Fun in the Dark - Part 1

I don’t know why, but as a kid, I was never afraid of the dark. I wasn’t afraid of much at all, except bears. When I was around 7 and 8 we lived in a long house with a hallway running along one side opening into all the rooms on the other side. My bedroom was on the opposite end of the house from the bathroom. Sometimes at night when I was headed back to my room after taking a leak, I’d imagine a huge black bear was chasing me down the hall. I’d run as fast as my little legs would take me and fly into bed (where I was somehow safe from the bear).

I soon learned, even at that young age, that the mind is not something to allow free roam. I had a big imagination, but I understood early on that I needed to control it, or it would create fears of threats that did not exist. At some point my bedroom was moved out from the room with my brother to my own room in another part of the house. I had to adjust to going back to a different room after my midnight trips to the bathroom. Then something caused a slight hang-up in my “imagination management”.

My parents were helping a deaf guy with some problems and allowed him to stay with us for a few days. He stayed in my bedroom and I stayed with my brother in his room. The first night I trekked to the bathroom and then headed back to bed… my own bed. Mostly asleep, I crawled into my bed. At that moment a deep, long growl penetrated my sleep-numbed senses from directly behind me. My head snapped around and I saw a huge, bulky form in my bed. Protruding from under the covers was thick, dark hair that looked a lot to me like black fur. I was frozen with fear, struggling to separate perception from reality… until the next window-rattling growl came the large, dark form in the bed! I launched from the bed and hit the floor running!

By the time I reached my temporary bed in my brother’s room, I was more awake and realized what had happened. I had gone, out of habit, back to my own bed, which was occupied by our snoring visitor.

At any rate, as I grew up I began to realize that it was much more fun to BE that fearsome, mysterious creature in the dark than to be terrorized by it. I learned that, used properly, the dark could be my friend. I could move about almost invisible in the dark, observing but not being observed. People could pass within inches of me and never know I was there! The concept fascinated me!

One night when I was about 12 years old, my Dad took my brother, Gregg, and I out for an adventure. Dad was a quiet, serious man to people who didn’t know him well and a source of hidden ideas for mischievousness and fun for those of us who did. He would tease with the most serious poker face, causing the victim to be uncertain of how to respond. Was he joking? Or serious? I have fond memories of Dad building tiny match rockets out of nothing but tin foil, wooden matches, and a paper clip, and launching them across the living room with a hiss and tiny trail of smoke. This was a side of the stoic business manager people outside the family rarely glimpsed.

At this time, we lived on a 260 acre farm that had been dedicated to a school for deaf young people. My Dad worked there for several years. The destination of our night hike was up a sloping field, through the woods, and to the school building itself. Now this may sound a bit twisted and a little cruel, but there were two young men in their late 20’s staying in bedrooms created inside the school building. These guys were “hard-of-hearing” and had only partial hearing loss. We had brought along some bottle rockets to test their hearing.

As we neared the building, the three of us lay down flat in the grass. Dad pulled out a pipe about 3 feet long, loaded a bottle rocket, and ignited it with a cigarette lighter. Swish! The rocket sailed to about 50 feet directly over the building. POW! The explosion echoed from the woods on the other side. In about 15 seconds the two young men stepped out the front door and looked around. They talked for a few moments, then went inside and closed the door. Hmm… So they could hear the bang, even behind closed doors.

We moved around to the back of the building and saw them through a window sitting together in one of the classrooms. We launched another rocket over the building which exploded out front. The two guys jumped up and ran out the front door. Immediately, we slipped in the back door. My brother and I were having trouble finding a place to hide when we heard the front door close out in the hall. We ran out the back door with Dad close behind.

But Dad didn’t make it. Just as he reached the back door the hallway door behind him opened. He dodged sideways around the corner of the wall. Now this corner led to a locked office next to the back door. Dad had nowhere to go, but could not be seen from most of the room. Then one of the guys noticed the back door open. He walked over to the door and swung his upper body out, looking both ways. Dad was practically right behind him in plain sight against the wall. The young man turned back towards his friend away from Dad, shrugging his shoulders. Had he turned back the other way, Dad would have been facing him 4 feet away! After the guys continued their conversation, both of them facing the front of the building, Dad quietly stepped forward and let himself out the back door.

When he met us outside he told us what had happened. We were amazed they didn’t spot him! But we had one more thing to try. We entered the front of the building into the hallway and walked to the door of the room where the two guys were probably theorizing about the strange noises and open back door. The classroom door was open about 4 inches. The three of us all looked at each other for a few seconds, then Dad slid his hand in and flipped off the light switch next to the door. There was a commotion in the room as one chair fell backwards and another slid across the floor. Then all was silent for a few seconds.

We heard footsteps approaching the door, but we stood quietly on either side. Someone flipped the lights back on, paused for a few seconds, then shut the classroom door. We heard retreating footsteps. After about 5 minutes, Dad quietly opened the door enough to get his hand through and flipped off the lights again. This time no one moved inside. The footsteps came towards the door again. This time, just as the poor guy reached for the light switch, Dad reached through and grabbed his wrist. The guy yelped and jumped back as the door flew open to reveal Dad standing there! When he saw who it was his shocked face changed to one of relief. “Man! I thought the place was possessed or something!” He said. All of us burst out laughing. We talked with the two young men for a few minutes, all of us enjoying the jokes, and then headed home.