My 5 year old daughter asked me why “Mr. Tom” only comes at night when I am sleeping – I don’t know any Toms, so I set up a camera in her room and waited

My five-year-old gives names to everything. Her stuffed bunny is named Gerald, her favorite blanket is Princess Cloud, and apparently the man who visits her at night is called “Mr. Tom.”
The problem was, I didn’t know anyone named Tom.
So I set up a camera in her bedroom.
What I saw on that footage took my breath away.
It all started the way all the scariest things do: randomly, in the middle of an ordinary moment. One Wednesday morning, during breakfast cereal.
Ellie sat at the kitchen table eating a bowl of Cheerios with the intense focus she brings to everything she does. Without even looking up, she said, “Mr. Tom thinks you work too hard, Mom.”
I slowly put down my coffee cup. “Who is Mr. Tom?”
“He worries about me!” she said cheerfully, as if that explained everything.
I thought he was an imaginary friend. Ellie has a whole universe in her imagination. So I let it go.
That was my first mistake.
About a week later, she stopped me dead in my tracks.
I was brushing her hair before bed, looking at each other in the bathroom mirror. She frowned and asked, “Mommy, why does Mr. Tom only come when you’re asleep?”
The brush froze in my hand.
“What do you mean, when I’m asleep?”
“He comes at night,” she said calmly. “First he checks the window. Then he talks to me for a while.”
Every muscle in my body tensed.
“Ellie, honey, what does Mr. Tom look like?”
She considered the question carefully, as she always does.
“He’s old. He smells like a garage. And he walks very slowly.” She paused. “He says not to wake you up.”
“Is he coming tonight?” I asked, trying not to let the fear show in my voice.
“I think so, Mom,” Ellie said.
I didn’t sleep that night.
After Ellie went to bed, I went through the house, room by room, double-checking every door and window.
Finally, I sat on the couch with my phone in my lap, scanning every neighbor, every daycare parent, every man I’d ever met named Tom.
Nothing.
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