Always Florence by Muriel Jensen Page A

explain. “Ogres are humanoid. Monsters are really big and usually animal, or parts of animals, or sometimes part people and part animal.”
    Again, Bobbie’s eyes met Nate’s in amazement. He patted Dylan’s shoulder. “Atta boy,” he said. “Dazzle us with your smarts.”
    Dylan gave the barest of smiles. “Justin has the Monster Slayer game. You have to have different weapons to get different monsters.”
    “So, you think my monster should have a different name?” Sheamus tried to reclaim attention.
    “How do you know what’s in your closet is a monster and not an ogre?” Dylan asked. “Or a troll?”
    “’Cause I know,” Sheamus insisted.
    “’Cause you made him up.”
    “Dyl,” Nate warned.
    Dylan went back to work, ignoring the monster construction.
    “I think he’s your monster,” Nate said, “and you can name him whatever you want.” He angled his head for a better look at the sketch. Bobbie turned it so that he could see. “But maybe he should have a special name. One that just belongs to him.”
    Sheamus thought. “Like...Bill?”
    Bobbie bit back a smile.
    “That doesn’t sound very scary,” Nate said.
    Sheamus shrugged, apparently thinking that was all right.
    Dylan looked up again. “His name should be something creepy, like Skeletor. I know that’s already taken, but something like that.”
    “No, I like Bill.” Sheamus was stubborn.
    “Okay.” Dylan leaned over his own work again. “But it’s dumb.”
    “What color is Bill?” Bobbie held up a green pencil. “Same color as Shrek?”
    Sheamus leaned his elbows on the table. “Brown. Like a bear. He’s part people, part bear.”
    She held up a yellow-brown and a dark brown. Sheamus picked the dark one, so she crosshatched color onto Bill’s round face, rotund body and squatty arms and legs.
    “Do you think he should have a jacket? You know, since he’s in the closet where your winter clothes are.”
    “Yeah. One of my jackets is green with a hood. I don’t like it, so he can have that one.”
    “Right.” A green zippered jacket with a hood took shape. She added a smiley-face button to the collar. “What about a hat?”
    Nate took a seat at a right angle to her and watched the drawing progress. When she glanced up, he did, too, and something completely unexpected happened. Electricity. As though the pencil in her hand had become a bare wire. Their eyes connected again. She felt his gaze like a touch.
    He looked as startled by the impact as she was.
    “I hate to wear a hat,” Sheamus said, unaware of anything but his monster. “I bet he does, too.”
    She refocused on the monster, who was becoming less and less threatening as she built and clothed him. Which was precisely what she’d hoped for.
    Sheamus pointed to Bill’s throat. “I have a yellow scarf my mom made hanging inside the closet door.”
    A mild but palpable tension invaded the room.
    “Should we put that on him,” Bobbie asked gently, “or should we save it for you? When you can open the closet, that might be the first thing you take out.”
    He considered that, his eyes troubled.
    “You have a blue scarf in there, too.” Nate spoke softly, leaning closer to study the figure. “It has red and yellow dinosaurs on it, remember? I brought it back for you when I went to New York. Bill would look cool in it.”
    Sheamus smiled broadly as he remembered. “From the museum. Dylan got a red one with blue and yellow dinosaurs.”
    “That’s right. That was a couple of years ago. You were just little guys.”
    Dylan didn’t look up.
    Sheamus turned to Bobbie. “It’s kinda little. Can we make it fit Bill?”
    “I think we can.” She set to work with all the colors Nate had mentioned, and made it fit snugly, its two short ends sticking out of the knot at the side of Bill’s throat. The dinosaur pattern was small but visible.
    “He should have mean eyes!” Enthusiastic again, Sheamus jabbed a finger at Bill’s face.
    “At last!” Nate