“She won’t rest.”

My daughter is almost nine but we still use a monitor so that we can hear her if she wakes up in the middle of the night.

My wife has gone to bed and I am up late, doing some work I brought home from the office.

The monitor crackles and my daughter calls for me.

When I head upstairs, she is already out of bed, standing there in the semi-dark.

“What are you doing? Are you okay?”

She looks at me, eyes clear but confused. “She had to… she wasn’t…”

I try to lead her back to bed but she stays there, looking around the room.

“A lady was… she had to get up, her daughter… She won’t rest. She won’t rest.”

I help her back into bed, make sure she’s settled, and head back downstairs.