Late Night Reading

By Mary Hill

My daughter reading years ago.

I decided to accept the inspirational challenge today of writing my own “Code Switch” essay and poem. 

My daughter pulled a fast one tonight. I fell asleep on the couch. I was tasked to ensure she turned her lights out at 9:30 p.m. Instead I hear my husband through a fog, “KR go to bed.”

I woke up realizing I had been asleep and 9:30 had come and gone. My daughter huddled over her now favorite book in the Warrior series. “I’ve got just one more page to go.”

“You should have been in bed thirty minutes ago,” I told her.

My daughter replied, “I just couldn’t put it down.”  

I remembered my own late night with my first book that I just could not put down. It was a Betty Cavanna book, Accent on April.” It was a very old book that I had found in my elementary school library in 1979. We must have had a very dated collection.

I had snuck into the bathroom after my parents had gone to bed to finish the story of a young journalist trying to get a scope for her high school paper. It was also a school night. I also remember it raining for some reason. My mom came out and saw the light on. “Mary, you need to go to bed.”  “Awe, mom, just one more chapter.”

It would not be the last night that I had stayed up late reading a book without my parent’s knowledge. I have read so many books from many authors including Mary Stewart to Kristin Hannah.

Now my daughter has discovered the magic between pages. 

Words and rhymes flow through our heads.  Cats or turtles versus one girls dreams or battles for survival.

Getting lost in a book in the middle of the night as rain pelts windows and roofs.

Lightning flashing as excitement builds.

Words float in the air forming plots that keep pages turning.

Late night reading, something my daughter and I share.