Every night around twelve thirty, five year old Eddie Lee gets out of bed and sneaks into the kitchen to get some chocolate chip cookies. He has done this every night for the last couple of months with uncontested success. His mother and father never catch him. He is convinced that he is smart and cunning enough to evade the slightest suspicion. Eddie plans to go through his usual routine tonight. But on this night, things go very wrong.

He gets out of bed around twelve thirty as usual. He walks to the bedroom door where he takes a peek onto the hallway. He sees no one. He tiptoes down the hallway headed for the kitchen. He comes near his parent’s bedroom door that is partially open, but completely dark inside. He zips pass the door. He then pauses for a second to regroup and to see if there is a response from his parent’s bedroom. All is quiet. Eddie continues.

When he gets near it, Eddie notices a picture in the living room has fallen off the wall. It’s a framed portrait of his mother and father. The glass in front of the picture has shattered. Eddie suddenly remembers that he and his best friend were playing in the living room pretty rough earlier that day and got into trouble for doing so. The picture may be an unnoticed causality of their roughhousing. Nevertheless, he decides to deal with the picture on his way back.

Feeling the toughest part of his quest is over, Eddie confidently walks into the kitchen. He heads straight for the cookie jar which is near the kitchen window. Everything seems to be going to plan. He takes the lid off of the jar and reaches in. At that instant, a man outdoors walks pass the kitchen window. The man then walks to the kitchen door and begins to knock gently. Worried his parents will walk down the hall and catch him, Eddie quickly puts the lid back on the cookie jar and hides underneath the kitchen table.

The man continues to knock, each time a little louder. Eddie has no idea whose destroying his nightly plans. He cannot see the man’s face, only his shadow. He’s also beginning to wonder why his parents haven’t wakened by now. Suddenly, the knocking stops.

Then the man shouts, “open the door!” Confused and becoming scared Eddie just sits under the table frozen. The man shouts again, “open the door!” There is no response from Eddie’s parents. Eddie begins to shake in fear. “Open this door, goddamnit,” the man yells.

For a few seconds, everything gets quite again. Then suddenly, the loud thumps of the man trying to kick the door in come in steady beats. Terrified under the table, Eddie is about to get up and run until the door gives way to the man’s force and violently swings open. Eddie is trapped underneath the table terrified beyond imagination.

From under the table, all he can see are the shoes of the man as he slowly enters. The man walks near the table and stops. The man then walks to the center of the kitchen. At that moment, Eddie sees the feet of a woman walking into the kitchen from the hallway. Eddie is sure it is his mother. She walks toward the man. “What the hell are you doing here?” she says to the man. Eddie gets up enough courage to look from underneath the table to see who his mother is addressing. He is shocked to discover that the man is very familiar to him. The man responds, “I forgot something.” The man walks over and reaches for the cookie jar. He empties its contents on the floor. He picks up a wad of money that falls out of the jar onto the pile of cookies. He then, slowly walks out of the same kitchen door he so violently entered. After that night, little Eddie Lee never saw his father again.