Mina Rosé stood up from the bed and kissed her son goodnight. Tita shivered as he thought about the horrific monster she had just described, wondering what it would look like in his own spacious room, or under his own bed.
“I don’t have a monster inside of me, do I?” he asked, trying to put on his bravest face.
His mother just smiled warmly as she approached the door, “no Tita. That was just a story. There are no monsters inside of you and you have nothing to worry about. You have me and your father and Pi to protect you.”
His mother turned off his lights as the moonlight shifted once more across the floor and illuminated the doorway where she stood.
He called out to her once more. “Mom, when are you leaving again?”
The smile faded from her face, “as soon as your father and brother get back, dear. But now is not the time to think about that. Now is the time to sleep. Goodnight.”
The door shut behind her and Tita waited for a moment before flipping on his nightlight. The constantly convulsing lunar reflections on his floors scared him, and he could just imagine them as glaring eyes or massive rows of sharp teeth.
He checked under his bed, which was messy but monster free.
He had told his mother he wouldn’t be scared, but he couldn’t help it. All of those new worlds and crazy creatures sounded just as scary as the horrifying monster itself. He wanted to tell himself that he would stay here on Oba Diah forever, but the idea of a planet covered in green, just like his skin, intrigued him more than anything.
Maybe someday, when he was older, he would travel the stars as a merchant like his mother, or embark on some crazy adventures as a smuggler like his father. But for now, he would stay in his nice safe room, with his nice warm bed.
Tita extended his arm towards the desk at his feet, and his glass of water lifted up, barely sloshing this time, and landing softly into his hand. He took a sip before placing it back where it had been and then reached out towards the small stuffed Wookiee sitting in the chair on the opposite end of the room.
It hovered over to him, passing through the waves of moonbeams, and he plucked it out of the air above his chest.
He held it tight as he snuggled down into his bed.
There was no monster inside of him.
And even if there was, he would never let it hurt the ones that he loved.
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