My trailer was newly fixed up with a Koi pond and a tetherball set in the front yard; it seemed great for a child who wasn't really used to staying in one house for very long. I had helped my dad dig the Koi pond and decorate it as a Mother's Day present and my little Cocker Spaniel would sit beside it for long, lazy hours that summer. Who would have thought it was because she didn't want to be inside?
Inside the trailer is basically a long hallway; you walk in the front door and you're in the living room, to the right is my parent's room and to the left is the kitchen, then the bathroom, and then my room at the very end. I was sitting on the laundry hamper positioned against the far wall of the hallway outside the bathroom, waiting for my mom to finish in the bathroom so she could start the Wizard of Oz for me - being four, I wasn't allowed to touch the electronics. I was easily bored, so I went from staring at the closed bathroom door to my bedroom door just a couple of feet away.
I was in for a shock that day! Instead of what I thought I would see, I found myself staring at a little boy; well, a vague outline anyway - he was kind of gray and I could see my door and dolphin poster through him. I stayed where I was for a couple of minutes, my mind trying to process what was going on. Without warning, the boy disappears and I charge into the bathroom. My mom plays it off to my overactive imagination and my older cousin, Valerie, playing tricks on me, but Val wasn't even in town that day, she was in Kendrick with her dad!
*//*
I didn't know it at the time, but Mom was experiencing stuff too. She was talking to our family friends in a chat room one night when the bathroom door slammed shut! My "uncle" (I've always called him Binki because that was his chat room screen name) asked why my mom was so freaked. "It's probably just Ash."
"Allan, she's spending the night with her grandma and John's out on the road!" She was alone in the house. "I'm going to go see what made the door slam." Despite Binki's protests, she marches down the hallway with a pistol in hand and opens the door so hard it swung back and hit the washer with a loud bang. The light in the room was on, but no one was in there to have turned it on. There was one window in the bathroom, but it doesn't open. After that the lights began to flicker on and off, but only on the days when Mom was by herself with no one else to witness it.
*//*
For my sixth birthday I got one of those dolls that talked when you plug one of its little accessories in its hand. I hated that thing and all talking dolls! I made my daddy take the batteries out and then buried the stupid thing in the bottom drawer of my dresser, hidden under piles of underwear and Barbie clothes.
For weeks that damn doll tormented me, continuing to talk at all hours of the night while I tried to sleep, despite the fact that I had all the accessories in the bottom of my toy box. I got fed up with it one night and opened the little flap on its back where the battery compartment was; only there were no batteries to make it run! I was scared so badly that I had started to shake and threw the doll across the room. My parents didn't believe me the next morning when I explained what had happened and my granny was mad that I'd thrown such an expensive toy. To this day the only dolls allowed in my room are Polly Pockets and Loving Family.
*//*
I was eight when my parent's had their first New Year's Eve party in our trailer - our only guests being a married couple and their two youngest kids, Josh and Kyle. Josh is two years older than I am and Kyle is my age; he and I were born fifteen hours apart in the same hospital and our dads were best friends in high school.
Us three kids got bored and decided to go outside to play a game that was mix between hide and seek and tag. It was dark out, but as long as we stayed in the yard our parents didn't mind. It was my turn to be it, so I was walking around the trailer, whistling to myself when I heard an echo. That was weird for me because there was nothing around for my pathetic whistle to echo off of! I turn around thinking Josh was being a butt and mocking me, but the boy standing by our camper isn't my friend's older brother. The boy is around my height (think Bilbo) with shaggy blonde hair and blue eyes. He smiled at me, giving me a wave.
I'd never seen him before and the first thought that came to my mind was "Stranger danger" so I took off running past him yelling my fool head off. "Kyle, Josh; there's a boy! There's a boy!" Of course, said boy disappears the moment I opened my mouth. I never saw him again, but I don't remember feeling scared of him, just confused about why there was stranger in my yard at ten o'clock at night.
Loading comments....
