A Sound Like Someone Trying Not to Make a Sound
John Irving
 It takes place in a house, late at night, when one young child, asleep in his bed, awakes to hear a sound he describes as "a sound like someone trying not to make a sound" to his dad, when he awakens him. The child also tells his dad it sounds like a “monster with no arms and legs” that “slides on its fur” and “pulls itself along on its teeth.” It turns out to be mice in the walls and the child is comforted by his parent. They go back to bed.