Photo by ajiss on Unsplash
“Hey, Mom,” Kiara sat still in her seat while her mother separated her wet hair. She loved hair washing day, the only time she got her mother to herself. Her father took her three brothers and buzzed their curls down to scalp then fired up the grill to give her mother and her the two hours needed to redo their braids for the next six weeks. Sometimes they even had time to do nails.
“What is it, Little Bit?” Her mom shifted a bank of hair to the front of Kiara’s face now she was old enough to practice on her own with the nearly empty jar of butter cream they saved for that purpose.
“Why don’t monsters come out of our closets at night?”
Fingers stilled a second before starting to gently finger comb the loose hairs out between spritzes of stay-in conditioner. “Why would they come out?”
“Well, Timmy and Karen at school say they have their parents check their closets for monsters every night. Timmy’s dad opens the closet and shines a flashlight under the bed to keep him safe and Karen’s parents spritz monster spray in her room. Lucy, Chuck, and Mandy all say that they have had their parents do something like that too, but not every night. Why isn’t it a problem for us?”
“Ah, well, first off, we train our monsters much better.” Her mother moved to a different section of hair and started the water, conditioner, and fingercomb routine again. “If you need to spritz your monsters nightly, you aren’t doing a good job taking care of them.”
“Oh, should I teach them how to take better care of their monsters?” Kiara asked. “I take really good care of Old Baba.”
“I know. I saw you grab the handful of fresh graveyard soil when we visited grandmother last week.” Her mother kissed the top of her head in approval. “But whities don’t take well to people that look like us correcting them.”
“That’s just silly,” Kiara declared. Taking care of pets and creatures was an important job. She only got to help with Old Baba when she turned five. Knowing how to do it right was super, super important.
“No, no. Not all rules make sense, but you do need to follow them.” Her mother corrected her without worrying about whether Kaira cared about the correction because mothers could do that with their children.
Kiara worked her lock of hair but didn’t nod agreement because her mother was still pulling her hair gently. “Like wearing shoes to school and in restaurants.”
“Well, the school shoes are so you don’t forget to take shoes for the cafeteria. Unless you are really careful, and not everyone is, shoes should be worn where food is being made and served. And always worn around fire and cutting knives. We can get away with it at home for stirring and shucking and other kitchen and cooking things because your dad and I are very careful and we are teaching you the same, but not everyone is.”
“So where there is a lot of people, community rules apply.”
“Exactly.” Her mother kissed her head again and switched to the last section needing moisturizing. “And safety rules always apply. You’ve gotten really good at keeping on your shoes when we tell you they have to stay on.”
“Could I keep Old Baba in the closet or under the bed like Timmy and Karen do with their monsters? Out in the shed gets really hot in the summer.” Kiara started picking out red and yellow beads out of the container. She loved using the purple only last time but wanted different colors for the start of summer.
Kiara felt her mother smile. She didn’t know why, but sometimes just being around her mother she could hear laughter.
Other times she could hear the grumbles. Like when she and her brothers tried to sneak Baba into the house to help with their chores and play with them when they have used up all their screen time without asking for permission first.
“No, we can’t have Old Baba or Milly in the house at night. They must have a waking controller with them while they are ambulatory, and they keep each other company out in the shed when we aren’t interacting with them. It’s not fair to let only one in and leave the other out.”
“Milly is smelly.” Kiara wrinkled her nose.
“She is over ninety years old.” Her mother’s hand reached around and Kiara dropped two beads in it to finish her braid. “I’ve been thinking, when you reach six you can help me with a renewal spell like I did with J-J on Baba.”
“Really?” Kiara bounced in her chair until her mother put a calming hand on her shoulder. “I would get Milly for ever-and-ever?” J-J didn’t need mom’s help with giving Old Baba instructions.
“No Little Bit, the agreement was one hundred years, but there is no need to let her be run-down when we release her. It’s only polite to keep her well-maintained.”
“Oh, I didn’t know…” Kiara’s voice got smaller. “Milly is going away?”
“Not for another ten years. She will keep us company until you turn fifteen.”
“Good, that will be forever from now.”
“Not quite, but it is still a long time for you.”
“When that happens, we should have Old Baba come into the house so he won’t be alone.”
Her mother came around to work on the front which Kiara had prepared for braiding. “Well, Old Baba and Milly both were formed by grandmama-mama at the same time and have the same agreement.”
“What do you mean?” Kiara frowned up as her mother worked on her hair.
“We will need to release both Baba and Milly at the same time, Little Bit. You, me, and J-J, like a proper coven who keeps its promises and contracts. Aunt Esther and Cousin Izzy should be there too. Maybe even Great Aunt Sunshine if she is still around. It will make a good family reunion. … And done.” Her mother kissed Kiara on the forehead. “Ready to help me with mine?”
“Yes, yes.” Kiara scrambled out of her chair and they moved to her mom’s makeup station with the big mirror. The stool there was right up against the big bed where her parents slept, so there wasn’t room for her mom to walk around and work on her hair there, but Kiara could climb on the bed and help her mom with hers.
Her mother placed Kiara’s special bead on the white marble table. The jade and gold bead winked and sparkled as her mother turned on the lights of her makeup table.
When they finished working on her mother’s hair, they put the bead into Kiara’s hair with a quick asking to the Loa Erzulie Danto and leaving a small hand-rolled cigarette on the altar. The bead helped keep Kiara quiet and safe. Mom used to put it in the back of her hair where she couldn’t reach it, but when she started kindergarten, after a long summer of teaching about when and when it shouldn’t be taken off, moved it to the front so Kiara could remove it in an emergency. They left it cracked open because they would be eating in the backyard, which mean Old Baba and Milly would be joining them and Kiara loved being able to talk to both of them freely even though Milly was smelly.
(words 1,250; first published 5/10/2026)
Ordinary Monsters series
One) Monsters in the closet (5/10/2026)
Two) Monsters in the school (5/24/2026)
Three) Monsters in the Restaurant (6/28/2026)
