Beware of traveling on the stairs!

(note the rusty orange color to add to the spooky factor)

As most of you are aware, my youngest monkey desperately believes there is a gorilla in the upstairs wings surrounding the steps. We've tried to calm her fears. We've searched for this gorilla. I even thought the mountain in the recently hung Ansel Adams picture might be what's frightening her. But, we haven't found the gorilla or anything that resembles it.
My husband, the man I thought was mature in his age, had to rummage through some boxes and totes in the storage closet that is nestled in the wing upstairs. While he was looking for his treasure, he came across something that he couldn't put down. He not only decided right then what he would do with this item, he enlisted the help of our oldest monkey to be an accessory in his crime.
The smallest monkey, only being 2 years of age, went up the steps to go play with her babies in the play room. However she did not make it to the play room. Her older, wiser, protector of a sister steered her instead to "show" her where the gorilla was upstairs. When my little, poor, unsuspecting monkey got over to the area where her gorilla resides, the older monkey gave some sort of signal, and all of a sudden the door bursts open and my masked husband, in a scary old bald man mask, jumps and snorts and yells, scaring my baby sooooooooooooooooooooo entirely much that she trembled and ran in a circle and screamed at the top of her lungs. She continued screaming and saying, "I want mommy!!!" over and over while her daddy tried to console and comfort her. Much to his dismay, he could not comfort the frantic baby. I took her from his arms and went straight to the rocking chair. The poor thing whimpered and frantically sucked her thumb for what seemed like an hour.

That was yesterday before supper.

My small monkey WILL NOT go upstairs. She wouldn't play last night, she wouldn't sleep in her bed (so I let her sleep on a pallet in the living room), and today she will not even go to her room to pick out her clothes for the day, which is usually her favorite morning activity. The poor thing is truly scared. The husband still thinks its funny. agh.

Then, in the middle of the night, well, it was about 4:00am, my middle monkey came down the steps into my room to wake me and tell me he was scared and asked if he could sleep on the couch. I didn't argue because I wanted to get back to sleep as soon as possible. Little did I know he went back upstairs to retrieve his pillow. Upon his descent, while I was returning to my slumber, he started stomping and screaming at the top of his lungs. My husband and I shot right out of bed and tried to get into the little space at the foot of the steps. My prince charming made it in front of me, so I was left standing in my dark room without my glasses on. They were all the way across the room on my nightstand. When we finally got my son to speak, after all his shrieking, he yelled, "There's a mouse!!!" All I saw was my hubby high footing it, as he was barefoot. He told ME to do something with the mouse! I couldn't see the mouse and I had no idea where he was at the time. Then hubby says, "It just went under the fridge. I don't have anything to stomp it with. I don't know why I told you to get it." Then he starts laughing as he tells me the mouse was on the 4th step up, ran down the stairs, and once it was on the floor it started running in circles until it finally shot under the fridge. He couldn't fathom why the mouse would be running in circles. I was rolling, and shot out that the poor little thing was probably scared to death of our son screaming at the top of his lungs.
The middle monkey was still freaked out, so I walked him to the living room and bedded him down on the couch with his pillow and a couple of blankets. Then I went back to bed and drifted off to sleep with a smile on my face thinking about the gorilla and the mouse.