It’s that time of year again. The time of year where we break out the fall or Halloween decorations. Unless you are Wal-Mart, then you break out the Halloween and Christmas decorations… but that’s beside the point.
The weather is finally starting to cool down, it’s getting dark earlier and the scary movies marathons are on television.
I can’t watch scary movies. Well, I can watch them but only if I want to stay awake straight for the next two weeks and leave all my lights on twenty-four hours a day. I have a very active imagination. I guess it is obvious where Kiera gets that from.
Several years ago, before Kiera, we lived in an apartment building. Our little apartment had a half bath in our bedroom and a full bathroom in the hallway. One very late night, I woke up and went into the master bathroom. I decided I would walk into the kitchen and get a glass of water before returning back to bed.
This is where my active imagination comes into play. As I stepped out of the bathroom, I turned towards the bedroom door that led into the hallway. I took a couple of steps and suddenly a huge, black shadow materialized in the doorway. It moved slowly in my direction.Now, this is where I would love to say that I did not turn into one of those girls in the horror movies… you know the ones that always get killed because they don’t run? Well, I did. I stood frozen in place. I know the blood probably drained out of my face at that moment and I let out a blood-curdling scream.
The horrible black shadow jumped, yelled, “What?!” and flipped the light on in the bedroom. As the light flashed on, I saw my poor, unsuspecting husband who was returning from using the hall bathroom only to be greeted by his wife, screaming like she was being attacked. I was surprised after my horrible scream that the neighbor did not call the police.
Needless to say, Aaron and I couldn’t go back to sleep for a little bit.
I am better than I used to be about things like that. I can get up in the middle of the night and check on Kiera and not have to turn on the lights. It’s ok. You can say it. I used to be a big chicken. I’ll admit it.
A few years ago, we received a television for Christmas. It was a step up from our little thirteen-inch television that we squinted at from across the bedroom. A few months after we had it, we begin to notice a small odd occurrence with it. Usually a couple of mornings a week, we would walk in from our bathroom to see a white screen. The television wasn’t actually on, because we would go push the power off button and it would power on instead of off.
It was actually pretty creepy at first. Then we realized that his parents, who were our neighbors, had the same brand of television. We decided that when they were turning their television on in the morning that it was somehow affecting ours. I was happy with that explanation, until we moved into town and it came on to the white screen by itself a couple of times.
Thankfully, it began to occur less and less. We have lived in our current house for over a year and I think it may have happened twice. I’ve been told it probably has something to do with the weather changing, electrical currents and blah, blah, blah. And I am sticking with that story.
We have since moved the television into Kiera’s room so she can watch movies from time to time.
I’m telling you all this so you can understand how my morning started out.
My alarm went off and I hit snooze the required three times before forcing myself out of bed. I walked in the hall and flipped on the bathroom light and began to walk towards the kitchen to make coffee. As I got close to passing Kiera’s room, she let out a horrible yell, than she screamed, “MY TV!!!”
That scream woke me up faster than any amount of coffee ever could. I ran the last couple of steps to her room. In those couple of seconds, my mind flipped through possible scenarios. I thought maybe her television had flipped to the white screen and managed to wake her and at the same time, scare her.
Of course, my lovely active imagination, had its brief second where it threw its scenario in. The one that you might see in a horror movie… where the white screen comes on and things start moving around.
As I entered her room, I noticed she was sitting up on her bed, facing the television. If that television had flicked on to the white screen, I would have grabbed her and bolted for my bedroom. But, it remained black.
I gently placed my arms around Kiera and pulled her back to me. I laid her back on her bed and noticed her eyes were still closed.
“Honey?” I gently shook her. “Baby, what’s wrong? What happened?”
I rubbed her arms and continued to question her until she shrugged her shoulders, effectively pushing my hands away and said in an irritated tone, “I’m still sleeping.”
I stood up from the bed as she pulled her blankets up over her shoulder and snuggled down onto her pillow. I waited for a minute to make sure that she was asleep and headed to the kitchen to make coffee.
Obviously, I have not gotten over the whole white screen thing. I’m thinking I will be looking at the sales when Black Friday rolls around and get Kiera a new television for Christmas.
In fact, maybe we will just use her television for Halloween decoration. Hmmm… that’s not a bad plan at all.
