sound. "Even if it takes all night," he said to himself.
The pillow was soft and warm, and though the floor was wood, the blanket made it a bit more comfortable. Tim looked very carefully at the floor. For now the full moon cast its rays through the pane window and lit the wood floor in an icy light.
A branch scratched the house outside and then came the creak. Tim opened his eyes to see the strangest creature he ever saw. Small with big ears, and hair all over, the creature helped himself up from an opening in the floor.
That's strange, Tim thought, I'm sure that wasn't there before. "
"Hello," said Tim. "How did you do that?"
The creature brushed off his shoulders and arms. "Do what?"
"Open a door in my bedroom floor."
"Oh, that. Well, it looks like your bedroom floor from where you are but it's not a floor at all to me."
"It's not?" Tim asked.
"No, not at all. I'm an Imp you know. We Imps go by a whole different order. You see, I'm tunneling at the moment."
Tim looked for a tunnel in the room but couldn't find one. "What tunnel?"
The Imp looked at Tim in the most astonishing way. He then opened the hatch again and said while pointing with his finger. "What's that if it's not a tunnel."
Tim had to admit that with the hatch opened there was a tunnel from where the Imp came. "I always thought the floor was the ceiling of our living room."
"Well it is to you but not to me. It's all very simple, you see I tunnel and when I came up from below I entered here. But, you see, it's only temporary, for I'll tunnel through the ceiling over there," he said pointing to a corner of the ceiling, "And I'll be in Calerdon."
"You mean on the other side of the ceiling there is a place, it's not the roof?" Tim was very confused.
"Calerdon is not a place, it's the most beautiful of cities of all Plexideria.
"I've never heard of it. I've been to Baltimore but I haven't heard of either of those other places."
"You don't get out much do you?" The Imp said in a pitiful way.
"Yes I do, weather permitting of course. Mostly to to the playground or school. But my friend, Jack and I have explored the river. As far as we are allowed of course."
"Well that's what I mean. You're limited."
"Limited?"
"Yes, you see for you, there is a ceiling and a floor."
"Oh." Tim wasn't sure what the Imp meant, because of course the ceiling and floor have always been there. The tunnel and hatch, now that was new.
"Its alright," said the Imp, "You're not that limited. Here we are talking about tunneling, ceilings and floors. Now there are a lot of humans that can't."
"Why's that?"
"They weren't keen enough to search like you. Something got your curiosity and you investigated it until you found about it. You heard the hinge didn't you."
"Yes, I did." Tim brightened up and smiled.
"There was a glitch when I mounted the hatch and I meant to oil that hinge and didn't, my bad."
"Oh, I'm glad to meet you and hear about tunnels in the ceiling and floor."
"That's good. Usually it's not the case. Some have quite a fright." The Imp made a face and stuck out his tongue, making Tim laugh. "Yes, well I'm off. Better get back in bed before dawn comes. Don't you think?"
The Imp threw a rope ladder up in the air and it caught on the ceiling. Then the Imp grabbed the ladder and his round hairy body seemed to glide up the rope ladder to the ceiling. There he pulled out a hatch from the bag he had with him and slapped it on the ceiling. He then smoothed the hatch before he pulled out an oil can for a squirt of lubricant on the two hinges.
Tim stood next to his bed, his mouth gaped as he watched the Imp open the hatch. Then the Imp helped himself up, turned and waved at Tim before he climbed and stood in a place that should have been the roof but was a beautiful sunny day in a strange forest. The Imp then grabbed the rope ladder and pulled it up, putting it in his bag. When the hatch closed, it disappeared and only the ceiling was left just like it was before.
Tim looked at the clock on his desk before he climbed back in bed. He couldn't wait to tell his friends what happened and wondered if he should mention any of this to his parents. They never mentioned Imps living in the house.
In the morning at breakfast, Tim told his mom and dad that he met an Imp who was tunneling from the floor to the ceiling in his room and did they know about Imps?
When his mother gave him his stack of blueberry pancakes, she said, "Dear, I hope you're not bringing creatures from the river into your room, like the frog you and Jack brought home one day."
"No, he was already here. He came out of the floor and tunneled to the ceiling."
"You know your mom doesn't want you to bring wild things in the house. Now you let it go first thing when you go out today. Alright son?"
Tim was about to argue but decided instead to agree with his dad. "I will."
"Promise?" asked his father.
"I promise."
Later in the day, when Tim met up with Jack, he asked him if he ever seen an Imp. Jack wanted to know what one looked like and where did he see him. But when Tim told about the Imp coming out from under the bed and climbing up to the ceiling, opening it up, Jack looked bewildered.
"Maybe you had a bad dream." Jack said.
But Tim didn't think it was bad, he wasn't even frightened by it and remembered what the Imp said about not everyone being able to see these things because they lacked curiosity.
That day, as Tim and Jack explored the river, Tim began to notice more and more things, for his curiosity gave him a keen eye. A leaf fluttered and moved and when he looked carefully, he saw a small faerie lifting the leaf to blink at him and smile. Jack saw more and more creatures from the magic kingdoms he read about in books and they were as real as anything else.
He asked Jack if he saw anything unusual, especially when a water sprite sitting on the back of a catfish came near the river's edge, but Jack only saw the catfish albeit a very big catfish. That's when the whole world opened to Tim. He now could see things nobody he knew could and wondered what it all meant.
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