The sun had tucked itself behind the hills, and the stars were just beginning to blink their sleepy eyes. In a cozy room filled with soft shadows, a little boy named Echo stood in front of his dresser. He had an important job to do. A very big job. Can you guess what it was? He had to choose his pajamas!
Now, choosing pajamas is serious business when you are four years old. Echo looked at his dresser. It felt like a giant cave of fabric. 'Which one will make me brave tonight?' he wondered. He tapped a little rhythm on his leg—tap-tap-slide—and felt the large, matte-finish headphones around his neck. They weren't for loud music tonight. No, no. They were his Whisper-Catchers!
Echo pulled the headphones over his ears. Click! Everything went quiet. Then, Bzzzt-pop! Suddenly, the room wasn't quiet at all. He could hear the tiny, soft voices of his friends. Barnaby the Bear, who was very grumbly and very soft, gave a little huff. 'Choose the striped ones, Echo!' Barnaby whispered. 'Stripes are like mountain trails. Sturdy and strong! You’ll climb high in your dreams. Stomp, stomp, stomp!'
Then came a tiny, chilly giggle. It was Pip the Penguin. 'No, no! The polka-dots!' Pip squeaked. 'Each dot is a bubble in the deep blue sea. You can swim with the whales. Splosh! Splash!' Echo looked at the stripes and then at the dots. His heart went thump-thump. The stripes felt a bit too tall. The dots felt a bit too splashy. Making a choice can feel like a heavy backpack, can't it?
'What do you think?' Echo asked his indigo friendship bracelet. He touched the soft threads. Then, he looked deep into the drawer and found them. The indigo pajamas. They were the color of the sky just before the moon wakes up. He felt the fabric—shhh-shhh—it sounded like a gentle wind.
'These,' Echo decided. 'These are my brave suit.' He pulled them on—Zip! Zap! Šup!—and they felt just like a warm hug from the inside out. He realized he didn't need the mountain stripes or the bubble dots to be brave. He just needed to listen to that quiet rhythm inside his own chest.
Echo climbed into his big, soft bed. He took off his headphones and placed them on the nightstand. The whispers of Barnaby and Pip turned into a soft, rhythmic lullaby. Whoosh... whoosh... The room was dark, but Echo wasn't worried. He was the conductor of his own dreams now. He closed his amber-flecked eyes, and with one last happy tap-tap on his blanket, he drifted off.
And that’s how it all turned out just right. Goodnight, brave Echo. Goodnight to you, too.