I could never forget the summer of 1983. I was six years old. My brother and I spent the whole summer in Mexico with our Uncle Carlos. Carlos lived in a normal house, but during the night it was quite abnormal.

After a couple of weeks of new sites and new faces, Jason and I began to get bored. We were looking around Carlos' house one day when we found a gigantic trunk. It was filled with miscellaneous stuff like a bent fork, a broken clock, and even some car keys. Jason told Carlos about the trunk, and he was amazed. Everything in the trunk used to be his, but they were things that he had lost.

That night Carlos said we could stay up later than usual watching old home movies. At 2:0 in the morning we heard a noise over by the trunk. Jason was scared, but I snuck over to the trunk. There I saw a short pink furry house imp. He was stashing away an old hat. When we saw one another, he was more frightened than I. I asked him what he was doing, and to my surprise, he responded in English.

This house imp named Peabody was the last of his kind. He lived under Carlos' bed. Every night Peabody takes something from him. Once Peabody turns fifteen years old he will turn into a fat man. As soon as this happens, he will take the trunk and sell everything at an open market.

We talked for hours about everything imaginable. Before the sunrise, Peabody begged me no to tell Carlos about him. I agreed on one condition: Peabody had to go steal me a cookie.

That morning, Carlos was very mad because he could not find his old hat. I didn't say anything.

The rest of the summer was boring except for my occasion visits with Peabody. Ever since that summer, I always look for a fat man selling junk at an open market.

By Kevin Heitz