who lives in the kitchen cave?
the journal of Michael Werneburg
twenty-seven years and one million words
As I took Kenny into the kitchen to pick up his two toothbrushes this morning, he pointed to the space between the washer-dryer unit and the storage room and said, "Scary" because it was dark.
There's an "ogre" who sometimes scares Kenny—usually the icemaker, washer-dryer, anything that makes noise in the night. Mari pretends that it's coming to get Kenny when he refuses to cooperate (usually with having his teeth cleaned). I play the ogre, stomping about in the kitchen and making noise.
Thinking of the "ogre", I asked Kenny, "Who lives here?"
He looked at the washer-dryer and said, "Mari-chan."