“Hey! Come take a look at the moon. It’s everso bright tonight.” I called out to Thoughtful Man.

I stood in the doorway, shivering in the darkness, as Poppy stalked nocturnal creatures in the long grass of the garden. The last run out of the evening – her location only given away by her ramrod tail, like an antenna… ‘Taking a dump, here’.

Soft footsteps approached from behind before warm arms casually embraced my shoulders. “Oh my god, Looby, you stink!”

“Mum. I’m one of the top three thousand COD Black Ops 3 players in the world… I sweat.”

I gently lifted his arms and twirled away from beneath them. “Yes, well you need to have a wash before you go to bed.” I marveled at his hairy lankiness and tried to remember the last time I was able to pick him up.

“What’s up?” Thoughtful Man joined us, closely followed by an equally hairy but broad shouldered Kitten who’d been loitering around the fridge. Again.

“Look. I don’t think it’s full but the moon is really bright tonight.” I pointed out to the shimmering disc floating above the rooftops over the way.

‘Ums’ and ‘ahs’ and ‘Oh yeahs’ followed before Thoughtful Man pointed out the sentry.  “Look, he’s carrying a lance or a pike.”

“What’s the other thing, then?” I asked as Poppy decided to rejoin the crowd.

“Dunno. Some sort of giant spider…”

I grabbed the handle and pulled the backdoor close. “Cheers! Thanks for that thought.” I shivered again, this time from the sensation of three separate hands making creepy crawlie movements on my back and head. “Bastards! Don’t do that!”

Poppy gave me her ‘pick me up’ look as the three men of the house moved away, howling with laughter.