Watching Over Me?

Ever since I was little I have this recurring thought that someone was in my bedroom waiting for me to go to sleep, this "thing" wasn't like a scary person, it was just something.

I would jump into bed (literally) and catch a glimpse of him. I would shuddered in shock and cover every part of my body under the quilt, so the "thing" would know I was scared. I stayed under the sheets for about 10 seconds and then come out and everything would be back to normal.

It happen weekly, not every night. In my mind, when I thought of it, the "thing" appeared to be a sort of grumpy professor stretching over me, watching me. I didn't really understand why though? I could never feel his presence when I came out from the sheet but when I was covered he was there, but he seem joyful. I assumed it was a "he."

I hadn't really told anyone about it until I was 11, I told my mum. I didn't bother telling my dad he would think it was my imagination! My mum said, "Next door (number 13) there used to leave and old man who was a lecturer at a University in Birmingham. He was 82 when he died." My mum carried on to say he was apparently a troubled child. This trouble grew with him and in him. My mum had seen strange doctors walking in and out the house as he got older. They weren't the sort you find at the surgery. They were doctors that helped people and their inner emotions. Did this old man have emotional problems or did something bad happen when he was a child? Something that has no explanation?

My mum said when she first met him he was jolly and had a spring in his step, and when I was a baby I would run around his house and swing on his shoulders. But then, as time passed, he grew into a decrepit old man with pretty much nothing. He died peacefully in his sleep, which I suppose was a good thing?

It doesn't really explain why he is in my room watching my get into bed. Does he tuck me in? Or does he just like to see my worried face? There are so many question, but to this day I have never been scared.