The television flickered the images of an old horror picture. Oobi’s popcorn had gone cold and his hand sat poised over the bowl. Cannubi had crept into the living room, and seeing the boy in a trance, crept over and started eating the popcorn. Cannubi didn’t care if it was cold. Cannubi loved popcorn. If Oobi were in his right senses, he would have to be doing all sorts of tricks just to get one kernel. But for some reason, Oobi was just sitting there, and Cannubi didn’t need an invitation when there was a golden opportunity.

The first couple of bites were around Oobi’s hand. His fingers touched the popcorn, but he wasn’t really grabbing any. So Cannubi kind of nuzzled around the inside of the bowl, and took a couple of bites. “Mmmm,”went Cannubi. The butter stayed on parts of his nose as he licked around his muzzle. Cannubi looked at Oobi and saw that the boy was still transfixed to the images of the television. “Okay,” thought Cannubi. “I guess that means I can have some more.” So back he went for another helping.

This time Cannubi made himself at home. He kept his head in the bowl and ate all the delicious morsels. It was forever in a minute. Cannubi could have been there forever, but as fast as he ate, it was only a couple of minutes, and when he was done, he licked Oobi’s hand then walked over and laid down and licked the sides of his jowls for any more drippings of butter and corn.

When Cannubi licked Oobi’s hand it must have brought him out of his trance, because after a second or so, Oobi looked over at Cannubi, then back at the screen, then back to Cannubi. “Did you eat all the popcorn Cannubi?” Cannubi’s black eyes bounced up and down as if to say, “Yes.” Oobi got up to take the empty bowl back into the kitchen. As he left, Cannubi looked at the screen and saw that the picture was now showing its credits. It must be close to bedtime. Cannubi’s internal clock was ringing and his eyelids were starting to feel very heavy.

Cannubi walked upstairs to the bedroom and plopped his body at the foot of Oobi’s bed. He waited for Oobi to come to bed so his eyes stayed open and watched the doorway for Oobi’s slippers to walk in. Cannubi heard the sink running and Oobi’s teeth brushing. He heard the water splash across Oobi’s face, and heard Oobi’s mom tell him to wash behind his ears. He heard Oobi say goodnight to his dad, and then a soft hint of a kiss to him mom goodnight. Then Cannubi saw Oobi’s slippers come through the doorway and he closed his eyes. Oobi hung up his bathrobe, kicked off his slippers, turned on his nightlight, then turned off his bedroom light.

Cannubi heard the bed creak as Oobi slid under his covers, and now Cannubi could go to sleep. Cannubi never fell asleep until Oobi was in bed, but now that he was, Cannubi fell into a quick sleep. Cannubi dreamt of a field of popcorn that popped up in the air and into his mouth. He ran across this buttery yellow field so fast that a wave of kernels flew in the air and buried him under the corn. He ate his way to the top and spied a river of soft ice cream that ran in ripples of red and white. Cannubi ran to the winding stream of butter and cream, his paws crunching under the ground of corn.

“Mom!” Oobi shouted. It startled Cannubi awake. “I can’t sleep!” The door opened and in walked his mother all bundled up looking as if she had just climbed into bed herself.

“What’s the matter son?” She asked.

“Can’t sleep.” Oobi said, his eyes were wide-awake as if someone had been banging pots and pans right next to his ears.

“Well, all you have to do is relax and think of a nice place that you were today, and everything will turn nice and fuzzy.” She kissed him on the head and then tucked Oobi under the covers. She brushed down his hair with her hand as if to say goodnight with her hands and eased herself out of the doorway.

Cannubi liked the idea of a place he had been today that he enjoyed. He thought about the tipped over garbage can that he stumbled past, as if someone had invited Cannubi over for a bite to eat. It looked like a horn of plenty with French fries on the ground and a partially eaten burger sitting on an open wrapper. That was a wonderful time of the day. Cannubi imagined eating on a French fry one at a time. The crunch of a cold fry was much more enjoyable than those warm ones that seemed be gooey and hot. “Crunch, “ went Cannubi’s imagination.

“Mom!” Oobi called out again. “I can’t sleep! Mom?”

Oobi’s mother walked in this time a little slower. Her bathrobe was draped over her body and her eyes were barely awake. “Do you know what time it is Oobi?”

“Late?” He asked.

“Very late. Now you need to get to sleep young man. Is there some sort of problem here?” This time she looked at Oobi’s face and saw the dark circles under his eyes.

“Well I’m kind of thinking about that movie I saw tonight.” Oobi’s face made a small frown. “There was this man who was like a vampire, and he hung down from the sides of buildings and then he would swoop down and wrap his wings around the people he was going to eat and…”

“That’s more than I would like to hear, thank you.” Oobi’s mother held up her hand to stop him. Manubi went over and flicked on the lights and Oobi squinted. She sat next to his bed and looked at him with the circles under his eyes. “You need to learn to rid yourself of nightmares, otherwise I can’t let you watch these scary movies.”

“Well I thought it wouldn’t scare me Mom.” Oobi’s voice was still very small.

“Okay,” she said. “Then this is how you get rid of nightmares. First you sit on the edge of your bed and you find your dream catcher. See it right above your bed. Then you blow at it, just to make it move a little, to make it wake up and be ready to catch your bad dreams. Then you cross your legs and tap your shoulders on either side and repeat after me. ‘Bad dreams that come from my head leave my mouth and go over my bed. Fly to my catcher and let it get caught for the morning’s sun to burn them all up.’

Oobi repeated what his mom had to say, and with that he lay back down in his bed. Manubi kissed his brow, and retucked him back in bed. She watched as his eyes got heavy, and as they were ready to close, she slid out of the room.

When Oobi woke, Cannubi was licking him on the face. It was a wet lick and one that told Oobi that Cannubi needed something. He ran the dog downstairs and into the kitchen, where his mom was in the middle of pouring herself another cup of coffee. “Well good to see you up my friend.” She watched as Oobi went to the cupboard. “Cannubi’s already been out a couple of times this morning. I don’t know what’s bothering him, but he doesn’t seem to be himself.”

Oobi opened a bottle of antacids and gave Cannubi two of the chewables. Cannubi crunched them up and then went outside for a lick out of his water bowl. “I guess last night was my bad time, and now Cannubi’s got the bad morning.”

Cannubi looked at Oobi and then went back and lapped some more out of his bowl.