Children story: Luca

Luca can not sleep. Sometimes that’s the way it is with him. He just needs to sleep less sometimes than the other people he knows. He then gets up again in the dark, leaves his nursery and roams the apartment.

He looks into his mom’s bedroom. She lies rolled onto her left side in bed. Your eyes are closed. He looks into his dad’s bedroom. It lies on its back. His eyes are closed. He looks into the nursery of his twin brothers. You lie on your stomach. Your eyes are closed. Only Luca is awake. And the moon. It shines brightly today.

Luca goes into the kitchen. He sits down in front of the dishwasher. It is still running. The display shows red numbers. He can’t read them, but he knows they run backwards. With a gurgle, it eventually ends and the numbers go out.

Then Luca has an idea. He stands in front of the forbidden shelf. There lie his favorite cookies. Chocolate and almond and in the middle a blob with orange marmalade. First he reaches for it. Then he puts it back again. He remembers his mom and her stern look. He is only allowed to eat cookies in the afternoon. Luca thinks about it. He could read some more in his bed and make himself comfortable there instead.

But when Luca reaches his room, all his cuddly toys are mixed up. They walk around chattering loudly. They play with his soccer and jump through the dolls beds. All his books are scattered on the carpet. His self-painted pictures have slipped from the pile. Luca rubs his eyes. But it’s true.

When his cuddly elephant discovers him, he trumpets loudly. At this signal, the hedgehog, panda, penguin, rabbit, Teddy 1 and Teddy 2, the crocodile and the ballerina form up and all sit bolt upright at the doll table. They look at Luca in an unrelated way.

Luca digs his hands into his pajama pockets. All eyes are on him. It is quiet in the children’s room. Then the penguin calls out, “We want cookies! Chocolate cookies with almonds and a blob of orange marmalade in the middle!” Luca doesn’t have to think about it for long. “Yes, and passion fruit juice!” adds the hedgehog.

Luca goes back to the kitchen, gets cookies and juice. Immediately, his fabric friends pounce on it. It crackles and crumbles and Luca says, “Shh!” Carefully, he pours the passion fruit juice into the doll’s dish, filling cup after cup. His friends slurp and smack their lips, Luca listens anxiously in the hallway to make sure no one has been awakened.

In no time the cookies are eaten. One last one is still on the table. Luca takes this one. He says with his mouth full, “Now you all need to get some sleep. It’s late!” The panda says, “Tell us another story!” “But I can’t read yet,” Luca replies. “So what,” says the ballerina, “make up a story!” Luca thinks about it.

He finally remembers a day on the playground and tells of playing hide-and-seek with his twin brothers. He embellishes the story a bit, not everything is so spot-on. But who knows, maybe that’s not always necessary with stories. Gradually, anyway, some of his friends are getting tired. He sees how their eyes gradually fall shut.

Luca takes them to their pillow corner, covers them up and wishes them a good night. “Sing us something else now!” shouts the panda from under his blanket. Luca remembers a lullaby and softly whispers the lyrics of the rising moon. Everyone finally fell asleep. The children’s room is quiet again. Only the empty pack of cookies and the half-filled bottle of passion fruit juice still indicate the night’s turmoil.

Now Luca has also become tired. He crawls into his bed and wants to read his book. He first leafs through it. But it already falls out of his hand on the third page. He rolls over to the right side. His eyes are closed. In the mouth still the taste of chocolate cookie with almonds and a blob of orange marmalade.