At around 4 o'clock in the morning, I heard my four-year old son whisper, "mommy?" I was sleeping but when he called me, I woke up immediately. He was crying. I was alarmed.
"What's wrong, baby? What's the matter," I said.
"Don't be impatient, Mommy. Don't be impatient with me, OK?" he said in between sniffles.
It was still dark outside. And it was pitch dark in the bedroom. His father was snoring heavily beside him. He sleeps in between me and his daddy.
Coming out of deep sleep, my head was fuzzy. Why will I be impatient with him? In the middle of the night while sleeping? But I reassured him.
"No, baby. I won't be impatient. I'll never be impatient with you. I love you," I said. I was trying to look at his face in the dark but I couldn't see his expression. But I could still hear him sniffing.
"I had a bad dream, mommy. It was about you and the one below," he said.
"What do you mean? Who's the one below?" I asked.
"The one below God. You were impatient. And I was scared," he said, then started crying again.
I hugged him. "Shhh, baby. It was just a dream. It's not true. I won't be impatient."
But I have been impatient with him a lot of times, usually when I'm tired coming home from work. And one time, feeling guilty, I sat him down and told him to forgive me when I'm in my impatient mood. I told him to call my attention when I'm becoming short tempered, or when I'm not listening to him when he tries to tell me his stories.
Since then, he's been pointing out my impatience whenever I start to lose my temper. When this happens, I immediately check myself and calm down.
But last night, I felt a little guilty that his bad dream was about my impatient attitude. From what I could understand from his narration, I sort of transformed into a devil-monster. I think his bad dream was themed after the movie Transformers 2, and the movie Hellboy 2. Scary movies alright.
"Can you open the light, mommy?" he said.
I turned on the bed side lamp.
"Can I see your hands?" he said. He took my hands, inspected them and my arms. He was checking something.
"Oh," he said, "it's not there. I thought your hands had oil all over and turned red."
I told him, "It's just a dream. It's not true. See?" I spread out my arms, and hugged him again. I told him not to cry anymore and not to be scared.
"I will not be impatient. Sleep now. I promise to take care of you" I whispered in his ears as he closed his eyes still wet with tears.
