Aurora Magazine 2019

ine and see if you don’t get chills. I didn’t see it, but could sense its large, doglike maw practically at my neck, slavering in antici - pation of my yumminess. Goosebumps covered my whole body as a cold chill traveled up my spine. I began whining, “Mommy, mommy, mommy,” till somebody finally came and turned on the light. It was my grandmother. “Now what in the world’s gotten into you?” I told her everything and she just laughed. “Why there’s nothing be - hind those curtains at all, silly goose, ‘cause those curtains ain’t closed!” As I agonizingly turned my head to see that she was cor - rect, I didn’t even consciously realize my body was already rising from the bed and headed for the door. I didn’t return to that room again for years. I swore I’d never terrorize my kid brother again. But a cou - ple of years later I found myself locking the unfortunate lad in our bedroom closet and banging on the cheap metal closet door which produced a satisfying rumbling noise like thunder. I’d kept the volume level down to a dull roar up to that point, but then he began to shriek at the top of his lungs. I fool - ishly forgot that my stepdad, who was sleeping off a hangover, was likely to be woken by Paddy’s cries (never mind my closet banging). Too late I opened the closet door, but Dad had already stormed in. Wild-eyed and groggy, hair a rat’s nest, huge, hairy mon - ster in his tighty-whiteys, he paused to look around, assessed the situation, grabbed me by my hair, and pulled me kicking and screaming to the bathroom. The upstairs bathroom had no win - dows, one door, one sink, one toilet, and one bathtub. The shower curtain was light blue and matched the shag toilet carpeting and the wallpaper. “SIT.” And I was directed to sit on the edge of the bathtub and “see what it feels like to be trapped in the dark” as he clicked off the switch and slowly closed off the world of light and life to plunge me into solitude and darkness…in front of the curtain.

98