Fear

As a child I had two big fears-the dark and thunder storms. My story involves both of them in away, but to understand the story a bit better you need a little background info. We live on our family farm , which is about 100 years old. Most of the out buildings are falling down, at the time of the event the barn was still standing. My yard looks extremely creepy in the fall at night once the leaves are off the trees.
I was in fifth grade at the time and it was our first year living in New Richmond. It had to be about mid fall, my dad was at bowling and my brother Pat was at boy scouts. My mom had a girl scout leader's thing that she need to go to. So it was just me at home, up till then someone had always been there with me. My mom was a little worried about leaving me home, mainly because it was getting dark and the whole fact that we're out in the country. Me, wanting to be brave and independent told her I'd be fine. Big mistake, this happened to be my first time staying home alone in our house. Sure I've been in the house alot and you'd think it'd would be fine, but let me tell you that place is different at night. Being scared of the dark I turned on all the lights in the house and went and sat in the living room and watched tv. I noticed it started getting a lot darker outside, I was a little freaked out but just kept watching tv. After awhile I started hearing noises, I told myself relax it's an old house, old houses make noises. Suddenly I heard BANG BANG BANG. I hadn't noticed the wind picking up, and I had no clue what the noise was. I wrapped up in a blanket and sat in the middle of the floor shaking. I wanted to be brave, I kept telling myself it was nothing and turned the volume up on the tv. Suddenly with no warning the storm just let loose. The rain fell, the thunder rolled, and the lighting lit up the sky. I hear BANG BANG BANG again, and the dog was on his feet staring out the window. This really freaked me out, the sky lit up again and I took off toward the kitchen. I dialed my mom's cell number, by the time she answered I was bawling. I told her was scared and was hearing noises. She told me to remain calm and that the noise I was hearing was just the sheet metal ripping off the roof of the barn. She told me to go to the basement if things got worst. I of course refused, out basement is cold, damp and creepy. Its stone and has the lights that are the single bulb with string hanging down, plus theres that whole factor that it's spider infested. So there was no way I was going down there. Instead I went into the room me and brother were sharing at the time (our upstairs wasnt finished yet), my dad had the sheetrock in front of the extra door so I grabbed so blankets and pillows and made a little hideout for myself right there. I sat behind that sheetrock untill my mom got home. When she found me I was still crying and shaking. After this whole experience I learned that the dark and storms aren't that scary. Looking back now I find it rather funny that I got that scared that bad. But hey it's just a fear I had a kid and i grew out of it.
In a sense I can understand how the boys feel on the island. It can be a bit frighting to be alone in place that you don't know much about especially at night. And hearing sounds and seeing things that you don't know what they are, can be pretty frighting. I know how it feels, I just had something simlar happen with a noise saturday night. I heard something out in the field and instead of figureing out what it was, I took off running toward the house. All i can say it that you just need to be strong and remain calm, things aren't always what they seem. The twig snapping could just be a bunny, the glow in the trees. lighting bugs. As Jack said "The thing is-fear can't hurt you any more than a dream"(82).