The Short Sheeted Bed

Here’s a story I know I’ve told on here before but a comment about seeing the Stitching Witches and being reminded of my friendship with Denise made me want to share the story again.

It was probably 15 years ago this happened. There was a time when, if the story involved a car, I could think back to what car I was driving and narrow the time frame down a bit but since we keep the same cars forever, that no longer helps me BUT . . the Highlander is 15 years old and I drove the Honda, which is now 21 years old, so it had to have been at least 15 years ago.

A friend who . . I think is actually the friend I met Denise through . . was hosting a quilting retreat in Arkansas. She rented a huge cabin. I think it had about 6 bedrooms and 6 bathrooms and we all met there. I was living in Missouri and another Missouri friend went with me and the two of us shared a room with Denise. Our room was the only upstairs room and it was a giant room. At one end of the room were two twin beds so my friend and I slept in those beds and at the other end was either a queen or a double and Denise slept in that bed.

One night while we were there, my friend and I went upstairs before Denise did. We were in bed talking and one of us . . probably me said “Let’s short sheet her bed!” We hopped out of bed, ran to Denise’s bed, and short sheeted her bed. We were giggling and laughing and hoping we didn’t get caught. We got back in bed and waited and waited and waited. Denise is a night owl and we thought she was never coming to bed. The lights were off and when we heard her coming, we got quiet and pretended to be asleep.

Denise, being the always considerate lady that she is, tip toed to the bathroom in the dark, being ever so quiet. My friend and I were quietly giggling and waiting and trying not to arouse Denise’s suspicions. Denise came out of the bathroom, tip toed in the dark, got in bed without making a sound. We heard her wiggling around in the bed but she never said a word. She was on her way to going to sleep in a short sheeted bed. No way!

My friend and I could no longer keep it in and we started giggling out loud. Denise said “What are you two doing?” We confessed! Denise said she got in bed, thought she hadn’t turned the covers back correctly, tried to wiggle around and get straightened out but couldn’t, and not wanting to wake us, she was going to sleep like that the entire night . . all curled up in half the bed!

Some nights, all these years later, I get in bed and for whatever reason, I can’t get the covers right, I start giggling. Vince will almost always go to bed before I do and he kinda wraps up in the covers. I try to get in bed without waking him and I think I have a spot where I can get under the covers, get in bed and find that he’s somehow halfway pulled the top sheet at some kind of angle and I’m meeting a dead end with my feet. Anyway, if my giggle wakes him, he will say “I know you’re thinking about short sheeting Denise’s bed” and yes, I always think about that when my covers aren’t right.

It’s so nice to have such good memories from friends. And, the story did involve a car! I drove from MO down to the cabin in AR so I remember which vehicle we had at the time.