"The Staff is ready, Prof," Phil said.
"We're all with you, aren't we?" Laura giggled.
The closet.
Kane ran into the closet and slammed the door. There was something immediately cozy in the narrow black confines of the closet. Either closet walls weren't TV screens, or they had decided to let him sleep at last. Probably the former. Better convert closets to Television. In case kiddies misbehave and get locked in the closet, they'll not be alone in there....
He curled up on the floor in the pitch blackness and almost immediately began to drift off into sleep. The narrow darkness tightened around him like a thick comforting blanket on a cold night....
Sometime later—he had no idea how much time had passed—a light was blinking at his lids. He opened them slowly and stared into a flickering yellow eye.
A doorhinge creaked. Up there somewhere a voice said pleasantly:
"Professor Kane, your Staff is here."
"Staff?" he whispered, trying to see above the blinking light.
"We're here."