Scared of the Dark, part 2
Amityville Horror
Cabin in the Woods is not the best movie to watch when you are in a cabin in the woods. It is the kind of movie that would be completely ruined if I give you one single detail. And, that would just stink. So, I’ll just tell you that it is scary.
So, the second night the kids, one of their friends, and I were staying in what we affectionally call “The Lake House,” someone suggested that we watch Cabin in the Woods. It wasn’t me. But, I admit that when it was suggested, I said, “Ooh, yeah, lets watch that.”
Two of the four of us had seen it before. Because I had see it before, I was certain that I would be much braver than I usually am in such situations. I’m a big ole fraidy cat and that doesn’t even do justice to what a fraidy cat I am.
In the first few years in our marriage, I WOULD NOT even dare to watch anything remotely scary. I had learned my lesson growing up. Oh, I wanted to watch scary things like my friends. Of course, when there were sleep-overs, the thing to do was to turn out all the lights and watch the scariest movie we could find. My parents warned me every time. “Don’t watch something scary. You know you can’t handle it.”
“I KNOW! I know!” I would say, all the while believing that this night would be different and I would finally be able to be brave. The reason my parents warned me every time is because of what happened when I got scared.
I didn’t have nightmares. I didn’t have nightmares because I couldn’t fall asleep. And, because I seemed to believe the blankets would somehow protect me, I would lay awake forever while sweating like a pig staring at the ceiling, then the window, then the door, then the closet. When I couldn’t take one more minute of this torture, I would run to my parents room and climb in the bed with them. This went on far too late into my childhood! In fact, my mother purchased an old cot to put in their room so that I would climb onto it instead of waking them up.
The Amityville Horror happened before the cot had been purchased. And, I watched it alone. Mom knew I was making a bad choice. She warned me.
“If you watch that, you will get scared.”
“I am older. I’ll be fine.”
And, she threatened me.
“IF you watch that, YOU ARE NOT CLIMBING INTO BED WITH US TONIGHT.”
That night I was really breaking a sweat because I knew I was going to get into trouble if I went into their room. My blond head was soaking wet from fear and heat under the covers. Every time I closed my eyes, images of the movie would flash through my mind. Apparently, I have since blocked those images from my memory because I can’t tell you one thing about that movie other than what the house looked like with its two eyes made of windows.
Finally, unable to stand it any more, I quietly walked into my parents room and stood next to their bed beside my mother. She has always been a very light sleeper. So, I didn’t stand there long before she awoke with a start saying,
“Baby, what’s wrong?”
To this I replied,
“Are you okay?”
When Mom assured me she was okay and asked me why I had woken her up to ask such a thing, I told her that I had dreamed that she and Daddy had died and it scared me so bad that I just wanted to make sure they were okay. She lifted the covers and let me climb into bed with them.
It may be while reading this that she discovers I lied that night. I completely made it up. I never went to sleep because I was so scared. There was no nightmare. I knew that would tug on her heartstrings, that I would get to sleep where I felt most safe, and that I wouldn’t get in trouble for making such a stupid choice as to watch a scary movie when I know that I can’t handle it.
While in a cabin in the woods, after watching Cabin in the Woods, I slept. I didn’t sweat through the night, but I did wake up a lot and stare at the door, then the window, then the closet. I still can’t fully discern if I was actually scared or if I was just scared that my kids were scared. I asked them three times if they all wanted to sleep in the room with me. They declined. Maybe I should have climbed into the bed with them that night. Some other day I’ll share their reactions to the movie and a story about watching Pet Cemetery in my twenties with Hubby. I could have a whole blog just about being scared!
This is Year 49 . . .
